Fifth in a series on the parables in Luke

"What do you do with a bumper crop?"
Texts: Luke 12:13-21, Ps. 14

I've read a lot of good books this year and one of them is The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - a book about a man named Henry who has a chronosomatic disorder that means he periodically travels both forward and backward in time with no warning and no knowledge of how long he will be gone. He meets his future wife Clare on these journeys when she is still a child, and watches her grow older, but of course doesn't know her when he meets her in real time because their meetings until then had always been from his future. It's an interesting and entertaining novel that causes the reader to think long and hard about the possibilities of such a scenario, as well as the advantages and disadvantages in knowing the future or being able to relive the past. For example, Henry's able to make sure he can get tickets for what will turn out to be a fantastic concert, but there are also a few occasions where his advantageous foreknowledge of the future is used more illicitly - such as buying up on the stock exchange to ensure a good future for his wife and child when he knows his own death is imminent.

Can you imagine what it would be like to have insider knowledge of the future? You could read the newspaper years in advance, knowing what big events are coming up. You'd have the uncertainties of life licked. You'd know what shares to invest in, where to buy property. But what if you turned over the page to the obituaries and noticed your own name there?

This parable Jesus told had something of that flavour to it. A rich man has a bumper crop - so much excess that he could only deal with it by building bigger barns. He thought he had the future licked - he could eat, drink and make merry. But then he hears word of his own obituary. "Fool! This night your life is being demanded of you!" The twist in the tale.

Now some commentators over the centuries have tried to understand the man's death as a punishment for a life badly lived - they assume the man became rich by oppressing others. Some of the Old Testament and Jewish traditions that could be seen as background to this story would suggest that - like Jeremiah's warning:

like the partridge hatching what it did not lay,
so are all who amass wealth unjustly;
in mid-life it will leave them,
and at their end they will prove to be fools (Jer 17:11)

There is no suggestion in Jesus' parable, though, that the man's wealth was illegally acquired. He was not a criminal. But even at the beginning of the story he was a rich man. He had plenty to live on, but on top of this gained more. He didn't earn it and he didn't need it And it became a problem for him. What do you do with a bumper crop?

The most straightforward answer to this problem is this: you become a capitalist. An entrepreneur. Build up your business. Invest in the growth economy. Buy shares. Buy more property.

It's interesting to remember that this parable is told in the context of a question being asked of Jesus - a question about property. Even back then ownership of land in Palestine was problematic. Someone in the crowd said to him "tell my brother to divide the property we have inherited with me" Jesus' answer showed that he knew the question of property was always a divider - when he said "who made me an arbitrator over you" he was using a word that can also be translated "divider" - "who made me a divider?" He refuses to take sides but instead tells a story that has the potential to judge both of them, and everyone who was listening: a story about wealth and attitude and choices and priorities.

He introduces his parable with a Wisdom Saying: "One's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."

Most of us would agree with this statement, and yet the society we live in seems to want to push us in exactly the opposite direction. Last year I spoke about reading Clive Hamilton's book "Growth Fetish" which warns against the way we are viewing a growth economy as the only option for our country. Certainly the advertising industry would have us believe that if we can acquire enough material things these things will produce an abundant life full of happiness and satisfaction. Hamilton convincingly shows that there is no evidence for this. Despite the fact that we are becoming wealthier, we are becoming less happy. On a recent television program looking at credit card debt he suggested we are "spending money we don't have to buy things we don't want to impress people we don't like", and ultimately we are no more satisfied with our lives. Another important concern for him is that the natural resources of the world are dwindling at the same time as the pressure to acquire more is increasing. We need to hear again the wisdom of Jesus and wrestle with the message of texts such as this for our future survival. Notice that while the context in Luke was a question by one person in the crowd, the wisdom saying and the parable is "said to them" - these words are meant for all readers/listeners, not just the two brothers.

Now if the rich man had done nothing wrong to acquire his riches and merely had the good luck of a bumper crop, what did he do that meant God would say to him "you fool"? We need to look again carefully at the story and remember the biblical background to understand. The man was totally wrapped up in himself. In a world where everything revolved around community he has a surprising number of first person pronouns. "What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops. I will do this. I will pull down my barns and build larger ones. There I will store all my grain and my goods. I will say to my soul, relax, eat, drink, be merry."

Now remember the background here. This rich man is living in Palestine - a country where drought is the norm, and abundant crops an unexpected event that might come along once in 20 years. And this man is presumably part of the Jewish people, a people whose law and tradition told them over and over that abundance is a gift of God, and that any excess was to ensure the needs of all are met. Remember the time they collected manna in the wilderness? They had double on Fridays so there would be enough for the Sabbath. Remember the laws of the sabbatical year? In the sixth year, they were told, there would be plenty to ensure enough could be stored for the whole community to enjoy a sabbatical year. Remember the dream of Joseph? The seven full years were going to give way to seven years of drought, but he as God's messenger would be able to store the grain so the community would eat in the lean years.

