Fool?

The homily this Sunday morning was based on Luke 12:16-21, the parable of the rich man with a plentiful harvest.  In summary, the story was about a very wealthy farmer who had a very successful harvest season, so much so that he decided to tear down his current barns and rebuild bigger ones to hold the unusually bountiful harvest.

Interestingly, God responded with derision.  God calls the farmer a fool because of his long term plans.  The farmer, instead of responding in love to his neighbor and share his bountiful harvest, decides to invest in bigger barns and enjoy the excess in overly comfortable living.  Basically God says, you are a fool for thinking that that you will live long and selfishly enjoy all of your temporal blessings.  

The really interesting final point is seen in verse 21.  Here we read, “So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”  God states that the man who invests and focuses on temporal riches but ignores one’s health and relationship with God is a fool.  

So the question is, “are we living according to this passage?”  Do we live with a focus on things spiritual, rather than things temporal.  Obviously, because we are not monastics, we cannot completely ignore the needs of the temporal realm.  This is not to suggest that monastics have no involvement in physical things. One thing that is definitely required in the monastic world is hard work. The monk is required to be productive.  He must, by all legal means, produce something so as to provide for himself.  This means, using historical examples, weave baskets, gardening, produce wooden religious items (crosses, icons, etc.) or making prayer bracelets that can be sold.  But the focus, for the monastic is simply that of a good use of time and providing for one’s actual needs.

We, in the world, have those requirements as well, but we also have the needs of spouses, children, jobs, churches, mortgages, etc.  But, I would argue, even with these additional responsibilities, we still can, and must, follow the direction of this parable.  So are we?

This is probably one of the most difficult messages that we, as Americans, can hear. In our day, wealth, comfort, ease, technology and culture are in perfect opposition to this passage.  Everything in American culture, from the very beginning, has been about rugged individualism, prosperity and comfort.  These are goals that have been in place and have been the singular motivation factors in our culture.  This will be a difficult path to change and re-direct.

So what then does it mean to be “rich toward God”?  If we take the parallel that is given us in the parable, blessings come not only from our hard work, but also from the hand of God.  Just as a bountiful harvest comes from our hard work and the blessing of God via good weather, a bountiful spiritual life comes from our hard work and the love of God via the sacraments, the church and confession.  

I really believe the point of this parallel is not to drive us away from hard work, but to learn how to balance hard work in things temporal and things spiritual.  It is sheer folly to focus simply on things temporal to the neglect of things spiritual.  Both require hard work from us and from God.  But simply because God blesses our temporal hard work, does not mean that we are doing what we should be doing.  In the parable, the farmer does enjoy a bountiful harvest, but this does not mean that the farmer was doing what the was supposed to be doing.  The farmer did his hard work, God gave his blessings on that work, but the farmer did not respond rightly to that blessing.

What then does this mean for our spiritual effort and the blessings we see therein?  We are responsible to put effort into that work and God is responsible to put his hand into it as well, as he sees fit.  But it is our responsibility to respond rightly to those blessings.  

This probably means humility.