The summer seems an
ideal time for folks to go back home. It is often too hot for much else. We
visit family, we see old friends, we have those quaint High School reunions
with those strangers who join us in our longing for the “good ol’ days.”
I am not so sure we really want to return to those days long
gone. Actually, I am pretty sure we do not. As attractive as the notion may be,
I would wager the old house is not as big as we remembered, the street not so
wide, the neighbors no so young any more. Our buddies, our playmates, even the
bully down the street, they have all gone on and yet, like us, they too may
remember and long for the “good ol’ days.”
Those memories and our
longings awaken in us a desire to just go back home. To lie in the bed in our
old room and nestle in to old familiar daydreams and rich longings for just
another moment to relive it all.
Unless things were
really bad, we felt safe back home. That is where our imaginations had no limits.
Where dreams and wishes could really become true as we played and had fun and
life was not so serious.
As time has softened
the edges of the hard parts of growing up we tend to remember more and more of
the good and we find it easier to admit, those were good days and we felt more
alive back then.
Now, in 2013, well, we have matured and our longings change.
We look forward to the rest from full-time work or we are already there. Our
‘good ol’ day’s’ dream has been replaced with a desire for lazy care free days where
life is simpler and filled with new riches.
This question of the
simpler and richer life is taken up in this morning’s gospel. Prompted by a question from the crowd, Jesus
is quick to recognize a deeper age old problem. This request for him to tell a
man’s brother to divide the family inheritance is a request driven by greed.
During the past few
weeks in the gospels lesson’s, and the passages in between, Jesus is teaching
and modeling for his disciples the kind of behaviors and practices that make
for a God-centered life. In this morning’s offering someone in the crowd makes
a rather rude intrusion asking Jesus to intercede in a family matter concerning
“stuff” and how it is being divided.
In response, Jesus makes
clear that life is not about stuff. And
he tees up pretty high the moral to the story. Life is about God and
relationships and we are to be on guard against the greed of stuff. Be it
money, possession, or collections. We are to be wary of our justifications for
our riches when they are based upon our greed.
Of course, recognizing
our greed can be tricky. We may not even realize our greed until one day we
wake up and someone asks God why we will not divide the family inheritance with
the family. Why we hoard our gifts and our blessings. Why we fail to share and
give until we have nothing left because we have so much to lose. So much that
makes us rich.
Now Jesus comes to say
to us that our life is not to be valued by the abundance of our possessions. It
is foolish to think about having larger barns or houses or storage units or
second homes. If we think we can store in those places ample goods for our soul,
we are mistaken.
Ok, perhaps we did not
expect this to be a lesson about our riches and our soul. One or the other, ok.
But both. Not so much fun. And now, given our riches, we are to look into our
souls for evidence of our greed. Oh
great, now the greed card is being played too.
Apparently, all we
have in this world will eventually belong to someone else. If our souls have
been validated solely by our rich goods, well, that too will belong to someone
else.
Now, before I get too
far from the truth that is clearly here in this morning’s gospel, there is
nothing in our Luke passage that is preaching against our valuing our goods,
our possessions, our work, who we are or who we hope to be. No, having things
and people in our lives are not what make us the fools God predicted we may
become.
Digging in and
screaming to all who hear that we will not tear down our larger barns convicts
us and makes us suspect in God’s eyes. It marks us as a fool. For this very
night our life may be demanded of us. The things we have invested our life in,
whose will those be?
That is so not God’s
question. No, instead, God says, be rich towards God. Build a rich relationship
with God. The goal of life is relationship and interdependence rather than
independence and self-reliance. It is a rejection of the notion that he or she
who dies with the most toys wins. Eternity and the reign of God function as a
great equalizer.
The rich man in this morning’s
parable is physically and fiscally secure. His business prudence is obvious. He
is living what he thinks to be ‘the good life.’ But, as the parable tells him,
he has foolishly impoverished his soul. He may be rich in substance, but he is
poor in the quality of his life because he has made himself poor with God.
Before we become too
judgmental, we must ask, where is our spiritual prudence in light of how our
good life has unfolded? Do we feel our good life guarantees a goodness in our
soul? Do we feel that we are connected to God’s will or just to our own?
Perhaps most
troubling, how will we know? How will we know our riches have turned us from
the ‘good ol’ days’ when Jesus’ message first caught our attention? When we
thought Jesus is the answer. When we decided to give our life to the Lord. To
follow him and love and serve only him.
The answer to our
spiritual richness lies not in finding the good life or reliving the ‘good ol’
days,’ but in finding instead the blessed life. The answer lies in having a
goodness in our soul. That goodness, of course, is in a person, Jesus Christ.
The way to a life of lasting richness lies in becoming rich
toward God. By creating experiences through which God can be encountered and
allowed to reveal who God is for each of us. By celebrating the ways we can live into God’s intent for
our lives.
Our God lives in Jesus
Christ, and through each of us as we live simply with humility. Enjoying the
harvest that comes from living with family, having friends, and community.
Living a vocation of blessed service to God and to one another. Where we learn
to share ourselves and our gifts and our bounty with others. Where we worship
and pray and offer and give thanks for the signs of the blessed life around us.
Jesus says we are not
here to live the good life. We are not here to build bigger barns, or houses,
or to have more stuff, more money, more more.
No, we are here to
seek an alternative life, a blessed life. A life where we begin each day
desiring to deepen our relationship with God. To live beyond our means and our
efforts in humble service to our God.
Do not forget, God is
a real presence in our lives. One with whom we can share the life experience.
One with whom we can form a relationship like no other. One where we are loved
by our God. It would be pleasing to God if we loved God in return.
We are being called in our inheritance as children of God to
be a place where we are “rich toward God.” Where God is present and God is
alive and God is known. We are called actually and truthfully to see ourselves
as the Body of Christ. To see ourselves as having a vibrant sense of faith, a
yearning hope and love in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
We are also challenged
to begin to see ourselves as a church filled with God’s purpose, God’s
presence, and God’s power. To see ourselves as embracing the sacred, where
communion and baptism are central ways to reveal and connect us with God. To
see ourselves as not afraid to serve God in our own unique way as Genesis
Presbyterian Church having come from the richness of Trinity and Wilshire churches
to form a new place. A new ‘good ol’ days’ where others are welcome, where
others are encouraged, where they see life, a rich life found in the presence
of Jesus’ abundant grace and love.
Dare we live with
these truths and reach out to share them in our ministry with one another in
ways that take us beyond the ‘good ol’ days’ to one new day and then on to
another, and another, and another. New day after new day where new ways reveal
God to our soul. To one another. To the world. Then we will know we are rich
toward God.
Augustine has written,
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it
rests in you.”
We give thanks Lord
God, for as our life has become one with yours our hearts and souls are no
longer restless. For we rest in you and we are rich. We are rich because these
new days, dear Lord, are truly the everlasting ‘good ol’ days’ newly alive in
us, your children.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.
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