“What’s Important?”

Luke 12:13-21

August 5, 2007

St. Paul UMC of Little Rock

Rev. John A. Fleming

Our gospel lesson for this morning paints a familiar scene. It’s the same scene that you might see in a courtroom. The scene is a family arguing over an estate. It is an especially ugly scene when dividing the inheritance has the potential of dividing the family!

As much as I hate to admit this to you, it could have happened in my own family. I may have shared with you before that a few years ago when our family decided to move our Aunt Julia Lee from the duplex she had lived in for more than forty years to an assisted living apartment just a mile away from her house.

Of course there was not enough room for all of her things in her new place and so my mother invited my brother, my sister, and myself to come to her house and to take anything that was left. I was the third on the scene. My sister and brother had already gotten what they wanted. I especially noticed what my brother had taken. He had gotten the good stuff. I didn’t mean to, but when I saw what Julie had in her new apartment and what was left, I rolled my eyes and a grimace appeared on my face. My dad noticed it. He asked me about it and I simply said, “Well, to be honest with you, David has a lot of our family’s things in his house. He already has granddaddy’s couch and several chairs from your house. I don’t want a lot. I just want one piece of furniture, one chair, one dresser, one thing that when I look at I will think about Aunt Julie.” Saying that got me in trouble with my brother. In the end, when my parents moved home to Conway, I received a bedroom suit from my grandfather’s house and a cabinet from Aunt Julie’s house. It is the same cabinet that was in the entry way of her house. It reminds me of her.

I guess Jesus was wise to stay out of family and inheritance disputes, especially the one that begins our lesson for this morning. Yes, dividing the inheritance can sometimes divide the family. Luke tells us that Jesus was preaching to a crowd. The beginning of the twelfth chapter says that there were thousands gathered to hear Jesus. A lone voice in the crowd called out to Jesus and said, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me!”

In the days of Jesus, the practice was for the oldest son to receive a double portion of the estate. The reasoning was that he might have to take care of his sisters and would need the extra money. That didn’t matter to the brother in the crowd. He didn’t think it was fair for his oldest brother to get the money just because he was born first. I can relate to that! After all, I’m the baby boy in my family.

So the younger son cries out to Jesus. I want you to know that it was not uncommon for a teacher of Jesus’ reputation to be asked to settle a dispute. Jesus would have known the letter of the law and what the law required. I, too, am asked, from time to time, to settle biblical disputes. My guess is that the younger son saw in Jesus a fairness of spirit. So he called out, from the crowd, in the middle of the sermon. I can tell you, preachers don’t like that!

Jesus didn’t like it. You can almost hear the aggravation in his voice. He shouts back to the brother, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And instead of giving him a chance to plead his case, he gave a nugget of wisdom. We ought to pay attention to his words today. Jesus said, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

Now there would have been a gasp from the crowd because in Jesus’ day it was believed that if you had a lot of stuff, then God was blessing you. It meant you were righteous and in good graces with God. If you were poor and struggling, then the folks in Jesus’ world believed that you had to be a pretty bad sinner. We don’t believe that today, but in Jesus’ day that was the prevailing thought!

In response to that, Jesus told the story of a man who everyone thought had to be righteous because blessings kept pouring in. It didn’t really matter what he did, wonderful things kept happening to him. He got richer and richer. He had plenty and then he also had a banner harvest year. His land produced abundantly more than he could have dreamed of. The soil and the sun and the rain all came together for the perfect growing season. The crop was plentiful. The farmer had so much. He had nowhere to store his bounty.

If you read the lesson carefully as I have, then you have to notice that there is nothing in it that says that this farmer did anything to make all of this happen. He didn’t ask for anyone’s help. He didn’t pray for it. If he thanked God for it, Luke doesn’t mention it.

Jesus does say some things about this man. Jesus says that he talked to himself, he congratulated himself, he planned for himself, and he lived for himself. I want you to notice the pronouns in this passage. Here they are: I, I, my, I, I, my, my, I, my. As in, “What should I do? I have no where to store MY crops. I will store MY grain and MY goods. I will say to MY soul…”

What the man tries to figure out is how he can keep it all. His plan, you’ll remember, was to tear down his barns and to build bigger and better ones. Listen in to his plan, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many, many years; relax, eat, and be merry.” While he is realizing his retirement plan, God speaks to him and says, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you.” Which is biblical for, “Tonight you’re going to die?” Then comes the poignant question of Jesus, “And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”

Now this is a parable. And Jesus told parables for a couple of different reasons. One of the reasons was that there was some truth in it that was supposed to be figured out. That is what we did a couple of weeks ago with the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Jesus also told parables to shock people and to get them to thinking. I think that that is the purpose of this parable. It is a judgment parable and it is supposed to challenge us. Jesus told it so that those who first heard it and those who hear it today will wonder: “How am I living my life? What are the things that are important to me?”

We are supposed to ask, “What do we have and what are we doing with what we have in this lifetime.” Jesus is hoping that you will see the farmer and come to the real conclusion, “That could be me!” Jesus wants us to ask ourselves, “What have I sacrificed to get where I am? What values have I de-valued because I value my possessions more? What immorality have I ignored and overlooked to get more wealth?” Or how about this question, “What have I not given to my family in order that I might give them material things?

The real question Jesus wants us to answer it this one, “What is the good life really about?” Have we postponed living until we have enough? Today I will take care of my future; that’s important to me, but someday. Someday I will spend more time with my family. Someday I will take the time to sit down with the people I really love and say what I’ve always wanted to say to them. Someday I will listen to my family and I will find out who they really are. Someday I will do all of that, when things are secure, when I have enough, when I have it made. Jesus says to all of us who think that way, “That’s pretty foolish.” I think that it is great that Jesus follows this passage with one about worrying about your life.

I guess that it is possible that someday we will hear the voice of God speaking to us. Well, it might not sound like the voice of God. It might sound more like the voice of a doctor telling you something you never thought you would hear.

Not long ago I read an article about a twenty-nine year old Illinois man who woke up with a headache. He and his wife had been married for about nine years and had three children, all under the age of five. So he had a headache. As the day wore on, his headache got worse. Then he had trouble seeing and then he had trouble walking. Whatever was happening to him was happening very fast.

He called his doctor who told him to get to the hospital immediately. He would meet him there. They did that and the doctor ordered all kinds of tests. After a while the doctor came to the examination room. He was tearful when he gave the news, “It’s a tumor. Surgery will be tomorrow. Obviously this is a very serious surgery. There is a chance you won’t survive. Friends, I have been with families who have gotten that same kind of news. One minute things were fine and the next, there was real trouble.

The man did survive the surgery and a year later was interviewed. A reporter asked him, among other things, “What have you learned through all of this?” His answer was quick. He had been thinking about it for a long time. He said, “I’ve learned that everyday is a gift from God. My wife and I have learned what is really important and now the two of us together are trying to raise our children to be happy right now, to live each day right now.” Then he said this, “I’ve also learned that all of our lives are on loan. What we do with them with the limited time we have is very important.”

Look back at our lesson. The obvious sermon from the parable is that when we die, we can’t take our things with us. I’ve preached that sermon before. But I think there is a message deeper than that in these words. The message is that there are many things more important than things. Jesus didn’t have a problem with money and wealth. He had a problem with money and wealth got in the way of our relationship with him and with those we love the very most.

Go home with this. Take care of those you love. Spend time with them. Love them. Let them know how important every day is. For your greatest treasures can’t be stored in barns. They are stored in your heart and in your memories. Let us pray.