Bigger Barns
Hosea 11:1-11; Luke 12:13-21

August 1, 2004

Bigger barns, eh? Just across the border down in Minot, North Dakota, they used to have all those structures uncannily called “silos” - a nice little agricultural term. Not grain, but nuclear missiles aimed towards strategic targets in the former USSR.

Even during the unvaliant heydays of the Cold War, it was well known that there were a fairly equal number of missiles in the USSR aimed precisely for us. Heading into Havana from the east, there is still one of the missiles from the October 1962 crisis standing as a modern totem pole. I’m not sure whether it is supposed to be a monument to our human folly or to the pride of the Cuban people in a bygone age.

All sorts of statistics were available. Something like the Western governments had enough missiles to annihilate the USSR and Warsaw Bloc 10 times over. The Soviet coalition had only enough missiles to wipe us out a mere 7 times. That means we win!! Bigger barns are very useful.

What motivated such, frankly, silly and infinitely dangerous thinking? Was this some kind of board game where human lives and scorched radioactive earth really did not appear on the table? Is it a greed that comforts itself into believing it holds the moral high ground? The Bushes and Reagans and their disciples still run around touting that their nuclear brinkmanship actually worked by stalemating both sides from using their nuclear arsenals. The bigger the barn, the safer we all were. No liberal mamby pamby weakness to be demonstrated.

Rabbis in first century A. D. Palestine were considered the wisest and most educated people of that society. They were consulted on issues well beyond the normal realms of religion. Church and state, politics and law, religion and faith all meshed in a way we would feel inappropriate today.

But when someone in the gaggle around Jesus innocently asked him to mediate a family inheritance dispute, that person wasn’t really out of line. Jesus adamantly rejected the request, but not because “I don’t do windows.” He knew that this was not a neutral legal matter, but a swelling up of greed. The last thing Jesus wanted to do was to facilitate the proliferation of greed.

“Be on guard against all kinds of greed,” Jesus warned. “Protect yourselves against greed,” in the translation of Eugene Peterson. Protect yourself, or it will get you and swallow up your soul. Parable time.

“The land of a rich man produced abundantly.” A great place to begin - no failure, but wonderful success. But whose success? There are good farmers and not so good farmers, but what matters regarding a good crop is often not under the control of the farmer. A good crop is a gift, and this one was so big, the rich man did not have enough storage to put it all away. Bigger barns were definitely needed. That much is natural and logical.

Remember the time Egypt experienced the good fortune of bumper crops for seven years in a row. Joseph interpreted the dreams of the Pharaoh and cautioned that seven years of drought and famine would follow. Something had to be done and the Pharaoh appointed Joseph to manage the good harvests in preparation for the famine years. Joseph built bigger barns and when famine did come all the people were able to eat. Moreover, people from other countries traveled down to Egypt for food, including Joseph’s family from the land of Canaan.

Bigger barns were meant not for the rich and wealthy, but for the poor and destitute. Wonderful harvests in God’s economy were meant to be shared with all people.

The rich man saw his good fortune as an opportunity only for himself and his easy living. “Soul,” he addresses himself, “you’ve got it made in the shade.” Before he can make it into the shade, he simply dies. Soul, God is reported saying to him, you’re a fool. Who is going to get all this wonderful harvest now? It should be the poor is the implicit answer. You weren’t rich toward God.

God doesn’t need riches; God is the source of all things rich. What kind of barns are you supposed to build?

Mrs. Brown was left a widow with seven children to raise in l939. There wasn’t much money and by 1946 there were only four left in the house, three girls and a boy - teens and preteens.

On Sunday at the beginning of Lent the minister of the church they attended announced that on Easter Sunday the church would be taking a special offering for a poor family.

Walking home after church the Browns thought of what they might do to raise money for this special offering. Mrs. Brown said she could make simpler meals and put the difference aside. The son knew that there were many odd jobs to be done in the neighbourhood. And the girls said that they would donate all their babysitting money to the project. All in all the Browns developed a plan in which everyone had a part raising money for the church’s Easter offering.

They had fun making the money and coming home to put it in the little box. And every night they sat down and counted it up and thought about how happy the poor family would be when they received the money.

The day before Easter one of the girls took the box to the grocery store and exchanged the contents for three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill.

Then on Easter Sunday in their old clothes the Browns excitedly set off for church - proud of what they had to offer to the poor family.

When the plate was passed for the poor family’s offering Mrs. Brown put in ten dollars and each of the girls put in a twenty. Coming home from church they sang all the way.

Now Easter dinner wasn’t much - scrambled eggs and fried potatoes - but it tasted just fine and after all it was a part of raising the money.

In the late afternoon the minister drove out to the house and Mrs. Brown went out onto the porch to talk with him.

She came back with an envelope in her had and when she opened it out fell three twenties, one ten and seventeen one dollar bills. They all just looked at the money.

Mrs. Brown put it back in the envelope and put the envelope on the kitchen shelf. No one talked - they just stared at the floor. They had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash.

The Browns had been so happy - they felt sorry for those who didn’t have a houseful of brothers and sisters and friends and cousins running in and out. They thought it was fun to share bikes and skates and even argued about who got to sleep out on the porch in the winter.

They weren’t stupid - they knew that they didn’t have a lot of things other people had but they had never known that they were poor.

That Easter they found out that they were ‘poor’ and they didn’t like it. The minister, after all, had brought them the money for the ‘poor family.’

The next day as they got ready for school the dresses looked shabby and the shoes scuffed. The Brown boy suddenly realized that his pants were too short and the reason he was rolling up his sleeves was because they were too short also.

The two who had finished grade eight began to think that perhaps they might quit school and go to work.

That night at supper there was no lively conversation at supper. Everyone was quiet - no one said much. Finally they went to bed.

On Saturday Mrs. Brown asked them what they would like to do with the money. But they didn’t know what to do with it. They didn’t know what poor people did with money. They hadn’t known they were poor.

On Sunday no one wanted to go to church but Mrs. Brown said that they had to go. No one was happy as they walked into the sanctuary in their now worn clothing.

On that day there was a missionary speaker home on furlough. He told the congregations how African congregations built churches. They built them out of sundried bricks. However, each church had to have a roof which cost about a hundred dollars. The missionary ask if the members of the congregation would be able to sacrifice to help these poor people in Africa.

The Browns looks at one another and smiled. Mrs. Brown reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope - the one with the three crisp twenties, the ten and the seventeen one dollar bills. She passed the envelope to her son and when the plate came around in it went.

When the offering was counted - the minister announced that there was a little over $100. The missionary was so excited. He hadn’t expected such a large offering from such a small congregation. He said, “you must have some very rich people in this church”.

Suddenly it struck the Browns - they had given $87 of that $100 - they were the richest family in the church.

The Browns had the biggest barn in the church, and they understood that it was for storing a harvest for the poor. How else can you be rich towards God?

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan