"Less is More"
First an old story about the division of inheritances. A very rich man died and left his inheritance equally to his two sons. Now one son had married young in life and had a large and happy family. The other was still a bachelor. The night after the division of the estate the single man sat thinking in his living room. Why did my father make such a mistake? Here's my brother, with all those mouths to feed, so many to provide for and no real joy in it. While I'm comfortable, I've got more than I could ever use. Why divide the estate equally? The other brother, when the children were tucked in bed and his wife was off at some project of her own mused: Here I am surrounded by a loving family and all that joy, while my brother sits alone over in his house. I have my family to care for me, while he will need financial security for his future. Why divide the estate equally? So each man, that very night resolved to place the majority of his inheritance in a suitcase and take it over and hide it where the other would find it and use it. As they were doing just that, they met between their two homes and realizing what each had intended fell into one another's arms, meeting in love as their father hoped they might.
That story is in sharp contrast to the story in Luke's gospel that we just read. Jesus is asked by someone in the crowd to give judgment on a matter of Mosaic Law. Either someone in the crowd recognizes his authority to rule on the matter of inheritance, or someone is mocking him. Either way Jesus refuses the role of judge and instead tells a story about greed. For that really is the heart of the question posed to Jesus about inheritances. Jesus' story is about a man so rich he has to build bigger and bigger barns in order to keep his harvest stored. The rich man is warned that all his things will not save his life which will be demanded of him that night.
The listeners in the crowd would be reminded of two stories in their history as Jesus tells the parable. They would remember back to Joseph being made steward of Egypt and storing grain for the years of famine that will come after seven years of bounty. They would also remember back to the time when their ancestors wandered in the wilderness. In that time they gathered twice as much as they needed on the sixth day so that they might rest on the seventh. They are stories that imply with great blessing comes great responsibility. The rich fool in Jesus' parable has lost that sense. He just wants to hoard what he has…he has convinced himself that what he is his own blessing. That is he doesn't need God.
We know all about possessions and stuff in this country. We are constantly building up in order to have a place for all the stuff. And if our homes can't hold it all, there are enough self-storage places around. We have industries built around storing and preserving our stuff. Life has become so complicated that we can't entertain without a great deal of effort put into making everything perfect and so exhausting ourselves in the effort. And the danger in all that is that we become the rich fool, hoarding away the blessings of God for ourselves, forgetting the responsibility we have as God's people.
In the possession gathering we have a hard time with hospitality-making space for others. For we are too afraid of what they might take from us, how they might diminish us. Two lessons in hospitality from other cultures. I will always remember the story Lanie Price, from her missionary days in Africa, told of a donut. She tells of being visited by her Bible Study group unexpectedly and having only one donut in the house. Thinking that was not enough to go around for the group, she sat the donut back on the kitchen counter, and offered the group nothing. One woman challenged her a bit into the visit, saying: "Lanie, here we are in your home and you have offered us nothing, yet I see you have a donut here on which we could all be feasting. Lanie said she learned the true meaning of a little goes a long way. The second from my time in Afghanistan. Every village we visited us offered us lunch. We were a big group. And we new that the lunch they offered us would deplete their resources for a good number of days. Yet, we were always asked to share a meal no matter how desperate the family was. They knew what it was to offer hospitality and share a blessing.
Someone once said that visiting a junkyard is a great theological activity. For in the junkyard you will find what was important to people, and what happened to those important things. In moving I experienced something of that sense. As we cleaned out closets, emptied the attic I found myself constantly asking why so many things, what did I really need. In my family we are great pack rats. My great aunts honed that skill better than any one I know. They saved everything, including the paper placemats from restaurants they visited. All in fear that they wouldn't have enough someday. All this causes me to wonder how seriously I, we take on the responsibility that with blessing comes responsibility.
In an article from the Christian Century called "Building Bigger Closets," Martha Sterne writes: "I glance at my magazines-books in the bible of a culture that considers the accumulation and protection of abundance to be deadly serious, worth the efforts of a lifetime. The magazines effectively market the security for which we all yearn. We strive to build bigger barns every way we can, but what barn can we trust finally? Even in our biggest, deepest closet, we cannot store life. We cannot lock out death."
"You fool!" God says to the rich man, "This very night your life will be demanded of you!" We are defined by our treasures and where we store our lives. By what do you want to be known?
The final word is God's. How small the elements of communion we share. A tiny piece of bread wet by some juice. Inconsequential elements, not enough to stave off physical hunger. And yet those elements bring life in ways that none of our possessions can. It is in that hope that we store our lives and find our treasure. For in this communion we share we are know the life giving blessing of God with us.