“First Things First”

A Sermon Based Upon Luke 12: 13-34

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin.  

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Pentecost 22+, November 8th, 2015

A man came home from work one to discover a small magnetic sign on front of the refrigerator which said in bold letters, Prayer Changes Things.  He immediately took it down.  His wife, offended by what appeared to be his lack of faith, asked, “What’s wrong with you?  Don’t you like prayer?  He shot back, “Sure I like prayer.  I just don’t like change.”

Most of us don’t like change, but sometimes change is forced upon us.   If the doctor tells us that we’ve have a serious health condition, if the teacher tells us we are going to fail the class, if our boss tells us we will lose our job, or if our banker tells us we will lose our house--when we are told that unless we change what we are doing things bad things will happen, either we will change or change will happen to us.  The question is not “will” we change, but “how” and “when” will we?    As the doctor told my father five months before he died, “Mr. Tomlin you have from two to six months to live, you should get your things in order.”  When you face something like that, you WILL change.  A time of crisis will force us to see or do differently.  Life does force us to change.

Back in 2008, our nation and world was forced into serious crisis when it comes to money.  It was the worst economic disaster since the great depression of 1929.  In a moment land, homes, stock and bond values changed.  Due to excessive crediting, over mortgaging, underfunding of unsecure loans being made beyond their original value, and as people, banks, and borrowers were taking on debt they could never pay back, the entire financial system lost its value.  There was just not enough cash or value left in the system to absorb all the losses.  This is why government had to step in and subsidize the banks they deemed “too big to fail”.   (http://useconomy.about.com/od/criticalssues/f/What-Is-the-Global-Financial-Crisis-of-2008.htm).

Could this kind of financial crisis happen again?  Experts say the collapse happened not because banks were underfunded, but because banks and our financial system were under-regulated.  Banks have gotten so big and they are STILL too big, if not impossible to regulate.  For this reason, many believe, that unless we change how we, now as a global economy, think about life, value and money, you can be sure that it can, and it will, happen again.

Because Jesus spoke a lot about money to his disciples, we also need to talk about it.  We need to talk about money not only because of economics, but also for spiritual reasons.  Especially as ‘traditional’ churches with buildings, budgets, and ministries to finance, find ourselves facing continuing declines in attendance, commitment, and giving, we must think more about what money should mean to us individually and corporately.  We must think about money because we are followers of Jesus who should invest in the eternal, coming kingdom that is coming.  We should serve God with our money, rather than to settle for serving the short-changing, deceptive, and depreciating values of money and mammon.

THE TROUBLE WITH MONEY

Interestingly, it is the crisis a wealthy, successful, prosperous person faces with their money that Jesus chooses to teach his disciples about the right use of money.  While the poor, the hurting, and hungry people also have money problems, it is the rich person’s problems which concern Jesus more.  But this concern is not because they are rich.  Recall another story from Luke, where Jesus tells about an unnamed rich man who failed to help a poor man he sees every day, named Lazarus.  The story focuses on what too much money did to the soul of the rich, more than it does on what too little money did to poor Lazarus.  That problem God will fix.  The problem with the rich man’s heart is one God can’t fix, unless the rich man wants it fixed.

Though God is indeed concerned about the physical plight of the poor, Jesus is even more concerned with what money does to the soul, heart, and head of the wealthy person.   Shouldn’t this be our concern as well?   At times, my wife and I watch Dateline, Forty-Eight Hours, and other investigative news shows, which too often reveal how money corrupts people into crime and murder.  After we watch it a while, we get sick of seeing it, and turn it off.  When we turn to those shows once again, it’s the same old story, just with different characters.  Much of the time, the most heart-breaking stories of crime, murder, and deception, come from the homes of those who have destroyed their lives with money and greed. 

