July 31, 2016

Helen Jacobi

Ordinary 18     Ecclesiastes 1:2,12-14; 2:18-25     Psalm 49:1-12     Colossians 3:1-11     Luke 12:13-21

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“Vanity, vanity, all is vanity” – no, not a quote describing an American Political Convention – but the writer of Ecclesiastes who says – what is the point of working hard, of seeking wisdom; we end up with nothing. Some very honest words from this writer. The Book of Ecclesiastes is a collection of sayings and musings from an unknown author in maybe 200BC. The author talks back and forwards about the challenges of life, and his most famous passage is “for everything there is a season – a time to be born, a time to die…”. In this piece when he uses the word translated as “vanity”, it does not mean being vain – as in – don’t I look gorgeous today – it means how insubstantial things are, how they are made of nothing – like all my efforts were in vain. I think we can be surprised sometimes by how honest biblical writers can be. This is not “everything will be alright because God loves you”; this is “life sucks – I seem to get nowhere”. He also says “Eat, drink, and be merry”, because we have worked for it and who knows what those who come after us might do with what we leave them, better to enjoy it now! God has given us these good things to enjoy and so we shall. “Eat, drink and be merry” – also not a phrase we expect to read in the Bible. Both Ecclesiastes (9:17) and Isaiah (22:13) use it and it pops up again in our gospel reading.

Jesus is preaching we are told to a crowd of thousands and a bright soul pipes up – wanting Jesus to solve a family dispute. Rabbis such as Jesus were often called upon to sit as judges in community or family cases. In this case, in Mosaic law the eldest son of a family got double what the rest of the sons got. (And of course the girls didn’t get anything). So probably this man wants a half share, equal with his older brother. Or the land was left to all the sons together but was not split up – so they worked it together. [1] And so this son wants the land sold and the profits shared. (Think the Prodigal Son (Luke 15) asking his father for his inheritance before the father dies). Jesus is known for changing the rules and breaking them so the younger brother is hopeful he will be on his side.

Jesus declines to be drawn in and instead gives a very strong rebuke in the form of a parable. A rich landowner has a bumper crop – not a lot to do with his skill probably, more to do with the weather and the skill of his workers on the land. But plenty of farmers in Jesus’ audience would have been pleased to have his problem – what to do with this crop? And note the landowner says “I” and “me” all the time – what shall I do with my crops; I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones to store my grain. While our rich man can quote Ecclesiastes (eat, drink and be merry) he has clearly forgotten Isaiah 5:8 where the prophet describes the unrighteous. “Ah, you who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is room for no one but you, and you are left to live alone in the midst of the land!” Those who only look after themselves to the exclusion of others will end up alone.

In Biblical times people lived very much in community, the concept of individual ownership was not as we have it today – and even if a landowner owned a farm the decisions made about the farm were made in community, thinking of the workers and all those whose lives depended on it. Otherwise Isaiah says you will be left alone.

Which is indeed what happens to the man in the parable – he is happy, his barns are built, he can relax. …Except God says – this very night your life is being demanded of you – the same phrase you would use for a loan being recalled from the bank – your life is being demanded of you – and what use then is all your stuff? Now I would love to hear some sermons from the US today on this passage – it would be very easy to pivot to equating Donald Trump with the man in the parable – building bigger barns and keeping it all for himself. We could do that too – and so escape having to look to ourselves. For those of us who have the privilege of enjoying our “stuff”, our clothes, our furniture, our books, our cars – these are challenging words, for you and me. What is our attitude? Are we hoarding like the farmer in the parable? Or can we sit lightly to what we own? Jesus says instead of storing up treasures for yourselves be rich toward God. “Rich toward God” – what does that mean?

Think for a moment of the readings from the last few Sundays and we will find that we have been given some clues about being rich towards God. 3 Sundays ago the reading was the Good Samaritan – compassion and care for our neighbour, especially our neighbour who is very different from us. Two Sundays ago – the story of Mary and Martha – Martha you are distracted by many things (many possessions?)– Mary has chosen to listen – listening; Last Sunday Jesus taught his disciples to pray and to trust in God in prayer. Luke has lined up all these passages to give us some clues when we get to this challenging parable. (It doesn’t get any easier next week we will be told to sell all our possessions.) So being rich towards God involves: compassion and care for neighbour; listening to God and each other; prayer; not being ruled by our possessions. These are the things that store up for us “treasure in heaven”, or bring us close to God.

If the landowner had thought about these things he might not have built bigger barns but instead found ways to share his crop with his neighbours; listened to the prophets; prayed about his actions (instead of having a dialogue with himself – I will say to my soul); and not finished life wedded to his possessions.

That is how we might read this parable at a personal level; what happens if we broaden our scope and take it to a community level which is certainly how Jesus’ listeners would have heard it. As we worry about homelessness in our community, and the need for more houses, how do we look at the Unitary Plan and the need for denser housing. Do we say “Not in my backyard”? or do we embrace the changes knowing more people will have access to housing? Yesterday’s Herald newspaper had headlines yet again about housing – but about houses increasing in price dramatically as they are onsold time after time instead of being rented to families who need them. We need more controls to make sure houses do not sit empty. As we see growing poverty in our country do we pay a living wage from our businesses or do we say that is fine for others but not for me. Then at a global level do we reject the call for more refugees to find a new home? Do we reject those immigrants who long to come and share our beautiful country. Do we say no our land is for us alone? So now the parable becomes about a society or culture and our collective attitude to wealth, and land, and justice. Jesus’ time was no less political than ours. The rights of landowners and peasant workers, rights of inheritance, paying taxes, who had much and who had nothing – were all very hot political issues.

What treasured possessions in your life might get in the way of storing up treasure with God? What as a culture or a nation gets in the way of us being hospitable and compassionate to our neighbours who need us? So two hard choices today: We can despair with the writer of Ecclesiastes – and say it is all vanity – what is the point of worrying about anything; or we can be challenged by Jesus – what are the riches of your life? what really matters? what motivates you? How best can we share what we have.

[1] Kenneth Bailey Through Peasant Eyes p58