What Shall We Do?

Text: “What shall I do?” (Luke 12:17b)

It seems like a really nice problem that this rich man has, doesn’t it? What shall I do with all my wealth? But the way the parable plays out, it would seem to be a very perilous question to answer. There are many people that Jesus corrects; many that He chastises during the course of His ministry. But not many people hear the sort of rebuke that this rich man hears from God: “You fool! This night your soul is required of you...” (Luke 12:20). The question “What shall I do?” suddenly becomes much more perilous with that kind of consequence potentially attached to the answer.

Ironically, we’ll soon be in a very similar position to this rich man. In a matter of hours, you and I will be sitting around tables overflowing with food. You’ll be searching your brain to come up with something that you’re thankful for that the people ahead of you haven’t already listed. You will relax, eat, drink, and be merry. Will your thanksgiving measure up? Or will God look at you and think, “You fool”?

It’s certainly good that we give thanks to God today. That’s a start to avoiding what this rich man fell into— notice who he was speaking to and about: (Luke 12:18-19) “18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear 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.” ’”

I’m reminded of an episode a few years ago when the rapper Snoop Dogg was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. His acceptance speech was… notable?... because of who he thanked. After thanking his producer, his collaborators, and his fans, he said, “I want to thank me for believing in me, I want to thank me for doing all this hard work, I want to thank me for having no days off, I want to thank me for never quitting….”

I don’t think he quite grasps what it means to be thankful. It’s certainly commendable that you and I have avoided that trap. It’s commendable that you acknowledge all that you have as gifts from God. But is that enough to guard against God declaring you a fool?

To be fair, it’s good that unbelievers “count their blessings”— that they stop and remind themselves that all of our prosperity, all of our wealth, all of our security are from God and not our own doing. Snoop Dogg could certainly have used that lesson somewhere along the way. That’s a good thing for unbelievers to do. As Christians, we start to learn the problem with that. The problem is that we are so really, terribly, horribly, embarrassingly bad at counting our blessings. As one author put it,

…if we kept a spiritual scrapbook of “God’s Blessings,” there are many life pictures we’d be loathe to past. Our typical litmus test that determines whether or not something is a blessing is this: Does it make us happy? If it makes us smile, it’s a blessing. If it makes our lives a little easier, elevates us on the social scale, or simply makes us feel better about ourselves, then it qualifies as a blessing.

On the other hand, if something multiplies problems in our lives, makes us question our ability to maintain control of a situation, sullies our reputation, leads to heightened stress, or generally makes us feel worse about ourselves, then it’s no blessing. We may not label it a curse, but it’s certainly not something we’re going to humblebrag about on Facebook.

Our Father’s blessings, however, are not as easy to spot as brightly wrapped, bow-tied packages under the Christmas tree. They’re often covered in brown paper under the bloody tree of the cross. They often don’t seem good at all but burdensome, perhaps even defeating.

Such “blessings” look like a burned-out bridge on the highway to our person happiness.

This is an invaluable truth: trials and temptations, burdens and losses, are where God is most active to bring his grace into our lives. Counting your blessings includes counting your crosses, for Christ is hidden in suffering to lead us toward the blessings he desires for [you].

(Bird, Chad. “Your God Is Too Glorious: Finding God in the Most Unexpected Places.” Posted to Facebook by author. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=217512109744519&id=100044571933306)

Biblical thanksgiving— biblical examples of giving thanks— really don’t look anything like what you and I do today. It looks like Job losing everything— all his considerable wealth, all his servants, all his children— and saying, (Job 1:21) “21 Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

It looks like Paul praying, again and again, for God to take away the ‘thorn’ that was causing him such suffering; and then, when God’s answer was no, rejoicing in his weakness.

It looks like the apostles rejoicing that they were county worthy to be beaten for proclaiming salvation in the name of Jesus Christ.

It looks like people like Mary— humble and meek— rejoicing at God’s great acts of deliverance.

It looks like a nameless woman washing Jesus’ feet with her tears and drying them with her hair.

Our thanksgiving is foolish by comparison. Honestly, our “giving thanks” is very much what Jesus warned against because it consists in the abundance of its possessions. It lays up treasure for itself and is not rich toward God.

“Those who are captive to the love of this world cannot freely raise their hearts to God. Where the vessel of the heart is full with the love of this age, there is no room left for God.”

Excerpt From: Johann Gerhard. “Meditations on Divine Mercy.” Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/meditations-on-divine-mercy/id966417732

Let me put it another way. If you are here because you’ve counted your blessings and the total adds up to a bigger number than the problems that you have— or even just because you realize that the problems you’re struggling with are so much less serious than those that other people face— then I commend you for acknowledging the source of your blessings and I wish you well. You’ve done your duty. We’ll see you next year.

But be warned: no matter how bountiful they may be, no matter how abundant our blessings are, without God’s grace, each new day can be nothing more than an opportunity to store up more wrath for ourselves, to lay up treasure for yourselves until the day when God finally says to you, “You fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things that you have [so carefully counted], whose will they be?”

Biblical thanksgiving— thanksgiving that is rich toward God— isn’t the thin gratitude of those whose stock portfolio has outperformed the market. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God,” Jesus said. Or, in the words of Luther, “We are beggars, this is true.” And the gospel is for beggars.

Biblical thanksgiving— thanksgiving that is rich toward God— isn’t for those who are comfortable and content. It’s for those who have been crushed by the weight of the just demands of God’s Law. Humble yourself before the Lord and He will exalt you. (2 Corinthians 8:9) “9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man had nowhere to lay His head (Matthew 8:20) so that He could redeem you and prepare a place for you in His Kingdom. Your soul truly was required of you for your sinful pride. But Christ offered His in your stead.

The King of Heaven stepped down from His throne and took on the form of a servant so that He could place upon your head a crown of gold. He suffered the full weight of God’s wrath over your sin so that the suffering that rains down on you each day is transformed by the vine of faith into the fruit of endurance, which produces character, which brings forth hope that will never put you to shame because God’s love in Jesus Christ has been poured into your hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to you (Romans 5:3-5).

His gift to you, through the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, is to extinguish in you the desire for earthly things; to purge and cleanse your heart of the love of worldly things so that you may love Him with a sincere love, cling to Him with your whole heart, and love the eternal things, which alone can satisfy your hearts desires. (Paraphrase of: Johann Gerhard. “Meditations on Divine Mercy.” Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/meditations-on-divine-mercy/id966417732)

2 Corinthians 9:8-11 “8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 9 As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” 10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.”

“[He] has committed to [you] great wealth in earthly possessions so [you] have the means to do good to [your] fellow servants. Streams of material blessings flow to [you] from [Him], the Font of all good things,”

(Excerpt From: Johann Gerhard. “Meditations on Divine Mercy.” Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/meditations-on-divine-mercy/id966417732)

becoming a blessing to those around you. And, by faith, that act of giving, itself, also becomes a song of thanksgiving to God.

Yes, you and I will soon be in a very similar position to the rich man in Jesus’ parable. Many of us have the same problem he had. So what should you do? How do you avoid being judged a fool by God? Give thanks as only God’s redeemed people can. Repent and put behind you the foolish laying up treasure for ourselves in this world which passes for giving thanks. Instead, place your thank offering before God today and declare that, at the price of His only-begotten Son, you have been given an inheritance in His Kingdom. Give them in the confidence that, by His grace, the offerings you give from among the many gifts of soul, body, and possessions that He pours into your life each day are the first fruits of that Kingdom.