July 31, 2022

 We all know that our possessions are not going to keep it secure and that you can’t take it with you—as in your possessions are not going with you into the next life.  Many of you have already downsized in a move.  Some of you have dealt with your parents’ possessions or an in-law’s and you know you don’t want to do that to your children.

            But we all want to have what we need and emergencies come up, so it is good to have a cushion in our savings account for a rainy day.  We know that possessions are not going to fulfill us but we also want to be able to support ourselves and not be a burden to other people.  So how much is enough?  How much is hoarding?

            Jesus doesn’t give us any equation to measure that by.  But he does warn us to be on guard against greed and letting money or possessions come between us and other people.  I also want us to take another lens today, and that is, as a church, how do we regard our possessions and the building and accounts that have been passed down to us from previous generations and the hard work of others.  How do we value and share these gifts and build relationships beyond ourselves.

            The first thing to notice is that the man in the parable is talking to himself.  He has no one else.  That’s the world he’s built.  He has been so focused on his own priorities, he is alone.  For the man who comes to Jesus with the beef with his brother over the inheritance, that is a possible direction this is going.  It happens too often that when the parents die, the siblings argue and some never or hardly ever get together again.  They lose a primary relationship over jealousy or hard feelings or greed.

            Jesus encourages us to let go of all the I, me, and mine.  He is interested in relationships—the “we” of it all.  Think of when God created the heavens and the earth and looked around for someone to have a relationship with and no one was to be found.  God longed for relationship, so God created humankind in God’s image.   Here now was someone God could converse with, create with, be in true relationship with.  As individuals we are encouraged to think less of me and more of we.  The give and take of relationship makes life more fulfilling.  To be able to relate, to share, to empathize, to listen is such an important investment and brings satisfaction, even when it means frustration and challenge.  We learn and grow from those relationships. 

            For our church, we want to honor what the people before prepared for us.  We want to use it in ways that would please them.  And for their sake and the people who will come after us we want to manage it well so that it lasts a long time.  Sometimes we can become fearful that our church won’t have enough to be sustainable, that we’re falling too far behind on the repairs, and we get caught up in the anxiety of our church. 

            Jesus invites us to new life and to freedom from fear and anxiety.  Jesus invites us into the “me” of Trinity, and into the “we” of relationships with other churches and organizations, with other people.  We are connected.  Other churches face the same struggles and fears.  Yet, even without a single brick or pew or candlestick, we would not have less love from God, no less grace.  When we are connected, there is so much richness, pooling of resources, sharing of information and work.  This “we” work is happening through Disaster Preparedness.  They are in conversation with other congregations and organizations to handle different aspects of a disaster.  This work is happening with God’s Work Our Hands—in which on September 10 we will join with other area congregations in service projects and then worship together on Sunday September 11.  I hope you will participate and see how moving from “I” to “we” strengthens us, challenges us to see things in new ways, and helps us see we’re not alone.

            Jesus’ parable reveals a foolish man who feels entitled to his possessions and encourages us to recognize that tendency within ourselves and instead move toward gratitude.  Here is a rich man.  But it was his land that produced abundantly.  Maybe he did hard work or maybe he paid someone to do it, but it was the land that did the most work of all.  We may feel that we deserve what we have, that we worked hard for it.  Yet, none of that is a guarantee.  Perhaps that is part of the vanity that King Solomon is going on about in the first reading—we don’t know if our toil will pay off or make any lasting difference. 

            How can we go from an attitude of entitlement, to one of gratitude?  We can cultivate practices which remind us where all this good comes from.  We can keep a gratitude journal of things we are thankful for and write in it each day or night.  We can focus prayer time on what we’re grateful for.  We can write thank you notes to people for being who they are and for being in our lives.  There are many ways to remind ourselves that all good things come from God and when we do, we might be more inclined to use them the way God would want us to, to cultivate relationships and to make a lasting impact on people most in need.  For our church, we want to make sure we don’t perpetuate the feeling that we have a bigger building and nice candlesticks because we are more deserving or that we can’t afford something because of our own failure.  Instead, we want to change our focus on what we possess to what we have to share with a hurting neighborhood, what God has provided that we are thankful for.

            This parable invites us also to move from a spirit of fear of not having enough to a spirit of abundance.  Sometimes in churches we get anxious about the future.  We worry about surviving.  Sometimes this causes us to want the next best thing—the next best pastor, more children, more tithers, more committees, more technology, more quick-fix programs.  But instead of always looking for more, Jesus wants us to stop and see what abundance we already have.  See the gifts that people are sharing.  See the healing that has taken place in people’s lives.  Hear the beautiful music that helps us worship.  Taste the meal of his own body and blood that Christ has provided.  God’s love and grace are abundant.  We are invited to let go of the fears and the striving and to live in gratefulness this moment of the abundant love and grace of God.

            The reason Jesus does not give us a balance sheet to know if we have enough is that God tore up all balance sheets long long ago.  God made the heavens and the earth and placed us here as part of a relationship of grace and sharing.  There is no balance sheet that can quantify all God’s gifts.  God has given us the example of believers from across the ages to help us learn about the struggle and benefits of living a life of faith.  You can’t put a price on that.  God has given us love and forgiveness—priceless.  And as if that wasn’t enough, God sent Jesus, God’s most precious child, and Jesus gave up absolutely everything to show us that material possessions are not where it’s at.  What matters and lasts and is not vanity and wind is relationship, love, compassion.  That was completely offensive to people who liked their placement in life and their collection of money and possessions and we hung him to die.  And Jesus wasn’t even willing to resist that violence.  He gave up everything, even his life, so that we would believe and know the value of God’s love, how it sets us free from the pressures of this vain life, how it lasts when everything else is gone, even after we die.  God’s love overflows in blessing.  We put up no barriers to keep it for ourselves.  Instead, we let it flow through us, to others in gratitude, binding us in relationship, showing us what has value and what matters, removing anxiety and fear until we are at peace knowing that we belong to God, we belong to each other, and that is more than enough.