SOULS UNDER CONSTRUCTION SERMON SERIES:

                                The High Price of Shortcuts

                                              Luke 12:13-21

    

Pastor Robyn Hogue                          May 12, 2013                    Skyline Presbyterian Church

 

 

Have you noticed how almost everything you buy these days has a warning label on it? Welcome to the world of protection from litigation. Some of the wackiest ones include:
A bottle of sleeping pills with the warning: “Caution, may cause drowsiness”
A fish hook with the warning: “Harmful if swallowed”
A washing machine with the instructions: “Don’t put people inside.”

It causes me to start thinking about appropriate warning labels we could print in the worship bulletin:
“Sleep at your own risk”
“Not responsible for wandering thoughts.”

Jesus issued warnings:
“Be careful about worshiping for show.” (Matthew 6:1)
“See that you don’t look down on children. Be a friend to the friendless. Welcome those on the margins of society.” (Matthew 18:1) And here in Luke 12, Jesus begins the parable of the foolish farmer with these words, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a life that really matters does not consist in the abundance of possessions” (verse 15).

Let us begin with a confession, POSSESSIONS HAVE THEIR APPEAL. We like stuff. We collect stuff and we buy more and more stuff. The fun of shopping is a way of life.

Possessions give a feeling of status. In Verse 16 we read, “And He told them this parable. The ground of a certain rich farmer produced a good crop.” Remember Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof? Trying to raise five daughters in a declining, changing society Tevye says to the Lord, “I realize it’s no shame to be poor, but it’s no honor either. So what would have been so terrible if I were a very rich man?” Tevye sings, “If I were a rich man, I’d build a big tall house, with rooms by the dozen right in the middle of town. There would be one long staircase just going up, and one even longer coming down. And one more, going nowhere, just for show. If I were a rich man, there would be chickens, turkeys, geese, and ducks in the yard. Everybody who passed by would say, ‘Here lives a very wealthy man.”

I suspect there’s a little bit of Tevye in the best of us. Maybe the chickens and turkeys have been replaced by flat screens and SUV’s. We like stuff; we like to collect it. It makes our economy go.

The fact is that possessions have the appeal of success. With more grain and bigger barns in which to store it, obviously the smart farmer was honest, hardworking and industrious. Is it wrong to be rich? No! Remember the story of Joseph in the Old Testament? God used Joseph to tell the Pharaoh to store up the harvest grain for seven years so that when the famine came, there was enough food for the Egyptian people as well as the starving tribes of Israel. The Church needs to repent of its prejudice against rich people while using them to fund their good deeds. Such hypocrisy certainly gains the continued condemnation of Jesus. The problem with this wealthy farmer was that he was not rich toward God.

During the Wesleyan Revival in England two hundred and fifty years ago, Wesley noted that his converts often grew in wealth, some near one hundred fold in twenty years. That’s a pretty good return, even on the Stock Market, isn’t it? When people stopped drinking and carousing and started living responsible lives many of them started making money. Clean living can do that for us. Wesley started preaching this principle: Earn all you can, save all you can and give all you can. And yet, we come to this parable of a farmer whom Jesus calls a fool, not a bad guy, just stupid. Jesus says, “Be careful, watch out, be alert, learn the lesson of a very successful man.” Understand there is a difference between who we are and what we have and if we don’t know that difference, our souls are in jeopardy.

THERE TENDS TO BE A SHORTCUT WITH POSSESSIONS

Watch out! Be on guard! What you have does not define who you are. Families fight over possessions. Did you see how this whole discussion got started? In Luke 12:1 Jesus is speaking to a crowd of many thousands, so packed that people were trampling on one another—like Time Square on New Year’s Eve. Verse 13 says, “Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’”

There is at least one in every crowd, is there not? Somebody here is having family problems over money. You, who have never known such family turmoil, be gentle with the rest of us. Families fight. Whether these feuds involve the people who own hotels and skyscrapers or people who fight over who will get the family hutch, such conflicts are messy, costly and painful. Be aware, be alert, be careful about the stuff you own because your life doesn’t consist of what you have because often it is just fodder for family fights.

Jesus wants us to be thoughtful about the stuff we own because our culture teaches us to think of it as a shortcut to success and it never will be.

Possessions can be a problem. When is enough, enough? It is always a little more than what you have, regardless of what you have. Did you hear about the American businessman on vacation who encountered a fisherman near a Honduran resort? The fisherman was napping on his boat when the businessman inquired, “Why aren’t you fishing?” “Because I caught all I needed for my family this morning,” said the fisherman politely. “But,” countered the businessman, “if you went out twice a day you would catch enough fish to sell a few. Before long you would make enough money to buy several boats. With a little luck, you could start a fresh seafood business and start shipping fish all over Central America, maybe even the United States.” “What would I do then,” asked the fisherman? “Then?” said the businessman, “Then you would make millions. Then you could retire, get a nice place on the beach, gaze at the sun and look into the beautiful ocean.” To which the fisherman replied, “What do you think I’m doing now?”

Possessions can a problem. THEY WON’T GIVE US LIFE. “This very night your life will be demanded from you” (Verse 20). That’s sobering stuff, isn’t it? Did the stress of work kill the foolish farmer? Who knows? Of this I am certain; the folly which drives people to burn themselves out for things has taken its toll on many.

Remember Big Daddy, the dying patriarch of a squabbling family, in Tennessee Williams’ play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Big Daddy and his estranged son, Brick, are wading through all the paintings, sculptures, and scores of boxes in the basement when Big Daddy picks up a clock and says, “There’s one thing you can’t buy in a fire sale, or any other market on earth. That’s your life – you can’t buy back your life when it’s finished.” We ought to know that; it is important that we know that.

From the scriptures we hear Jesus saying to us today, “Watch out! Beware! Stay Alert! Don’t make a fool of yourself! Separate who you are from what you have! Declare to your stuff, “You are not my life. You must never own me and you will never be my God. I will not be your slave.” We can think of possessions as a shortcut to success, but they will never substitute for building a life that really matters. To build a life that really matters, there can be no shortcuts. To build a life that really matters, we must learn to be rich toward God.