Sunday 5th August 2007TRINITY  IX

Fr Michael Burgess, Rector, the Church of the Transfiguration, Toronto

Ecclesiastes  1  :  2  &  12 – 14  &  2  :  18 – 23 ; Colossians  3  :  1 – 11 ; Luke  12  :  13 – 21

Jesus said: "... one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."  Luke 12:15 

...if truth be told, we have known all along that Christ’s teaching demands that as a matter of urgent priority we need to transform our ego-centred existence into God-centred life.  

Not so long ago, I heard a story about Queen Victoria which was new to me. Apparently, when she stayed at Balmoral in the Scottish highlands, the queen enjoyed dressing in simple clothes so that she would not be recognized whenever she took a long walk through the woods - something she really enjoyed doing. On one such occasion, she was caught in a sudden heavy rainstorm. Noticing an old cottage nearby, she ran toward it seeking shelter. In the cottage an elderly peasant woman lived alone. The queen greeted her and asked politely if she might borrow an umbrella, adding that she would see that the umbrella was returned as soon as possible. Of course, the old woman had no idea that she was in the presence of the queen. Therefore, she answered grudgingly, "Well, I have two umbrellas. One is very good, almost new - I have used it very little. The other one is quite old and worn, and you may borrow that one. The new one I will not lend, for who knows whether or not you will return it to me?" Whereupon she gave the queen the old torn and battered umbrella with the spokes sticking out on all sides.

Queen Victoria thought to herself, "With this kind of weather, even a bad umbrella is better than nothing at all," and accepted it graciously. The next morning a servant in royal livery arrived at the cottage and returned the umbrella to the peasant woman. When the servant thanked her in the name of Queen Victoria, the old woman was mortified. Feeling much remorse at not having offered her queen the very best she had, she cried out, "If only I had known! Oh, if only I had known!"

In the Gospel reading for today we hear a parable about a wealthy farmer whose harvest has been so bountiful that there isn't room enough to store the grain. "What should I do? I have no place to store my crops," the rich man says. "I will pull down my barns and build larger ones and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry'" (Lk.12:17-19). 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?"

We can almost hear that man crying out, "If only I had known! Oh, if only I had known, I would have given the very best I had to God!"

At this point, I should confess that I am indebted to an anonymous sermon I found on the internet for some of the ideas which follow, so if you think you have heard any of this before – maybe you have! 

So, let’s think about the man in the parable, but let us be careful not to demonize him.  When you come to think about it, in many ways he's not unlike most of us in his passions and motives. The message of the parable is not that God doesn't like people who work hard and are successful; this isn’t a story about an exceptionally wicked man. We don’t hear of him mistreating his workers, or being dishonest or unjust. He is just an ordinary man who is careful and conservative, and blessed by good rains and good soil. But he gets everything out of focus. He loses sight of the fact that his farm was an asset given by God and that his good crops were gifts from God. He had allowed his wealth to become the sole focus and centre of his life.

When you come to think about it – and the whole point of this sermon is to invite you to think about the parable we have just heard - we aren’t so different from that farmer; it is undeniably true that we can so easily forget to get our priorities right. The rich man thought he had done everything right and could now sit back and enjoy his wealth but he had forgotten the most important thing of all – he had forgotten God. 

This story of Jesus is actually a very modern one - substitute the crops and barns with the things we ourselves strive for, and we stand right in the middle of this parable. We constantly face the threat of our material goods, and our striving for them, taking over our lives. We can be so easily consumed by all this striving to improve our lot in life. In 2,000 years things haven’t changed that much! The tension in the story of Jesus is the tension in our own lives.
Many years ago, long before I was ordained, I worked backstage on a play here in London at the Duke of York’s Theatre. It was called The Bed Sitting Room, and starred Spike Milligan. At one point in the play, quite unexpectedly, there was a thunderclap to announce the end of the world, and God appeared. There was a stunned silence. Then somebody shouted: "Good old God!" and everybody started to sing "For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow"!

