Psalm 107.1-9,43
Colossians 3.1-11
Luke 12.13-21
I think with many
of us, we all have something that we collect. Something that we can acknowledge
is a collection of want, not neccessarily of need. For example, I collect
books. I collect shoes. And I collect Mason Jars. Right now I have a large
collection of them - different shapes, sizes, you name it.
So - why do I
collect mason jars? Because I use them. In
a few months' time, this mason jar will be full, preserving something, sitting
in the pantry. Maybe it will be salsa, maybe peaches, maybe a new recipe I
haven't found yet. But it will be full. And the pantry will be full. Lots and
lots of food, sitting there. Last year I had so much food that it wouldn't all
fit in the pantry - I had to build another shelf for it.
Sound familiar? Sounds
a bit like our gospel guy, doesn't it? Having SO MUCH of the stuff that more
space is needed just to store it all!
So here's where the
difference comes in.
In my case, I
preserve food for the coming months. I buy locally, which helps the folks who are
literally growing this food, to earn a living.
I get to make my own food, so I know what's in it, and I get to make it
exactly the way I like it. (My salsa, for example, comes in 2 levels of heat: medium
spice, and so-hot-my-face-is-burning-off). I know approximately how much of any
food I'm going to use in a year, and so that's the amount that I preserve - not
more than that, otherwise it will go to waste. I make some specialty treats,
which can then be given as gifts to friends - a little something special.
And that's different
from the gospel guy. This guy is caught up in collecting, for the sake of
collecting. He knows how much food he will go through - one barn full - and yet
he wants MORE. More for himself – not of need, not to share with others, not to
give away, just MORE. And not a slightly larger barn, like adding another small
shelf - no, that wouldn't be good enough. He wants a brand new, shiny, flashy,
BIGGER barn - a better barn - so that he can have more.
More than he can
eat in a year. More than he can eat through a famine. More.
The challenge with MORE like that, is that it's not actually
helping. Saving is good, collecting can be good, but hoarding is not good. And
barn guy is hoarding.
He's hoarding grain
- so much grain that it will actually start to rot before he can eat it all -
so it's wasteful. He's taking so much for himself that there may not be enough
for the other people to have enough for themselves - basic supply and demand.
He's hoarding it without realising that he's hoarding.
And he's so caught
up in himself that nothing else matters - even the start of the gospel passage
has him interrupting Jesus while Jesus is teaching a large crowd, demanding
that Jesus triangulate with his brother - so that he can get more money to buy
more stuff, and put into yet another big barn. All for himself. Even his
language reflects this - already a rich man, he says "I" want more
storage space. "I" will want more stuff to fill the bigger barns.
"My" grain and "my" goods in "my" bigger barns. Sounds
greedy. Selfish. Entitled. He sounds like a toddler, doesn't he?
Or, sadly, like many of the
people we encounter in our society.
We have folks who
want - and want, and want, sometimes beyond their capacity. We have folks
building bigger homes for all their stuff. We have businesses set up to help us
organise our abundant stuff. We have entire industries designed for storing the
clutter of stuff that we can't fit into our larger, organised homes.
And this has become
normal for us, as much as it was normal for the gospel guy.
The root cause remains the same, too - in the gospel, the man has
confused this life and the next; he has muddled the understanding between
earthly and heavenly. Paul cautions the folks in Collossus against that exact
way of thinking: "Set your minds on things that are
above, not on things that are on earth."
And this is why
Jesus snaps this guy back into reality - quite bluntly. In what is, I think,
the only time in scripture, God calls this man a fool. A fool! What a harsh
insult! It is shocking - as it was intended to be. Jesus is showing this man
that he has become so self-centred, so inwardly-focused, that he is actually
harming himself, his relationship with his community, and his relationship with
God.
What a powerful
message that Jesus gives - to the man, to the crowd, to all of us today - that
our priorities should not be defined by the amount of stuff that we have. That
our priorities should not be on earthly possessions. Of course, we all need
stuff, we all want stuff - but we're also in a position where we are able to
use our stuff for the love of God and building of the kingdom. Stuff is okay;
saving is okay; hoarding is not, and greed is not. If we get to the point where
we have to guard and protect and defend our possessions, we're not using them
for the glory of God anymore - and that's missing the point.
So I'm going to
invite to think about our stuff - what we have, what we've been given, what we
want, and how we use that stuff.
And now I'm going
to invite us to recognise and celebrate something that we can all collect. That
is God's grace and love. These are given to us, flowing freely, with abundance.
As the psalmist declares, it is this
steadfast love which brings the wonderful works to all of humankind. This
steadfast love which endures forever doesn't need a storage locker, but it does
need space in our hearts and in our lives. And so we are invited to make space,
to receive this wonderful gift, to celebrate having this wonderful gift, and
then to share it with others.
It is in sharing God's grace with
the world around us that we are, in fact, helping to build God's kingdom.
It is the best
possible thing we can collect, and it will help keep us focused on the truly
important things in our earthly lives. It's a wonderful way for us to find the
balance between the treasures of this life and the treasures of the Kingdom.
