Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost – Year C Proper 13 (RCL) 2010
Hosea 11: 1 – 11; Psalm 107: 1 – 9, 43; Colossians 3: 1 – 11; Luke 12: 13 – 21
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland, OR
Sunday, August 1, 2010

PENNY WISE AND POUND FOOLISH

Let us pray: Mighty God we gather in this “sanctuary” and holy space to lift our voices in prayer and song as your creation groans under the weight of our selfishness and neglect of all that has been so freely given to us. Keep us mindful this and every day of our call to be good stewards of the Earth and protectors of all who dwell upon her face. Keep us under your constant care and help us to learn how to share our abundant blessings with all of your creation and created, to the honor and glory of Your Name. Amen.

(SUNG) FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH, FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE
SKIES, FOR THE LOVE WHICH FROM OUR BIRTH OVER AND
AROUND US LIES, CHRIST OUR GOD, TO THEE WE RAISE
THIS OUR HYMN OF GRATEFUL PRAISE.

I would invite those of you who have not had the opportunity, to join with us some Sunday afternoon as we celebrate Communion in the Park, which is an outreach ministry of this parish community as well as several other denominational organizations in the City. This celebration of liturgy under the canopy of trees and foliage in the warmth of our mid summer season is fast becoming an important ministry in the life of our faith community. We are indeed blessed with a pastoral setting among the granite monuments dedicated to peace in the quietness of the south park blocks of Portland, where we can take advantage of the beauty of creation to turn our hearts and spirits toward the glory of God so visible in the world around us. This ministry intentionally focuses a spiritual encounter in the great outdoors with a simple service of Gospel and communion. Accompanied by a Celtic harp in easy to remember hymns and chants we gather in the glory of God’s creation raising our voices in prayer and praise. God has been most cooperative in the weather department over the past few weeks as we have shared the Good News with friends and strangers; neighbors and visitors from all walks and conditions of life. I think this is a wonderful reflection of what the early Christian community might have experienced as they looked to break bread and spread the message of the risen Christ. In the middle of a bustling and busy metropolitan neighborhood; a moment taken to listen to the lilting strings of a harp and whisper a prayer of need or thanksgiving is a welcome blessing for all who experience it.

In our readings from the sacred scriptures assigned in the lectionary for this tenth Sunday after Pentecost a theme is woven that can be visioned as an invitation to place God at the center of our lives, rather than follow our own human desires and wills. The minor prophet Hosea speaks God’s words to an Israel which has forgotten its calling to be the people of the covenant and conveys imagery which invites a reconnection with a compassionate and caring Creator whose faithfulness is never ending. Whenever I have had the opportunity to visit some of the great Gothic cathedrals in the United States, such as St. John the Divine in Manhattan or the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., – as I pass through the great main doors my attention is immediately and inevitably drawn upward! Upon entry to these great edifices, we often become aware of a change within ourselves of a lifting of our spirits and a widening of our visions to match the glory of the holy space in which we find ourselves. In the section of the letter to the early Christian community at Colossae, which we heard this morning, I experience that same moment when the author writes – “If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above…set your minds on things that are above.” Paul encourages the believers to lift their hearts and their lives to the things that are above, and not to the things that are of this earth, for it is in their death to self and selfish things that they can be resurrected to new life revealed in the Christ.

(SUNG) FOR THE BEAUTY OF EACH HOUR OF THE DAY AND OF THE
NIGHT, HILL AND VALE AND TREE AND FLOWER, SUN AND
MOON, AND STARS OF LIGHT, CHRIST OUR GOD, TO THEE
WE RAISE THIS OUT HYMN OF GRATEFUL PRAISE.

