It’s often been pointed out that Jesus talked more about money in the Gospels than he did about
anything else except the kingdom of God. Jesus told some 38 parables, and 16 of them had to do
with the use of money, the stewardship of money, and the dangers of money. Money has the
potential for being a source of great service in the kingdom of God or an enslaving addiction.
I’m grateful that Jesus dealt with the issue of money head-on, as many of us in the pulpit, left to our
own devices, often avoid topics that sometimes cause peoples’ foreheads to wrinkle and pew
upholstery to wear out from uneasy shifting. The other topic, of course, is sex…
Well, now that I’ve got your attention, today we’re going to talk about money. Our Gospel passage
begins with a line that to me is kind of a hoot. Someone in the crowd yells out, “Hey teacher, tell my
brother to share the family inheritance with me!” (Can you picture this?!) You kind of wonder what
this guy’s thinking. “Hey, here’s someone with authority! Maybe he can tell my brother to straighten
up!” And then Jesus, perhaps resisting the temptation to roll his eyes, looks at him quizzically and
calmly replies, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?”
I love that. Jesus’ patience is tried, and as usual, wins out. But then, like our Lord often did, he
reads this man’s heart, and seizes an opportunity to hit on an issue that many of us can relate to.
This is a teaching moment, and Jesus seizes the moment. Here Jesus’ gaze is fixed on the infinite—
on the big picture placed on the screen of eternity. He redirects the man’s priorities to what’s really
important, not just what’s important within a vision limited to the things of this world.
He does so first by issuing a warning. And my friends, I hope most of us have learned that when our
Lord issues a warning, this is generally something worth listening to. Jesus says, “Be careful! Be on
your guard against all kinds of greed…” Let’s stop there for a second. “All kinds of greed.” So, in
the Baskin-Robbins of human temptation, what are some of the different flavors of greed? Well,
several come to mind.
First there’s the greed that comes from wanting to look better than someone else. This is the greed
that hungers for status, and causes us to think, say, and do things that put our self first. Then, there’
s the greed that comes from insecurity. Hoarding, for instance, for fear that we won’t have enough.
Or more accurately, fear that God won’t provide for us, so we take things into your own hands, and
put our self first.
There’s the greed that comes from an unresolved hurt from the past. Hurt that comes from not
getting that thing we wanted, or maybe even going to bed hungry as a child, so we live by an
unspoken oath never to let that happen again, and make sure we put our self first.
There’s the greed that comes from being suspicious of others. That they’ll out-compete us, or in
some other way deprive us of what we want. So we put ourselves first and make sure this doesn’t
happen. In the words of Vince Lombardi, “The best defense is a good offense.”
Have you noticed what all of these things have in common? In each of these cases, we put
ourselves first. We start with some motive that may seem reasonable, then we make a decision to do
something that Jesus identifies as sin. When we put our self first, it’s very hard to love our neighbor.
It’s a subtle snare, and Jesus says, “Beware! Be on you guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s
life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” There are many things in this life more
important than possessions, and our treatment of others is one of these. But more important even
than this, is our disposition toward God.
Jesus then tells a story to illustrate this point. He tells of a wealthy landowner who has a farm that’s
producing abundant crops. In fact, the crops are so abundant that his barn and granaries and silos
can’t even hold the produce. He’s got more than he’ll ever need for a long, long time to come. So he
says, “By gosh, I’ve got so much I’m going to start giving to charity! I’m going to become a
philanthropist! I’m going to give to the synagogue and share my excess with the poor and all of my
neighbors!” Is that what he says? Nosirree Bob.
Instead, he decides to tear down his barns and granaries and silos and build bigger ones, so he can
live indefinitely on the bounty, and he can say to his soul, “You’re in the money! You’re on easy
street! Kick back, eat and drink to your heart’s content, and be merry.” He utterly neglects the needs
of others in favor of his own comfort, and utterly forgets the source of all of his bounty—the God
who provides all, and if he were to withdraw for one instant His life-sustaining mercy, we and all of
our possessions would collapse into dust.
