Being Rich Toward God. July 31, Wilson/Burt Proper 13 Yr C

Many years ago I worked with cocaine-exposed children and their mothers. We had a beautiful playroom full of brand new toys. LOTS OF THEM. What we quickly learned is that too many fun shiny toys would completely overwhelm the children. I think the theory holds true for all children, but especially for these cocaine-exposed kids, too much "stuff" stressed them out and caused them to fall apart.

 Life is full of stuff... Stuff that needs our attention. Stuff that distracts, consumes and at times, overwhelms us. 

It seems the more complicated our lives become, the less connection we have with God. 

Riches on earth pull us away, distract us from riches in heaven.

The riches, the STUFF of life pulls so many of us into the rat race of the here and the now that we forget the forever and the eternal. Riches in this life often make us forget our richness in God. 

This Gospel is about being rich toward self vs being rich toward God.

How rich are you toward God?

Okay time for a couple of disclaimers.

First, having stuff, being wealthy, is not a bad thing. Second, we're all wealthy. The United States is the wealthiest nation on earth and to the rest of the world we all, even the poorest among us, are wealthy. So even though it's tempting to, while listening to the parable of the rich fool, as this story is known, to say “well if I was rich I wouldn't behave that way...” we can't say that  because we are rich.

But lots of us don’t feel rich. Many of us feel poor. Which, actually, is at the heart of this Gospel. The man in the parable wants to relax to eat drink and be merry. And he’ll do that just as soon as he builds enough barns. But there’s the rub, he’ll never have enough barns. Because he’ll never feel like he has enough…because he isn’t filling his barn with God, he’s filling his barn with self. He isn’t filling his barn with hope, he’s filling his barn with fear. He isn’t filling his barn with true abundance, he’s filling his barn with a terror of scarcity.

The having of stuff isn't the problem according to Jesus, the distraction it causes, is. 

In the gospel the man who wants Jesus to tell his brother to be fair with the family inheritance has just lost his father. Inheritances only come into play when someone has died and in this case this man, and his brother, have lost their father. But does he come to Jesus seeking  solace? No he comes to Jesus seeking righteous justification. He comes to Jesus to make sure he gets what's his. He comes to Jesus about stuff. About external, material things. He comes to Jesus distracted by “want.”

He’s not looking to fill a spiritual emptiness, he’s looking to fill his barn. 

Having stuff isn't bad. Wanting stuff isn’t bad. Getting distracted by the stuff , being derailed by the want is.

Being rich in cash and goods isn't bad, letting cash and goods block our connection to God, is. 

Being rich isn't bad, being poor toward God is.

Are we rich toward God or are we poor toward God?

I feel rich when I find myself in silence. No phone ringing, no email dinging, no tv or radio blaring.

I feel rich toward God I sit on the back deck and watch the sunrise. 

I feel rich toward God when I put everything else aside and stand behind that altar, celebrating the Eucharist.

I feel rich toward God when I volunteer at the Eaton Summer Reading Camp.

I feel rich toward God when I visit parishes across this diocese and revel in all the work that the parishes engage in, in the name of God.

I feel poor toward God when I forget that this is God’s world, not ours. 

I feel poor toward God when I forget that God’s in charge, not me. 

I feel poor toward God when all that stuff that makes me feel rich toward God gets put on the back burner. 

     This parable isn’t about the evils of having too much. It’s about being driven to distraction as we keep up with all the “stuff” filling our playrooms, our barns, our hearts and souls. It’s about distraction, its’ about all the stuff that keeps us from noticing the love of God and offering love of neighbor. 

This whole section of Luke’s Gospel—what we’ve been reading this summer--- is about what God wants us to value. It’s written to teach us that what matters to God and what should matter to us is that we bring all that we are and all that we to this altar---where we are fed the bread of life and drink from the cup of salvation-- for when we do that, when we stop worrying about stuff and start trusting in God, our barns will be full of something more valuable than stuff and more rewarding than want, our barns, our playrooms,  our hearts and our souls will be filled with the abundant richness that is God. And really, what more could we ever want or need? Amen.