August 5, 2007
Rev. Susan Gilbert Zencka
Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church

Text: Luke 12:13-34

A man was driving along the freeway when a pig falls off the livestock truck ahead of him.  The man stops, puts the pig in his car, and starts chasing the truck to return the pig.  As fast as he's going, trying to catch up, he gets pulled over for speeding.  "Do you know how fast you were going?" asks the officer. "Yessir," replies the man, "But this pig fell off a truck and I was trying to catch up to return it." "Forget it," said the officer, "Just take the pig to the zoo."  So the man drives off toward the zoo. The next day, the officer is on the side of the road when the same car goes by, again speeding. The officer pulls him over, and upon coming to the driver's window, observes that the pig is still in the car, on the front seat next to the man, but this time, he's wearing a baseball cap. "Didn't I tell you to take that pig to the zoo?" asks the officer. "Yessir, and I did," replies the man, "And we had so much fun that today I'm taking him to the Cub game."

Obviously, people can understand different things from the same statement.

And that has clearly been true about the Bible’s teachings around our possessions. Christians hear vastly different things in these teachings – just the police officer was saying to give the pig away, but the man thought he was being told to go enjoy the pig, so too, some Christians believe that the Bible’s teaching on wealth is to give it away, and others believe that God wants them to enjoy it.
There’s a whole approach to Christianity, called the Prosperity Gospel which teaches that God wants people to be rich, and will reward faithfulness by giving financial blessings. The prosperity gospel was preached by Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart in the 1980’s and is now taught by people like Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyers. Joel Osteen preached a sermon this year on how gratitude can "save a marriage, save your job [and] get you a promotion." He says "I preach that anybody can improve their lives. I think God wants us to be prosperous. I think he wants us to be happy. To me, you need to have money to pay your bills. I think God wants us to send our kids to college. I think he wants us to be a blessing to other people. But I don't think I'd say God wants us to be rich. It's all relative, isn't it?" He also says he doesn’t think he’s ever preached a sermon about money. Really.
Joyce Meyer says, "Why would He (God) want all of His people poverty stricken while all of the people that aren't living for God have everything?" Meyer said. "I think [that’s] old religious thinking, and I believe the devil uses it to keep people from wanting to serve God."
On the other side, Jim Bakker now says about the message he used to preach, simply, “I was wrong…the prosperity message did not line up with the tenor of the Scripture.”
And Michael Scott Horton, who teaches at the Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, CA calls the prosperity message, “…a wild and wacky theology…the religious equivalent to [the] National Enquirer… and professional wrestling.”
But, for responsible Christians who sincerely want to understand what Jesus might be teaching about money and possessions, it can still be confusing, even without the extremes of the Prosperity Gospel. It seems clear that our relationship to money and stuff is indeed a significant part of the Bible – there are many more teachings on money than there are on sexual behavior. But it is still confusing – does Jesus really intend for everyone to give away all of their belongings? After all, that’s what he advised the rich young man right before he said, “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter heaven.” So does that mean that instead of God blessing us by giving us wealth, that God actually blesses us when we give it away??
As much as I am in favor of giving money away, I think that is an oversimplification, too. Both of these extremes take a wrongheaded view to money and God – they both turn God into some kind of if A then B blessing dispenser, which flies in the face of both the Bible and everyone’s experience. Both the prosperity gospel folks and the give-it-all-away folks seem to be turning our relationship with God into a mechanism to get God’s favor.
This extended passage we read today is actually very helpful in understanding the teachings of Jesus on money, and, as we’ve been learning lately – the passages are somehow easier to understand when we look at more than just a small fragment.
Let me just walk through some of the points in the passage, and then we can reflect on the whole picture. You may find it useful to actually turn to the passage as we walk through it – the passage starts when Jesus is actually teaching about some other discipleship issues, and someone interrupts him to ask his help in an inheritance dispute – thus far, it’s a believable scenario. We know that disputes over stuff start among siblings when children aren’t even old enough to speak the word, “mine” and continue into inheritance issues. Even in families where there are not major disputes over money, there are often misunderstandings and hurt feelings over perceptions of unfairness about possessions.
Interestingly, Jesus opts out of pronouncing judgment in this case, but instead warns folks against greed, which is a word describing continual wanting without satisfaction – greed means to want more and more and more. Jesus then tells the parable often described as The Rich Fool. A couple points on this story: (1) this seems like a precursor to our modern storage locker industry – the man doesn’t have enough room for all his stuff, so he plans to build bigger barns to hold it all; (2) one word is translated in two different ways in this parable – the Greek word is psyche, and it is translated “soul” as the man talks to himself in verse 19, but it is translated “life” when God speaks to him in verse 20. The word denotes both these concepts – it describes all that makes a person who they are – it could also be translated, “self” in both places; and (3) as the parable ends, when God asks the question, “…and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” the crowd knows the answer – the things will be distributed to others.
Following the parable, he tells the people not to worry – and by worrying, Jesus is meaning not to dwell on these concerns. Jesus didn’t say, don’t be concerned about these things – he said, don’t worry, and he repeats the word “worry” three more times, and also adds that these are the things that the world strives for, and admonishes the folks, do not be afraid. I don’t see Jesus saying here, “ignore food and clothing” – what he seems to be warning against is dwelling on these cares, making these issues the central issues of life. These teachings come not very far in Luke’s Gospel after Jesus teaching that we should love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves.
