Sermon 3 August

Saint Margaret’s

Anglican Church

Budapest Hungary

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23; Psalm 49:1-11;

Colossians 3:1-11; Luke 12:13-21

Life does not consist in the abundance of

possessions.

It must have come as a bit of a shock to our Lord, as it perhaps does to us as well, that

someone in the crowds following him around on his journey from Galilee to Jerusalem

should suddenly pipe up and ask for what would have been essentially free financial or

legal advice. Yet this is exactly what happens in today’s account from the Gospel of Luke.

This, in spite of the fact that there is no record of our Lord having ever attended business

or law school. “Tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” What a

statement.

In essence, this man, whoever he was, demands that Jesus intervene in and resolve what

must have been at heart a thorny family problem involving money. The worst kind of

family problem, I might add. Jesus responds warily and wisely,

“Be on your guard against

all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." And he

then, having told us his conclusion, provides a parable to illustrate the point just in case

we missed it. “Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” True in Jesus’ time;

true today.

Luke, in his telling of the story, shares with us in the words of Jesus, the interior dialogue

or logic of the Rich Fool and his train of thought – a relatively new technique in the

literature of the time by the way. All of which, as it happens, is entirely focused on

himself. Of the some sixty words or so of this inner dialogue with himself, beginning

with, “What should I do,” to the final words, “be merry;” some eleven or twelve of them

reference himself, using pronouns and possessives such as I, me, and my.

“`I will do this,”

he says. I will pull down my barns. I will build larger ones. I will store all my grain and my

goods.”

What he means of course is that he will use or employ others to do his will for him, slaves

or servants, we suppose. Yet they do not seem to figure into his calculus at all. They are

neither mentioned nor even alluded to. It is all I. This may be just the problem Jesus has

with the Rich Fool of his Parable. As one oft-repeated contemporary mantra or meme has

it, It’s all about me, Baby. That pretty much says it all. Not a thought for life’s deeper

purpose. Not a thought for the other. Not a thought for, well, the inevitable. Death.

Sadly, plenty of rich fools are among us still.

Our Lord presumably has nothing against agri-business, the barn-building industry,

banking, or even great wealth for that matter. That is not the point. Have a bigger barn

built for you if you like. Expand your portfolio of investments. Establish your own

financial empire, if you can, and that is your thing. But always remember that what you

call your own is in a deeper sense our common heritage and, more importantly, is at best

borrowed for a time; it is at best a fleeting pleasure and passing comfort without promise

of lasting joy.

In the world of business, they say, if you can count it, you can manage it. Our Lord’s point

is that, if you can count it, you cannot keep it. An idle treasure stored away and counted,

as in Jesus’ Parable, is ultimately no treasure at all. And as Jesus sees it, what we think we

possess is actually God’s to dispose. And in God’s upside-down economy, assets and

investments are denominated in an entirely different currency from euros, pounds,

dollars, and forint. They are denominated rather in grace, love, and mercy. In God’s

topsy-turvy economy the more we give away, the more we put to good use for the

building up of the Kingdom, the more we have. That is the kind of inflation we can all

embrace.

No wonder Jesus wants no part in dividing up the inheritance of this anonymous

everyman in the crowd and his brother. The Gospel after is not about division; it is about

multiplication. It is about bringing humankind together while there is still time. It is

about sharing, about making us rich not in ourselves but rather “rich toward God.” Divide

and hoard God’s inheritance, and you risk losing it all, as did the Rich Fool at his untimely

death. But share the Kingdom, and you will find that there is no end to God’s bounty.

You can bank on it.

Amen.

— The Rev. Dr. Frank Hegedűs, MBA