Merritt Island Presbyterian Church July 31, 2016 Sermon: “You Fool….” Colossians 3: 1-11; Luke 12:13-21

"YOU FOOL..." 

This past week I had an interview with a church that’s seeking an interim pastor.  We went through all the usual questions including this one:  “Is your preaching political.”  I knew what they meant – sort of.  They probably meant am I someone who uses the pulpit to promote partisan politics.  At least I hope that’s what they meant.

The Greek root of the word “politics” simply means "of, for, or relating to citizens."  So “politics” has to do with the things that effect all of us as a society.  What I find interesting – and here I’ll readily admit to being a word nerd – is the relationship between “politics” and “liturgy.”  In a broad sense we use the word “liturgy” to describe the totality of the components that make up our worship service.  But the Greek root of “liturgy” means “a public duty, a service to the state undertaken by a citizen.”  It was a sacrificial responsibility of a citizen to carry out what we might call “community service.”  It eventually came to refer to some public service done in the Temple.  Eventually its usage was broadened to mean carrying out the religious duty of temple worship. 

So originally “politics” and “liturgy” were both rooted in public service and things that benefitted the whole community. 

From that perspective I am not only a “political” preacher but I am also a “political” worship leader.  The message of the Gospel is political because it is meant for the benefit of everyone and it includes the requirement that we worship God and love one another.

I may not be a partisan political preacher – and I’ve spent time with a few of those – but I believe that the Beatitudes and all of the Gospel message call us to more than internal piety:  we are called to act in a very special way here and now in this world as we relate to one another.

Before we talk about the parable that Jesus told let’s listen again to Colossians 3:5:   “⁵Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry).” I’ll leave it to your pastor to cover “fornication, impurity, passion, and evil desire.”  I just want to bring your attention to Paul’s little parenthetical expression after the word “greed:” “(which is idolatry).”

Greed is idolatry.  The simplest definition of “greed” is this: “a strong desire to continually get more of something.”  In the Heidelberg Confession “greed” is the misuse and waste of the gifts God has given to us. 

In the Gospel story Jesus is asked by some unnamed person to help settle a family dispute.  I’m sure you know the old saying: “Where there’s a will, there’s a relative.”  Apparently there was a dispute between two brothers about dividing up some inheritance.  Jesus answered in a way that probably didn’t please anyone.  He saw the greed that lay behind the question and told them a short story about the folly of greed.

There was a very successful farmer whose fields had produced so much that he couldn’t keep it all in his barns.  But he was intent on keeping it all for himself so he built bigger storage facilities.  He could have shared the excess grains with the community.  He could have given the first fruits of the harvest to the Temple.  But his attitude was to congratulate himself for his magnificent achievement – after all he did it all by himself! – so it was his to enjoy.  He says to himself “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”

Have you ever known anyone like that?  Maybe not a farmer.  Perhaps someone who considers themselves “self made” with no sense of gratitude to the Lord or to others who might have helped along the way.  Perhaps they have land; perhaps they have financial wealth; perhaps they haven’t made it yet but are striving to succeed and producing pathological stress in themselves to make that first million all with their own personal effort. 

“But 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?’  So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

This isn’t some convoluted stewardship sermon.  I’m not here to scare you into giving more to the church. 

This is a sermon about your heart.  Greed is idolatry.  Whatever the object of your greed may be, it’s what you worship.  It has displaced God with an object that you fervently desire.  So fervently that it drives the love of God out of your heart.  Put perhaps too gently, Jesus says in both Matthew and Luke 12:34:  “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

John Calvin believed that gratitude to God was the core of our faith.  Ignatius Loyola believed that ingratitude was at the root of all sin.  If in your heart you hold gratitude to God for all that you have received, all that you have been given, if you are truly grateful to the Lord, then no preacher has to tell you how to behave.  Greed has no place in that relationship. 

Christian faith is realized as public behavior.  Our faith in Christ is only made real to the extent that the face of Christ is seen in what we do to and for one another. 

For too many people the getting and keeping of possessions becomes their reason for living. Greed misses the point that all of our blessings, material and spiritual, are meant to be tools for spreading and sharing God’s Kingdom and Christ’s love. It is particularly sinister because so many other sinful actions may be used to gain or keep whatever that object may be.

