Anniversary reflections on Luke 12:13-21

Last Sunday, August 26th, was our 18th Church Anniversary. On this occasion we each were invited to bring along things that represented who we are, our interests, our hobbies, our gifts, our talents. This resulted in a wonderful display and presentation of God's creativity within us and many blessings to us. We could then acknowledge and appreciate how all these life assets could be brought together into the work of God's Kingdom.

We concluded our service with some thoughts on the parable of the "rich fool" from Luke 12.

This little parable that Jesus told (starting at verse 16) gives us a picture of a man who was overly content with everything he had. He was doing well, and needed to build bigger barns to store all the crops that his land had produced. This was instantly his first and only thought about what to do. No thought of other options: like, giving some away, or sharing with others who weren’t doing so well, or checking out the needs of other members of his community – just in case there was some need that had remained undiscovered! These possibilities never entered his mind – more crops simply equated to larger barns.

And there was also a second issue with this landowner. Now that he had more stored up than he could ever use, he was just going to laze around, take it easy, and live the good life. No thought of finding other productive ways to use his time! No thoughts outside of his personal little square!

We can easily see where the problem laid – look at how Jesus expressed this man’s inner thinking: "And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry’" (v.19). This man was totally consumed with himself – the only person he thought about was himself. This man feels that the whole world revolves around him and his needs. The only person he consulted about the decisions to be made … was himself. The fact that he only consulted his “soul” suggests that he was only interested in what was happening for himself, and that was all that mattered.

Yet, in referring to his “soul”, this landowner/farmer did not see the connection between the deeply spiritual and everything that is happening outside of his body. We are reminded in many parts of scripture that our worship of God, if it’s to be sincere and acceptable, must connect with integrity to every part of our outer lives. The needs of others of God’s children had not touched this man’s soul or spirit at all. Thus this “soul”, because of its apathy and complacency, was completely closed off to the possibility of encountering God, and thus was suffering from spiritual poverty!

Today we have experienced the taste of something totally the opposite. The sharing of ourselves – our talents & gifts, our interests & hobbies, our time & resources; an understanding of how all good things originate in God’s creativity, and how God desires all good things to be brought back into the service of God’s Kingdom. And so each of us decorate the church in our own way, with the totality of who we are (warts and all), with everything that God has given us individually; so that the church will truly be an expression of community as it was meant to be – as God experiences it the community of Father, Son & Spirit.

We can thus be “rich toward God” (v.21) through sharing with one another, such that the community around us can see a picture of (and be encouraged to experience for themselves) hopeful, authentic, joyful, redeemed community. We can model what Paul exhorted with the early church in Corinth: "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good".

Jesus told this story/parable to explain how greed and being overly concerned with lesser matters like certain possessions separated people from the purposes of God. When Jesus said to the voice from the crowd (in v.14): "Friend, who set me to be a[n] … arbitrator over you", it was like Jesus was saying to get real, and ask him about something important, he didn’t have time to deal with personal wealth questions – Jesus is with you, so you should have the bigger matters of life on your mind: like, how do I gain spiritual health, and what are the real priorities of the Kingdom of God. Dare I say that sometimes we forget to seek God for the really important things in life, because we’re busy being focussed on the less crucial or more trivial areas!

So, what will our lives be known for, and for what will we be remembered? Will all the God-given creativity and giftedness and energy within us count for God, or be blown off with the wind to who knows where?

Praise God for today’s celebration of commitment, sacrifice and sharing … that approaches an example (for all to see) of treasures being applied to the wonderful cause of bringing heaven to earth.