Has wealth become our rival god?
The lectionary reading for the 7th Lord's day after Trinity in Year C is the Parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12.xiii-21. It is one of several parables that is unique to Luke, and includes features that connect it with other Lukan parables.
Since last week'southward reading of Jesus' teaching almost prayer, things take moved on considerably. Since then, Jesus has been involved in a number of controversies and the sense of conflict has sharpened. Following the 'Beelzebub' controversy in Luke eleven.14f, Jesus engages in some didactics about the sign of Jonah and the lamp of the trunk, only and so (in a long chapter of 54 verses) falls into sharp dispute with some Pharisees and 'teachers of the law', pronouncing astringent 'woes' against them. 'Teacher, when you say these things, you insult u.s.a. as well' (Luke 11.45). 'Besides correct I exercise!' her responds. Gentle Jesus, meek and mild—I retrieve not!
In the beginning part of chapter 12, he continues to warn the jostling oversupply against the influence of the Pharisees, and calls those following him to loyalty nether pressure level. All this material emphasises the idea that at that place are powerful forces, within us and without, which seek to draw us away from the path of discipleship, and that part of following Jesus is near making difficult and determined choices to stay loyal.
This parable is introduced by an interjection from someone in the oversupply (Luke 12.13). At that place is no particular need to think of this as a Lukan narrative artifice; he has already mentioned the crowds in Luke 12.1, and there is a clear sense that, whilst at times Jesus is teaching the crowd, and at others directing his words to his disciples, even then the crowd appear to exist able to eavesdrop what he is maxim.
The question of inheritance was a pertinent one in Jesus' civilisation; our knowledge of the socio-economic realities of the time point that inheritance was the master source of wealth, since income generation in an agrarian economy was difficult and unreliable. (There is no little irony in the fact that, in the Great britain in the final 30 years, we have seen a similar shift to the importance of inheritance, primarily because of the soaring costs of housing.)
The question of inheritance was addressed in the OT, particularly in Deut 21.15–17 and Num 27.i–xi (interestingly, in the latter, ensuring that daughters were provided for from their father'due south manor were in that location no sons)—and the supposition was that the elder son received a double portion. It is likely that this voice from the oversupply was a younger son with no-one to speak for him, and as was common in Graeco-Roman culture, he appeals to an authority effigy to plead his case. He knows the upshot he wants; now he needs Jesus to give it his imprimatur.
Jesus is addressed a 'Teacher', a term of status and respect, as he has been by the 'teachers of the law' whom he criticised in Luke 11.45; Luke portrays Jesus every bit someone with standing amongst friends and foes akin. Merely his response ('Man…!') functions equally a rebuke, in which Jesus distances himself from the question and the questioner. To some extent, this seems to be part of Jesus refusing to be distracted from the business of preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom; entanglement with mundane issues also hands pulls u.s. from the priorities that God has for us. But the following teaching shows Jesus' rejection of the underlying concerns of personal gain.
Having been teaching hisdisciples in Luke 12.1, he now appears to address theoversupply ('he said to them…' Luke 12.14). He uses similar language of 'be on your guard' that he used to the disciples virtually the 'yeast of the Pharisees', though the language is not identical (despite some English translations). Here are two dangers to discovering true life. Jesus's response is characterised as achreia, a maxim or proverb prepare in the context of conversation, but it is expanded by the story of the 'rich fool'. In much of Jesus' teaching, the illustrations come first, and the saying comes as a summary at the end (as in the following passage, Luke 12.31), but here the maxim comes get-go: '[a person's] life does not consist in an abundance of possessions'.
The introduction to the parable, '..a sure rich human…', also occurs in the introduction to the parable of the rich human being and Lazarus in Luke 16.19 and the parable of the unjust steward in Luke 16.1. In some ways, he appears to be portrayed as a shrewd agribusinessman; if he sells he excess grain now, then the price volition fall with the availability of surplus, and he will make less money. Merely if he stores up his grain, and waits till a time of shortage, then the price will be college and he will make more money. And yet he has not predictable the surplus, and so is involved in the extra expense of demolishing his current buildings; he is not, it seems, as cunning equally we first thought.
The rich man engages in a soliloquy, and such inner conversations, by an private or amongst a group, are consistently portrayed negatively by Luke. Perhaps the other most telling case is in Luke eighteen.11, where the Pharisee 'stands and prays to himself'. The focus of the man's concerns plough only on his own needs; Luther described sin ascor curvum se, the heart turned in on itself. It is notable that the man considers neither God's claims on his life and wealth, nor the needs of those around him, ignoring the consequent demand in the Scriptures that those blest with wealth should be concerned for the needs of the poor. This is particularly hitting given the nature of the hamlet economy in the first century; the needs of those around would be perfectly evident mean solar day by solar day, in contrast to our detached 'factory farming' approach.
