Bigger Barns

This is another one of those overflow blogs, stuff I just can't fit in the sermon, or maybe isn't quite balanced enough for the pulpit, but as I see it the Rich Fool in Luke's Gospel has just way too much to say to where we are right now.  Honesty time, isn't the idea of getting so far ahead you can just coast sort of the American Dream?  Isn't that what motivates billionaires like he-who-must-not-be-named?  Isn't that what so many athletes really aspire to: the multi-million dollar contract?  Isn't it what millions of every day people dream about when they buy a lottery ticket? Easy street, eat, drink and be merry?
But is it really surprising when that leads to heartbreak and ruin?
Jesus says: "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." (Luke 12: 15 NRSV)  What does this parable have to say about income inequality, living wages, free trade agreements, environmental issues?  Well, actually it has a lot to say about them, because the center of this parable is a man who is not doing his best to care for his community.  He is taking more than his share and then deciding to just sit back and stop being a part of things.  In a 21st century re-telling of this, the rich fool might be a CEO or a stockbroker instead of a farmer, and his bigger barns might be hedge funds.
The key to this parable is that the man is not being rich towards God at the same time as he is accumulating wealth.  He is not using his blessings to be a blessing, and if you pay attention to the whole covenant making story arc of the Scripture, that's kind of important. We can get so wrapped up in the whole Abraham and Sarah need a baby story, or the fact that he was promised greatness, that we forget that the promise of the covenant was that God would make Abraham a blessing to the nations.  I come back around to that idea a lot.  If you want to be the chosen people of God, whether you do it through a Jewish lens, or a Christian lens, or a Muslim lens (I suppose you could even do it through a Hindu or Buddhist lens, but you would need to change a lot of the terminology), you ought to at least ask yourself the question: how am I a blessing to the world?
Because God wasn't just picking out some dude to make him his super special friend so they could hang out and play parcheesi, he was calling Abram to become the father of a nation, by which all other nations would be blessed.  Jesus was a descendant of Abraham, but again Jesus calls his disciples to be salt of the earth and a light shining in the darkness, a city on a hill, not to be small, angry, bitter and afraid, and certainly not to just build bigger barns to protect their stuff.
For a long time, I thought it was perfectly okay to say that religion was a private matter, that belief was more or less a thing that happened in the heart of a believer.  I grew up with no shortage of church re-enforcement of that idea. I am still rather uncomfortable with strident evangelism that seeks to convert or save the lost by bombast and spiritual body slams.  But I think that making it too private allows us to slink off into the darkness of the night and deny our Lord a little to easily.
Eugene Peterson's rendering of one of the lectionary texts from Colossians 3: 1 goes like this: "So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it."  You want to know why your church isn't growing?  It's not your pastor's fault (okay maybe it is, but no more or no less than it is your fault), it is because you are not acting like it matters.  We all too easily write off the implications of parables like the Rich Fool, we explain it away: we're not rich, we're not idle, we're not just eating, drinking and being merry... are we?
"All kinds of greed..." especially the kind that you can so easily rationalize as simply being sensible and looking out for you and yours.  Do we take generous risks enough?  Do we recognize that our blessings are not for hoarding into bigger barns?  Are we growing rich towards God?  That's the question I'm trying to answer for Sunday. Go to Church.