Pastor's corner - Aug. 6, 2009

The Duchess of Windsor used to say that you can’t be too thin or too rich. These days, we are discovering that both statements are untrue. Look at so many of the celebrities in the news. Many of them are both too rich and too thin.

Stock market guru Jim Cramer, host of Mad Money, says, “Bulls make money.” Then he adds, “Bears make money.” Then the punch line, “Pigs get slaughtered.” He is saying, beware of being greedy when you are investing in the stock market. You may overreach and lose everything.

Jesus said in a parable, “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to my Soul, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Jesus didn’t say it as indelicately as Cramer did, but the message is the same.

Greed can be your undoing.

“Pigs get slaughtered.” For some, there is never enough.

Never enough time, never enough money, never enough power, never enough pleasure, never thin enough.

And when they think they have enough, that enough is just around the corner if only they have a place to keep it, they hang on to it with all their might.

This is when it’s time to worry.

If you are afraid to leave your stuff for fear it might get stolen, even though you’ve got locks, a security system, and neighbors keeping an eye on your house when you go away for a day.

If you can’t throw away or give away anything because you might want it some day.

If you are paying for a storage unit and you don’t have a clue what is in it.

If you’re obsessing over anything that is preventing you from living life.

Before anyone gets worried that Jesus is saying that it is wrong to save or be well off, relax.

Jesus is telling the story to a man who wants Jesus to insist that his brother give him his share – perhaps more than his legal share – of their inheritance.

He wants us to understand that our possessions are not as important as our relationships with family, friends, and God.

Money can’t buy happiness or absolute security.

It can’t buy true friendship, compassion, or loyalty ...

though admittedly it appears that it can buy some pretty good imitations.

But don’t forget the Mastercard commercials.

The things that really matter are priceless.

This rich fool isn’t an evil man who has cheated and stolen his wealth; like us, he’s benefitted from the rain that falls on good and evil alike.

The trap he falls into is in his next steps: when he has a windfall, he doesn’t run into the village celebrating and announcing his plan to share his good fortune with the community, let alone get their help with deciding how to deal with this excellent problem.

He stays inward, and figures that he can be self-sufficient and secure because of his wealth.

Eleven times he uses the first-person (“I” and “my”) .

He’s going to destroy what he has in order to hang on to what he doesn’t really need.

Instead of thanking God and making an offering of thanks and perhaps sharing from his abundance, he’s going to tear down his barns to build bigger barns to hold it all.

He thinks because he has stored up this abundance, he no longer has to work.

He can play and live a self-absorbed life.

He doesn’t acknowledge God, but talks to his own soul.

He doesn’t notice God’s hand at all, which may be why this parable features the voice of God, the only parable in which God speaks.

He needs to be shocked out his complacency and the illusion that he controls his own life.

It is easy in a “me” culture to fall into this fool’s trap so we need to watch out for the bait in our lives that may lead us astray.

All may not be vanity and blowing in the wind, despite what the writer of Ecclesiastes has to say, but God wants our lives to be much richer than full of stuff. The rich fool didn’t recognize what he had as abundance ... he saw it as security and an end of working. He did not see it as an opportunity to make a difference. We must not fall into the same trap. Our security must come from God even as our abundance does. While as prudent and responsible people, we earn a living, care for our families and other obligations, and plan for retirement and old age, as faithful people, we do not put our treasure there, only our money.

Rev. Jeannette Solimine

United Church of Christ

Colfax