Distractions

When I was a child one of my favorite sports to play was baseball. I loved playing on a team with my friends, and I loved playing catch with my dad and my brother.

I remember one particular year

We would go over to my dad’s house for the weekend and the first thing we would ask to do is play catch. My dad would happily oblige, load us in the truck, and drive up to the Little League field that was at the end of town.

We’d pull up to the gate, park, and walk in. Here we would play catch for hours. Sometimes my dad would let us bat and let us pitch to him, my brother and I really seemed to enjoy it!

I remember that I was pretty serious about baseball. I practiced hard, I played hard, and I worked hard. I wasn’t the greatest, especially at batting, but I did pretty good at pitching and making some nice runs in the outfield.

My younger brother was a lot different. He liked playing catch, but hated playing an actual game. He wasn’t very good and was often placed in right field. At his level in Little League most of the hits never left the infield. So, needless to say, my brother was bored.

I remember watching one of his games where he got bored. They were, maybe, 2 innings into the game and my brother was already sitting down in the outfield picking grass and dandelions. This wasn’t the first time that he had done this either. He was known for getting distracted while playing and sitting down or chasing a bug or butterfly. He really just didn’t want to play.

Well, in this particular game his distraction occurred at the worst time. As he was sitting in right field, picking up dandelions, a left-handed batter approached the plate. This was the biggest, meanest looking 9 year old I had ever seen. My dad saw this kid approach the plate and he started yelling, “Justin, get up, he’s gonna hit right to you!”

This monstrous, left-handed, 9 year old gripped his bat like he had 15 years of MLB experience, took a deep stance, and cracked the first pitch thrown at him. The ball sailed high and far, to right field.

The crowd cheered, I yelled, my dad yelled, and my brother smelled the dandelion.

What seemed like minutes went by, the ball was descending from its high climb and the batter was already half way to 2nd base. Finally, the ball landed with a loud THUD in front of my brother. He looked up from the bug he was now playing with, grabbed the ball, and threw it forward without ever looking up or even getting up. Of course, the ball only went a few feet in front of him and the Babe Ruth of 9 year olds rounded third and crushed home plate under his feet. This was my brother’s last game.

Issue in Bible

After watching this game unfold I knew that I would never long for my brother’s talents in baseball, frankly because he had none. But, we read today about a brother who did want something from his brother. This man was standing in a crowd that surrounded Jesus. He shouted out to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” Jesus heard this and said back to the man, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?”

I want to break this issue down a little bit.

Luke 12:13 NRSV

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”

Luke 12:13

First, it’s important to note that the man in the crowd calls Jesus something important, he calls him Teacher. What this shows us is that this was no stranger asking for Jesus’ help, but someone who knew Jesus as a well-versed Rabbi in the Jewish faith and law.

This man was approaching Jesus with a rather selfish request. He wanted Jesus to make a decision about the inheritance regarding this man and his brother, without his brother even being there!

It was commonplace for Rabbis to be approached with such matters, but Jesus is in the midst of discussion deep spiritual things with his disciples and is interrupted by this man for a selfish demand. This showed Jesus where this man’s heart was, on his materials, on his things.

At this, instead of making a decision on this issue for the man, Jesus warns him, the disciples, and the entire crowd about greed! He says, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.”

He saw that greed ran deep in this man’s heart, and how easily it captured people.

You see, “Greed is desire run amuck, an undisciplined desire for more than you have, a willingness to break the rules to get what you want, a mind-set that life is found in the accumulation of “stuff.” (Heer, K. (2007). Luke: A Commentary for Bible Students (p. 179). Indianapolis, IN: Wesleyan Publishing House.)

Greed is desire run amuck, an undisciplined desire for more than you have, a willingness to break the rules to get what you want, a mind-set that life is found in the accumulation of “stuff.”

Jesus wanted to break this man, and the crowd, from greed!

Heer, K. (2007). Luke: A Commentary for Bible Students (p. 179). Indianapolis, IN: Wesleyan Publishing House.

Issue Today

Do you think there is anyone in this room that may need to be broken from greed? Do you think there is anyone in this town, this county, this state, this country, this world that needs to be broken from greed?

Do you need to be broken from greed?

We can look around in the news, on social media, in the paper, in our homes and see greed.