And God, never one to mince words, says, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of
you. And the things you’ve prepared, whose will they be?” [These things you’ve hoarded for
yourself, who gets them when you’re gone?] In the words of an old Spanish proverb, “There are no
pockets in a burial shroud.” You see, Jesus is confronting a very basic problem of vision in the man
in His story. This man never saw much beyond himself, and he never saw beyond this world. Jesus
is saying that this puts him in great danger. The landowner thinks this is all there is, and tries to
make himself as secure and satiated as he possibly can, and Jesus says, “You have no idea how
dangerous this thinking is! There’s much more than this physical life—life goes on forever and the
decisions you make in this life are of critical importance in the context of that larger life.” Excessive
materialism is one of the most pervasive and overwhelming temptations in Western culture. And
judging by Jesus’ teaching, it certainly was also well known in His time. It’s every bit as dangerous
now as it was then.
So what are the specific dangers of greed? There are certainly two major dangers. The first of these
is a life of ultimate meaninglessness and disillusionment. If we put all of our eggs in the basket of
material comfort and possessions, these eggs will ultimately spoil, and we’ll be left with nothing. The
emptiness of this kind of life is captured in the irony of the bumper sticker: “The one who dies with
the most toys, wins.” Wins what? Did you even think about that? Is the Armani suit he’s buried in
really going to earn a certificate of achievement from the Lord?
The writer of Ecclesiastes expresses this poignantly in today’s Old Testament reading. He says, “I
built houses and planted vineyards for myself; I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in
them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools, bought slaves, had great herds and flocks. Then I
considered all that my hands had done and the toil I’d spent doing it, and all was vanity and a
chasing after the wind.” Ultimately, it all meant nothing. Zip, zero, nada.
You see, we human beings were not designed even to be satisfied with things temporal. We were
designed for eternity, and until we make peace with the God who made it possible for us to have
things, we won’t have peace in our own lives. Material possessions are in no way a substitute for the
permanent blessings that derive from God’s love for us, the chief of which is the gift of His Son, our
Savior, Jesus Christ, who brings us peace with God.
The second great danger of greed is the danger of idolatry. Idolatry, the fundamental sin, the thing
that results from putting other things, including ourselves, ahead of God.
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible’s warnings against idolatry are absolutely pervasive. It’s no
accident that the very first of the Ten Commandments says, “You shall have no other gods before
me.” This isn’t simply about Baal, or Molech, or Zeus, or Krishna, but anything that is not God, taking
God’s place—taking preeminence in our lives. Our reading from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians has
Paul imploring his readers: “Set your mind on things that are above, not on earth, and put to death
whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry).”
Put these things to death because they threaten your soul with death. Whatever’s a god to us will
show in our priorities. What do we put ahead of God? Our jobs? Our friends? Our reputation? Our I-
Pads? Our bank accounts? Whatever it is, it will play out in our behavior.
There’s the story of a farmer named Finnegan who lived alone in the Irish countryside except for a
pet dog he doted on. The dog finally died, and Finnegan went to the parish priest, saying "Father,
the dog is dead. Could you possibly be saying a mass for the poor creature?"
Father Patrick told the farmer "No, we can't have services for an animal in the church, but I'll tell you
what, there's a new denomination down the road a piece, and no telling what they believe in, but
maybe they'll do something for the animal."
Finnegan said "I'll go right now. By the way, do you think $50,000 is enough to donate for the
service?" Father Patrick replied, "Eeeeee, why didn't you tell me the dog was Catholic?"
At the promise of more of what we want most, any one of us is capable of changing our priorities.
This is the point—not that it’s intrinsically evil to have money or belongings. Jesus never said it was.
It’s a matter of whom you serve. It’s a matter of where you place your priorities. Jesus put one rich
young ruler to the test, not to show that his wealth was itself the main problem, but to press him to
decide what or whom he was willing to serve. Would he give away his riches to follow the Lord?
Sadly, he would not.
The Lord wasn’t his main priority. He was not, in Jesus’ words, rich toward God. When you’re rich
toward God, all of your decisions, all the allocation of your resources and money and time and
attention, will be mindful of God’s priorities and of His provision.
