It is indeed a joy and a privilege to be with you this morning. This is actually my seventh opportunity to preach from this pulpit over the last several years, and most recently we worshiped together just over a month ago. As I say each time, please know that I don’t take lightly the trust you place in me to stand here before you and lead you in worship. I bring you greetings once again from North Congregational UCC in Columbus, where I am a member, and from Home Reach Hospice, Ohio Health Hospice, where I serve as a chaplain – and indeed, where I served yesterday and had a wonderful conversation with a Korean War veteran of 90 years that lasted almost an hour and a half. It’s just such a joy and a privilege and a deep sense of calling that I feel when I serve as a chaplain. Let us pray again.

Holy God, send your spirit to guide our time together this morning. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing to you, almighty God, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

So today we find ourselves in the midst of a warm summer season, although this last, little break, a few days of cooler weather, has been such a joy. It’s great to have my window open each night, which I take advantage of whenever I can. We find ourselves contemplating this passage from Luke that was read so well by Barb. She read it so nicely that I want to especially emphasize this short passage. “God said to him, ‘You fool. This very night your life will be demanded from you, and all the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So, it is with those who store up treasures for themselves that are not rich toward God.”

Wow, another farm parable. I love this kind of text. As you have heard from me before, I grew up on a farm, and I recall helping to build many buildings on our farm, especially in the winter after the crops had been harvested. Sometimes it was below zero. I remember working in a corn crib one winter, and it was below zero, and it was a barrel my father had, and he threw in old railroad ties in that barrel so the smoke that was coming out of that barrel probably was not really very hygienic, and we didn’t have masks on. I was all bundled up, and I can remember standing beside that fire and shivering. and then I had to go and hold another board before my grandfather would pound the nail in it. So, the images of this parable are as accessible to me as they were to the people in Jesus’ time. They got what he was talking about, this idea of tearing down barns and building bigger ones because the crop was good. The various strategies for preserving and storing the grain were a constant source of discussion among the farmers in our community where I grew up. Similar concerns were probably debated in Jesus’ time. Another related concern, then and now, is how to survive the bad weather years by making resources last to a good weather year. That’s why one would have built a bigger barn because that was important to store those crops because the next year might not be so good.

The common desire to prosper financially is a theme in both the Old and the New Testaments. We have heard it a lot. Remember all the sheep and goats and camels and wives that Abraham had. Remember that list. Wealth was measured in possessions, and wives and children were a part of your possessions at that time. I hope that’s not the case today. This desire to become wealthy has been passed down from parent to child even to the present age. It is so assumed to be a righteous desire that it’s rarely even questioned. Lately there’s issues in Congress where people say, “Why is it such a bad thing to be rich? People should be wealthy. That’s a good thing. That is a righteous desire.”

With this desire for prosperity, wealth disparity has increased quite a bit since the time of Jesus. Jesus was concerned about it then. He had no idea, I can’t imagine, at that time in the first century, what it would be like today. In a study by a sociologist at UC Berkeley back in 2014, it was revealed that the top 1 percent of U.S. families in 1946 had an accumulated net worth of $3 million. That’s in 2010 dollars, so this takes out the change in the value of money over time, the GDP. At the same time, in 1946, the poorest 90 percent of the people, most of the people, the people that are in the 90 percent from the bottom, they had an accumulated net worth of $30,000. So $30,000 versus $3 million. Seventy years later, the wealthiest 1 percent had accumulated $14 million as opposed to the $3 million, where the poorest 90 percent had accumulated just $80,000. So, $80,000 versus $14 million, about 2013. Most recent research shows that the gap has widened much further than that, much further than the $80,000 versus the 1 percent of $14 million.

We learn this value in monetary wealth early in life. Talk to most any 10-year-old about how they measure success and what they want in their lives, and they will tell you about their high hopes for a good-paying job. It’s often said today, which is really bizarre, it’s often said the goal is to have a six-figure salary. You haven’t made it unless you get a six-figure salary. Many people of all ages view income level as the primary measure of success in life today. As a boy growing up on a farm, a savings account was opened for me before I was 1 year old. I think as soon as I had a Social Security number, that savings account was opened at the Lynchburg Savings and Loan. I knew about that. From my earliest memories, I knew about that savings account. When I received money for a birthday or for a Christmas present, all of the money went into the savings account. Starting at age 9, my dad would design tasks for me around the farm for me to earn small amounts of money, and I would present an invoice to him each month in exchange for cash, sometimes as much as a dollar and a half over that month. I thought I was wealthy. That cash, that dollar and a half, all of it went into the savings account at the Lynchburg Savings and Loan. None of it came out until I went to college. The measuring of my self-worth by the balance on my savings account checkbook – remember those books? How many of you had a savings account? How many of you still have a savings account? I don’t have one anymore, but God help the Lynchburg Savings and Loan. When they printed the new balance, I had that, and it stayed in the top floor of my dresser. I knew where that was, and if I wanted to review how much I was worth, I could look at that at age 10, at age 11, at age 12. Luckily, that value for money was tempered by grandparents and a mother who provided an example to tie them to the church and by doing the work of the church each week, and I was a part of that. I assure you, when the doors of the church opened at the Morrisville Methodist Church, I was in there. I was present. Even so, when I resigned a well-paid executive position to attend seminary in my early 40s, my mom was very concerned. She would say, “Are you sure that’s a good idea? You were making so much money. You know pastors don’t make a lot of money. Are you sure this is a good idea?”

