| Fulfillment Meditation Delivered By Reverend Ginger Gaines-Cirelli - August 1, 2010
Luke 12:13-21
Think for just a moment about a time when you asked for what you wanted and, instead, were given what you needed. . . Initially, this experience can be pretty frustrating—especially for us who live in a “my way right away” culture. We want what we want… But Jesus characteristically responds to questions and demands that come to him by redirection—and today’s encounter with someone in the crowd is no different. When the demand is made of Jesus to “tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me,” the response is a story that completely bypasses the concrete demand and goes to the underlying issue.
The story Jesus tells is of a man who is described as rich. This already rich man has a bumper crop such that his multiple barns aren’t big enough to store all the bounty. The already rich man has a conversation with himself in which he decides that the solution to this problem is to tear down what he has and build bigger barns so that he can store the excess grain and goods. He continues the conversation with himself in a self-congratulatory tone, “Soul, your barns are filled full so relax! Eat, drink, be merry!” And then, all of a sudden, there is a voice other than his own that breaks into the conversation: God speaks of life—and ultimately of death—pointing out the flaw in the man’s enterprise. “The things you have prepared, whose will they be?”
And then, just in case anyone was still wondering about the point, Jesus says, “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
At one level, the story provides us with a reminder that “you can’t take your stuff with you”—an important, straightforward bit of secular wisdom that we would all do well to keep in mind. It goes against the grain of our culture to suggest that our energies should be directed toward something other than efficient and effective production and protection of wealth. It is helpful to be reminded that, perhaps, this mad rush to accumulate wealth and comfort isn’t all there is to life. But I believe that what we receive in this teaching of Jesus is even more countercultural than that.
Jesus brings us right to the center of our human longing for a sense of fulfillment… for security… our deep desire for being and having enough. Jesus hears the initial demand about the inheritance for what it is: the man says, in essence, “make me worth more.” Jesus responds by pointing out that so often our desire for being enough gets confused and tied up with having enough. That is to say, we human beings sometimes get lured into believing that if only we have certain things, then we will feel OK, like we’re safe, or we’re as good as other people. If only we can fill our bank accounts then we will feel some sense of safety and security. If only we can fill our calendars with lots of appointments and responsibilities, then we will feel that we matter and that we’re needed and that we’re important. If only we can fill the empty spaces in our hearts…in our souls…our lives…what will fill those spaces to overflowing? What will bring abundance into our lives—the kind of abundance that our faith really teaches? That seems to be the point. St. Augustine’s famous prayer comes to mind, “O Lord, our hearts are restless until they find rest in thee.” “Relax, eat, drink, be merry…” Oh for a place of rest and relaxation and peace and security and merriment and abundance…can that place really be found in God?
In the story that Jesus tells, it is clear that the man is already rich. The abundance is already there—but the rich man gets distracted and wastes his time working for what, if he were paying attention, he would see he already has. It is absolutely countercultural to place our trust in God’s grace and providence as opposed to the free-market economy. Even after the events of these past few years, we still seem to cling to the notion that our future and our worth depends upon the strength of our portfolios instead of the strength of our God’s love.
As one who is currently trying to figure out how to set up my retirement account, I want to make clear that I’m not saying that we shouldn’t attend responsibly to these things. I’m just trying to take seriously the words we hear: “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” And I do not believe that being “rich toward God” means scoring brownie points through good deeds in order to get our ticket punched into heaven when we die. Rather, I believe that to be rich toward God has to do with the ways we live and experience this life. Instead of spending our lives trying to make ourselves worth more, focused on things that are fleeting and that cannot ultimately provide security or fill the emptiness in the deep places of our souls, we are reminded—again!—that we are invited into relationship with God, to share God’s life. To share God’s life is to be who you were created by God to be…and to share yourself with others—living in such a way that your life shows forth the love and generosity and mutuality and relationship of the God in whose image we are all created. (Contrast this with the image of the rich man in the parable!…turned in on self, focused on hoarding instead of sharing, dependent on material wealth instead of interdependent with others and trusting in God)
It is in sharing life in relationship—with God and with others according to God’s way—that we discover that we are already, in fact, enough. Your worth is not bound up in how big your barns are or how full they are filled. Your worth is found in the truth that you are a beloved child of God. Security, peace, hope are found as you trust in that knowledge and “rest in God,” dwelling in God’s abundance. The invitation today is to open ourselves up, exposing the empty places of confusion, fear, and insecurity, and allow ourselves to be filled full—perhaps not of what we want…but of what God knows we need: an affirmation of our great worth in the eyes of God who loves us.
This week, I attended the wake of a 20 year old boy who took his own life; I sat with a daughter (an only child) who is attending her 99 year old mommy through the last days of her life in hospice; I have shared conversation with a woman whose partner unexpectedly became ill and died. In moments such as these, it is not money or nice homes or any worldly possession that provides sustenance, hope, peace, or comfort. In moments such as these, when life comes into focus through the lens of tragedy and grief, it is hard to hear these words from Luke as anything other than a clarion call to remember again the precious gift of this life we have been given and to lean into the love of God, even to the point of falling, in order to be caught and held in the rich abundance of grace. May we all hear the call so that when we come to our own end we will be able to rest, celebrating the full-fillment God has shared with us and knowing just how much our lives have been worth. |
