Dressed For Action
Luke 12:32-40
This Scripture passage reminds me of an episode from the old “Dick Van Dyke Show”. The show involved the sit-com adventures of Rob and Laure Petrie, played by Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. The episode that I remember best is the one about the birth of their son Richie. In this episode they are expecting his arrival any minute. They are both nervous and waiting for a sign that they need to go to the hospital. It is bedtime and they are both lying in bed with the lights out. Then Laura makes a sound or says something that gives Rob the impression that is it time to go. His eyes pop open, he reaches behind his head for his hat, and in one swift move, he sits up, puts his hat on his head, and throws off the covers. It is then that we see that he is fully dressed, including sport coat, tie, and shoes. He steps out of the bed, grabs a suitcase, which has been strategically placed next to the bed, and is almost out the door before Laura can get his attention and tell him that it is not time to go yet. It is not time, but Rob is ready to go at a moment’s notice. He is dressed for action.
In the Scripture passage, Jesus tells his disciples to be dressed for action and to have their lamps lit. He says “You don’t know when the master of the house will return, so you need to always be ready.” Luke wrote this account when there were no high expectations that Jesus would return. He wrote about 40 years after the resurrection of Jesus, and about 10 years after the fall of Jerusalem. The times were fairly stable, much like the times in the world today. There is no threat of World War 3, nor is there a threat that there is a major world crisis on the horizon. The world is relatively quiet.
Jesus’ words today warn people to not be complacent, or to take too much for granted. He gives a wake-up call, or a reality check, to help people to remember what is ultimately important and what really matters. Sometimes we get a reality check in our personal lives. We, or someone we know, may get bad news from test results, or a tragedy may occur that touches our lives, or we may lose our jobs. Such events can cause us to ask ourselves what is really important.
A few years ago, Ben Stein wrote an article about his best friend, who was prominent English psychiatrist. His friend was 57 years old when he committed suicide in 2000. “The good doctor, probably as smart a man as I have known, was tormented by the stock market…There were other big factors in his suicide, but his perceived failures as an investor and speculator were an immense factor in putting him into a suicidal depression…We are not how much money we make. We are fathers, mothers, spouses, children, friends, lovers…Our money is a very small part of us. How much we made in the market is an even smaller part. Few obituaries talk about the investments the loved one made or how they did. No eulogist talks about whether the decedent got into Microsoft early or sold GE too soon.”
Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid, for your Father wants to give you the Kingdom. Sell what you have and give it to the poor. Make for yourselves purses that never wear out…Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” In other words Jesus was saying that we should make investments that last forever. If we measure our value by our net worth, and if our portfolios or bank accounts define who we are, then we miss out on the gift of the kingdom of God. We are not dressed for action, or ready for the Master to return.
Ben Cohen is the co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. As a result of the sale of the business, he became a very wealthy man. He has used some of his wealth to found an investment fund that buys companies in low income neighborhoods, where he can increase wages and other employee benefits. The first company that the fund bought was Sun and Earth, a maker of cleaning products. Since the company was purchased, wages are up as much as 23%, and the employees of the company have company-sponsored health insurance for the first time.
We may not have the financial resources to buy companies that benefit employees, but we can be generous with what we have. We can look beyond ourselves and share what we have with others. As someone has said, “In order to be generous, we need to recognize our selfishness.” We need to get in touch with reality. It is easy to settle for the status quo when everything is going well.
Jesus’ words call us to evaluate our lives, and see if we are ready for the Master to return. We can ask ourselves two questions. 1. Where is your treasure, what is really important to you? Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” 2. Are you ready for the Master to return? If you knew that now was the time, would you be ready to put on your hat, jump out of bed, grab the suitcase, and be ready to go? As Jesus said, ”Blessed are those servants who are ready and awake when their master returns.”
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
You Can't Take It With You
You Can’t Take It With You
Luke 12:13-21
How much money would it take to make you happy? Let’s say you are on a TV game show and you have already won $2,000. But on the show they offer you a chance to win $10,000. The catch is that in order to try to win the $10,000, you no longer would keep the $2,000 that you have already won. Would you take the risk of ending up with nothing to try and win $10,000?
