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The Parable of the Rich Fool

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

¹⁴ Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”¹⁵ Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

¹⁶ And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. ¹⁷ He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

¹⁸ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. ¹⁹ And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

²¹ “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

More Than Enough sermon slides

Sermon: More Than Enough

Last Monday I was driving Nate home from school, talking about his school day first, then about this upcoming sermon series on stewardship. I shared that I was hoping to bring something new to the table, some fresh take on stewardship.

“Like what? What do you mean by stewardship?” he asks.

“Well, you know, how we use our money. We’re talking about how the world teaches us that money buys happiness but that it really can’t…”

“Money can definitely buy happiness, Mom.”

Stopped me in my tracks. “WHAT?! No, it can’t.”

Maybe none of you have had the pleasure of having a debate with Nate. Nate is sharp as a tack, perhaps a lawyer in training. He is loophole finding, pedantic. He loves a literal, precise argument, and he will argue any side of any issue for fun. He has a bit of a stubborn streak too – I have no idea where he gets the stubborn streak. (smile)

Now, I’m a pastor. And there was no way this kid was going to take down his theologically trained, good-stewardship-minded pastor mom in this argument.

SO I tried talking about how money may buy you stuff that temporarily makes you feel happy, but that feeling goes away and it’s not the same as the deep abiding joy we find in faith.

“Yeah, but then I can just buy something else that makes me happy.” (pause)

Well, I am too stubborn to admit defeat, and I still know in the long run I’m right (smile). I have to admit though, this kid has been really well trained that money is the key to happiness, that money changes everything, and we may have our work cut out for us!

What do you all think? Can money buy happiness? (don’t answer!) Let’s look at this together.

This morning we are going to consider the role money plays in our faith lives as we look at the difference between a scarcity mentality and an abundance mentality.

What do we mean by a scarcity mentality? Scarcity mentality or scarcity mindset, is a term coined by Steven Covey, and is founded on the idea that, if someone else wins or is successful in a situation, it means you lose. It is based on a belief that there is a limited amount (a scarcity) of resources, so we have to constantly be on the lookout for ways to earn more, store up more, acquire more than others.

In short, the story we tell ourselves is that there’s only so much success/wealth/stuff to go around, it might run out. I don’t have enough so I want to make sure I get more, save up more, have more than others. In our American culture, you may feel this as the pressure to keep up with the Joneses, so to speak. Deep down, it’s based on a fear that we don’t have enough.

In many ways, this mentality is synonymous with pursuit of the American dream. Our success is often measured by what we acquire, where we live, what we own. Scarcity mentality is why we have a never-ending desire as a culture to acquire more stuff, and why so many of us face the constant temptation for instant gratification, temptation to buy now, pay later… and it’s almost counter-intuitive – because this mindset is based on a fear that we don’t have enough, we often end up with a tendency to rack up stuff and debt…in the book this series is based on, Adam Hamilton refers to these American problems as “affluenza” and “credit-itis.”

In today’s Scripture reading, called the Parable of the Rich Fool, God challenges the fool, challenges us, to not put our trust in wealth, but that we should trust in God. The problem wasn’t that the man had wealth. There’s nothing wrong with having wealth, but the problem is when the desire for more and more drives our lives. The faith problem is when we are not trusting in God enough and we’re hoping the stuff we acquire will take care of us.

This passage creates a tension and makes us ask ourselves in whom or what we put our trust. Do we put our trust in possessions, or our ability to take care of our self, or do we put our trust in God?

One of the biggest challenges we have as Christians in our culture is really trusting that God will provide for us. In our culture of plenty, we are often tempted to believe that we can provide for ourselves. We often believe that it’s completely up to our own hard work and accomplishment to have a sense of security.

The opposite of a scarcity mentality is an abundance mentality.

With an abundance mentality, one believes that they already “have enough resources and successes to share with others.”[1]

In other words, people with this mindset believe they have “More than Enough” (point to title slide) The story we tell ourselves when we have an abundance mentality is we are already so blessed, we have so much and know that God will take care of us. We don’t have to try to keep up with everybody else. We have more than enough, we even feel more blessed when we share and can celebrate the successes of others.

If we were to keep reading the verses that follow today’s passage, we are told that we are not to worry about our lives, what we eat, about our bodies, or what we will wear. We are instructed to consider how God takes care of the ravens of the air, the lilies of the field – we have a trustworthy God who will provide for us more than enough, who provides for us so abundantly that we have more than enough to share. If we live like we believe this, with trust in God and faith in having abundance, our hearts are changed.

