This week I got a great story in my email:
Two 90-year-old women, Rose and Daisy had been friends all of their lives. When it was clear that Rose was dying, Daisy visited her every day.
One day Daisy said, 'Rose, we both loved playing women's softball all our lives, and we played all through High School. Please do me one favor: when you get to Heaven, somehow you must let me know if there's women's softball there.'
Rose looked up at Daisy from her deathbed and said, 'Daisy, you've been my best friend for many years. If it's at all possible, I'll do this favor for you.' Shortly after that, Rose passed on.
A few nights later, Daisy was awakened from a sound sleep by a blinding flash of white light and a voice calling out to her, 'Daisy, Daisy.'
'Who is it?', asked Daisy, sitting up suddenly. 'Who is it?'
'Daisy -- it's me, Rose.'
'You're not Rose. Rose just died.'
'I'm telling you, it's me, Rose,' insisted the voice.
'Rose! Where are you?'
'In Heaven,' replied Rose. 'I have some really good news and a little bad news.'
'Tell me the good news first,' said Daisy.
'The good news,' Rose said, 'is that there's softball in Heaven. Better yet all of our old buddies who died before us are here, too. Better than that, we're all young again. Better still, it's always springtime, and it never rains or snows. And best of all, we can play softball all we want, and we never get tired.'
'That's fantastic,' said Daisy. 'It's beyond my wildest dreams! So what's the bad news?'
'You're pitching Tuesday.'
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This morning's scripture portion gives us one of the more famous quotes in our Bible. 'Eat, drink and be merry' which we first read in Solomon's book of Ecclesiastes (Ecc. -15) when the great king declares that he sees injustice in the world,
'Although a wicked man commits a hundred crimes and still lives a long time, I know that it will go better with God-fearing men, who are reverent before God. Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow. There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: righteous men who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.'
Solomon tells us that although in this life, the righteous seem to get the worst of things while the wicked get the best of it, a time is coming when each will get theirs. Therefore he says, 'Don't worry. Be Happy. Eat, Drink and be Merry and let God be the judge.'
This morning's scripture had a similar line. In this morning's scripture portion, the rich farmer has a great harvest year. Things are going great. The harvest is so bountiful he can't sell it all. The silos are bulging, the trucks going to the ethanol plant are full and even the ethanol plant has sent word not to send any more because they already have all the corn they can handle.
What does he do? He does what any hard-working farmer would do: he tears down the old barns to build new ones – bigger ones – to store all his grain. Perhaps he decides to head for
Yet, in the next verse he is called a 'fool' – strong language for Jesus' time - like calling someone an idiot in our own. Where, we ask ourselves is the farmer's error? Nowhere in the parable is the man deemed wicked. What could he have done to warrant such a critical assessment?
Has the rich man failed to pay the tithe? Pastors everywhere wish this was so because this would make for a great stewardship sermon this fall.
Has he failed to consider the poor or to save the gleanings from the fields or the leftovers from the threshing floor for the less fortunate? Non-profits everywhere might hope to use this as a way to promote more giving to their causes.
Does Jesus preach that it is a sin to be rich? We have read that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven. But that is not the issue here.
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To try to understand more fully the context, we need to remember what is going on in Luke’s gospel. Jesus is on his way to
Jesus has told his hearers not to worry about what happens in this world, because even the hairs on our hears are counted – and yet as our scripture portion opens, we hear Jesus being asked to determine a property dispute. Jesus refuses and responds:
‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’
We heard this again in our text from Colossians where Paul writes that we should set our minds on the things above not on things here below. Paul even gives us two lists of things to avoid. The first one includes: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.
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Rather the issue is greed – greed that raises the importance of things about the importance of God. In the last several years we have begun to learn that Gecko in the movie Wall Street was wrong – Greed is not good. But while we lick our financial wounds we have not figured out why.
In this morning’s gospel we find out why. Take another look at the scripture from Luke and hear again the words of the farmer:
‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘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; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’
The farmer’s first mistake? Me, I, myself – often called the ‘unholy trinity’. While the farmer thinks only of himself there is no thought of gratitude to the God who gave all, no thought of showing mercy to the poor whom God loves. In fact there is no thought of God at all. His life is all about himself. His thoughts are all about himself. His plans are all about himself.
This brings us to, and is most likely caused by, the farmer’s second mistake. The farmer is not foolish because he makes provision for the future; he is foolish because he believes that by his wealth he can secure his future. Hear the words again: ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ He relies on his stuff to secure his future instead of relying on God to supply his future.
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It is here that the farmer hears the voice of God:
‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’
And then the words of Jesus: ‘So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.’
The farmer is foolish not because he is rich, but because he believes that being rich – rich in things – will bring us security. He believes that money will buy happiness, love, health and long life when in reality it brings none of those things. Money buys none of those things – not then and not now.
We see pretty things in the stores – things we just must have – only to find out after we have them that they bring empty promises. We hear commercials on TV that promise us perfect homes, complexions, lives – that promise us happiness, love and success if we just buy the latest cleanser, the sexiest car or the newest bit of electronics. And we all know that after we have them they bring none of those things at all.
We find ourselves rich in things and poor in soul – rich in possessions and poor in relationships – rich in money and poor in the things of God, placing infinite value on the finite and neglecting the things of God.
And we find our priorities upside down and our lives empty and without purpose.
The good news for us this day is that we can change that – and we can begin doing so today. Let us hear – and heed - the voice of God, let us rely not on our bank accounts but the love of God who cares for us and promises us eternity.
Even now, let us determine to be rich in the things of God and we will find the God of true riches waiting to hear from us. Amen.