Marcus Borg, in his book Jesus: Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary, reminds us that Jesus often teaches about the contrast between the broad way and the narrow way. The broad way is how most people live, the narrow way is how he is calling us to live. In this passage, he alludes to the broad way when he says, “And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things….” Borg points out that Jesus is not drawing the contrast between the evil way and the good way – Borg writes, “Rather, the broad way is the way most people live most of the time. It is not that most people are ‘wicked,’ but that most live lives structured by the conventions of their culture, by taken-for-granted notions of what life is about and how to live, by what ‘everyone knows.’” Jesus said, in John 10:10, “I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly.” Although the prosperity gospel folks often quote this verse to support their view that God wants us to have good stuff, I don’t see any justification for that interpretation – but I do think that it means Jesus is saying, ordinary people can live extraordinary lives. The difference comes, says Borg, when we live lives that are centered in God, as Jesus did. Borg explains that this means taking a step beyond ‘believing in God” to “beloving God”.
And I think this passage, in its entirety, underscores that explanation. Jesus says three times in this passage things that lead to this understanding. First, Jesus criticizes those “…who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” If we go back to his warning about greed – that state of mind that just wants more and more and more without ever being satisfied – Jesus is suggesting that we have that sort of desire for God: that our desire for God should be what drives us, that when we truly begin to know God, we will want to experience more of God. It is the same sort of language that Jesus uses in verse 31, when he says, “…instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.” Jesus isn’t promising us prosperity, by the way, just teaching that when our primary goal is serving God, we will not go hungry. And finally, he closes by reminding us, “…where your treasure is, there your heart will be also….” – the heart, remember, was the seat of action. It was the motivating force that resulted in behavior. So Jesus is reminding us that what we most value in life, our treasure, will be what will drive our behavior.
Spiritual poverty is not a matter of being evil, but of missing the good life we could have. It’s a life characterized by a lack of trust in God, a lack of interest in the kingdom, and a lack of generosity toward those in need.
Jesus doesn’t teach, I don’t think, that we can’t have any belongings. After all, there are also examples of Jesus being with wealthy people, and not telling them to give it all away. He is teaching, however, that our stuff can own us. I remember years ago, when we had a new car, and it was my first new car (a grey mini-van with jazzy teal, pink and purple stripes on the side), and I loved it much. I was, in fact, a little nervous about driving it, because it was such a gleamingly beautiful piece of transportation. Finally, one day it got the tiniest little ding – a little appleseed-sized dimple on the door. And with that, the spell was broken. I still really enjoyed the car and got pleasure from it, but it no longer owned me. I didn’t worry about it anymore.
How does our feeling about our stuff impact our behavior? Do we care about our car so much that we take two parking places to protect it from other cars? That car owns us. Do we care about our money so much that it interferes with our discipleship? Or does our money give us new opportunities to serve God?
Carl and I ate at Christian’s Bistro yesterday morning, the newish restaurant in Plover, and I noticed that it is not open on Sunday or Monday.  Christian’s is a breakfast and lunch restaurant that could obviously build a big Sunday business – so I asked why they were closed on that day, and was told that the owners have two small children and keep two days for family time.  They are making a living, and they need to take those days off to make a life. 
Jeffrey Sachs is an internationally-renowned economist who has written a book called, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for our Time. In it, he shows that we have the ability to end poverty in our world. And when we consider not only global income and poverty levels, but also the environmental burden of the lifestyle that we all take for granted, we begin to see that it is clear we must learn to live differently. Environmentalism, world poverty concerns, and theology all tell us that a life of materialism is not life-giving. But I’m not sure that a new asceticism of giving it all away is what is needed either – Sachs shows that solving poverty is within reach if it becomes a priority for us. I believe that Jesus shows us that faithful living is within reach, too, but that it does involve different priorities than the culture’s, and that is as true now as it ever was.
I read the following story by Florence Ferrier, a social worker in poverty-stricken Appalachia. She tells the story of the Sheldons. “The Sheldons were a large family in severe financial distress after a series of misfortunes. The help they received was not adequate, yet they managed their meager income with ingenuity -- and without complaint.
“One fall day I visited the Sheldons in the ramshackle rented house they lived in at the edge of the woods. Despite a painful physical handicap, Mr. Sheldon had shot and butchered a bear which strayed into their yard once too often. The meat had been processed into all the big canning jars they could find or swap for. There would be meat in their diet even during the worst of the winter when their fuel costs were high.
“Mr. Sheldon offered me a jar of bear meat. I hesitated to accept it, but the giver met my unspoken resistance firmly. ‘Now you just have to take this. We want you to have it. We don't have much, that's a fact; but we ain't poor!’
“I couldn't resist asking, ‘What's the difference?’ His answer proved unforgettable.
“‘When you can give something away, even when you don't have much, then you ain't poor. When you don't feel easy giving something away even if you got more'n you need, then you're poor, whether you know it or not.’”
As we center in God, when our relationship with God becomes the most important thing in our lives, we find ourselves less attached to our stuff, and experiencing joy when we give some of it away. This was the real loss for the rich fool in the parable – his stuff would be shared with others after his death anyway, but he missed the richness of sharing it.
The followers of Jesus were known as people of The Way. The Way wasn’t a destination to some place in the future, the Way was a manner of living in the present. A retreat movement that I used to be part of started the weekend retreat by asking the questions, “What do you think about? How do you spend your time? How do you use your money?” The way we answer those questions tells us what we worry about, what we dwell on, where our treasure is. Are we living ordinary or extraordinary lives? Are we prosperous or rich toward God? Are we living according to convention or are we on The Way? The kingdom of God is a way of seeing life, not a place, or a status to be achieved. It is a way that finds joy in giving, and that joy naturally provides a sense of abundance. Like the man who so enjoyed taking the pig to the zoo that he went on to the ballgame, we may find we enjoy giving a little money so much, we go on to give more, and to give our time as well. And then we will be truly finding the Way. Amen.