If you have been like me this past week,  you have been following the Democratic National Convention in Boston.  One of the themes, hope is on the way, resonates with most of us.  It might be an appropriate mantra for our PNC (PASTOR NOMINATING COMMITTEE).  Yes, you will be getting used to a number of acronyms over the next few months.  But, back to the Democratic Convention.  One of the themes we all heard was that of the common worker verses the big corporations.  If one is not careful, one could think it was wrong to be successful or prosperous.  Obviously, that is not the case – one need to look no further than the wife of the presidential candidate. 

          But it also hooks our built-in suspicions that if you get too big, you are taking advantage of someone somewhere.  Just look at the number of suits being brought against Wal-Mart now that they are so successful.  Whether or not they are valid charges is for others to determine.  But the story of the successful farmer, told by Jesus in this Lukan account, reminds us that prosperity is not the problem. 

          Jesus is asked by someone in the crowd to help him settle an inheritance dispute.  Jesus responds by coyly asking why he should get involved.  Then he turns to the crowd and says be on the lookout for all kinds of greed.  And he proceeds to tell a story about a big time farmer who had a bumper crop.  In fact, he had such a harvest that his regular barns couldn’t hold it all.  He wonders what to do and finally  realized that he had to tear down his barns so he could build larger ones.  It must have been quite the harvest!    

It’s worth noting here that Jesus does not fault the farmer for the huge harvest.  He was wealthy to begin with, now he was adding to his wealth.  This is an important aspect of the story, because we who are in the top ten per cent of the wealthiest people in the world are inclined to have some guilt from time to time about all the things we have.  It’s not easy visiting some countries where there is real poverty, or seeing real poverty within our own city limits, and then not feeling some tinge of guilt as we return to our comfortable homes in our late model cars. 

          But this parable is not a slam on having wealth.  It is not condemning the rich for having excess.   

The story goes on; after building his larger barns, the rich farmer kicks up his heels on his desk and declares that he has it made.  He can relax because life is good.  But Jesus says there is the problem.  You’re going to die tonight and what will happen to all this you have stored up?  I wonder if Jesus might have felt the man in the crowd who wanted his inheritance was preoccupied with a life of ease and not willing to use the rich talents he had been given.   

      Jesus did say, in the man’s hearing, that the meaning to life wasn’t about acquiring or possessing.  But I wonder if the man in the crowd understood what Jesus was getting at?   Could it be that we are not to retire?  We need to keep working as long as we are able?  I remember reading about the debates when Social Security was introduced  that some were strictly against it because they thought it would create laziness and result in trusting the government rather than God.  I would love to throw this story at my siblings who have all retired and tell them it’s wrong to retire.  But then in a few years, I may have to write a revision!! 

          So if it’s not wrong to gather wealth, and it is ok to retire, what IS Jesus getting at in this story?  Perhaps the key lay in the title of this sermon, all kinds of greed.  Jesus points out that possessions or acquiring can have its perils.  We soon begin to tell ourselves that we need THINGS to make us happy.  And our society reinforces that idea.  We NEED.  We are soon convinced that THINGS will determine whether or not we have been successful.  We then begin our pursuit to acquire that which will make us happy.  Anthony De Mello, in his book The Way to Love writes: Just take a look around you:  Everywhere people have actually built their lives on the unquestioned belief that without certain things…they cannot be happy. (p.15-16) Our attachment becomes stronger, and our happiness wanes after awhile, so we need to acquire something else, perhaps something a little bigger, or a little better.  And the spiral goes on.  We become more attached, more convinced that our happiness is tied to these possessions.  When this happens DeMello says, we are led to abject emotional dependence so that the object of your attachment had the power to thrill you when you attained it, to make you anxious lest you be deprived of it and miserable when you lost it.  Once this occurs you have become enslaved to that which you can’t live without.  And almost every negative emotion you have is related to the attachment you have developed.  

          To have excess is not the issue.  Most of us here this morning have excess, that is, more than is absolutely necessary to meet your needs.  The question then remains, why have you been so blessed?  Why did this farmer have a bumper crop?  Was it just an accident?  You know that is how it goes, sometimes everything falls just right.  The right amounts of rain, the right temperature, and once in a great while you have a great harvest.  Once in awhile we invest in the right stock or have the right job or win the lottery!  Yes, sometimes we are born in the right family, have the right education, or apply for a position at the right time and things work out for us to be successful.  But why? 

          In answering this question it is important to remember whom Jesus was speaking to. Jesus is not addressing a political party or national gathering. It is not a general theory of economics for everyone.  Jesus is here talking to those who want to be disciples.  Those who are seeking to discover their way to God.  Yes, those who are invited to a common table to break bread and drink wine with Jesus. 

          Jesus makes it clear that riches or excess are  simply not for us.  Excess is fine, but it is not for us to get attached to, to become dependent upon.  Our challenge is to learn how to enjoy it without letting it control us.  How can we be free from attachment?  Jesus is suggesting that wealth - riches or excess can have life-giving purposes.  May we explore ways to use our excess, not only for our well-being ,but remember that we are in community; God’s community. 

          All kinds of greed, which Jesus warns about, reflect    an     attitude     regarding     possessions.    A possessiveness about life.  A perspective on life that is false.  Possessions, whether few or many, will not be the answer to what life is about.  Greed wishes us to think so.  But it will just tie us up in knots.  Positive emotions that we experience in life flow from life-giving and life-expanding sources.  May we experience life, and have it abundantly.