Calvin Synod Herald, 2010 (111. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2010-11-01 / 11-12. szám
6 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD up an agenda for 2011 Conference. 9. “Professional Development” for emerging Church leaders. Booklet: So you want to be an Elder. 10. Encourage unification of denominations. 11. Put in God’s hands. Prayer works miracles. 12. Encourage others to seek office in the Association. 13. Make it short/worthwhile. Rich Toward God “ ‘ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my bams and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” “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?’ “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” ‘ - Luke 12:13-21 We do not know how the grower in Jesus’ story became rich - rich enough to tear down his old bams and erect new and greater ones. Maybe he had three straight years of good weather and bumper crops. Or maybe he sold off 120 acres for condos at four times the agricultural price. But we do know at least a few things about this man. One, he got rich and spent it all on himself. He gave no evidence that he saw himself as a steward of resources from God. God did not enter the picture. A second thing we know about this man is he sought security. When the new bams were in place he gloated over his situation. He found a big easy chair, took out an imported cigar, leaned back and said, “Relax! Eat, drink and be merry! All is well!” A third thing we may notice about this man is this: he was on borrowed time. He forgot the principal stated by Jesus, “A person’s life does not belong to himself, no matter how rich he is.” So he sought security but he found only a gasping for breath and the end of his earthly life. In that moment he did not know how to talk to God, since he had spiritual narcissism. He talked only to himself - “Soul, take your ease.” And so he died a pathetic man who thought that a human being lives by bread alone, rather than the Word from the mouth of God. And what may this say to us across the centuries? One time I offered a Bible Study at a Senior Center in Wauseon, Ohio. Only a few showed up. A woman said, “If we were having bingo today the room would be crowded.” This sounds like Jesus’ story. We live in a consumer society where someone is constantly seeking to convince us of our need of more, more, more. . . for personal security, retirement security, homeland security. Is it not difficult to live simply in this consumer society? Yes! This is why so many overspend their credit cards, grow delinquent on the mortgage and face foreclosure. How may we distinguish between what may be necessary or good for our lives from what may be superfluous or even injurious? The preacher cannot draw for you a line of clear demarcation. The line may differ from individuals to individual, from family to family. But we learn a lot from this man in Jesus’ story. Do we have our wits about us or are we in danger of losing our minds? Our souls? If we think more possessions will secure our lives we are living in a never-never land, and forgetting we are on borrowed time. Do we talk with God about these things or do we, like the rich farmer, have a case of spiritual narcissism, in which we just talk to ourselves, “Soul, take your ease.” Unlike the man in the story, are we numbering our days so as to get a view of wisdom? What may we say then? Is not the only security we have in this life to be rich toward God? And what does rich toward God mean? Rich toward God means not being possessed by our possessions. Rich toward God means talking with God about our lives and our possessions and not just holding a soliloquy with ourselves. Rich toward God means being a steward in the here and now, not a hoarder as if we could hold onto it and take it with us. Rich toward God means our lives - not just our talk - show we know the answer to Jesus’ question, “What does it profit a person if he/she gains the whole world and loses his/her soul?” The gospel of Jesus Christ is not so much a prosperity gospel as it is an austerity Gospel. God as revealed in Christ does not care about our bank account or possessions as long as we have food and shelter. Faith that yields good works - this is the only richness that counts for time and eternity. This is not the gospel of Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal. It is the gospel of the Christ who still calls us to “Seek first the reign of God and the right ways of God, and all other things necessary for our lives will likely come our way.” Amen. Rev. David B. Bowman, Ph.D