The man's decision to himself 'Eat, drink and exist merry!' uses the language of two OT verses, Eccl 8.fifteen and Isa 22.thirteen—both verses which articulate the futility of life or the disregard for the perspective of God. It is worth noting that Jesus' focus here is not primarily ethical, just information technology istheocentric. The event is not merely that the man has acted selfishly and unjustly, simply that he has left God out of all his careful calculations. This reality is captured beautifully in Rembrandt'south delineation at the head of this piece; the human being's candle illuminates only his ain face and his own needs, whilst every other concern disappears into the darkness.
This provides the link with the teaching that follows (which is paralleled in Matt 6.25f), along with verbal connections in the mention of barns, life, goods/possessions and treasure, which make information technology a natural follow-on. Attending to God, both in his provision for the states and his holding united states to business relationship, rescues u.s.a. from both greed and feet.
Concerns almost the corrosive and destructive impact of greed is a feature of many cultures. It was a subject of word in Graeco-Roman discourse as well as in the biblical material. Plutarch, the first-century Platonist essayist, also criticised those who lived in luxury:
For his ailment is not poverty, but insatiability and avarice, arising from the presence in him of a imitation and unreflecting judgement; and unless someone removes this, like a tapeworm, from his listen, he will never cease to 'need' superfluities—that is, to desire what he does not demand. (Cupid. Divit.524D).
It would exist quite hard to find a more apt criticism of contemporary consumer culture—and yet Christians discover it hard both to discern the damage that consumer culture does, and to alive distinctly from it.
A generation agone, in that location was a serious movement amongst Christians to stand apart from consumerism and live simpler lives, influenced by writers and teachers like Ronald Sider and Richard Foster, who commented that 'Possessions are called possessions considering they possess you lot'. The anecdotes were to live more simply, to savour things without owning them, and to requite things abroad. Where are these voices today?
John D Rockefeller was anecdotally said to accept been asked 'Mr Rockefeller, how much money does it accept to make a person happy?' to which he was supposed to have replied 'Only a fiddling bit more.'
In the latest episode of The Life Scientific, virologist Jonathan Ball recalls his babyhood in the mining villages of Nottinghamshire in the 1970s, where each village was a community and anybody looked out for i another. The communitarian outlook was ripped apart by the disputes between Regime and miners in the 1980s, provoked in the name of complimentary-market economics, and it destroyed a way of life that has never been recovered. As a culture we are wealthier than always before, and more than solitary than we accept ever been.
Nosotros seek more income and more things, whilst nosotros squander our money on things we merely exercise not need, which nosotros terminate upwards hoard, wasting or throwing away—as testified weekly in TV programmes like 'Eat Well for Less' and 'Shop Well for Less', which testify how people tin can alive just equally well on, in some cases, half the expense of what they are currently spending. We work harder than ever, with mostly United kingdom family households now needing both parents to work to sustain our desired lifestyle, chasing in vain the promise of happiness through acquiring more possessions.
As an antitoxin to this, it is maybe no surprise the Luke depicts the economical, besides every bit the spiritual, distinctiveness of the renewed people of God in the followers of Jesus.
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Anybody was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold holding and possessions to requite to anyone who had demand. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They bankrupt bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts ii.42–47)
One manner of modelling this faithfully is to live in actual shared community, every bit with the Bruderhof community—a BBC documentary about them is planned to be screened later on this month.
Another LIFE IS POSSIBLE
Dear your neighbor. Share everything. (OK, maybe not your toothbrush.) But at the Bruderhof, we believe that another way of life is possible. We're not perfect people, but we're willing to venture everything to build a life where there are no rich or poor. Where everyone is cared for, everyone belongs, and everyone can contribute.
Nosotros're pooling all our income, talents, and energy to take care of ane another and to reach out to others. We believe that God wants to transform our world, here and at present. This requires a life of discipleship and sacrificial delivery; still, when you truly love your neighbor as yourself, peace and justice become a reality. Isn't that what Jesus came to bring for anybody?
Their rationale for shared living is rooted in the pedagogy of Jesus:
Nevertheless Jesus' economic teachings are just as integral to the life he taught as any of his other basic commands: love to neighbors and enemies, hatred of hypocrisy, truthfulness, sexual purity, or the works of mercy. These teachings are not free-floating maxims just are all intimately interrelated; the way of life outlined in the Sermon on the Mount is a single whole that at once enables and requires freedom from private possessions. "Y'all cannot serve God and mammon" is a truth that cuts through all spheres of life. The apostles and early church fathers reiterate the same bracing axiom.
In the lite of Jesus' teaching in this week's reading, showing how easily possessions tin become our god, how might we brand this approach more than real in our own congregations today?
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