Sermon: When stuff gets sinful (July 31, 2016)

Pentecost 11C

July 31, 2016

Luke 12:13-21

            A couple years ago during Lent, you may remember, our theme was about simplicity. Of all of our Lenten themes that we’ve done (and we’ve done some cool ones), this might be my favorite, probably because it dealt with so many practical things that I encounter every day. In particular, I continue to work at and struggle with de-cluttering my space, and getting rid of all the excess stuff in my life. Anyone else have that problem, the problem of too much stuff?

            The relentless collection of stuff (not to mention money!) is something I think we all struggle with. And apparently, this has long been a problem: just in today’s Gospel lesson, we can read about

how people were focused on their possessions, concerned with getting their fair share of the family’s inheritance, concerned with finding a place to store an abundance of stuff, rather than considering giving it away to someone who actually needs it.

            In our Gospel reading, Jesus uses the story of the rich man, who stashed all his abundance away, as a warning against greed. It strikes an uncomfortable chord with me, and I suspect, for many of us. Being smart and savvy and careful with our things and our money is not greedy, or something to be condemned, is it? In fact, you could call that good stewardship of your resources, right? Being financially smart, and making sure you have what you need and deserve, and planning for the future – those are admirable traits, not greed…. Right??

            Ah, but you see, this is what makes greed such a tricky sin, and what makes this parable such a difficult one to face. I look at the rich man and think he is savvy, and I’d probably try to be like him. If Michael and I suddenly came into a lot of money, I’d like to say we would give away the excess. After all, we live comfortably as it is – we have what we need. So if we suddenly came into a lot more money, we could give it away, right? …But would we? Ever notice how when you move into a bigger space, you still manage to fill it with stuff? Same with money – when you have a bit more, you somehow find a way to spend it, a way to think, “Gosh, how did I ever get along with less money?”

            That’s the trick of money, of stuff, and the trick of greed. It sneaks up on us. It masks itself as noble, as savvy. We save for retirement, we save for our kids’ college, we save for a house – who can argue that any of these isn’t good?

            Well don’t worry: saving for retirement and college isn’t sinful, nor is acquiring and surrounding yourself with things that are helpful to you. I don’t think Jesus is trying to tell us that they are. But, all of these things have the potential to turn sinful. Let’s consider how.

            First, we must consider the value and purpose money and things have in our lives. Have you ever noticed, that the root of the word “materialism,” mater, is the same as the Latin word for “mother”? What do we typically associate with mothers? Nurturing, loving, caring, comfort… Now think: are those the qualities we are looking for in our money and possessions? Are we looking to them to provide us comfort and security? Quite possibly – many offer this in a physical way (houses, clothes, etc). But do we expect them to provide spiritual comfort? To nurture us? Do they make us feel loved? Do they make us feel valuable, and worthwhile? Deep down, is this the purpose we want them to fulfill for us?

            They might just do that. It might not be what motivated us to acquire a particular item, at least not consciously, but it might be the role that item has moved into. I have joked that I will feel like I have really made it in the world when I have a car with heated seats. (This would be quite a jump up from my current car, which doesn’t even have power locks or windows!) I say it as a joke, but do I actually mean it that way? Do I think my worth will somehow be defined by having the funds to get a car with this feature? Maybe, maybe not. But it is worth exploring for ourselves. Because of course the truth is: heated seats will not and will never define my worth. My worth, is defined by the fact that I am a child of God. Our worth is defined by God, not money or things, and to look to money or things as the providers of our worth and away from God can very quickly turn sinful.

            Second way the man’s savviness can turn sinful: I can’t overlook one quirk of this parable, and that is how utterly isolated the man is. He is so alone, that he can’t even have a conversation about what to do with his abundance with another person. He talks to himself about it. Just look how many personal pronouns are in his speech!  

This, too, is a danger of greed. I read a book a couple years ago called In the Neighborhood: The Search for Community on an American Street, One Sleepover at a Time. It’s written by a man living in a neighborhood here in Rochester, and in it he laments the loss of the neighborhood – the one where neighbors did more than exchange pleasantries, where they really knew each other and interacted and helped each other daily. Now, he observes, kids play in their fenced backyard instead of the front, people watch movies on their big screen TV instead of going to the movies with friends, they have a pool in the back and a home gym in the basement instead of going to the local Y and seeing other people. With so much stuff available to us, we don’t have any need to go out with and certainly not to rely upon other people; we are self-reliant. One of the most frequent pieces of advice I got when I was pregnant with Grace was, “Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Call upon your village.” We are conditioned to think we can and should do it ourselves, even something as demanding as child-rearing. We don’t think to draw on the village until we are in dire straights – and sometimes not even then.

