Pastor Dan Eddy
Luke 12:13-21
“Will we survive
by ourselves or thrive in the Lord?”
11-21-10
THE GOSPEL READING……………………………Luke 12:13-21
NIV
P: The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 12TH
Chapter:
C: Glory to You, O Lord.
13 Someone in the crowd said to him (Jesus), “Teacher, tell my
brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14
Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15
Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed;
life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
16 And
he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an
abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do?
I have no place to store my crops.’
18
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build
bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And
I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life
easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
20
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded
from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21
“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not
rich toward God.”
P: This is the
Gospel of the Lord.
C: Praise to
You, O Christ.
I.
Introduction…Illustration of Greed
Few things in
life capture the flavor of this Rich Fool’s greed as does the cartoon character
Daffy Duck in the famous Ali Baba Bugs Bunny Cartoon. Have you seen this one? You’re
going to see part of it in a moment. Let me set it up for you.
Bugs Bunny and
Daffy Duck are burrowing underground to their favorite vacation spot in
Daffy instantly
thinks he is rich. (Sing) “I’m in the
money. I’m in the money.” But, in order to claim the treasure he has to get
rid of a burly guard named Hassan, assigned by the Sultan to protect the cave. We
pick up on the action from there.
(Play cartoon
from 4:55 to 6:55) (Synopsis of video shown, according to Wikipedia… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Baba_Bunny#Synopsis
Paragraph 6)
A scream comes from the cave as Daffy runs out carrying
an enormous diamond, with the enraged Hassan in hot pursuit shrieking
"Hassan chop!". Daffy begs Bugs to save him, and this time Bugs
reluctantly complies while berating Daffy for his greed. He sets up an Indian rope
trick behind a rock, and when Hassan finds him, tells him that Daffy
climbed up the rope. As Hassan disappears into the clouds, Bugs pulls the rope
down, and, as with some variants of the fabled trick, Hassan has disappeared
completely. With the coast clear, Daffy runs back to the cave to claim the
treasure ("I'm rich! I'm wealthy! I'm independent! I'm socially secure!").
Some time later, Daffy has emptied the cave of treasure
and is taking one last look around for any missed trinkets. He spots an old oil lamp
and rubs the dust off it. A genie emerges from the lamp, but Daffy thinks the genie is after the
treasure and proceeds to stomp him back into the lamp like he did with Bugs
earlier ("Oh, no you don't! You want my treasure! Well, it's mine,
understand?! All mine! Down! Down! Go! Go! Mine!"). The furious genie
erupts from the lamp, declaring Daffy will suffer the consequences for
"desecrating the Spirit of the Lamp," (Genie: Duck, you have
desecrated the spirit of the lamp! Prepare to take the consequences!) And Bugs,
knowing that nothing can save Daffy now, is so terrified that he utters a
frightened Yipe, hurriedly
escapes via burrow. Daffy dismissively tells the genie, "Consequences, schmonsequences, as long as I'm rich!"
but the genie
zaps Daffy with magic bolts from his fingertips.
Much later, Bugs has finally made it to
II.
The penalties of greed
Isn’t this kind
of like the Rich Fool Jesus talked about in our Gospel reading for this
morning? He thought his wealth for him. Except he would probably say he earned
his. Look how many times he says “me,
myself or I” in just three short verses…starting with verse 17 NIV. Count
them with me:
17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to
store my crops.’
18
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll
do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and
there I will store my surplus grain. 19
And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life
easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ (Emphasis
added)
Ten
times the unholy trinity of “me, myself
and I” was confessed. Jesus did this to impassionedly warn the warring
brothers, for their own good, to keep watch and to keep on guard of becoming
greedy, because our life is not valued on the number of possessions we have.
Jesus illustrated that this
guy in the parable was not just a Rich Fool; he was an unfaithful steward,
because he did not realize all he had was from God, given by God, not to do
with what he wanted to do, but do with it as the Lord wanted him to do…to serve
and help others.
[Jesus
said]: “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required.” Luke
12:48b ESV. And we as Americans are among the financially
richest people in the world, even the poorest among us.
Now this text is
not saying it’s a crime to being economically wealthy. There’s nothing wrong
with planning for your retirement. It’s how you do it and what you do with your
riches that reveal virtue or malady.
How do you view
your income, wealth and riches? Is it yours or God? Is it yours to do with what
you want or God’s to do with what He wants you to do with it? Do you see some
of the unfaithful steward in your life? I do in mine.
Leon, a pastor
friend of mine recently told me about a conversation he had years ago with his
dad. It went something like this.
What
This Rich Fool
thought he could survive on his own. In the end he failed miserably because he
had nothing for which to thrive. He hadn’t prepared to experience true
happiness in the Lord, now. He was not thriving in the Lord. He hadn’t planned
for an everlasting joyful future with God.