The great Anglican priest John Wesley had a personal rule in which he saved all of the money he
could, and gave all he could. He started his ministry at Oxford earning 30 pounds a year. He lived on
28 and gave away 2. Later, his income increased to 60, then 90, then 120 pounds a year, but he
still kept 28 pounds and gave away the balance.
At that time in Britain there was some kind of bureaucrat called the Accountant General for
Household Plate. (I know nothing about this—maybe it was kind of like The Ministry of Silly Walks.)
But when this officer demanded a return from Wesley, his reply was,
“I have two silver tea spoons at London and two at Bristol. This is all the plate which I have at
present; and I shall not buy any more, while so many around me want bread.” I know of one person
involved in the homeless ministry who lives kind of like this, only without the silver teaspoons.
Wesley was rich toward God. And the reason he was rich toward God is that he knew God, and
trusted His provision. You see, for the Christian the opposite of greed may not be generosity, but a
trust in God’s generosity. When we trust in God’s generosity, being generous ourselves comes
naturally. We become good stewards of what God has generously given us.
This isn’t always easy. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve woken up in the middle of the night fretting
over bills and debts. And if I let it, my anxiety—an anxiety that the Lord specifically instructs us
against—results in me not loving God and my neighbor as I should. Because, to slightly alter
something Forrest Gump said, “Love is as love does.”
And if I’m focused on my own insecurity, my love is not “doing.”
In the scheme of eternity, love toward God and neighbor is what’s important. And that love is a
response to the love God has already shown us. The one who knows and loves God, and has
received the limitless gift of eternal life by trusting in Christ’s atoning grace on the Cross; the one
who’s learned that we, like the birds of the air and the lilies in the field, can trust in God’s provision
for our needs, is the one who has a treasure that absolutely nothing, including even death itself, can
ever snatch out of his hands. And it’s out of this treasure that we may draw and offer back to our
Lord, so that we will be counted rich toward God. Amen.
anything else except the kingdom of God. Jesus told some 38 parables, and 16 of them had to do
with the use of money, the stewardship of money, and the dangers of money. Money has the
potential for being a source of great service in the kingdom of God or an enslaving addiction.
I’m grateful that Jesus dealt with the issue of money head-on, as many of us in the pulpit, left to our
own devices, often avoid topics that sometimes cause peoples’ foreheads to wrinkle and pew
upholstery to wear out from uneasy shifting. The other topic, of course, is sex…
Well, now that I’ve got your attention, today we’re going to talk about money. Our Gospel passage
begins with a line that to me is kind of a hoot. Someone in the crowd yells out, “Hey teacher, tell my
brother to share the family inheritance with me!” (Can you picture this?!) You kind of wonder what
this guy’s thinking. “Hey, here’s someone with authority! Maybe he can tell my brother to straighten
up!” And then Jesus, perhaps resisting the temptation to roll his eyes, looks at him quizzically and
calmly replies, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?”
I love that. Jesus’ patience is tried, and as usual, wins out. But then, like our Lord often did, he
reads this man’s heart, and seizes an opportunity to hit on an issue that many of us can relate to.
This is a teaching moment, and Jesus seizes the moment. Here Jesus’ gaze is fixed on the infinite—
on the big picture placed on the screen of eternity. He redirects the man’s priorities to what’s really
important, not just what’s important within a vision limited to the things of this world.
He does so first by issuing a warning. And my friends, I hope most of us have learned that when our
Lord issues a warning, this is generally something worth listening to. Jesus says, “Be careful! Be on
your guard against all kinds of greed…” Let’s stop there for a second. “All kinds of greed.” So, in
the Baskin-Robbins of human temptation, what are some of the different flavors of greed? Well,
several come to mind.
First there’s the greed that comes from wanting to look better than someone else. This is the greed
that hungers for status, and causes us to think, say, and do things that put our self first. Then, there’
s the greed that comes from insecurity. Hoarding, for instance, for fear that we won’t have enough.
Or more accurately, fear that God won’t provide for us, so we take things into your own hands, and
put our self first.
