Musical Prelude and Service.

Luke 12:13-21
In the 1987 movie Wall Street, investment mogul Gordon Gekko is shown making a speech to fellow investors as he prepares to take over a company. During that speech, he argues that self interest and the desire to accumulate greater wealth, what he names as both success and greed is a good thing. It drives the growth of the economy and more economic fortunes.
“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good” he says.
By the end of the movie however, it is clear his ambition is to buy up companies that are doing okay if not, great and sell off their component parts to further his own wealth, but put thousands of people out of work and possibly destroy the economies of entire communities. He ends up in jail for insider trading.
Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, is the villain of this movie that is based on a number of similar instances from real life. Gekko himself is a pastiche of various people that writer and director Oliver Stone and his writing partners were aware of from their own experiences.
What has over time become known as the Greed is Good speech, was not meant as a rallying cry for the stock market. It was meant to be a warning for putting too much faith in the workings of investment firms and speculative markets. But it did take on a life of its own and Gordon Gekko was seen in many places not as a villain but something of a role model.
When we look at today’s scripture, it is often seen as a precaution to not hoard your possessions or to not wait for an unknown future to follow through on your ambitions.
I’m pretty sure I have preached something similar in the past. That wisdom can certainly be taken from this parable.
But I want to explore something that is attached to those lessons this morning.
Jesus offers this parable about the “foolish rich man” who builds new barns to contain his bountiful harvest when he is close to death, in response to a request from someone who has gathered to meet him and listen to him. That man urges Jesus to intervene in a dispute with his brother over their inheritance.
Jesus is warning his followers about the dangers of greed. It isolates you and harms the community you are supposed to be a part of, and leaves you with nothing in the end. In Luke’s narrative, Jesus is constantly critiquing greed and the wealth that comes with it. The wealth that greedy people are constantly pursuing. Rich people are cut off from the realities of life–they exploit and abuse the people around them and have lost a connection with a loving and generous God.
While I am always eager to read scripture from a variety of perspectives and critiques. To hear a variety of points that can come out of the parables and various stories, I think we need to confess that we often wriggle out of how these scriptures may convict us of failing to meet God’s hopes for humanity.
Our desire for comfort and security can anaesthetize us to the struggles of our neighbours. Our desire to ensure our safety, our fortune can blind us to so many other ills in our world.
The rich man who chooses to build new barns to store his abundant harvest makes that decision after a conversation with himself. His council on this decision is himself. He does not talk with a spouse, or children or friends or neighbours. It is certainly not God. We are left with the image of a man all on his own looking after his own comfort and his own fortune.
He is not concerned for those whom he employs to grow and harvest the crops that have made him wealthy. He is on his own and that, God and Jesus say, is how he is going to die.
This foolish man has lived only to accumulate more wealth. That has become his idol, his God.
As we have witnessed the growing chaos or turmoil to the south of us here in Canada, I have been heartbroken at the treatment of migrant workers. In my view, regardless of your opinion on matters of immigration and border control, the actions of recent months are inhumane. But also, from a practical point of view it is harmful to the country’s economy.
There are growing number of stories of small businesspeople who voted for a particular candidate or party, knowing full well what they planned to do–who are now struggling to stay in business because more than half of their employees have been removed from the country. They were blinded to their connections to the wider community. They lost sight of how we are all part of the God’s web of creation. The harm done to one of us, is felt by all of us.
I don’t think we are called to disregard our own health, our own care or our own security. But we cannot isolate ourselves from the world we live in. We cannot see ourselves as independent and immune from the realities of life in God’s world. And we need to remember that God continues to work in and amongst us providing for us and all the world.
Jesus does not stop teaching with the story of the foolish rich man. He keeps talking. You have likely heard the following words or a version of them. They are also found in Matthew.
He 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. 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. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith! And do not keep seeking what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that seek all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
“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.
Where is your treasure?
Jesus urges his followers to trust in God. Not in accumulation of wealth. Trust in the support that comes from a loving and connected community. For in that loving interconnected community you find God. Care for one another, and you too will find care and support.
Where is your treasure?
Our society tends to celebrate wealth. We, as a culture, work very hard to justify our celebration and veneration of wealth. But we should also be aware of how much that wealth isolates and immunizes the wealthiest from the consequences of that constant hoarding. We as individuals, may not ever know what that kind of wealth looks like or feels like. But even in our small efforts to save for
retirement, or for a new car or a vacation; we need to take time to consider where that small wealth comes from, what we are investing in.
We need to seek the council of more than just ourselves. Our family, our friends? God? We need to remember that we are not alone. We live in God’s world. That is more than a reassurance, it is a reminder of who we are and whose we are.
May we continue to remember we are cared for by a generous and loving God. May we live for today, enjoying all that God offers and provides. May we never forget that all we have comes from God. That we are part of a large and interconnected world and that we have a responsibility to care for and support our neighbours, our community, our world.
And may we always say, Thanks be to God.
Amen
Rev. Warner Bloomfield

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789