…YOU FOOL!”

A sermon based upon Luke 12: 13-21

By Rev. Charles J. Tomlin, BA, MDiv, DMin.

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership, 

October 20th, 2019

My mother warned me not to call anyone a ‘fool’.

Jesus said ‘if anyone called their brother a fool they’d be in danger of hell fire. (Matt. 5:23). Yikes!  I’ve never called anyone a fool since.  But it’s not because I’ve haven’t wanted to. 

People can do some really stupid, foolish things. Can’t they?  An old story in Reader's Digest told of a man who flew his own plane on vacation, but got tired of the long auto trip from the airport to his country place situated on a lovely lake. So he equipped his plane with pontoons so he could land right in front of his cottage. However, on his first trip up to the country with his newly-equipped plane, he headed for a landing at the airport just as he always had done in the past.  I guess you could say, old habits are hard to break.

But just as he was going in for the landing it dawned on his wife what was happening and she hollered, "What do you think you're doing? You can't land this thing on the runway. You don't have any wheels, you've got pontoons on it!"

Fortunately, her warning shout was in time and he pulled up from his landing pattern, swung the airplane around, and headed the plane for a landing on the lake. After the plane landed safely on the lake he heaved a really big sigh of relief, turned to his wife and said, "That's about the stupidest thing I've ever done!"  And then he opened the door, stepped out and fell directly into the lake."

Haven’t you done something really stupid?  I know I have.  Who will admit it?  Come on now, I’m not the only one. 

Someone has made a list of "Politically Correct Ways of Indicating Stupidity." Perhaps you have heard some of these. They're quite creative. Speaking of someone who has done something really dumb, we might say:

He's a few clowns short of a circus . . .

A few fries short of a Happy Meal . . .

A few peas short of a casserole . . .

He doesn't have all his corn flakes in one box . . .

The wheel's spinning, but the hamster's dead . . .

His antenna doesn't pick up all the channels . . .

His belt doesn't go through all the loops . . .

The elevator doesn't go all the way to the top floor . . .

He is several cards short of a full deck . . .

If he had another brain, it would be lonely . . .

Missing a few buttons on his remote control . . .

The lights are on, but nobody's home . . .

All these are just polite ways of saying that sometimes, people do really dumb things.

In our text today, which gives us Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Fool,  a wealthy man who does something really foolish.  It is God who calls that man a ‘fool’, or a moron, if you want to get technical about it.  Moran is simply the Greek word for fool.  Although my mother said not to call anyone a fool, God can. He’s God.  My mother told me that too.  But for God to do something he tells us not to do, must be pretty serious, don’t you think? Why on earth did God dare call a man who had everything a fool? 

BE ON GUARD AGAINST GREED….

One of the oldest stories about a wealthy man dying was told about Aristotle, the great Greek philosopher.  After the richest man in the world died, people where standing around talking about how much money he left behind.  One fellow, overhearing the conversation declared that he knew exactly how much money Aristotle left behind.  He said: ‘everything’.  Sobering thought.  There are no uhaul’s behind hearses.

One of the reasons, the man is Jesus story was called “fool”, was exactly because he did not understand this; that we can leave and loose everything a lot faster than we get it, and besides that, we actually can hold on to nothing.  This man in Jesus parable didn’t seem to understand this most basic reality: that we can take nothing with us.  But, he’s just a fictional person in a story Jesus told.  The parable pointed to another foolish person in real life.  His actions motivated Jesus to tell this story in the first place.

It all happened right after Jesus had been teaching a crowd of thousands, when a man approached him seeking an answer about money.  Obviously money and the love of money was an issue in Jesus’ day just as it is in ours.   The Bible contains around 500 verses on prayer, 200 verses on faith, and about 2000 verses on money. This biblical attention on money and wealth reveals the importance of money in our lives.

But Jesus hadn’t been teaching about money, at first.  He called was warning about coming tribulations when a certain man interrupted him.   Our text says in, verse 13, “Someone from the crowd” wanted Jesus “tell (his) brother to divide the inheritance with (him).”  Jesus responded negatively to his request: “Dude, what does this have to do with me” (V.14).  Jesus then used this moment to teach about the dangers of money and acquired wealth:  Watch out and be on guard against all greed…” Like so many people, this man was so distracted by his concerns for money the he didn’t pay attention to what Jesus had been teaching.  He didn’t really come to learn from Jesus, or to do something for Jesus, but he only wanted Jesus to do something for him.   