In his speeches and conversations with people, Jesus often talked about money and possessions. In fact, 16 of his 38 parables deal with money and possessions. 1 of 10 verses in the Gospels deals with money. In the entire Bible there are roughly 500 verses about prayer, approximately 500 verses about faith, and over 2,000 verses about money. These numbers show that Jesus talked often about money and that he knew that money was important to the people in his times, just as it is important to us in our times.
In Luke 12:13ff, a man comes to Jesus with a problem. The problem is with the division of the family estate. The problem and the response of Jesus to it, raise several issues regarding money and possessions. One issue is competition and conflicts between people, in this case two brothers, regarding what belongs to whom. A second issue is greed. Jesus gives a warning about it. The third issue is about wealth and poverty. Jesus says that it is possible to be materially wealthy and spiritually poor.
The first issue of conflict is raised by the man’s request of Jesus. “Tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me. “ He asks Jesus to be a judge and to tell his brother to give him his share of the family estate. It is all too common for family members to have disagreements and conflict over inheritance when a loved one dies. It can test the love and patience within a family. The conflicts are not always resolved with family relationships intact. We all have a sense of what is fair and just. You might say we have this noble sense of what is right. We might not think it is fair when someone buys a new house, a new car, a boat, or expensive clothes. And children seem to learn early to complain when someone else gets more than they do. They can learn early to say that it’s not fair.
But Jesus doesn’t attempt to resolve the family conflict in this story. He knows that family relationships can be a good place to learn that life is not fair. Families can give us the opportunities to learn what it means to be gracious and what it means to live together in harmony. Jesus also knows that sometimes there are no winners in family conflicts. So he doesn’t directly address the issue of family conflict, but draws attention to another issue.
The second issue raised in this story is the problem of greed. He gives a warning to this man and to everyone within the sound of his voice. Jesus says, ”Take care. Be on guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” In other words, Jesus says that a good life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot of money and things. He says that there is more to life than just accumulating possessions.
The issue of greed is an important one in our society. We can all acknowledge that we live in a consumer society. We like to buy things. We are rarely satisfied. We think about things that we “need”, when we usually have everything that we need. But there are many things that we want. Somewhere I read that people have realized that money can’t buy happiness, so now they are trying credit cards.
Leo Tolstoy wrote a story entitled “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”. In the story, a man has a chance to buy all the land he could walk around in a one day trip for a thousand rubles. (Let’s say that was $1000.) In the story, the man walked as far as he could, and then a little farther. As he rushed to return to his starting point at the end of the day, the man collapsed and died. As the story ends, Tolstoy answers the question of how much land a man needs: “Six feet from his head to his heal was all he needed.”
The third issue in this Scripture lesson is poverty. Jesus tells the story of a rich farmer who had a bumper crop one year. So the farmer decided to build bigger barns to store the surplus. It sounds like a good business idea, a good investment. But Jesus goes on to say that this man would die soon after building the barns and his wealth would belong to someone else. The problem the man had was that while it may have been a good business move to build bigger barns, it was a bad life idea. The problem was that the farmer was selfish and tried to protect himself by hoarding his crop. He was only concerned about himself.
Jesus often taught that in order to be spiritually rich, people should share what they have with others. He told one man to sell all that he had and give it to the poor. He told others to welcome strangers, the poor, the homeless, and to help those in need. He watched a widow put two coins in the temple treasury, and said that she was faithful because her giving involved risk and faith. The farmer in this story could be called a poor rich man. He was rich in terms of this world’s goods, but he was poor in faith.
Life and money are both gifts from God. In this story, the farmer lost both his life and his money. The message is that if we only find meaning and security in what we have, that is, in our possessions, we are foolish. People who are obsessed with money and possessions live lonely lives. But Jesus says that there is more to life that what we own, or how much money we have. Jesus says that the quality of our lives is measured by how much we give to others. If we are generous in sharing what we have, then we will be rich in faith. After all, we can’t take it with us.
