Rich Toward God
Hosea 11:1-11; Luke 12:13-21


August 5, 2001


Occasionally pop culture hits the nail on the head. One of Elvis Presley's best known songs, "Blue Suede Shoes," is fun and silly, parodying exactly what Jesus is talking about in Luke. Here is a person who doesn't care if his reputation is trashed and other things taken - just don't step on his blue suede shoes. These particular possessions are more important than all the things about one's life that really matter. How exaggerated is this song?

Once again, here are two passages of scripture which tell not so much about how you should live your life, but point you toward what God is really like. In both Hosea and Luke we are assaulted by phrases which strike a strange note about the nature of God.

Hosea proclaims God's new message of compassion for the Israelites on the brink of disaster and exile. Although Israel had repeatedly abandoned God in favour of more appealing deities, God yearns for Israel as a mother longs for her son. This is not a God who punishes, "for I am God and not human."

I believe we knew that, that God is not human. On the other hand, we haven't always acted that way. It is human to feel the urge to exact revenge and recompense for wrong done to us, to spurn those who betray us. But God doesn't feel compelled to act in that way at all.

Then in the parable of the rich fool, Jesus concludes the story about a wealthy farmer who wants to build bigger and better barns for his increasing profit by observing that this man had wanted to build up treasure for himself, not treasure in heaven, and "is not rich toward God."

I have never heard that God is poor, that God needed the welfare of wealthy people. Yet it is necessary that we respond richly to God in all that we do. This is not a plea for a bigger offering on Sunday, but for a generous response to God and to all of God's other images.

A crowd gathered to hear Jesus teach and before long it was numbered in the thousands. There were so many people that they were trampling over one another to get a better vantage point and listening post. Jesus taught a number of things, before someone in the crowd spoke directly to him and implored, "Teacher, tell my brother to go divide the family inheritance with me." Jesus responded, "Friend, who set me to be a judge and arbitrator over you?"

It seems that there are always those who want to use the holy man to their purposes, to manipulate his authority to justify their agenda. I was kayaking down the Aar River in Berne, Switzerland, with my family friend as he proceeded to tell me all his wife's faults. He had to go out of town the next day on business and she proceeded to recite the litany of her husband's problems. I listened and said nothing, for both were probably right. I might have been a minister, but I am no judge and arbitrator - and neither should any other minister be. The two of them would eventually be divorced about 10 years later. Did my silent listening postpone or accelerate the final demise of their relationship? Or was it their individual greed to win the battle of their relationship?

Jesus, despite his cordiality to his questioner, did not interpret his request as a matter of theology or religious quest, but of plain greed. "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed," advises Jesus. Greed takes on more than one shape. Life is more than food or clothing or drink, and definitely more than the abundance of possessions. "If I can't take it with me, I'm not going!" is more than a silly bumper sticker for lots of people.

A parable is told about a rich farmer who kept getting richer. It has been often said that parables are about ordinary events. Especially in today's economy, this may be a normal event, but its conclusion does not make normal sense.

Students of the Bible point out that the rich man does not consult with anyone else, but simply conducts a soliloquy with himself. His goal is to eat, drink, and be merry, which was originally the advice of the Stoic philosophers who did so because death would always have the upper hand in the end. For this well-organized farmer, the building of bigger and better barns reminds one of Joseph ordering grain storage bins in Egypt in anticipation of a great drought and famine.

The difference is that the rich farmer was building these barns for his own profit and security, while Joseph built them to feed and save helpless people.

If there is one significant difference between the world views of first-century and the twenty-first century, it has to do with wealth.

We hear nothing wrong in the rich farmer's plans. Indeed, we hear excellent stewardship and foresight. Underlying this is our assumption that there is a more or less unlimited amount of wealth available to people throughout the world.

In the ancient world, the basic assumption operating was that there was a limited amount of good available. If someone had the lion's share of wealth, it meant he was stealing much of it from the poorer people. There is no implication that the rich farmer was being dishonest in any way, except that he was not being rich toward God.

God breaks into his nice little speech and calls him "a fool." "The fool says in his heart, ิthere is no God'" (Psalms 14 & 53).

The rich fool, as he is now called, may believe in God, but does not want to live as if there is one. He does not want to be dependent upon his neighbours or family or friends, nor even upon God. He does not comprehend that he is dependent upon friends and neighbours, and most of all upon God's grace - until that final moment when there is nothing he can do.

To be rich toward God is a manner of speaking. God is not poor; nor is God rich in the way we speak. But if you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you also love your neighbour as yourself - and that is where that abundance of possessions are intended to go.

When we are blessed with the abundance of good, and especially of wealth, the God who is not human, yet in whose image we are created, points us to share with our neighbours. And according to the parable of the Good Samaritan, if people are in need, they are our neighbours.

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