While too much wealth will not be a problem for most disciples of Jesus, money can still be a problem.   In fact, on the occasion of today’s text the problem concerning wealth, money, and possessions was not a problem that Jesus specifically went out to solve, preach or teach about.  The money problem had a way of finding Jesus, without him looking for it.   It happens as someone in the crowd asks Jesus, as a much respected Rabbi among the people: “tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me” (Lk. 12:13).   Here’s a main problem with money.  It divides people.  It gets in the way of human relationships.  It warps the right view of things.  It even interferes with this fellow’s relationship with Jesus.  We can already ‘get the picture’ without digging deep at all.  Money, greed and possessions, has already come between this fellow and his brother when he comes to get Jesus to triangle against him.  

Has ‘stuff’ ever come between you and your brother, sister, friend or another?  You shouldn’t even bring it to Jesus before you make it right with your brother.  At least that’s what Matthew 18 says.  Even Jesus, who is to be judge of all doesn’t want to judge between them: “Friend who made me a judge over you?”  (vs. 14).  Do you already see the problem Jesus has with money?  As a pastor, I understand all too well because I’ve seen too many families divide and unravel over how to divide the inheritance; over who will get the dishes, the furniture, the stocks, or the property?   Even siblings, whom you thought had good ties with each other, lose their bonds over money.  

Jesus doesn’t mince words, take sides, but always understands where people come from, when they argue over money: “Take care!  Be on guard against all kinds of greed,” Jesus says, “for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions” (15:12).  While Jesus will not arbitrate over money, he will be our spiritual advisor.  He points us to the two greatest ‘problems’ we have with money.

MONEY IS DECEPTIVE

The trouble with money is not the money, but it’s what the money tends to do to us.  Jesus called it ‘greed’.  “Be on guard against all kinds of greed…!”  But what is greed, really?  There weren’t any dictionaries to define it in Jesus’ day, so he gave a picture of it in a story or a parable.  In this story Jesus shows us what greed is by showing us just how deceptive the lure of more can be, even to a very smart, creative, industrious fellow who is already rich.

What is most deceptive is that the money ‘problem’ this fellow has looks like a ‘good’ problem to have.  Again, he’s already rich.  Being wealthy means you have the capacity to make more money.  As my father used to tell me, ‘you’ve got to have money, to make money.’   What my father meant was that the wealthy have an unfair advantage over the poor.  The wealthy not have not only money to live, but they also have money to invest.  Along with that character in Oliver Stone’s movie “Wall Street”,  the wealthy person has the luxury to be able to agree with Gorden Gekko who said: ‘The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed -- for lack of a better word -- is good. Greed is right.  Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.  Greed, in all of its forms -- greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge -- has marked the upward surge of mankind.   (http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechwallstreet.html).

Also, in Jesus’ parable, this rich farmer is on an ‘upward surge’. It all sounds so wonderful and ‘good’.  His land was fertile. It ‘produced abundantly’.   He needs to make more storage space.  He’s building bigger, and bigger.  Again, it all looks good.  He’s industrious, productive, and smart.   He’s rich and getting richer with good work, good production, and good planning.  Getting looks good.  Success looks good.  Wealth looks good.  He’s made everything better.  What can be wrong with this? 

Now, move to the next ‘frame’ in Jesus’ story.   This rich fellow not only has done well for himself, he has done so well that he can take some time off.   He says to himself, what we want rich people to say:  “I’ve got enough.”  “I really don’t need any more.”  Wow, this looks good to.  The problem with many people who make a lot of money is that they get addicted to making it.  They can’t stop.  They find out they have a ‘green thumb’ when it comes to making money, and they want to make more and more of it, until it turns into an obsession.  But not this fellow.  He’s worked hard and now he’s ready to play hard.   He says to himself:  I have enough.  “….you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry' (Lk. 12:19 NRS).  What argument can you have against someone who’s worked hard, had good luck, made honest money and now wants to spend some time enjoying life and the ‘fruit’ of his labors?  Isn’t this the American dream?  Isn’t this the ‘good life’ most everyone is working or hoping for? 

