8th Sunday after Pentecost

Right now:
More than ever in the world:
There’s a lot of tension surrounding the issue of wealth and income inequality.
And so it seems fitting that this Sunday’s scriptures offer us some reflection on it.

We’ve heard: Many times:
About the two great commandments that Jesus taught.
The first is to love God will all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and
with all our strength.
The second is to love our neighbor as ourselves.
In other words: The two greatest commandments are to love God and neighbor.

And this is directly related to wealth and income inequality.
It’s directly related to what Jesus says today:
“Be on your guard against all kinds of greed;
For one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

Jesus says this to two brothers who are in dispute of the family inheritance.
Which is a REAL issue:
That REAL siblings struggle with to this very day.
Jesus reminds them that life is not about owning, or possessing things.
Abundance of possessions and wealth do not bring meaning to life.

But Love of God and neighbor does.
Jesus reminds us that we are to love God WHOLE heartedly:
And not worship our possessions as idols.

To emphasize his point, Jesus tells these two brothers the parable of a rich man:
The rich man that he also calls the “rich fool.”

This rich man had the blessing of abundant harvests.
His produce was so abundant that he didn’t have enough space to store it all.
And with this abundance, what does the rich man do?
The scripture says that his only concerns are “I” and “my”

Quite literally:
The man speaks to HIMSELF:
Saying, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I
will store all MY grain and MY goods. And I will say to MY soul: SOUL: You have
ample goods laid up for many years!!”

His whole thought process is only about himself.
So much so that he literally talks to himself.
There’s no love of God.
No love of neighbor.
Only love for himself.

And so: There’s a few issues here:

Greed and Foolishness.

In today’s Epistle to the Colossians,
We are reminded to “Put to death, whatever in you is earthly”
Namely Greed: Which is idolatry.

Greed is defined in the dictionary as:
“A selfish and excessive desire for more of something than is needed.”

But we must ask ourselves without rambling on and on to ourselves:
Is desiring for more of something than is needed really bad?
Don’t we all want to have abundance?
Don’t we all want to have a little leftover money to cushion ourselves in times of
need?
Isn’t that why we contribute to pensions and 401K’s for our retirement?

I think that saving up in times of need,
And desiring abundance isn’t necessarily Greed as long as it isn’t selfish and
excessive.

After all: the dictionary definition of greed is not merely the desire for more:
But the SELFISH and EXCESSIVE desire for it.

It’s the selfish and excessive desire for ONES SELF that becomes greed.
It is the way we treat our abundance and our wealth that matters to God.

It’s whether or not we invite God and others to share in our abundance that
matters.

Jesus tells us more:
Calling the man a fool:
“So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves, but are not rich
toward God.”
These people end up with spiritual death.

Who are those who are not rich toward God?
Who are those who end up with spiritual death?

Often, when we mention rich, we think only of money, wealth.
In the Bible, there are at least fifty times that money, wealth, possession or
finances are mentioned.
And funny enough:
Most of the time:
Those mentions are related to the two great commandments to love God and
neighbor.
Somehow: Loving God and neighbor:
Is deeply connected to richness and abundance.

Somehow: When we love God: We are rich toward God.
When we love our neighbor, we are rich toward God.

This rich man forgets about God:

Not because he’s rich.
But because of his selfish and excessive desire for ONLY himself.

He forgets about God:
The one who gives him all the blessings he has.
He forgets that God gives him the talents to grow the crop and to harvest the
produce abundantly.

And in forgetting:
The rich man becomes a fool.
Not because of his abundance:
But because he hoards it out of selfish greed for only himself.

If he were to show his gratitude:
his richness in produce could become richness in God.
If he were to show his gratitude:
his abundance would be shared with his neighbors who may not have such
blessings.

But instead:
He forgot that he should love God with his whole heart, whole mind, whole spirit,
and whole strength.
He forgot that he should love his neighbor as himself.
And in so doing, he experienced spiritual death.

Isn’t this one of the issues around the inequality of income and wealth in our
world today?
Loving and sharing out of gratitude and blessedness?

And yet some who are rich hoard the abundance without showing gratitude to
the creator.
Not only do they not love their neighbors by not helping them:
But they oppress them as they hoard more wealth.

If we are blessed with abundance:
If we become rich:
Will we be the rich fool?
Or rich toward God and one another?

Will we identify the worth of our lives with the value of our possessions?
Or with the gracious abundance of our relationships with God and one another?

The following list has been around on the internet,
And it captures what Jesus said in the Gospel:
It captures what truly brings meaning to our lives:

Things God won’t ask on that day:
God won’t ask what kind of car you drove.
God will ask how many people you gave a lift to who didn’t have any
transportation.
​
God won’t ask the square footage of your house.
But God will ask how many people you welcomed into your home.
God won’t ask about the clothes you had.
God will ask how many you helped to clothe.

God won’t ask what your highest salary was.
But God will ask if you compromised your integrity to obtain it.
God won’t ask what your job title was.
God will ask whether you performed your job to the best of your ability.

God won’t ask how many friends you had.
God will ask how many people to whom you made sure you were a friend.
God won’t ask in what neighborhood you lived.
But God will ask how you treated and behaved with your neighbors.

These things give meaning to life.

Amen.