So my friends, does any of my story ring true for you? I would bet it does, because the community I grew up in was much like this community. Where does accumulating wealth fit within your priorities today? Has that level of priority changed over the years as you’ve developed spiritually? Jesus had a great deal to say throughout his ministry about prioritizing monetary wealth above showing devotion to God. Perhaps the most famous quote that we might all remember is from Matthew 19:23-24. What quote am I about to share? What’s the quote about money that we all know? “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly, I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’” Remember that one? I’ll bet that was debated in your Sunday school class like it was in mine. What in the world – a camel going through the eye of a needle? This passage shows up in the lectionary once every three years. I would like to be present in some very wealthy congregations in Chicago and New York and listen to how the pastor handles that as that goes through the lectionary.

While our parable in today’s lectionary passage has some similarity in broad themes to that more famous camel-in-the-eye-of-a-needle metaphor, there are at least three distinct differences, and I would like to share what I thought about this past week as I thought about this message. Differences between the camel through the eye of a needle and our passage today – in our passage today, Jesus declines to be a mediator between the man and his brother regarding the inheritance. Jesus says, “I am not your judge,” which is very interesting because how often have we heard throughout our lives that we will be judged? Jesus says, “I’m not your judge.” You need to think about this. Greed is not what should guide your life. Number two – Jesus is cautioning the man to avoid a life corrupted by greed for material possessions when our time on earth is limited. Guess what, my friends? There’s a limit. The fellow who I was talking to in that bed in Room 5 at Kobacker yesterday knows that his time is limited. He knows that. We talked about that. He’s 90. How often do we live our lives as if there is no limit? Number three – Jesus is alerting this man to the folly of collecting material treasures while failing to give glory to God.

Let’s consider each of these differences to see if we can decipher what Jesus’ message is for us today. In our passage today, number one, Jesus is directly rejecting the role of judge and arbiter, whereas in the camel-through-the-needle passage, he sounds a little bit judgmental. It just may be that in our passage today, Jesus is wanting his followers to think for themselves about life priorities, not to wait on him to think about what life priorities should be. Think for yourself, Jesus is saying. In Peter’s message, these verses in this passage read, “Jesus replied, ‘What makes you think it’s any of my business to be a judge or mediator for you?’ Speaking to the people, he went on, ‘Take care, protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.’”

Number two, Jesus is trying to get the questioner to reflect on the temporal nature of this life, and to live as though it might all end tomorrow. I don’t know how many times as a hospice chaplain I’ve heard people say, “I didn’t know it was going to end.” I’ve heard people with their parents, a parent lying dying in the bed, a 90-year-old, 95-year-old, 98-year-old, saying, “Oh, my. Mom always bounced back. I don’t think she’s going to bounce back this time. I’m shocked.” Part of me, as a chaplain – you’re not supposed to ever say this, but a part of me inside says, “What did you think was going to happen? She is 95. She was going to go someday. What did you think?” All the material possessions that we think today are so important to us, think about them. Think about the things that are so important to you that are in your home right now. Those things are temporary. They will all go away. When we get to the end of our lives, we won’t be able to take them with us. On the other hand, Jesus is saying, “The brother with whom you are arguing might represent something far more lasting than those possessions.” That’s what he is saying. The message version says, “Fool, tonight you die, and your barn full of goods? Who gets it? Likely your brother.” All this fuss you’re making about having to share this, this idea of sharing possessions, it’s going to be immaterial the day you die. There’s a line from the song “Everything Possible” by Fred Small, one of my favorite songs. In this song it says, (sings) “And the only measure of your words and your deeds will be the love you leave behind when you’re done.”

Number three – the camel-through-the-needle passage seems to say that collecting material wealth corrupts our spirit, that just the collecting of material wealth corrupts our spirit. That’s the camel-through-the-eye-of-the-needle passage. But in our passage today, Jesus seems to say that it’s not that collecting material things is inherently harmful to your soul. It’s the comparison of that collection to the love of God. The destruction to our souls is that we treasure material things to the exclusion of devotion to God. The last sentence in our passage today reads, “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” How do we show devotion to God? If we were to have Jesus here today, we might ask, “So what is it I’m to be doing? How would I show devotion to God? Is it that I go to church every Sunday? Is it that when vacation Bible school time comes around, I sign up, and I serve food and I participate in classes? Is that it?” From Matthew 25, we hear, “Then the righteous will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.’”

My conclusion in studying this passage that we have for us today is that Jesus may not be telling this parable as a promotion of justice toward those who are marginalized, but he does talk about that extensively elsewhere. Maybe today he’s not talking about the justice aspect of it. He’s talking about the importance of it and the edification of our own souls. It’s not about justice today in this message. It’s about what it does for our souls. Jesus does not say here that we shouldn’t have nice things around us to make us happy. He seems to be saying we shouldn’t start getting so wrapped up in all that stuff. The money, the antiques, the boat, the fancy car, the beautiful home. We shouldn’t get wrapped up in those things so much that we forget to glorify God. In a few minutes we will be sharing communion together. I hope that for us, each time we share in communion, that that serves as a reminder of who we are and whose we are. And it’s not about the money.

To close, I leave you with these three questions. When have you felt tempted to prioritize the collecting of material things over glorifying God? I know I have. I know that I have done that. When have you felt tempted to make that a priority? Number two – when have you intentionally turned away from collecting and revering material things in order to make God the top priority? And number three – Mount Vernon’s First Congregational UCC has been called to renew and strengthen our worship experience as an important aspect of enriching and growing our own souls and revitalizing our faith. Amen.