Luke 12:13-21
How much money would it take to make you happy? Let’s say you are on a TV game show and you have already won $2,000. But on the show they offer you a chance to win $10,000. The catch is that in order to try to win the $10,000, you no longer would keep the $2,000 that you have already won. Would you take the risk of ending up with nothing to try and win $10,000?
In his speeches and conversations with people, Jesus often talked about money and possessions. In fact, 16 of his 38 parables deal with money and possessions. 1 of 10 verses in the Gospels deals with money. In the entire Bible there are roughly 500 verses about prayer, approximately 500 verses about faith, and over 2,000 verses about money. These numbers show that Jesus talked often about money and that he knew that money was important to the people in his times, just as it is important to us in our times.
In Luke 12:13ff, a man comes to Jesus with a problem. The problem is with the division of the family estate. The problem and the response of Jesus to it, raise several issues regarding money and possessions. One issue is competition and conflicts between people, in this case two brothers, regarding what belongs to whom. A second issue is greed. Jesus gives a warning about it. The third issue is about wealth and poverty. Jesus says that it is possible to be materially wealthy and spiritually poor.
The first issue of conflict is raised by the man’s request of Jesus. “Tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me. “ He asks Jesus to be a judge and to tell his brother to give him his share of the family estate. It is all too common for family members to have disagreements and conflict over inheritance when a loved one dies. It can test the love and patience within a family. The conflicts are not always resolved with family relationships intact. We all have a sense of what is fair and just. You might say we have this noble sense of what is right. We might not think it is fair when someone buys a new house, a new car, a boat, or expensive clothes. And children seem to learn early to complain when someone else gets more than they do. They can learn early to say that it’s not fair.
But Jesus doesn’t attempt to resolve the family conflict in this story. He knows that family relationships can be a good place to learn that life is not fair. Families can give us the opportunities to learn what it means to be gracious and what it means to live together in harmony. Jesus also knows that sometimes there are no winners in family conflicts. So he doesn’t directly address the issue of family conflict, but draws attention to another issue.
The second issue raised in this story is the problem of greed. He gives a warning to this man and to everyone within the sound of his voice. Jesus says, ”Take care. Be on guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” In other words, Jesus says that a good life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot of money and things. He says that there is more to life than just accumulating possessions.
The issue of greed is an important one in our society. We can all acknowledge that we live in a consumer society. We like to buy things. We are rarely satisfied. We think about things that we “need”, when we usually have everything that we need. But there are many things that we want. Somewhere I read that people have realized that money can’t buy happiness, so now they are trying credit cards.
Leo Tolstoy wrote a story entitled “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”. In the story, a man has a chance to buy all the land he could walk around in a one day trip for a thousand rubles. (Let’s say that was $1000.) In the story, the man walked as far as he could, and then a little farther. As he rushed to return to his starting point at the end of the day, the man collapsed and died. As the story ends, Tolstoy answers the question of how much land a man needs: “Six feet from his head to his heal was all he needed.”
The third issue in this Scripture lesson is poverty. Jesus tells the story of a rich farmer who had a bumper crop one year. So the farmer decided to build bigger barns to store the surplus. It sounds like a good business idea, a good investment. But Jesus goes on to say that this man would die soon after building the barns and his wealth would belong to someone else. The problem the man had was that while it may have been a good business move to build bigger barns, it was a bad life idea. The problem was that the farmer was selfish and tried to protect himself by hoarding his crop. He was only concerned about himself.
Jesus often taught that in order to be spiritually rich, people should share what they have with others. He told one man to sell all that he had and give it to the poor. He told others to welcome strangers, the poor, the homeless, and to help those in need. He watched a widow put two coins in the temple treasury, and said that she was faithful because her giving involved risk and faith. The farmer in this story could be called a poor rich man. He was rich in terms of this world’s goods, but he was poor in faith.
Life and money are both gifts from God. In this story, the farmer lost both his life and his money. The message is that if we only find meaning and security in what we have, that is, in our possessions, we are foolish. People who are obsessed with money and possessions live lonely lives. But Jesus says that there is more to life that what we own, or how much money we have. Jesus says that the quality of our lives is measured by how much we give to others. If we are generous in sharing what we have, then we will be rich in faith. After all, we can’t take it with us.
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