We are a consumerist society.  People really believe that acquiring stuff is what life is all about.  We are a society that nurtures a radical sense of individualism.  Yet the Christian Gospel calls for the establishment of a new community.  Sure, we are called individually to accept the grace of God and the gift of Jesus.  But when we have individually accepted it we are moved into a community of loving people committed to the very world that we loudly proclaim Jesus came to save.

From the perspective of our life in community we see that greed isn’t just the pursuit of stuff; it’s also the covetous grasping of the stuff we have accumulated.  It’s a refusal to gratefully acknowledge the gifts and blessings that we have received from God for the benefit of God’s entire creation.  It’s a belief that “I earned it!” and what’s mine is mine, you need to go get your own. 

I think that there’s also another extension of greed that we don’t like to think about.  It’s when we deny the benefits that we have as a society, as a nation to those who want to live lives free from tyranny, free from murderous atrocities and unimaginable violence.  It’s when we close our borders, our minds and our hearts to the needs of our neighbors. 

When we covetously hold tight to the freedoms and security that we enjoy; when we deny others the opportunity to experience a night without fear of what the next day may bring for them and their children, we are committing a deadly form of greed.  

Over the centuries, theologians have argued about a phrase that’s found in both Matthew and Mark.  Jesus speaks of a sin that cannot be forgiven.  It’s when we sin against “the Holy Spirit.”  The Holy Spirit is here for us to encourage and guide us in the realization of God’s Kingdom.  To Martin Luther this meant that any effort to blunt or block the intended action of the Spirit as the Spirit leads us in the re-creation of God’s Kingdom here is the “unforgivable” sin against the Holy Spirit. 

Sooner or later Christians have to come to a decision point.  It’s not simply the decision to give over our hearts to Jesus.  It’s not simply to internalize something called “faith.”  Sooner or later Christians have to reach a decision about greed and idolatry.  Sooner or later Christians have to recognize that faith in Jesus Christ really does require what Paul refers to as putting to death everything in you that is earthly.  Sooner or later Christians have to recognize that they are being called to give something up to follow Christ.  It may be comfort; it may be possessions; it will be whatever your heart holds dearest that is not the Lord. 

I still and probably always will think of myself as a New Yorker.  I was born there and lived in and around the City for most of the first 30 years of my life.  New Yorkers have a discouraging habit when it comes to problem solving.  When a problem is identified and someone offers a solution invariably and annoyingly someone else will say “We tried that already.”  I’m sure you’ve heard variations of that theme in many settings – including the church. 

There is a Christian faith version of an annoyingly predictable response to the demands of Scripture and the leading of the Spirit.  I’m willing to bet you’ve heard it from time to time:  “Be practical.  You can’t really expect me to do that.”  And I can just hear Jesus saying to you or to me:  “You fool.”

In just a few minutes we affirm our faith in the words of the Theological Declaration of Barmen.  It was 1933 in Germany, and some Christians recognized that the Nazi state was calling for a level of allegiance that displaced God.  These are some of the words that we shall say:

As the church of pardoned sinners, it has to testify in the midst of a sinful world, with its faith as with its obedience, with its message as with its order, that it is solely his property, and that it lives and wants to live solely from his comfort and from his direction in the expectation of his appearance. 

Unfortunately some people think this level of commitment is only needed when we face an evil as clear as Nazism. It took great courage to stand up and defy the government with this statement.  But the statement itself is a timeless expression of the necessary commitment to which Christ calls us.  He calls us to put away all our idols and worship only the Lord.

Some of you right now are probably saying, “Be serious!  You can’t expect us to live like that.”  And firmly and quietly I can hear the voice of Jesus saying sadly:  “You fool!”

Let us pray: Take, O Lord, and receive our liberty, our memory, our understanding and our whole will. All that we are and all that we possess You have given us: we surrender it all to You to be disposed of according  to Your will.

Give us only Your love and Your grace; with these we will be rich enough, and will desire nothing more.

In Christ’s name we pray.
Amen.