But God calls him ‘fool’!  (12:20).  Can you figure out why?   In the story, you don’t have to figure it out.  This man has been busy planning, working, earning, producing, and building bigger and bigger, but he has forgotten the most important reality of all.  He has forgotten that you can’t take it with you.  He has forgotten that life is short.  He has forgotten that if you are only building ‘for yourself’  that you will have many  ‘treasures’,  but all that still doesn’t make one ‘rich toward God’(12:21).

Why isn’t this rich man ‘rich’ in the mind of God?    We all know, if we stop and think about it, that having money can make us look and become foolish at times.  Money can cause us to do foolish things to ourselves and to others.   We can even be drawn toward people who have money for all the wrong reasons.  But what exactly is this foolishness about money?  Is it the work he did?  Is it the wealth he made?  Is it the way he retired?  When everything he did looks like what we also secretly dream of doing, why does God call this fellow a fool?  Does God have something against money, against rich people, against retiring, or against Capitalism? 

Is it the money, the wealth he has, or is it rather the deception that money and wealth has brought him?   By deception, I mean that this fellow truly thinks he’s really smart, and most of us would too, but is he, really?   There are many ways wealth and money can make people look foolish.  You buy luxury things you don’t really need.  You go on lavish vacations that stress you out more than relax you.   You eat all kind of calories you only have to work off.   You drink yourself to intoxications and addictions that rob you of your right mind.  And worst of all, all those things you now own—all that you now have which is supposed to make you happy, doesn’t.  In fact, the best that wealth can do for most people is make you worry more, or they make you hungry for things money that all the money in the world can’t buy. 

Do you see what it is that money can’t buy?  This is what makes this money man with the great strategy, the great success, the bigger barns, and now all his wealth, luxuries, parties, and with all his free time---this is what makes him look like a big fool.   It’s the big deception that money has given him.  He has spent all his time making money, getting rich and preparing himself to live big, when suddenly, he discovers that he has missed something.  It is something that is worth more than all the money he earned.  Now, all his money, and all the money in the world can’t purchase what he needs: one more day of life.   'You fool!  God says.  This very night your life is being demanded of you.  And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'

(Lk. 12:20 NRS).

MONEY WILL DISTRACT

But should we only reduce this rich farmer’s foolishness down to the wisdom that ‘you can’t take it with you?’  Is this just a moral story to get us to slow down, spend more time with our family, and to ‘stop and smell the roses’?   Is the person who makes money foolish only because of what they do to other people by being greedy or are they foolish because of what they didn’t do because they were so busy making money?  Could there be even something bigger than missing out on your own ‘life’ Jesus is getting at when he tells his disciples about the ‘foolishness’ that wealth and money can bring?

If you mistakenly read the rest of what Jesus tells his disciples, it almost sounds like that optimistic song, “Don’t worry, be happy!”  “Don’t worry about your life, what you eat, or about your body, what you wear. For life is more…much more.  ‘Consider the ravens….Consider the lilies…’  You know this Scripture. You know the song… Don’t worry!  God feeds them.  God grows them.   Don’t worry because God cares much more for you than either the birds or the grass.  Of course, this is good advice, but it’s not at the heart of what Jesus is saying.  There is much care and compassion in Jesus’ words, but there is also great wisdom, but what kind of wisdom?

Like this rich man who died, when the end comes you can’t add one single hour to your life (v. 25).  It’s certainly wise to keep this in mind.  As I ask someone recently, who mistakenly thought you could lengthen your days by living right; I said you can shorten your days by living stupid, but can we really lengthen them?  Your heart has only so many beats.  Your body has only so much strength.  We are all limited creatures.  You can even put your brain on ice, like some wealthy folks have done, but the truth is both your brains and your luck will only go so far.  When the end comes, you can’t add one single hour.   This is wisdom.  The rich man has to face his end, just like we all, rich or poor.  But even this dose of reality is not enough wisdom to help us overcome money’s deceptive grasp.   