Greed is that desire in us to have more, to possess more, to gain more, and to give little or none. Like the man who asked Jesus to settle his dispute, like my brother during his baseball game, we have become distracted.

Distracted from preparing our hearts for the kingdom of God. Instead of focusing on that we tend to focus on how to make more money, how to get more things, and how to make ourselves look better.

Look at the credit system! We have found a way to gain more and better things when we don’t even have the money to pay for them. It is a trap that many of us have fallen into.

We have our things, we fear losing them, and do so much to protect them.

There’s a wonderful character in Tolkien’s book Lord of the Rings – Smeagol. Smeagol is a hobbit, a member of a small, friendly and insular species of human like creatures. One day Smeagol discovers a ring. When the wearer slips it on it makes him invisible. It grants long life. But the ring possesses an insidious power. The wearer finds himself developing an obsession with the ring, a terrible fear that he might lose it, that someone might take it from him. Over time Smeagol becomes so obsessed that he withdraws from community to live below ground, cradling “my precious” as he calls it. His greed for the ring changes the shape of his body and his spirit. He becomes mean spirited, vindictive, jealous. He grows slimy and thin. The ring becomes his undoing. (storiesforpreaching.com)

Is it possible that we become greedy like Smeagol and find ourselves changed because of our obsession of stuff?

Do we see someone in need and think, “I can’t give them my stuff, then I’ll be without!”

Solution

Even though the man in the crowd became distracted from preparing his heart for the Kingdom of God, even though he was focused on his earthly possessions, Jesus still helps him through a parable. Jesus says,

Luke

Luke 12:16–21 NRSV

16 Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

The rich man in this parable was a man who con not see beyond himself. he was greedy, self-centered, and unmoved to share his fortune with anyone else. His greed made it impossible for him to see anything but himself, even the kingdom of God that comes after this world.

Jesus ends the parable by saying, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”

This line that Jesus uses in this parable showed the man in the crowd, his disciples, and the crowd themselves that no matter what is collected by us here on this earth, none of it comes with us when we die. There is not a thing that we will take with us when we join Christ in heaven, so why spend so much time and effort on collecting more and more?

Now, I don’t know if the man in the crowd understood the parable, or if he even cared to listen, but we need to listen to the parable that Jesus tells here.

Maybe you don’t think you are greedy, and some of you may not be, but do an inventory. Go home after worship and look at how many pairs of shoes you own, how much clothing you have. Look at the abundance of stuff that is in your home. Now, look at those on the street with nothing. Would you be willing to take half of your clothes and give them to 1,2,5,10 homeless people in Richmond?

In one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite Christian rappers, Andy Mineo says,

“I got excess, others got need

I gotta answer to God for all of these sneaks (sneakers)

I got a hundred pairs, but only two feet

God forgive me, I’ve been thinkin’ bout me”

We have become distracted with ourselves, with filling our lives with more and more and more. Maybe we aren’t as bad as the man in the crowd, maybe we aren’t as bad as the man in the parable, maybe we aren’t as bad as Smeagol, but maybe we are just a little bit greedy in some areas of our lives.

Maybe we have become greedy with our money, our stuff, our time...

So, what can we do about it?

I would say that we need to perform a deep survey of our heart. We need to look at all that we have, all that we have been blessed with, and see where others around us lack.

I’m not saying that you should get rid of your things, sell all of your stuff and give the money to the poor (although Jesus does tell this to someone in ). What I feel God doing here is showing us where we are headed, towards more greed.

In order to combat this greed, to change our hearts, and become stronger we need to enter into a state of prayer. We need to Ask God for direction, Search through the Scriptures, and Knock at Christ’s door for help.

We need to stand up when we play in right field and be ready to catch that ball, instead of being distracted.

Our enemy has done such a good job of distracting us from the work of the Kingdom of God. He has done such a good job of leading us away from being charitable and benevolent people, and we have been trapped in greed.

But, the Good News is that because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, because of His death and resurrection, because of His grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit that resides in us, we can break ourselves away from greed.

We, through the power of God that reigns in us, can fight back against sin, temptation, and greed. We can use the presence of God within us to focus again on preparing ourselves and the world for the Kingdom of God!

So, evaluate yourself. Are you filled with greed? Are you being distracted from growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ? Are you avoiding the conviction in your heart that the Holy Spirit is causing?