There’s the greed that comes from an unresolved hurt from the past. Hurt that comes from not
getting that thing we wanted, or maybe even going to bed hungry as a child, so we live by an
unspoken oath never to let that happen again, and make sure we put our self first.
There’s the greed that comes from being suspicious of others. That they’ll out-compete us, or in
some other way deprive us of what we want. So we put ourselves first and make sure this doesn’t
happen. In the words of Vince Lombardi, “The best defense is a good offense.”
Have you noticed what all of these things have in common? In each of these cases, we put
ourselves first. We start with some motive that may seem reasonable, then we make a decision to do
something that Jesus identifies as sin. When we put our self first, it’s very hard to love our neighbor.
It’s a subtle snare, and Jesus says, “Beware! Be on you guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s
life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” There are many things in this life more
important than possessions, and our treatment of others is one of these. But more important even
than this, is our disposition toward God.
Jesus then tells a story to illustrate this point. He tells of a wealthy landowner who has a farm that’s
producing abundant crops. In fact, the crops are so abundant that his barn and granaries and silos
can’t even hold the produce. He’s got more than he’ll ever need for a long, long time to come. So he
says, “By gosh, I’ve got so much I’m going to start giving to charity! I’m going to become a
philanthropist! I’m going to give to the synagogue and share my excess with the poor and all of my
neighbors!” Is that what he says? Nosirree Bob.
Instead, he decides to tear down his barns and granaries and silos and build bigger ones, so he can
live indefinitely on the bounty, and he can say to his soul, “You’re in the money! You’re on easy
street! Kick back, eat and drink to your heart’s content, and be merry.” He utterly neglects the needs
of others in favor of his own comfort, and utterly forgets the source of all of his bounty—the God
who provides all, and if he were to withdraw for one instant His life-sustaining mercy, we and all of
our possessions would collapse into dust.
And God, never one to mince words, says, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of
you. And the things you’ve prepared, whose will they be?” [These things you’ve hoarded for
yourself, who gets them when you’re gone?] In the words of an old Spanish proverb, “There are no
pockets in a burial shroud.” You see, Jesus is confronting a very basic problem of vision in the man
in His story. This man never saw much beyond himself, and he never saw beyond this world. Jesus
is saying that this puts him in great danger. The landowner thinks this is all there is, and tries to
make himself as secure and satiated as he possibly can, and Jesus says, “You have no idea how
dangerous this thinking is! There’s much more than this physical life—life goes on forever and the
decisions you make in this life are of critical importance in the context of that larger life.” Excessive
materialism is one of the most pervasive and overwhelming temptations in Western culture. And
judging by Jesus’ teaching, it certainly was also well known in His time. It’s every bit as dangerous
now as it was then.
So what are the specific dangers of greed? There are certainly two major dangers. The first of these
is a life of ultimate meaninglessness and disillusionment. If we put all of our eggs in the basket of
material comfort and possessions, these eggs will ultimately spoil, and we’ll be left with nothing. The
emptiness of this kind of life is captured in the irony of the bumper sticker: “The one who dies with
the most toys, wins.” Wins what? Did you even think about that? Is the Armani suit he’s buried in
really going to earn a certificate of achievement from the Lord?
The writer of Ecclesiastes expresses this poignantly in today’s Old Testament reading. He says, “I
built houses and planted vineyards for myself; I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in
them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools, bought slaves, had great herds and flocks. Then I
considered all that my hands had done and the toil I’d spent doing it, and all was vanity and a
chasing after the wind.” Ultimately, it all meant nothing. Zip, zero, nada.
You see, we human beings were not designed even to be satisfied with things temporal. We were
designed for eternity, and until we make peace with the God who made it possible for us to have
things, we won’t have peace in our own lives. Material possessions are in no way a substitute for the
permanent blessings that derive from God’s love for us, the chief of which is the gift of His Son, our
Savior, Jesus Christ, who brings us peace with God.
The second great danger of greed is the danger of idolatry. Idolatry, the fundamental sin, the thing
that results from putting other things, including ourselves, ahead of God.
