Sermon: "When Is Enough, Enough?"

"When Is Enough, Enough?"
Luke 12:13-21

I really used to like some of the bits George Carlin performed. Some people might have an issue with a pastor admitting that, but ... except for his reflections laced with words one wouldn't expect a preacher to use in a sermon, I found his humor insightful.  he is one of my favorite comedians. One of my favorites was one he did on our possessions. In his book Brain Droppings he put it this way: “Stuff is important. You gotta take care of your stuff. You gotta have a place for your stuff. Everybody’s gotta have a place for their stuff. That’s what life is all about, tryin’ to find a place for your stuff! That’s all your house is: a place to keep your stuff. If you didn’t have so much stuff, you wouldn’t need a house. You could just walk around all the time. A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you’re taking off in an airplane. You look down and see all the little piles of stuff. Everybody’s got his own little pile of stuff. And they lock it up! That’s right! When you leave your house, you gotta lock it up. Wouldn’t want somebody to come by and take some of your stuff. ‘Cause they always take … the good stuff; the shiny stuff; the electronic stuff. So when you get right down to it, your house is nothing more than a place to keep your stuff .. while you go out and get … more stuff. ‘Cause that’s what this country is all about. Trying to get more stuff. Stuff you don’t want, stuff you don’t need, stuff that’s poorly made, stuff that’s overpriced. Even stuff you can’t afford! Gotta keep on getting’ more stuff. Otherwise someone else might wind up with more stuff. Can’t let that happen. Gotta have the most stuff …1 (Of course, this is the cleaned up version and it's much funnier and longer when Carlin presents it. If you're interested, you can see his routine on YouTube - but don't tell anyone this preacher told you to do it!)

I'm guessing most of you are familiar with the restaurant chain Dave and Buster's - sort of an adult version of Chuck E. Cheese's - you know, a place where one plays a bunch of games to win some coupons to redeem for some "stuff" you don't really need or want. A few years ago we babysat our oldest grandson, Evan. Guess where he wanted to go? It wasn't Dave and Buster's! I played skeeball and I Evan chose some stickers with the coupons I won. I chose a couple of little noisemakers. Sometimes grandpas don't think. Do you know what it was like with Evan in the backseat with those noisemakers!

Today’s text challenges us to consider the relationship between our money, our stuff, and our living. It’s one of those tough passages because it pertains to our own reality. Of course, we don't understand that right away. Jesus starts out talking about a rich man and we of course rationalize that he's not talking about us. We're pretty good at making a case for us not being as rich as the man in Jesus’ story - a feeling of self-righteousness utilizes the space in our minds. Very few of us consider ourselves among “the rich” Jesus is speaking about in his story.

Something I've noticed over the years listening to and reading sermons is: preachers have a tendency to meddle - they thrive on hooking our guilt buttons with such passages. It doesn't take long for this text to make us squirm - at least. it makes me do so when I read it.

Let’s begin with a little background. Jesus was teaching a fairly large crowd when this young man called out: “Hey, Jesus! Tell my bro’ to divide the inheritance with me!” Now, Jewish law was pretty clear that the elder son received 2/3 of the inheritance upon the death of the dad while the young son received 1/3. Is there any question which son is asking for a reconsideration of the formula? Some of the saddest scenarios I have seen over the years have been the squabbling that often takes place between siblings when it comes time to divide up the estate after the death of parents. Jesus refused to weigh in on the matter.

However, he did seize the opportunity to offer a warning that goes deeper than the question of the proper way to distribute an inheritance. “Watch out,” he offered, “Be on your guard against greed – against the spirit which always wants more.” “Beware of all covetousness; for a person’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

Now, when Jesus said that, an audible gasp was assuredly heard. Like he so often did, Jesus then challenged one of the fundamental assumptions of that society – that a person’s life was measured by what they did or did not have. Many possessions was a sign that a person had pleased God. Few possessions was a sign that things weren’t right between a person and God.

This attitude developed because of the way many in that society chose to interpret a certain passage in Deuteronomy. It’s the one where the author proclaimed that God said: “I will make a covenant with you. If you obey my laws and live righteous lives, then I will give you this good land, and you will live in it and your descendants will live in it, and you will prosper. But if you disobey my law, and do not live righteous lives, and chase after other gods, then you will be punished, and your days in this land will be few.”

All the Old Testament prophets over and over again challenged this narrow and literal reading of the text by saying “that righteousness does not result in personal wealth; righteousness results in social justice. If a society is righteous, if the citizens of a society are righteous, the result of that will be a moral society, not necessarily personal wealth.”2  

You see, this is not a passage for the rich alone. There is a message here for all of us – rich, poor, and those of us who like to put ourselves somewhere between the two. (Yeah, I know, bummer. I'm sorry.) Many of us have made the mistake of the younger brother – believing that having something else in our life would make a difference. “Oh, if only I had that car … if only I owned that house … if only, I had invested in that stock … if only we had those curtains … if only I had that suit, or that dress, or that jacket, or that pair of shoes, or …” If only, than I would be “freer to … more able to …” We need to hear Jesus’ counsel: it is our desire for the “stuff” that blocks us, kills us, strangles us, takes over our lives and thus causes us not to live the lives God intends for us.

Luke has Jesus make his position clearer with another one of his stories. This one is about a rich man who had it all, and more. He didn’t need to worry about being comfortable. It was obvious to all those gathered around Jesus that day that the leading character in the story was a righteous man – he had what he had because he was blessed by God – he was kindly regarded by God. He had to be righteous because even though he didn’t need, still more came his way.

