Hosea
11:1-11, Psalm 107:1-9, 43, Colossians 3:1-11, Luke 12:13-21
May only God’s word be spoken,
May God’s word be heard.
In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
While many of us are
enjoying our midsummer by perhaps taking a family vacation or doing some
backyard grilling or maybe even going to the lake or beach or just lazing
around a bit, in our nation’s capital this past week Congress was winding down
to their summer vacation. This can be a miserable time to be in the district,
with the oppressive heat and humidity that comes from living in a tidal basin,
and add to that the throngs of tourists trying to make their way through the
city.
Some of that seems to
have been taking its toll in the Senate last week. This past Thursday, Senator
Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin was presiding over the Senate, and Senators Murray
and Collins were attempting to make some final statements in the “well” of the
Senate. Attempting because apparently
their colleagues were in a chatty mood and speaking loud enough that it made it
difficult to hear the two senators at their podiums.
As presiding Senator
Baldwin was gaveling the senate to order, and just as she was about to say “The
Senate will be in order,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid got up from his
seat and told the chatty senators to “sit down and shut up.” The Washington
Post then reported that most senators took their seats and listened, some left
the chamber to keep talking, while others sat in seats and continued whispering
to each other.
I guess I couldn’t help
but hear echoes of this as I was thinking of the strong language that Jesus
uses in this parable from Luke… “You Fool!” … this kind of language is usually
saved for the hurling of an insult against someone with whom all hope of a
reasonable conversation has broken down, kinda like, “sit down and shut up.”
And in this context, these words from Jesus sound even more dismissive. He’s
saying that there’s no alternative to the best practices that this rich man has
put in place as part of his business plan, instead he’s bankrupted his soul and
he’s as good as dead.
Unlike other stories from
Luke about a Good Samaritan, a Lost Sheep, and a Prodigal Son; this parable
doesn’t have a last-minute rescue resulting in a “happy ever after.” There’s no
maneuvering room here to perform any course corrections as a result of wrong
turns along the way…
Anyone here familiar with Clarence Jordan, or Koinonia Farms, down
in southwest Georgia near Americus? … Clarence is one of my personal heroes and
one of the people who has inspired and nurtured me over the years. His
commitment to the gospel led him to establish an interracial farm and community
in rural Georgia, in 1942, long before the civil rights movement even began.
Though Clarence died in 1969, Koinonia Farms continues with folks living in
intentional Christian community and active in both farming and many vital
ministries.
Clarence was not only quite a farmer but also a powerful
biblical scholar and teacher. He translated the New Testament from the Koine Greek into what he
called his Cotton Patch version which has, let’s say, a U.S. Southern context. Clarence
was fond of saying that the parables of Jesus lead us into the kingdom of God,
so would like to share with you his retelling of this gospel, a translation with
a bit of midrash, some details added to help interpret and flesh out the story a
bit more.
(... story time! ... :) ... reading from pages 60-62, “Cotton Patch Parables of Liberation” by
Clarence Jordan and edited by Bill Lane Doulos, ©1976 by Koinonia Partners, Wipf
and Stock Publishers)
So, this parable of the Rich Fool makes the point that this
farmer’s riches are crying out for his soul. The traditional
interpretation is that the man is going to die. Fate or God or some unnamed
force is demanding his soul, saying that his time is up. But the Greek text
does not say, “This night your soul is being demanded of you.” What it says is,
“This night they require your soul of you.” “They” refers to the “many
good things” that the farmer thought he owned.
These things are telling the farmer what to do so that he can’t
do what is desired by God, to whom his “soul” rightfully belongs. This parable
warns about becoming a slave of money – for who do we serve God or money? –
which is perhaps something that our credit card culture needs to hear. What we
supposedly possess, often on credit, pretty much dictates what we must do to
secure and maintain it.
Of course, this parable sounds a different note in a different
context. This would include the more than 1 in 6 Alabamians, including 1 in 4
of our children, who are living in this state where the gap between Alabama’s
richest and poorest is the second largest in the nation. If someone is living
in utter poverty like these neighbors of ours, perhaps without access to even the
basic necessities of life, the promise of wealth is not cast aside lightly. However,
this parable calls on each of us, rich and poor alike, to carefully reflect
about what it is that we want and why we want it.
So, when all is said and done, we are invited to place our trust
in something more durable than the volatile fluctuations of our local,
national, and global economies. Instead of banking on more and larger storage
barns, God invites us all into the eternal economy of Christ’s grace and mercy.
What would our lives look like if we really believed that "it is for
freedom that Christ has set us free"?
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. We are free now to
live as God's people are called to live – in the wideness and the wildness of
God's mercy.
Thanks be to God!
Amen!
Alleluia!
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