THE STRAIGHTFORWARD PULPIT

Text:  Luke 12:13-21

Theme:  "Hoarders"

11th Sunday after Pentecost

August 4, 2013

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

 

+In the Name of Jesus+

 

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

¹⁴ Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” ¹⁵ Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

¹⁶ And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. ¹⁷ He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

¹⁸ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. ¹⁹ And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

²¹ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Are you ready for this?  I do not watch "reality" TVshows.  I hope this isn't a symptom of being an old fuddy-duddy, but I'll take that risk.  I have nothing against anyone who enjoys reality TV; it's fine and dandy with me if you want to watch it, but it's just not my cup of tea.  Nevertheless, it's a good thing -- I think; I hope! -- for pastors to keep a least a little bit current with folks what are watching on the tube.  It's helps to stay reasonably conversant with the culture, that way you can track where it is headed.

 

Today's Gospel reminded me of a show that I had heard about but never watched.  It's called "Hoarders".  Thank goodness, there is Wikipedia to bring one up to speed.  Technically, it's not so much a reality show as it is a documentary.  "It depicts," according to Wikipedia, "the real-life struggles and treatment of people who suffer from compulsive hoarding."  As it turns out, these hoarders are intervened upon by psychiatrists, psychologists, professional organizers, and folks they call "extreme cleaning specialists."  You get the idea.

 

The parable of Jesus, in Luke 12, includes reference to a hoarder. The hoarder thinks to himself:  "What shall I do?  I have no place to store my crops.  This is what I'll do.  I'll tear down my barns and build bigger ones.  I'll say to myself, 'You have plenty of grain laid up for many years.  Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.'" 

 

Unfortunately, this is where the comparison falls apart.  This hoarder, unlike the poor unfortunate souls on the TV show, does not appear to be suffering at all; he is not in need of an intervention.  He has lots of what we, if we are honest with ourselves, really want:  that is security.  He has enough stuff -- in fact, far more than enough stuff -- to be secure for the rest of his life, or so he thinks.  His ship had come in, as they say.  He'd won the lotto of life.

 

He may have been something of an Epicurean. Epicureans adhered to a philosophy called "Epicureanism."  Established by a man named Epicurus, some three hundred fifty years or so before the time of Jesus, Epicureans were all about pleasure.  Religion and God getting involved in the affairs of human beings was hokus-pokus; it was all a bunch of superstition. Pleasure is the greatest good.  Hence, take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.

 

As you and I track where our own culture is headed whether we watch reality TV or not, it's fairly obvious that Epicureanism is experiencing something of a renewal.  Oh, it's not so much called Epicureanism, but the philosophy itself is alive and well.  "Eat, drink, and be merry" is often the alternative choice when confronted with the endless pessimisms and cynicisms of our day and the doom and gloom that is plastered over our newspapers, iPads, and the editorial pages of The Denton Record-Chronicle.  The country is falling apart; the government is spying on us; there are no jobs; people are shackled with debt; we may fall victim to a terminal illness.  So why not?  Eat, drink, and be merry.  If you don't have the resources to eat, drink, and be merry, then you best buddy-up with people who do.

 

Jesus was no Epicurean.  In the person of Jesus, God did intervene in the affairs of mankind.  In the parable of Jesus, God says to the rich man:  "You fool!  This very night your life will be demanded from you.  Then who will get what you have prepared (or hoarded) for yourself?"

 

One of my mentors, the late Dr. Oswald Hoffmann, once told the story of a little girl who went to her friend's house.  She noticed the friend and the friend's family had a swimming pool.  Her friend had lots of the latest toys and a beautiful, spacious bedroom.  When the little girl got home, her mother noticed that she was disappointed.  Her mother asked what was bothering her.  She looked around her own house which was rather small and sparse.  She said, "My friend has so many nice things that I wish I had."   Sensing a teaching moment, the mother sat down with her daughter and drew up two lists.  The first list included all the things that the girl's friend and family had that she didn't have.  The second list included all the things that the girl had that the friend didn't have.  It included things  like this:  "We love each other; we go to church together;  we go on trips together; we're there for one another." The mother said:  "Now compare the two lists."   As Dr. Hoffmann told it, it didn't long to see the difference.  In one family there was a lot of fluff but little stuff.  In her own family, the daughter discovered, there wasn't a great deal of fluff, but there was a lot of stuff -- real stuff that makes for real life!

 

Jesus Christ was talking about life one day when that man came up to him and said:  "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me!"  Jesus wasn't a wills and estate attorney.  He didn't occupy the bench at some probate court.  He said  with a rather clipped tongue:  "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?"  Then He said to everyone in range of His voice:  "With your eyes wide open, keep yourself free from every form of greed.  For a person's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he or she possesses."

 

Things are things -- whether they be from Wal-Mart or Nordstrom's, Old Navy or Banana Republic, Timex or Rolex,  Hyundai or Lexus!  Things are things and they will never be anything but things.  But Jesus Christ is life, real life, and He will never be anything else but life!   John the Evangelist said that "In Him was life, and that life was the light men."

 

One commentary on today's text said that the story "spits and sizzles like a barbeque grill in the backyard."  It puts forth a startling challenge:  be rich, it seems to say.  But don't be rich in the way of the hoarder.  Don't be rich in the way of the Epicurean.  Discover what it means to be rich toward God!

 

In just a few minutes, we'll get a good start on being rich toward God.  The most precious riches of God will be signed, sealed, and delivered to us at the Lord's table.  Eat, drink, and be merry at the Lord's Supper!  We do so not because we seek to be hoarders or Epicureans.  We eat at this table and drink at this table because we are children of God, and our lives are not defined by what we have but by who we are. 

 

Amen.