In our story from the Gospel text this morning, the author of Luke/Acts tells of a fellow in the crowd who demands of Jesus a judgment in a family inheritance matter. Jesus declines to be drawn into the matter, and instead uses the opportunity to address the crowd with a parable that is unique to the Luke/Acts Gospel narrative. Though the beginning of our Gospel text this morning might appear to us as brusque – and the intention of the fellow who asks Jesus to intervene in the matter of family inheritance rather presumptuous, we should remember that it would have been perfectly proper behavior in the context of our reading this morning for someone to ask for interpretation of civil law of a learned rabbi and to seek assistance in arbitrating a family matter. This, however, was not the practice of this rabbi and Jesus’ response – “friend, who sent me to be a judge or arbitrator over you” allows the rabbi to move the conversation and glean a “teaching moment” from it. Jesus tells the story, the parable, of the greedy rich man whose land produced abundantly. There is essentially no reason to believe that the man in the parable whom Jesus defines as a “fool” came into the good fortune and wealth of his life from anything other than good hard work; determination and a sound financial plan for the future that might provide for his old age and retirement. Yet Jesus calls him a “fool”, and notes that he is rich only toward himself and not toward God. The man seems to talk only to himself and in his self-absorption lays his foolishness. He tends to believe that his possessions and material wealth will provide for his well being and lacks any understanding that the bounty which has created his wealth comes from God, and that God expects that something more be done with it than merely pilling it up in hopes of keeping it for a rainy day. This man, whom we might refer to as a prudent businessman – Jesus calls a “fool”. It continually comes as a shock to us when we realize that Jesus looks at things differently than we look at things. We tend to honor those people who gain the whole world, those who seem wise enough to accumulate vast amounts of wealth and power by their ingenuity and hard work – we constantly glorify them in our yearly roundups of the most successful, the most famous and the most beautiful. When the disastrous performance of the Chief Operating Officer of British Petroleum hit in the questioning before a congressional panel, the COO of BP was called “a fine Christian man,” by his Vicar. In an article in the New York Times the following is quoted from a self identified entrepreneurial Millionaire: "I know people looking in from the outside will ask why someone like me keeps working so hard. But a few million doesn’t go as far as it used to. Maybe in the ’70s, a few million bucks meant ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,’ or Richie Rich living in a big house with a butler. But not anymore." What do we suppose Jesus would have called this greedy man? Yet Jesus’ ideas around this accumulation of wealth are pretty clear. Note that in the three lines of the rich man’s monologue, the word “I’ is used six times, and the word “my” five. No thought is given to how others might have contributed to his success. What about a possible “bonus” to the hired hands who assisted? No mention of thanksgiving is offered for the contributions of others, or for the blessings from God. The difficulty for the man in this parable is not wealth and possessions – but rather the self centered and selfish use of that wealth.

(SUNG) FOR THE JOY OF EAR AND EYE, FOR THE HEART AND MIND’S
DELIGHT, FOR THE MYSTIC HARMONY LINKING SENSE TO
SOUND AND SIGHT, CHRIST OUR GOD TO THEE WE RAISE
THIS OUR HYMN OF GRATEFUL PRAISE.

Part of the challenge for us in this parable is that we tend to distance ourselves from the central character. The tendency is for us to identify the wealthy foolish man as some kind of ultra-rich Phil Knight or Donald Trump type figure. The truth is that he’s not, he’s pretty much the successful, middle class worker with a livable working wage and a comfortable 401K and retirement package. The biggest challenge here is to find ourselves in the problem of Jesus’ parable. The abundance of possessions is so subtle and culturally acceptable that it goes largely unnoticed. The challenge of this story is that none of us is going to think that it applies to us. I found myself in the same pitfall upon first reading it – I don’t have an overabundance of material possessions so that I would have to tear down my barn and build bigger ones just to store them – and then I gave thought to the possibly twenty pairs of pants which hang in my clothes closet that I haven’t worn in how many years? Have you noticed the number of “self storage” sites that have sprung up around us in the past ten years? If we were to compare ourselves and our culture with say the United Kingdom and Australia we have 10 times as much self-storage space as they do. How many times do we envy the newer car or bigger house in the neighborhood, when we are already blessed beyond our needs with the ones that we have? This is what Jesus is warning us against by saying, “be on your guard against all kinds of greed.” Jesus knows that our appetites for “more” can be very subtle and so warns us to be intentional in looking out for those pitfalls. The problem for the rich fool in this parable is not that he was wealthy or had a great harvest. The problem is that he didn’t understand the spiritual reality behind all that he had. Our Christian ethics and responsibilities around material possessions and wealth are pretty clear: we are given so that we might give back; we are blessed so that we might be a blessing; we are loved so that we might love; we are reconciled to God so that we might be reconcilers to each other; we are forgiven so that we might forgive.

(SUNG) FOR THE JOY OF HUMAN LOVE, BROTHER, SISTER, PARENT,
CHILD, FRINDS ON EARTH, AND FRIENDS ABOVE, FOR ALL
GENTLE THOUGHTS AND MILD, CHRIST OUR GOD, TO THEE
WE RAISE THIS OUR HUMN OF GRATEFUL PRAISE.

Many of us have become aware in the past decade of our need to “live simply, that others might simply live.” The subtle lure and cunning infiltration of a consumerist society threatens to keep us blinded to the gospel truth that “one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” I think we all know ways in which we might “cull” some of the abundance of “things” in our possession and share them with others who might have need of them. One way is to seriously look at what we “have” and compare it with what we “need” and make the adjustments in our own evaluation of how we might be builders of bigger barns rather than distributors of blessings that have been given to us and therefore should be used to bless those who are in greater need. Liberation theologian Gustavo Gutièrrez writes: “Human beings fully realize themselves in solidarity with others. On the contrary, they are diminished as persons and as believers if their purposes do not go beyond self-satisfaction. Striving for the kingdom and welcoming it liberate us from a paltry and diminished worldview and allow us to journey with ease in the realm of love and generosity. ” From Gustavo’s lips to God’s ears, may it be so for us in this place in God’s Kindom.

Amen.