Most of us 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.
I have these jars because I use them. In a few weeks time, they will be full, preserving something, sitting in the pantry. Maybe it will be salsa, maybe peach jam, 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. Well, sitting in several places – as it doesn’t all fit on one shelf in my house!
And while that sounds like our gospel guy - Having SO MUCH of the stuff that more space is needed just to store it all – I’m going to highlight a n important difference.
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.
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.
Sadly, this guy sounds 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. This may be the only time in scripture when God calls a man 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. 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.
May we all live each day of this life being faithful and fruitful; may we live each day of this life reminding ourselves of the opportunities to be rich toward God.
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