From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible’s warnings against idolatry are absolutely pervasive. It’s no
accident that the very first of the Ten Commandments says, “You shall have no other gods before
me.” This isn’t simply about Baal, or Molech, or Zeus, or Krishna, but anything that is not God, taking
God’s place—taking preeminence in our lives. Our reading from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians has
Paul imploring his readers: “Set your mind on things that are above, not on earth, and put to death
whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry).”
Put these things to death because they threaten your soul with death. Whatever’s a god to us will
show in our priorities. What do we put ahead of God? Our jobs? Our friends? Our reputation? Our I-
Pads? Our bank accounts? Whatever it is, it will play out in our behavior.
There’s the story of a farmer named Finnegan who lived alone in the Irish countryside except for a
pet dog he doted on. The dog finally died, and Finnegan went to the parish priest, saying "Father,
the dog is dead. Could you possibly be saying a mass for the poor creature?"
Father Patrick told the farmer "No, we can't have services for an animal in the church, but I'll tell you
what, there's a new denomination down the road a piece, and no telling what they believe in, but
maybe they'll do something for the animal."
Finnegan said "I'll go right now. By the way, do you think $50,000 is enough to donate for the
service?" Father Patrick replied, "Eeeeee, why didn't you tell me the dog was Catholic?"
At the promise of more of what we want most, any one of us is capable of changing our priorities.
This is the point—not that it’s intrinsically evil to have money or belongings. Jesus never said it was.
It’s a matter of whom you serve. It’s a matter of where you place your priorities. Jesus put one rich
young ruler to the test, not to show that his wealth was itself the main problem, but to press him to
decide what or whom he was willing to serve. Would he give away his riches to follow the Lord?
Sadly, he would not.
The Lord wasn’t his main priority. He was not, in Jesus’ words, rich toward God. When you’re rich
toward God, all of your decisions, all the allocation of your resources and money and time and
attention, will be mindful of God’s priorities and of His provision.
The great Anglican priest John Wesley had a personal rule in which he saved all of the money he
could, and gave all he could. He started his ministry at Oxford earning 30 pounds a year. He lived on
28 and gave away 2. Later, his income increased to 60, then 90, then 120 pounds a year, but he
still kept 28 pounds and gave away the balance.
At that time in Britain there was some kind of bureaucrat called the Accountant General for
Household Plate. (I know nothing about this—maybe it was kind of like The Ministry of Silly Walks.)
But when this officer demanded a return from Wesley, his reply was,
“I have two silver tea spoons at London and two at Bristol. This is all the plate which I have at
present; and I shall not buy any more, while so many around me want bread.” I know of one person
involved in the homeless ministry who lives kind of like this, only without the silver teaspoons.
Wesley was rich toward God. And the reason he was rich toward God is that he knew God, and
trusted His provision. You see, for the Christian the opposite of greed may not be generosity, but a
trust in God’s generosity. When we trust in God’s generosity, being generous ourselves comes
naturally. We become good stewards of what God has generously given us.
This isn’t always easy. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve woken up in the middle of the night fretting
over bills and debts. And if I let it, my anxiety—an anxiety that the Lord specifically instructs us
against—results in me not loving God and my neighbor as I should. Because, to slightly alter
something Forrest Gump said, “Love is as love does.”
And if I’m focused on my own insecurity, my love is not “doing.”
In the scheme of eternity, love toward God and neighbor is what’s important. And that love is a
response to the love God has already shown us. The one who knows and loves God, and has
received the limitless gift of eternal life by trusting in Christ’s atoning grace on the Cross; the one
who’s learned that we, like the birds of the air and the lilies in the field, can trust in God’s provision
for our needs, is the one who has a treasure that absolutely nothing, including even death itself, can
ever snatch out of his hands. And it’s out of this treasure that we may draw and offer back to our
Lord, so that we will be counted rich toward God. Amen.
August 1, 2010
The Rev. Dan Tuton
The Rev. Dan Tuton
Rich Toward God
(Luke 12:13-21)
(Luke 12:13-21)
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