Sunday, July 31, 2022 | 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

Rich toward God

Nanette Sawyer
Associate Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Psalm 107:1–9, 43
Luke 12:13–21

“One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” So what does one’s life consist of? Here we are told that sometimes people store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God. What are the treasures and the actions that make us rich toward God?

One of my treasures is a paint-by-number piece of art that my father painted. It shows a blue heron lifting off and taking flight from a large barren branch protruding up from water. The sky is pale blue and gray with clouds touched and illuminated by a brilliant yellow sun. There’s one small spot where the paint was rubbed off and you can see the number 24 showing through—the number of the color that was mapped to go in that spot.

It’s not high art. But I treasure it because of the story that goes with it. It’s one of those childhood memories emblazoned into my mind—of my father picking me up and putting me on his knee at the dining room table where he was painting. He let me hold the paintbrush, although I was probably only four or five years old. I dipped it into the yellow paint—I’m sure his hand was supporting mine—and I painted a little part of that yellow sun. “Be careful,” he said. “Paint right here. Stay inside this line.” He gave me permission to do a grown-up thing, to paint on his painting. And he held me and guided me and supported me through the whole process. I felt loved and so special. I treasure that painting because I treasure that memory. If the painting is ever lost, I will still treasure that moment with my dad.

I wonder, what are the things that you treasure? Are there objects that hold meaningful moments of your life? A favorite shirt you wore when something significant happened? Do you have memories of a special summer or memories of laughter with children or grandchildren? Do you have an object that belonged to your grandmother, a photograph that reminds you of someone or some special time? Do you treasure a gift that was handmade for you or a gift that was so carefully selected and showed you that you are known and valued and honored?

The parable Jesus tells invites us to consider our relationship to our possessions, to abundance, to wealth, and to treasure. He asks us to think about the very nature of our lives. What is it that we treasure? What makes a meaningful life?

The parable of the rich man does not imply that the man is wicked for having an abundant crop. He does not seem to be conniving or conspiring to shortchange others. The abundance doesn’t seem to be the problem. But he does seem to be oddly isolated and completely focused on himself. He seems to be oblivious to his connections to those around him.

Although “his land produced abundantly” he makes no acknowledgment of the people working his land and harvesting his crops. He doesn’t thank God for his blessing. He doesn’t consider how his windfall might benefit his neighbors or his village.

He doesn’t discuss the situation with others. He thinks only of his own well-being and has a conversation with himself about it. He then addresses his own soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”

He thinks that through his own efforts and possessions he has secured his life for many years. One theologian has said that “the farmer has fallen prey to worshiping the most popular of gods: the Unholy Trinity of ‘me, myself, and I’” (David Lose, “Stewardship Season, Already?” www.workingpreacher.org, 1 August 2010).

Although the farmer, the rich man, doesn’t think of God, God addresses him. God is the one in control of all his days and the length of his life. It’s shocking as a listener to hear of his imminent and sudden death. The parable brings to mind the uncertainty of human life, the frailty of human bodies, and the possibility of sudden loss.

It's unsettling to hear Jesus tell this parable in which God tells a man that he will die tonight. The rich farmer was called a fool not for having an abundance but for how he planned, and didn’t plan, to share it. It’s implied that he did not have an answer to the question he was asked by God: “the things you have prepared, whose will they be [when you die]?”

The farmer seems to treasure his possessions more than people in his life. God asks him, essentially, who else are you thinking of? And we hear the unspoken answer “No one.” So what does his life consist of?

An abundance of possessions? Collecting and saving, accruing and storing? But Jesus told us that an abundance of possessions does not make up a life. Although there are abundant things, enough to fill a barn, a new barn, a bigger barn, there is not abundant life. “So it is,” Jesus said, “with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

And we are left asking ourselves: What does it mean to be rich toward God? What makes for an abundant life?

After telling the parable to the crowd, Jesus turns to his disciples to explain further. These further verses are not included in the lectionary, but they are so important for understanding the story that we’re going to hear them now. We’re picking up where the lectionary stopped, beginning at verse 22. Listen, again.

[Jesus] said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.” (Luke 12:22–27 NRSV)

Consider the lilies. People write poetry about that line. So evocative. Emily Dickinson once wrote in a letter to a friend that this was the only commandment that she never broke (Letter to Mrs. Joseph Sweetser, 1884, Letters of Emily Dickinson, p. 349. Quoted in Sallie McFague, Super, Natural Christians).

That’s impressive, because I’m pretty sure that I have broken this commandment many times. How about you? I forget to consider the lilies. I forget that I am embedded in God’s good creation and that God is at work in my life all the time. It is a spiritual practice to remember, to intentionally refocus my mind on God’s presence and God’s infinite grace. Apparently the disciples also needed a reminder.