This man, whose fortune was for himself alone, is called a "fool" - a special biblical word reserved for people who no longer believe in God (remember the psalm we read? "Fools say in their hearts there is no God"). For all intents and purposes the rich man in our parable was a practical atheist, ignoring God's law and ignoring his neighbour's needs. And even if it wasn't a deliberate selfishness on his part, what a sad commentary that he had no one to speak to about his problems apart from himself, and no-one to share his wealth with - remember the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin where good fortune was celebrated with the neighbours, with the community?

Again the Greek there is illuminating word play: the rich man thought his good fortune would produce for him 'euphron' - a good life to enjoy, but God says to him 'aphron' - you fool - a term that implies someone without mind, emotion, or spirit. He could not keep his possessions which do not constitute life - therefore he had not really lived. What a fool - a person who has devoted themself to a course of life that in actual fact misses the reality of a full life - the life that is determined by God's ways and God's Kingdom.

A little while ago I was listening to Norman the Quiz on James O'Loughlin's evening program. He was asking people who rang in to give an example of an oxymoron - two words that cancel each other out when put together. Some of the examples given were "honest politician" and "working holiday". If St Luke had rung in he might have said "rich Christian" was an oxymoron. For Luke a wealthy Christian is a contradiction in terms. When you are a Christian you are part of the family of God, and if some of that family have a need you are expected to meet it. According to Luke, and we've noticed this in other parables we've looked at, wherever some eat and some do not eat, there the kingdom does not exist.

Do we need to hear this word for us as a community, as a country? We have neighbours who are hungry - 80% of the world in fact, and there are poor in our own country - the lucky country. In our preoccupation with a growth economy are we building bigger barns so the rich can be richer and designing welfare plans that penalise the poor for being poor? Or do we need to hear this message on a more personal level? Am I as an individual so busy acquiring wealth or security that I'm missing relationships? Surely it is a fool who devotes themself to a course of life that actually misses real life. (What person at the end of their life would say "I wish I'd spent more time at the office"?)

Of course I am not advocating not working or not wanting to provide for our families. Possessions themselves are not condemned by this story. It's a question of what we do with them. What are our priorities?

Christians have had good advice on this through the ages. Paul in his letters says that Christians should work for two reasons: firstly so they are not a burden on others (II Thess 2:7-12) and secondly so they are able to give to those in need (Eph 4:28). We have approved a new church budget at our recent church meeting. Perhaps we ought to have heard the financial advice of the 16th century reformation priest John Calvin: you give one fourth to the poor, one fourth for the training and maintenance of the ministry, one fourth for the work of the church, and one fourth to the poor. The rich man in the parable tried to secure his own life, but in the end lost it. He could have been rich toward God, serving those of God's special concern - the poor.

So Jesus ends with another wisdom saying: "don't store up treasures for yourself, but be rich towards God."

I heard a story of a young boy who found some coins on the footpath one day. Very excited about the possibility of getting money for nothing, he used to always walk along scanning the pavement, and by the end of his childhood had amassed $23.95 in coins and a grubby note. He got money for nothing, but he missed the beauty of 3000 sunsets, the colourful splendour of 100 rainbows, the fiery colour of 10 autumns. He never saw white clouds drifting across blue skies, birds flying, sun shining, and the smiling faces of those he passed. Don't store up treasures for yourself, but be rich towards God.

Later in the chapter Luke repeats this idea: "Make treasure for yourself in heaven, where no thief comes near and no rust destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Luke 12:33-34). In biblical terms treasure in heaven is a euphemism for charity. What we give away is treasure in heaven.

A month ago the Age newspaper ran an article about an act of generosity that is the exact opposite of the parable we've read today. A man by the name of Bill Payne described himself as having "a very rational mid-life crisis", when asked why he was donating his house worth 1/2 million dollars to charity. The paper reported that about a year ago, Bill Payne realised that owning an expensive house did not make him any happier, and so he gave his sole asset away to charity. With an income of about $60,000 a year, this 45-year-old was not particularly rich, but he decided that others needed the money more than he did. The Age quoted him as saying "I'm halfway through my life, and the way I have lived is very selfish. I have got to a point where I have had enough. I just don't see the point of being born into this world, having a good time and dying."

Surely that is a story of someone who has become rich towards God.

I mentioned before that Jesus asked the question of himself - "Who set me to be a divider over you?" Only a slight change to the Greek word for divider changes the word to "reconciler" - and this was Jesus' true role. I think he told the story he did to challenge those who heard it to think about their own priorities, about their part amongst God's community, about where their focus was. Would they, would we, be fools who live our lives as if there is no God to love with our whole being and no neighbour to love as ourselves? Or would they, would we, choose to be rich toward God by seeing the face of God in those who come our way and responding to their need?

Think how this story is given even more meaning in the context of a communion meal. What we have on the table is a small quantity of bread and grape juice. You are invited to have a morsel from that small amount bread and a sip from a tiny cup. It is minimal. Anything less and it would hardly be discernible.

By the world's standards this is not a meal! This is not the way to eat drink and be merry!

Yet we find it a meal of real significance. In this fragment of a meal we are invited to join in the Kingdom of God, the banquet of Christian experience. We are invited to identify with Jesus' reconciling work, and to express our commitment to care for God's world. This is the food of heaven, and if we accept what it represents, we have all that we need to live an abundant life.