What does this look like? I have seen this abundance mindset in the most unlikely of places.

One of the things I love most about when I went on mission trips to locations like Haiti, Appalachia, and rural Jamaica, places where people live in conditions that are almost unimaginable, is the amount of trusting in God’s provision I witness there. I have seen the deepest faith and the deepest joy in people who have dirt floors, homes without plumbing, leaking roofs, children playing in insect-infested puddles, or children joyfully playing with makeshift toys made from flattened bottlecaps and string. This boy was playing with a single beat up Hot Wheel car.

In the midst of this abject poverty, I was able to get to know and worship with people who truly trust that God will provide for them. These same people who have so little, go out of their way to share what they have with me. As guests, we are careful not to make an offhand comment like, “oh I really wish I had a Coca-Cola with this,” because it is likely that someone will go to great lengths, maybe spending all they have, in order to share.

It fills my soul when I am around people who deeply trust that God will care for them.  Because these are places where people are less distracted by the pressures of competition and constantly buying new stuff, there is a bigger focus on paying attention to faith, paying attention to helping meet the needs of others. It strengthens my faith to be reminded of what matters most.

But you don’t have to go to a third world country to witness an abundance mindset. I listened to a really inspiring TED Talk this week about a woman who began a community garden project in her small, Northern England town of Todmorden. In this small town, people have planted fruit and vegetable gardens in their front yards, on city land, vacant lots, anywhere there was land available. Every plant is for sharing, no matter who planted it. It turns out everyone takes what they need and there’s still plenty for others. They are eating healthier, growing locally, sharing. This small town has inspired similar projects around the world – a great illustration of an abundance mentality. Abundance thinking begins when we practice sharing with one another.[2]

Writer and blogger Seth Godin shared this thought recently:

 “There’s one view of the world that says what all people want is as much stuff as possible for as cheap a price as possible. And that’s a world based on scarcity….”[3]

“There’s a different view not based on scarcity but based on abundance that the thing we don’t have enough of is that we don’t have enough connection (we’re lonely), and we don’t have enough time.

And if people can offer us connection and meaning and a place where we can be our best selves, yes, we will seek that out.”[4]

What I take away from this quote is that we have a unique opportunity as a faith community once we change our mindsets from scarcity to abundance. When we quit worrying about having to compete with other churches to have the latest and greatest stuff, when we quit worrying about having enough, and recognize we already have more than enough, we can live out of our abundance. We can shift our focus from ourselves to meeting the needs of others.

Although this quote wasn’t meant about Christianity, I love that the quote points out that people long for a place where they can connect with one another and have meaning. That’s church! As people who trust in God’s abundance, we can offer that gift to one another, we can share that gift with a busy, over-consuming culture. We can live into our mission to love God and love neighbor.

So, As we shift toward truly trusting that God will provide for us, one of the toughest moves we could make is to learn to depend on something outside of our own self.

I have an interesting faith challenge for you this week inspired by my seminary friend Ryan Klinck and his work with the Neighboring Movement:

 I challenge you to borrow something from a neighbor.

Why borrow something? Borrowing something from a neighbor is something that really flies in the face of American cultural norms, particularly that we are supposed to be self-reliant individuals who do not need other people’s help, because if we do, then we are perceived as “weak.”

Yet, something beautiful happens when we borrow something from a neighbor, we are:

1. relying on someone else’s resources and wisdom
2. giving neighbors the opportunity to share
3. growing our relationships with the people closest to us

This practice takes more time than just running to the store, so it’s an investment in our relationships instead.

Borrowing something can remind us that self-reliance is a myth that actually leads us towards isolation, which isn’t healthy. We need other people and relationships in our life, it is a healthy thing to ask for help from others.

On a faith level, it teaches us to honor the gifts other people have and giving them space to share them with us. It reminds us of the abundance God has to offer us all, it is reminiscent of the Acts community, where they had all things in common and shared all they had..[5]

It is my prayer that we can be a community of faith who knows that money cannot buy happiness – that we can be people who can share generously because God so abundantly gives to us.

To God be the glory. Amen.

Giving Credit where it is due:

[1] Steven Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

[2] TED Talk “How We Eat our Landscapes” featuring Pam Warhurst.

[3] Seth Godin, “Life, the Internet, and Everything”

[4] Seth Godin, “Life, the Internet, and Everything” on the podcast On Being with Krista Tippett, 9/20/2018.

[5] Ryan Klinck, The Neighboring Movement