But, he had a problem – all his barns were already full. Even his wagons were overflowing. He had nowhere else to put his grain. So, he thought to himself: “I think I’ll build some bigger or more barns – a bigger warehouse.”

One sermon I once read suggested that perhaps you and I might have a difficult time relating to the building bigger barns concept. He suggested that perhaps we might want to recall those times when we have lamented that the closets in our houses weren’t big enough. Think about the times you have simply desired more space to store more. Consider this – while the economy has not been the greatest the last few years, guess what investment area has done very well? Yep, mini-warehouses – storage facilities. “We have so much we have to rent somewhere to keep it! Many of us are drowning in a sea of stuff.”3  

Now, this is not a passage against wealth. This is not a passage that is meant to say that it is not appropriate to save. The issue here is: our attitude toward what we have or don’t have. There is a fine line between saving and being controlled by the desire to save. John Wesley often counseled that we should save all we can while giving all we can. When he was a student at Oxford, he had an income of 30 pounds per year. He lived on 28 pounds and gave 2 pounds away. When his income increased to 60 pounds, 90 pounds, 120 pounds, he still lived on 28 pounds and gave the balance away. Any of the rest of you want to say “Ouch” with me?

Jesus wasn’t saying, “Don’t save.” Rather, “Don’t save to the neglect of the needs of those around you.” “Don’t be like the rich man, hoarding all that God gives to you, ignoring the needs of others and going about partying it away.” “Don’t build larger buildings when the surplus could help alleviate human suffering.”

Writing in about 400 A. D., St. Jerome mentioned in a letter a woman who “Preferred to store her money in the stomachs of the needy than in her purse.”

Tolstoy once wrote a story about a successful peasant farmer who was not satisfied. He wanted more of everything. Here’s how Tolstoy's story went: “One day a farmer received a novel offer.  For 1000 rubles, he could buy all the land he could walk around in a day. The only catch in the deal was that he had to be back at his starting point by sundown. Early the next morning he started out walking at a fast pace. By midday he was very tired, but he kept going, covering more and more ground. Well into the afternoon he realized that his greed had taken him far from the starting point. He quickened his pace and as the sun began to sink low in the sky, he began to run, knowing that if he did not make it back by sundown the opportunity to become an even bigger landholder would be lost. As the sun began to sink below the horizon he came within sight of the finish line. Gasping for breath, his heart pounding, he called upon every bit of strength left in his body and staggered across the line just before the sun disappeared. He immediately collapsed, blood streaming from his mouth. In a few minutes he was dead. Afterwards, his servants dug a grave. It was not much over six feet long and three feet wide.”4

Tolstoy went on to suggest that all the man really owned – all any of us really own – is a 6 by 3 piece of earth, so we are better off putting our confidence elsewhere. Jesus' warning is similar – we need to be careful not to put our trust in the promise of materialism because we will be sadly disappointed in the end.

Let me close with a story about a father and his five-year-old son, Tyler, shopping in a large department store. “The father’s tone was harsh when he said, 'Not now, Tyler.' He was looking for something in the electronic aisle. The father was intent on finding whatever he was looking for. Tyler kept asking questions that a five-year-olds ask, ‘What are you looking for?’ ‘Can I help?’ His father kept dismissing him. It was obvious that the father was irritated and lacked patience. Back and forth the conversation went. Surprisingly, Tyler did not seem discouraged with his father’s curt responses.

“After the father paid and was about to leave the store, Tyler could be heard asking another question. Tyler wanted to do something with his father. To those observing this interchange it was not a revelation that the father once again dismissed this son, telling him that he didn’t have time to play a game. Tyler looked sad. Those standing in line at the cash register felt badly for the young boy. When they returned home, the five-year-old asked, ‘Can we play Clue?’”5

A few years ago, that’s when I stopped working on my sermon at McDonalds and went home to my wife, daughter, and grandson.

How many different electronic devises and gadgets do we need? What really is important? How up with the latest technology to keep in touch do we need? When is enough, enough?

Christ is calling us to develop a different set of priorities. He is calling us to remember that there is more to life than things, consumption, greed. He told of a first-century consumer who had so much stuff that he needed to build a larger barn, but who would not live to enjoy it. “And the things you have prepared,” Jesus asked, “whose will they be?” The wealthy person missed out on what was important.  May we not make the same mistake.

Let me close with a prayer: O God, it’s so hard to hear that all that we have is really yours and we are really your caretakers. We’d like to think all that we have is ours because we performed the work that brought it to us. Help us, Lord, to hear your voice, to see the needs of those around us and to put our resources to work that your kingdom might come on earth and your name be praised. In Christ’s name, amen.

From George Carlin, Brain Droppings (Hyperion, 1997), pp. 36-37 as included in Emphasis, July/August, 2007, p. 45.
Mark Trotter, “A Fool and His Money,” Collected Sermons (ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc., 2007), 0-000-000-350.
King Duncan, “Drowning In a Sea of Stuff,” Collected Sermons (Dynamic Preaching, 2005), 0-000-0000-20.
Leo Tolstoy, “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” (Adapted from Bits & Pieces, November, 1991), as used in Brett Blair and Staff’s sermon “Building Barns, Postponing Life,” Collected Sermons (ChristianGlobe Network, 2004), 0-0000-0000-1.
Emphasis, July/August, 2007, p. 45.