The overarching issue Jesus addresses is human greed.  In a recently movie, entitled Wall Street, the main character, a Financial Broker, in a speech to all his partners says,  “Greed, for the lack of a better word, is good!”  Here, however, Jesus sees ‘greed’ very differently.  The word Jesus uses here, means the ‘desire to have more’.  The real problem with desiring more, is that it leads to never having enough.  Jesus illustrates this with a parable: a story told beside the real story so we can see it.  This story is about this wealthy man who already had enough, but still didn’t have enough.  He built ‘bigger barns’, not because he needed money, or to keep his business going, but only because he wanted it.  He wanted to feel safe, and establish security with money.  Like the person thinks they can buy happiness, this man thought money was all he needed to be safe and secure.

The point Jesus was making is that this man was already more secure than most, but he still needed more.  The issue hear is that wealthy people struggle with greed too; just like many people do, even when they already have more than they’ll ever need. Having money doesn’t make you less greedy.  In fact, wanting more and more is seldom connected to material need, but it’s often points to a spiritual, emotional deficiency—a spiritual hurt that shows up a obsessive need and demand for more and more, so that enough is never enough.   

Jesus defined true success security by pointing out that it can’t be achieved with one’s possessions.   Jesus wants this fellow and everyone to know, that having money will not solve all your problems.  Of corse, Some money might solve a few problems, and cover up a lot a problems, but normally, money makes more problems than it solves.   

Jesus emphasized this by giving this strong warning using the phrases “Watch out” and “Be on your guard.” He did this to reveal the underlying danger of giving into greed, like this person who never has enough. The world measures a person’s worth by his wealth; God views a person’s worth very differently.

The big question in this story is not the story, but whether the man struggling with his sibling over the inheritance would see himself in the story. Jesus told parables not necessarily to make things easier, but to invite the person into the story, not just to illustrate a point; but to confront people with the truth they were too blind to see.  It was a truth that could save lives, both now and forever.  It was to keep people from being ‘stupid’ with the only life they have to live, with the people they have to live life with.

I’LL BUILD BIGGER BARNS!

16“Then He told them a parable:  “A rich  man’s land was very productive. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What should I do, since I don’t have anywhere to store my crops? 18 I will do this,’ he said. ‘I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods there. 19 Then I’ll say to myself, “You  have many goods stored up for many years. Take it easy;  eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.” ’

Did you get what this guy did that was so stupid?  He said: “I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods there”.   In much of the business world today, this is the right approach.  Take care of the business, look after yourself, and ‘the heck with the other guy’.   That’s competition.  That’s business.  That’s what it takes to survive in the ‘dog eat dog world’.  But what the world calls good business, Jesus called foolish.   Rather than finding ways to share his abundance to help others, he focused on hoarding more and more of the harvest only for himself.   The economy in the area depended on farmers selling or sharing their crops. His decision affected a lot of people, not just him. He only cared about his needs.  He didn’t care about the needs of others. He was only looking out for ‘numero uno’.  And he thought he could do this with money alone.

So, there are two ways money and wealth can turn us into fools.  Are you ready?

One main problem with money is that it promises to give what only God can give. In addition, love of money take the place of loving God with our lives. When money becomes a god it will lead to greed. Greed lies to us, it blinds us, and it ultimately destroys us. It is interesting to note Jesus did not give the man a name in the story. His riches defined him.   Jesus also called attention to the fact that the man’s wealth came from the ground; it was not something he could boast about, God provided his abundance. The man showed his lack of gratitude to God by wanting to keep it all for his own. The man revealed his attitude toward his blessing by repeating the words “I” and “my.” He had no sense of obligation to anyone else.

Jesus portrayed too, how the man constantly thought to himself and talked to himself. He did not consult any another person. Luke consistently used a person’s selfishness to portray that person in a negative light.  Notice how many times he uses the word, ‘I’.  Other examples of this can be found in Luke 2:35, 5:21-22; 6:8; and 9:46-47.   Only thinking for himself, and about himself, this farmer never considered that his feasting would likely lead to famine for others. All he wanted to do was take an early retirement and take life easy. That was his big plan. He had won the lottery and he depended on his windfall to make him happy. His motto was “Eat, drink, and be merry.” He forgot the part about “for tomorrow we may die.”

WHOSE WILL THEY BE?

