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Sunday, September 26, 2010

Affluence

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Scripture: Luke 12:13-21

¹³Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” ¹⁴But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” ¹⁵And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” ¹⁶Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. ¹⁷And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ ¹⁸Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ ²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ ²¹So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

I am wrapping up a three part series called: the three A’s. Two weeks ago we talked about Appearance. Last week we talked about Achievement. Today we are going to look at the granddaddy of them all, Affluence. 

Money is a popular topic in the pulpit. I would even go so far as to say that the desire for affluence, money, accumulation, STUFF is the number one opposition to God. And to be clear, I am not saying it’s bad to actually be affluent. Money is neutral. It can be used for good or bad. A fancy mansion can be a selfish thing to spend money on…or it can be a location to hold wonderful benefits for needy organizations that otherwise wouldn’t have such a location.  Money, or rather Stuff, is an easy tool to pull us away from God. This stuff can cloud our vision. This stuff can make us confused about what is really important. In fact, I view S.T.U.F.F. as an acronym for:  Striving To Untangle Fact from Fiction. 

Chances are pretty good that we all have too much of most everything. Today there is estimated to be 1.9 billion square feet of self-storage space in America. We sometimes use this stuff to show the world how affluent we are. If we have the money to buy…fill in the blank, we must be pretty well off. Money is at the center of affluence but there aren’t a lot of opportunities to actually show off our wealth with actual dollars. Unless we are a wise guy mobster, we probably don’t carry wads of actual cash around with us. Plus, that can seem gaudy. There are more subtle ways to show the world you have money.  Especially in these times, it can be a bad move to “show off” too much. I read an article recently that says that in this economic climate the very affluent haven’t changed the amount they’re spending at all, they just do it more behind closed doors.

Most of us want bigger and bigger. The average American home went from 1,660 square feet in 1973 to 2,400 square feet in 2004.  I know we are getting bigger as people but seriously do we need that much space? We are, as a culture, obsessed with more.

Our passage today warns against the desire of affluence and greed. It is a parable known as The Parable of the Rich Fool. This story looks at an ordinary man. This man is not evil. He is by most people’s standard a success. His fault isn’t with him having too much wealth. What we get to see in this parable is how he plans on using his wealth.

In this parable we actually get to hear this man’s thoughts, his internal monologue. By hearing his internal monologue, we hear his real feeling, not those that he has polished for public consumption. As we listen in, we hear that all of his thoughts are how he can benefit from his riches. He never even entertains the thought that he could take some of his riches and share them with the wider community. In fact as we listen in, we realize how self centered his thoughts really are. I will pull down MY barns and I will build bigger ones, then I will store all MY grains and goods, and I will say to MY soul, Eat, Drink and be Merry.” All of it is ALL….ABOUT….HIM.

As a matter of fact the whole story is just him. Did you notice? It’s just him and his stuff. This man and his STUFF are the only characters in the story until God enters the picture at the end. It is all possessive pronouns: my crops, my barn, my grain, and my goods. His things are all fictions. They aren’t the things that are real and they aren’t the things that matter.

The story didn’t have to be that way. This story is not about the evil of having things and riches. It is about how we chose to use those things and riches. Never once did the man even consider giving to others. His great abundance should have lead to great responsibility to the wider world…but it didn’t.

We are faced with the same problems today. I don’t need bigger barns, I need bigger closets. As a result of this realization I realize I also have to share my riches. This is one of the best things the Bible can do for us. The Bible can be a mirror to our lives and show us how we are doing and where we can improve. But all my things are my fiction. They are not what really matter.

In contrast to the rich fool, Warren Buffet is a good example. As many of you might have heard, Warren Buffet, who is worth $44 billion, began giving away 85% of his wealth in July. Most of it will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As the interviewer for FORTUNE magazine pointed out, the second richest man in the world is giving his money to the first richest man in the world.  Buffet has a very different view from the rich fool who is in our scripture. In an interview with FORTUNE magazine he has this to say: “We agreed with Andrew Carnegie, who said that huge fortunes that flow in large part from society should in large part be returned to society.”

To whom much is given much is expected.

To be clear, again, it is not the man’s wealth that is the problem. It was how he chose to direct it. At its core this story is about consumption. How much more do we need? As U2 sings, “You can never get enough of what don’t really need.”

Where and how do we allocate what we have? Does all of it need to stay with us? Does it go out into the world? Personally I flat out have too much. When you have too much you spend all of your time trying to maintain it. Maintenance of our stuff can take up all our time and eat up time that we could have used for helping others and building the kingdom of God.  We think maintaining our stuff is important but it isn’t. It is another fiction that keeps us from what is real.  

For me, this story is also about the man not trusting God. He is so worried about the future that he thinks I better horde, I better keep what I have all to myself. I know there are needy people out there but I need the security. Helen Keller’s great line, “Security is mostly an illusion. Life is either a daring adventure or it’s nothing.” Even though the man is rich…did you notice he was rich before he had his bumper crop, this man still worried about the future? His security is a fiction. It isn’t real.

This is addressed again immediately following this passage by Jesus talking to the crowd. In verse 22 Jesus is telling them not to worry about the things of this world. He warns them not to put their trust in the things of this world. In vs. 34 Jesus says “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Whatever we invest our time and our money in…those things will pull us closer to them, and farther away from God.

So the questions are many: What do we spend our time thinking about? What do we spend our money on? What do we focus all our energies on? These are the things that we have to be careful don’t take the place of God in our life.

So for me as I read this, there are multiple questions I have to ask myself.  Where do I not trust God in my life? Where am I hording? Where is my desire to consume more and want more blurring my ability to give to the world? Where have I put my confidence? Where have I placed my security? Have I put it in things of this world, which are a fiction, or in the fact of God’s love?

Fictions are untruths. Facts are based in truth. To put our trust in things is to put our faith in fiction. To believe that things will give us security is to put our trust in another fiction. And to believe that things will bring us lasting happiness is the biggest fiction of all.

We live in a time when people worship affluence. Consumption becomes our God. “More” becomes a disease that is hard to break free of. This desire for more, this chasing of affluence brings on stress, heart disease, broken relationships and crippling debt. And in the end, it can change you. It’s like the quote that says, “All my life I wanted to be somebody. Now, I am finally somebody…But it isn’t me.

You will know when you are moving into more Christ like space. You move from consuming to sharing. Your joy won’t be in your collections, it will come from giving away what you have accumulated. I am moving in that direction but have a long way to go.

This sharing or giving back is a sure sign that you are moving in the right direction. Albert Schweitzer said it well when he said, “You must give some time to your fellow man. Even if it’s a little thing, do something for those that need help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. For remember, you don’t live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.”

Al had the right idea. Whether we are talking about Appearance, Achievement or Affluence they all center on ourselves. All of our time, energy, and focus are spent looking at ourselves and wondering, “What does the world think of me now?”

To be completely focused on God would mean for us to stop the focus on ourselves. Can you imagine trying to go even one whole day not thinking about yourself? Living your whole day focused on others? That would be the definition of being rich towards God.