Jesus’ teaching is now really getting into our human relationship with the world, our relationship with God’s creation, and God’s relationship to us, within the creation. We are part of it. We can learn from the lilies and the ravens and from their dependence on God. We, too, are dependent on God but so easily forget that. We humans carry an extra burden that the lilies and the ravens don’t. We carry the idea that we are in charge. We worry and stress and have anxiety about our survival. The lilies don’t do that. The ravens don’t do it. Jesus asks, how is worrying helping you? It will not extend your life by even a single hour.

This teaching is meant to be encouraging, but it’s so easy for us to make it into one more thing that we can fail at. This could become one more thing that we “should” be doing. We should trust. We shouldn’t worry. It might seem that we should be positive all the time, happy all the time. We shouldn’t have anxiety. We should do this; we shouldn’t do that.

But this teaching is not a task at which we can succeed or fail. This is a discipleship practice that we will be imperfect at doing. And that’s OK.

When there are things that have us worried, maybe one thing we can learn from the farmer’s mistake is that we are not alone. Life is not only about us. We are part of a community or maybe even multiple communities. We can ask for help. And we can offer help. We can talk to other people, and not just to “me, myself, I.”

When there are things worrying you, when you are struggling with anxiety, there are so many things that you can do. You could arrange to see a Stephen Minister. The Stephen Ministers have received in-depth training on how to be good listeners and how to hold a confidential space. You could also talk to a counselor, a therapist, or a consultant, a spiritual director, or a financial advisor. You could ask for prayer with the deacons or for a meeting with one of your pastors. Your bulletin has information about how you can do a number of these things. There are so many things that you can do.

And don’t forget, you can talk to God, too. “God, I need your help” is always a good prayer. Identify for yourself the truth of your experience—whether it is worry or fear or anger or whatever—find your truth and speak it to God. Say it silently in your mind or say it out loud. Write it in a journal or whisper it to the sky. God loves you and is listening. You are not alone. We are not alone.

Jesus’ teaching is a word of encouragement. He is saying, Do not be afraid. You are valued by God. Look around yourself and see that God is creating and sustaining life. When words of encouragement like this become discouraging because you think you are failing, look for ways to turn it around. Noticing that it’s happening is the first step. You might just say, “Oops, I’m doing it again.”

Turning it around is step two. Turning it around could mean interrupting an anxiety or fear with a thought of compassion and forgiveness for yourself—not covering it up with superficial happiness, but really feeling compassion and forgiveness for yourself.

It is entirely human and to be expected that we will sometimes worry. Remembering that is to have compassion for yourself. Telling yourself that it’s OK to be human is a form of acceptance and forgiveness.

What Jesus gives us here is a spiritual practice for reflection. It’s an alternative, not an ultimatum. Consider the lilies, rather than spin in anxiety. Consider the ravens, rather than stress yourself out with striving for more of whatever you’re striving for. See how God cares for them? Jesus says. God cares for you too, even more deeply. That’s the encouragement. Remember this: you are a treasure to God.

Discipleship is a process through which we grow and change and learn about God and learn about ourselves. We are trying to follow God in the way of Jesus.

King Solomon is lifted up as a model for us. Jesus compares him to the lilies: “Even Solomon in all his glory is not clothed as one of these,” Jesus said. If the lesson was only about clothing and beauty and possessions, Jesus might have lifted up any number of kings as examples, even Solomon’s father, King David.

But Solomon is famous for his wisdom, and when he became king he prayed to God not for success, not for glory, not for riches, but for understanding. And in response to his prayer, God said this: “Because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or for the life of your enemies but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right,I now do according to your word. Indeed, I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you, and no one like you shall arise after you.I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you” (1 Kings 3:9–13).

No other kings compared to Solomon, and still, according to Jesus, still the lilies and the ravens are clothed in glory greater than Solomon’s.

There are treasures all around us. And when we consider the lilies, when we remember the birds and how precious they are to God, when we trust that we too are precious—so much more valuable than the ravens, Jesus says—when we trust that, then we can shine in the lives of others. Then we become treasures ourselves. Jesus ends this teaching with more words of assurance:

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:32–34).

Make purses that do not wear out, containers for treasures that can’t be stolen. One of my magic purses is a paint-by-number image of a majestic bird taking flight and a memory is tucked inside that purse.

Sometimes a paint-by-number painting is more precious than a Renoir, more valuable than a Monet. Life does not consist of possessions, Jesus says, but life does consist of treasures—treasures that cannot be stolen or eaten by moths. Treasures that reside where the heart is. Treasures that we create together and give to each other. Affirmation. Support. Laughter. Kindness. Tenderness. Generosity. Attentiveness. Care.

So, find your treasure. Become a treasure. Honor your treasures. Consider the image of God centered deep inside your being. You are rich with God’s glory. This is abundant life, whether it lasts for one more hour, one more day, one more year, one more decade, or until you are 105 years old.

Remember what and who you treasure and why, and give thanks to God for them. For God is a God of abundant grace and steadfast love. Amen.