God called this man a fool.   ‘You fool!  This very night your life is demanded of you. And the things you have prepared—whose will they be?’  “That’s how it is with the one who stores up treasure  for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Again, this is rare. In the Old Testament only a person who says there is no God is a fool.   Here is the only other person in Scripture named a fool by God.  Why was he called a fool?  This fool made plenty of provision for retirement, but made no provision for eternity.  He made no plans for presenting his soul to God. 

Just the other day, a man, who was still working in his 70’s, told me that all his friends who stopped working, when they retired, died.   My neighbor in, Mr. Roy Austin, stopped working at the mill at age 65 and went home only to die in a couple of days.   To die before you plan to, outer in a way you didn’t plan, happens to most everybody, doesn’t it?  And if you make plans, you will still be surprised when it happens, or when you learn it will happen. 

And even if you can’t plan when or how you will die, if you’re not making plans to die (before you know it), you’re being foolish too.  In the parable, this man’s life was demanded of him, whether he was ready for it or not. The word demanded means to something on loan that had to be returned.  Life is like that.  We have a life, but it’s never really ours.   Now, it was required of him to pay for a debt and he hadn’t planned on paying back.  In other words, this man had invested in the wrong stock.  Now, after telling him his time was up, and that his money or wealth wouldn’t buy even one more day, one more hour, or one more minute, or second:  God looks at all his barns, all his money and wealth and asks,.  “Who gets all this, now?”  

Now, don’t misunderstand, Jesus was not condemning this man’s success or even his material possessions. He condemned the man because he invested only in his own life to the detriment of others.   Jesus doesn’t express that God has a problem with people possessing wealth, but he’s saying there’s great peril in being possessed by wealth.  

When people are defined by what they own, what they own ends up owning them.  My Dad used to tell me, “Son, it’s one thing to want something, but it’s another thing to get it, and have to take care of it.”  One way possessions can own people is by demanding our time and effort. If a person is constantly afraid to lose their possessions, that person can become obsessed defending and protecting those possessions.

Jesus closed the story by calling attention to people who are rich in possessions but who are not rich in the things of God.  The real issue here is priorities.  It is the question of what matters most.  It is a question that constantly stays with each of us, everyday, all the way down to the final stretch of our lives. 

Because we are mortal, and because our lives are full, free, but short, we can all see our own faces in this story. We all struggle between storing up treasures here on earth; doing things that matter now, verses storing treasures in heaven; doing things that make an impact on others, our families and the world after we are gone.  The only way most people to learn to deal with the dilemma of wealth, is to have something happen to us, to remind us what really matters before we die.  Fortunately, you don’t have to wait to learn what it means to be ‘smart’ with the only life you have.  The Holy Spirit is in the reality business.  To hear the Spirit, you must learn from what Jesus is saying.

One way to ‘get real’ in the Spirit, is to experience the goodness, grace and generosity of God, so that you can learn what really matters in life.   When you understand what ‘good’ really is, and that ‘good’ is more about ‘who’ than ‘what’, you are beginning to learn about what is most valuable in life.  And When you experience this kind of spiritual intelligence, the kind Jesus was teaching about, it’s becomes easier, to stop just ‘taking’ and to start becoming a ‘giver’ with you life.  Teresa told me recently about her hair dresser, a lady in her 40’s who was getting excited about going to the Prom.  Yes, you heard me.  She was going to the special prom they were having for special needs kids at Western Avenue Baptist Church, and she was taking a young special needs child, who loved to ‘dance’. He was excited too, but he said he didn’t want to have to wear a tux.  He just wanted to move, even though he could only shuffle his feet.  And what a joy, she said it would be, to get to take him to take him to the prom.

Giving to others in need, is the best, biblical way to store up treasures in heaven. John 3:16 says “For God so loved he gave . . .” This is what love does, it gives.

On the news recently, an was the author of the new book, “Happy Money.”  The writer was also a TED Talks contributor, who said that it wasn’t enough to ‘give’ generally, but that the happiest givers were those who gave specifically, who had special interests and concerns and wanted to stay in touch with who, what and where, their money helped.  That author also said, according statistics, money doesn’t make people happy, unless they are helping someone with it.  Jesus told us that in this story a long, long time who.  And it wasn’t because he was smart.  He was God in human flesh (CBS This Morning, April 26, 2019). 

Now, don’t you wonder whatever happened to the man who wanted Jesus to settle his inheritance?  I wonder if he got the message, or if he, like so many, just let it go over his head, instead of letting it sink deep into his heart?  How about you?  Amen.