It always struck me that there was a profound truth enshrined in that scene. Even though we ignore God, and the priorities God sets for us, much of the time – except, of course, when we want something – I wouldn’t mind betting that when the moment of judgment comes (whatever that might look like) we will all do our damnedest to suck up to God as much as we possibly can! Suddenly our eyes would be opened. Nothing else would matter then. We who had devoted so much time trying to store up treasures for ourselves and so little time making ourselves rich in the sight of God would see what fools we'd been. And our collective cry, "If only I had known! Oh, if only I had known!" would have a hollow ring because, if truth be told, we have known all along that Christ’s teaching demands that as a matter of urgent priority we need to transform our ego-centred existence into God-centred life.  

Did you hear about the man who was a great dog lover? He liked just about every breed you might imagine, but preferred large dogs to small dogs. However, he simply could not bear greyhounds – considering them the dumbest of all animals. He pities them because of what happens in greyhound racing where those greyhounds chase something they can never catch. Unlike most other dogs which, when they chase a cat or a rabbit, have a reasonable chance of catching it, those greyhounds never have a chance of catching what they chase. I don't know what the "rabbit" or "hare" they chase is made of, but it’s not real. It doesn’t have legs like a real rabbit but scoots around the track on a rail. If by some chance the greyhound did catch up with that rabbit, he would be sadly disappointed, because he would discover that it’s only a fake, anyway!

But those greyhounds never learn from experience! The rabbit always travels around the same track; don’t the dogs realise that if they took a shortcut they could catch it? Surely, they must know that their chances of catching it are pretty slim going by their past record? Yet, every single time, when the greyhounds see that fake rabbit or hare fly past them all common sense goes with it! Off they go - maybe they think they will catch it this time!!
The greyhounds chasing after their fake rabbits are a commentary on life. We spend a lot of time chasing after things that we think are valuable at the time but when seen in the bigger picture, they are just "fake rabbits."

Baron Friedrich von Hügel, who lived between 1852 and 1925, was an influential Austrian Roman Catholic layman, acclaimed as one of the most inspiring religious writers and thinkers of his time. He was a man who had profound insight into prayer and meditation, and he wrote books that have been helpful to a great many people in this area of their life. The people who knew him personally, however, remember him for another reason. Apparently, this man of prayer was also a very caring person. He was a man who listened patiently to what others were saying. He was a man who responded willingly to what others most needed. The nurse who attended him in his final illness said that, weak as he was, von Hügel was obviously trying to say something from his deathbed. She leaned over to listen and he whispered to her, "Caring is everything! Nothing matters but caring!"
He was right. The bottom line for us who claim to follow Jesus Christ is that nothing matters but caring! There is no other way to make ourselves rich in the sight of God!

Nowadays, all too often, we who live in this "Me First!" society fail to get our priorities right. All too often we concentrate on acquiring material goods, and we store up treasures for ourselves and are not rich towards God.

I am reminded of the conversation between a young man and an older man who was wiser and more experienced.
"What will you do with your life?" asked the older man.
"I will learn a trade." said the young man.
"And then?" said the older man.
"I will set up business."
"And then?"
"I will make my fortune."
"And then?"
"I suppose that I shall grow old and retire and live on my money."
"And then?"
"Well, I suppose that some day I will die."
"And then?" came the stabbing question.
So often we hear our Lord’s familiar words, but they wash over us, and we don’t let them impact on us enough to make a difference. Like the greyhounds, we are all too inclined not to learn from past mistakes; we continue to get things wrong. Those dogs think that the fake rabbits are worth chasing, but in spite of all their effort it gets them nowhere. We, too, are in danger of putting so much effort into the wrong things. Jesus says in Luke 9:25: "What does it profit [anyone] if they gain the whole world but lose or forfeit themselves?" Or, as the King James Version puts it, "if they lose their soul." 

In today’s parable, Jesus invites us to look within ourselves at whatever values and belief system we operate by. In the end, what Jesus is talking about is getting our priorities right. The rich fool didn’t do that, and when he died his riches didn't help him at all!
Is the same thing going to be true for us? We need to be "rich towards God" or, "rich in God's sight" (verse 21), as another translation has it.
Each and every one of us needs to take time – make time – to do just that. And that may well mean adjusting our priorities.