Like Bart said in
his testimonial this morning when work is done to glorify oneself or merely to
achieve more wealth it becomes worship of false gods. But did you hear what
Bart is doing with his current riches. He is making money to give it away to others.
Think of your
riches first and become everlastingly poor OR give from the riches with which
God has blessed you and thrive in the Lord with all His richness. Then you have
much to celebrate.
III.
The richness of God
How many families
do you know who have fought years over an inheritance? You never have to fight
over your inheritance of God’s richness of grace. It’s priceless, unending, and
there is more than enough for everyone to be saved.
But, we are given
to give to others, including the Church. Our heavenly Father values us because
of faith in Christ Jesus. Our most valued possession is our faith given at our
baptism.
How much did
Jesus give to you? Philippians 2 says it best. Jesus Christ as God “did not consider equality with God (the
Father) something to be used to his own advantage (no greed there); rather, he
made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in
human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by
becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore
God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every
name.”
And because God
the Father exalts His Son above all…you will be exalted above all to heaven. You
are Christ’s. With that in mind, how much is eternal life worth to you? How
much value do you have with heaven in your heart, today? How rich is it that
Christ arose from the dead in the flesh and will give you the richness of a new
body in the life to come? How much is that worth today? How rich are you today
knowing you have this inheritance? Does it sound like what Christ gives you by
faith through His Word is a recipe for surviving on your own and failing like
the Rich Fool, or succeeding by thriving with Him, forever?
The richness of our Lord is pardon, peace
and salvation. Riches He is asking you to joyfully share with others in the
ministry of this congregation. Riches that are not just spiritual, but physical
as well. To be rich in God is to have the wealth found in God…the wealth and the
blessings you have today.
IV.
Personal Testimony
And that bring us
to the subject of offerings? No, you’re not going to get a lecture from me on
this. Rather you are going to get a confession.
I have learned in
my life that when you have much, much is expected by God and much can be taken away,
when you don’t give back the Lord.
It was a year
before seminary, and Berta and I knew we were leaving
So here we
thought we had enough money to live on, pay tuition…all Berta had to do was get
a part-time job to fill in the gaps, and we would have it made…so we thought.
And then the Lord
demanded our savings from us: no part-time job for Berta, one unexpected bill
after another kept coming, hidden costs, an expected huge increase in summer
tuition, and tuition increases for the next academic year. A stock in one
company was quickly decreasing. The storehouse of savings was fast emptying…not
a time to start giving offerings again…so I thought.
Then one day I
was in my pastoral ministry 101 class and the professor ended his lecture on a
less than academic note. He said, “I
hope you all are giving a tithe to your congregation back at home and/or your
field-work congregation.” We looked at each other thinking that what he was
saying was utterly foolish. Many of us grumbled “why do we have to give an offering? We are buried in debt paying for
school. We are doing the Lord’s work” So we thought.
But Professor
Utech said that just because we were training to be pastors didn’t mean that
God stopped loving us, stopped forgiving us, and stopped blessing us. And that
giving back a portion of the little income we had was just as important as
giving a tithe when we had full-time careers. And that the Lord provides more
even when it appears you have much less…like we learned two weeks ago.
His words from
God resonated in my heart. So Berta and I decided to give a percentage of what
little income we had back to the Lord. I had a couple of part time jobs. But we
didn’t give expecting more income. We gave because of what Jesus had given to
us, temporally and eternally. And you would not believe how much the Lord
showed His tangible blessings. Support to pay for my summer tuition came, the
unexpected bills dwindled, financial support from individuals came from
unexpected places. Berta finally found a good part-time job. And as we had more
income, greater offerings were given. We still had our financial struggles. We
still are affected by them to this date, but the Lord wanted to make it
clear….it’s all His to give for us not just to survive but thrive in Him.
We experienced happiness
that comes when we sacrificially give back to God. We felt more contentment
than when we were economically richer and holding back our offerings.
Rarely are greedy
people surviving on their own ever truly happy, but those who thrive in the Lord
are continuously rejoicing right into eternity. Now there’s something to
celebrate.
V.
Conclusion: Commitment to consider
Will we, as a
congregation or as individuals, survive by ourselves and fail or thrive in the
Lord and succeed for His glory?
This week you
will receive a letter in the mail from CLC. Please read it from the heart, and
then please prayerfully consider if we as a congregation just want to survive
on our own and fail, or thrive in the Lord and succeed.
Unlike Daffy
Duck…we are rich, we are wealthy. We are more than comfortably well off,
because we have the richness of God in Christ Jesus living in our hearts and in
our lives to share with others in the joyful ministry of His kingdom here in
this congregation. Amen.