2022 Year C Proper 13 - July 31, 2022
To honor the Almighty Trinity: Creator, Savior, and Advocate.
Let’s talk about money. After all, Paul and Jesus and the Hebrew Prophets and the Torah all address money frequently: personal finances, wealth management, good business practices, governmental economic justice and injustice, debt, loans, and regulating the value of a shekel. Yep, God, has a lot to tell us about money.
Jesus talks about our relationship to wealth constantly in the Gospels, like today’s scene. Yet, talking about our money is taboo in this country. People will talk about sex, childhood trauma, politics, or intimate spirituality more readily than their relationship to wealth. We feel vulnerable about our wealth or lack of it and the topic is covered with shame.
I think I can explain where the shame for Christians: we’ve been told that Jesus hates money and material abundance is inherently tainted by sin AND We’re told that God’s favor is best experienced in material abundance and good health.
Is the mind of the Trinity in conflict? You may have guessed the answer is no. Our passage in Luke has been used to support this idea that Jesus hates money. Listen carefully to Jesus’ words, (Luke 12:15) “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
Greed is a sin. There’s no dispute around this in the bible. It is bad, for everyone. We usually associate greed with the ostentatiously wealthy people stereotyping them as spending without regard to the common good or hoarding cash like Scrooge McDuck –swimming around in vaults full of coins.
People with overwhelming resources can fall victim to greed and people in crushing poverty can fall victim to greed. At its core greed is idolatry. The object of your greed – money, food, control – obscures your desire for God.
The rich man in our parable allows his idol of material security to erase the will of God.
Jesus carefully sets the scene, (Lk 12:16) “The land of a rich man produced abundantly.” God has blessed the rich man’s life with comfort, his abundance is a blessing not the evil which afflicts him. He does not appreciate the bounty. He does not thank God; he does not joyfully celebrate with his wife or children; and he certainly does not examine the best use of his resources for the community. The rich man thinks he bought an easy and long life.
That very night his life is taken away and God calls him, “You fool!”
What is the foolishness of the rich man? It is not his wealth that is foolish. It is not his work that is foolish. It is not his barns that are foolish. He is a fool because he is alone and leaves no legacy to spouse or child, no servant or friend. His community will not miss him.
Wealth and material security were the rich man’s idols. They supplanted God and erased love for his neighbor from his heart. He dehumanized himself! That is destructive greed. Money is not destructive, our use or misuse can be.
Trinity is poised to lean into caring for our veterans at Victory Apartments escaping homelessness and suffering debilitating mental illness. We’ll offer food assistance and onsite worship, most importantly we will offer hope. The apartment program is only possible because a family who have built an abundant business is using their material wealth and talent resources to support the building and wrap around services.
They summed up their role in the enterprise this way, “It may not be good for the bottom line, but it’s the right thing to do. I think we’re going to save a lot of lives.” The faith and the hope they find in God gave them wisdom to pour out resources, not store them up.
Jesus does not hate money, Jesus warns us against idols. The vaccine against such idolatry is gratitude, generosity, and love for your neighbor. Amen.
+The Very Rev. Vanessa E. B. Clark