Building Barns

Luke 12:13-21 (NRSV)
¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." ¹⁴ But he said to him, "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" ¹⁵ And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." ¹⁶ Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. ¹⁷ And he thought to himself, 'What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' ¹⁸ Then he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' ²⁰ But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' ²¹ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

I said to myself, I said, Self, sit back, relax and watch the show begin.    We've got this all figured out.   Everything is going according to plan and the money's rolling in like waters.  There's too much of it, so we shall proceed to buy a bigger house in which to put more crap.  Because we can buy a bigger house in which to put more crap.   Why?  Because...we can.   Because next year, the housing market might crash and the only thing that's going to help me drown my sorrows is booze with gold flecks in it.   The house that's too big to clean might make me feel better.  Six dollar beers at Applebee's are a non negotiable part of of the budget.  Every.night.they're.part.of.the.budget...  because this marriage works better with alcoholism coupled with consumerism.   Because everything's going to keep going our way.

How long can grain keep?  A couple thousand years, if you have an airtight tomb to put it in.  Unfortunately for King Tut, right now there's a debate going on about where his mummified penis ended up (at least on the Colbert Report there was) and he's not doing any drinking or eating.    He was only 19 when he died.   His grave goods?  Still tasty if I remember correctly.  

It's been a while since I studied up on the mummy's curse.    I'm sure there are a number of ways to interpret this parable.  Especially if we stop where the lectionary does with the line about being rich toward God.  Storing up treasures for ourselves without being rich toward God?  Generous with God?

(I've always wondered how a person can generous to God with money or goods or time.  If we're doing it for praise, we're idiots.  "All things come of thee, oh Lord, and of thine own have we given thee."   Do what you feel called to do or even just what needs to be done and get over it. Quit keeping score, you can't keep up.)

²² Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. ²³ For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. ²⁴ Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! ²⁵ Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life^[b]? ²⁶ Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?²⁷ “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ²⁸ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! ²⁹ And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. ³⁰ For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. ³¹ But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

Seek first the Kingdom.  Whatever you do, do it well, and to the glory of God.  Don't exploit people for your own profit.  Make a profit, but benefit other people while you're doing it.   Be generous with what you have.  Be kind.  Let it pinch a little.  It won't kill you.   You might even find the experience of not having to keep up with the tags on eight cars liberating.  

I sell insurance for a living.  My paycheck depends on people worrying about tomorrow in a way.  In another way, it depends on being able to sell a contingency plan for what happens if tomorrow comes and you end up with your car in a ditch or sitting outside your home waiting on the fire department to get there.  Insurance doesn't make your car being in a ditch or your house catching fire not hurt.  It just takes the edge off.  There's a reason we call insureds and their homes "risks" in this business.  The way we make money is figuring out who is more likely to cost us how much money and charge and appropriate amount of money for a promise that we'll be there to help pay for it if something bad happens.    Life is a risk.  With most people, it's not if something bad is going to happen, but when and how bad.

I've had a lot of people sit at my desk.  I can tell you something about every last one of them:  Absolutely none of the really bad stuff that happened to most of them in their lives could have been prevented by worrying.  The couple who pulled out in front of a semi truck?  That job was actually a boon for them, financially speaking.  It was a good thing.  Nobody could have guessed it would have put them in the wrong place at the wrong time.  The poor kid driving the truck is never going to quit asking why he was there.   The lady whose husband choked to death on a sandwich?  I'm sure she never saw that coming.   The relationship doesn't work out, the job gets eliminated, the car breaks down and the washing machine craps out the same day.   Bad things happen.  All the time.  There's a lot of good things, though, that won't happen if you never leave your front door because you're too afraid of what's coming next.    Money's no fun unless you can do something good with it.   It's just there.

So do something good with it.  Do something good with your life.  Quit worrying about tomorrow, but buy insurance.  I need new tires.