            But in the case of this man in the parable, this, I think, is the sin that greed has driven him to: his greed and his sense of self-sufficiency has caused him to turn so completely into himself, that he doesn’t even see his community, does not see those who are in need, those who could really benefit from his abundance. His greed has caused him to worry only about himself, and to neglect the needs of the world.

Saint Basil of Caesarea, one of the 4^th century church fathers, was very convicting in a sermon he wrote on this text: “It is the hungry one’s bread that you hoard, the naked one’s cloak that you retain, the needy one’s money that you withhold. Wherefore as many as you have wronged, you might have succored.” I imagine most of us don’t typically use the word “succored,” so here is a contemporized version of this that I read, that is even more convicting to our modern ear: “Your second donut this morning belonged to the child who came to school with no breakfast, the new winter coat hanging in your closet next to four other coats (now out of style) belongs to the homeless person you passed on your way downtown last weekend, and the money you saved for retirement is the difference between subsistence and starvation for the sweatshop workers who made your favorite hiking boots (worn only twice). Wherefore as many as you have wronged, you might have aided.” (Glittering Vices, 108) Ouch! But you see, this is what greed can and does do: it focuses our attention on and makes us proud of our self-sufficiency, and our attachment to this leads our attention away from service toward others.

And this leads us to my final observation of the real sin in this text. Jesus concludes the parable by saying, “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” It’s a strange turn of phrase, isn’t it? How can you be rich toward someone else? The Greek pronoun used there can be understood a couple other, more helpful ways, for example, “rich in God,” or better yet, “rich in your relationship with God.” So what does that look like? We have a pretty good sense of what wealth looks like, right? It means having the money you need to do the things you need or want to do. It means not having financial constraints on your activities. Of course, by the global definition, it is somewhat different. This coming week in Vacation Bible School, our mission project is to raise money to build a well, to bring water to a community that doesn’t have access to fresh water. Can you imagine not having fresh water – for cooking, for bathing, for toilets, for growing food? Compared to this scenario, which is all too real for millions of people in the world, every last one of us is rich.

But are we rich toward God? Rich in relationship with God? What does it even look like to be rich in your relationship with God? I think it looks like a lot of things. It looks like coming to church, reading your Bible, praying, all those obvious things. It also looks like combatting the isolation of the man in the story. It looks like community, like loving and supporting those around you, like serving those in need (whether you like them or not!), and even asking their help in return. It looks like standing up for what is godly and true, like working to put an end to injustice, lifting up the poor and disenfranchised with words and actions. It looks like responding to hatred not with more hatred, but with love. I was so moved this week when, after Mr. Trump took a jab on Twitter at Senator Cory Booker, Booker’s response was not tofight back, but to go on national television and say, “I love you. I don’t want you to be my president, but I love you, and I pray for you,” in a way that was not at all patronizing, just genuine. I’m not sure that would be my response, at least not my first response! When we are threatened, we want to fight back. But when we are rich toward God, we don’t respond with hatred. We respond with love – not necessarily agreeing with or condoning the words and actions of another, but engaging with them in loving dialogue, with respect, with acknowledgement that this person, too, is a child of God.

And that’s really the crux of it. It goes back to greed, and where we find worth and value – both our own, and that of other people. Our true worth does not come from our things, or our bank accounts, or the size of our house. It comes from the fact that we are, each of us, children of God, who live and breathe the Spirit of God with every breath, who are made in God’s image, whom God called good. It comes from being baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, claimed as God’s own – regardless of income, gender, skin color, education level, or background. Yes, we are a part of a broken humanity. We fall short. We fall victim to greed. Our sight so often wanders to places other than God. But at the end of the day, God has claimed us and saved us and loves us. Who cares what belongs to us – if we belong to God?

Let us pray… Generous God, you have given us more than we need, yet we still set our sights on our possessions to bring us joy. Help us to be grateful for what we have, even as we look out toward those in need, and give us hearts that are eager to love and serve the world with the many gifts you provide. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.