According to Jesus, the only way to overcome the deception of money is to also overcome the distraction that only seeking money or having wealth offers.   In other words, the greatest deception is that will distract us from what is most important.  As Jesus implied in the story of the rich fool, all his wealth and all his money meant nothing when he came face to face with the greatest reality, which is God.  

Are you going to be ‘proud’ to show God your fortune, your success, or you wealth?  Are you going to tell him about the ‘big time’ you had making or spending all that money yourself, spoiling your children, seeing the world, isolating you family from the needs of the world around you, leaving what you had left for your kids to fight over?   The rich man, who had all that wealth should have had absolutely no worries when he died, but Jesus says he now has the most to regret.  His regret is not just that money has deceived him--a man who was, by the way, very smart with his money---but the great regret is that this all-consuming concern for wealth has distracted him from  what should have been his ultimate and defining concern—his concern for God and for God’s kingdom, the only kingdom will should matter when others have come and gone.

 “Strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well” (Lk. 12:31 NRS), says Jesus.  Only seeking God and his rule in your life will bring you “…unfailing treasure in heaven’ (12:33).  Don’t let a concern for money deceive or distract you from what God has to give.   Put your ‘heart’ where the real treasure is!  This is what Jesus advises his disciples.  Making your ultimate, guiding concern to invest your heart, your life, your time, your energies and all your wealth into a portfolio full of God’s ‘unfailing treasure’ is not only a wise investment, it will also spare you of having your own life end full of regret or remorse. 

I was watching Meet the Press back in July and was introduced to an interesting, gifted, and somewhat controversial economic writer, named Arthur Brooks.  As a trained, social scientist and professor at Syracuse University, Brooks has written extensively about how economics works in the political realm.  His life-long study of compassionate politics and economics has revealed three surprising statistical findings: One is that people who are actively religious give more money to charity than people who aren’t.   Second, people who are more family-oriented will have more compassion to give.  Finally, Brook’s third and most controversial finding, is that political conservatives actually give more to human needs than political liberals (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Brooks).   

We all know that you can say most anything with statistics and while conservatives may actually show up giving more, it may simply be because they have more to give.  I definitely don’t think that Brook’s findings prove that compassionate conservatives have bigger hearts than compassionate liberals.  The late Senator from South Dakota, George McGovern was one of the most caring, compassionate liberals who ever served political office, who, by the way, was also a committed Christian and family man (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_McGovern).  Still, we mustn’t ignore Brook’s findings either.   Brooks observed that if ‘liberals’ gave as much blood as ‘conservatives, blood banks would grow by 45% (http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/castingstones/2008/04/conservatives-give-more-to-cha.html).

 

What Arthur Brook's findings should prove is exactly what Jesus taught.  Good economics is not just about money nor politics, but good economics is mostly about compassion.  People who have lived in loving homes and who have access to loving communities of faith, should want to ‘conserve’ and ‘preserve’ the good they have known because they have known the most good.  They should have the most compassion to spread this ‘good’ to others, because they have been given the most.  And will not God hold most accountable those who have had the most compassion and goodness shown to them?

While it takes compassion to conserve what needs to be conserved, it also takes compassion to liberate those who need liberation.  Jesus was able to do both, whichever was needed in the moment.  Jesus did not need a political party to guide him because his focus was not on himself, nor on any political idol, but his heart was set on God’s kingdom.  This is a kingdom still coming for all people because ‘God so loved the world’ and still loves the world.  When you share God’s concern, you will have both a life and a politic that learns to put ‘first things, first.’

If you won’t take my word on this, trust Jesus.  But if you can’t trust Jesus, who will you trust?  All else is only deception, diversion or distraction.   Everything we are and have, all money, wealth, possessions, and every investment of time, money or love, will finally end up in someone’s trust.  The question is who’s?   You can avoid being like this ‘fool’ and avoid living a foolish life when you have figured this out.   Amen.