Being Rich Toward God

Both the Old Testament lesson and Gospel for this Sunday point toward a basic problem of the human condition, endless toil for the accumulation of that which does not last.  In its most benign form it is “saving for a rainy day”; in its worst, unadulterated greed.  They are two forms of the phenomenon of hoarding. 

And that, Ecclesiastes characterizes as nothing more than vanity.  “[S]ometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.  What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun?  For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity.” (2:21-23)

Jesus was aware of the same basic human problem.  He told a parable in the 12th chapter of Luke about a man who had a great abundance and hoarded it.  The rich man pulled down his barns to build bigger ones to store all his excess and rejoiced, saying to himself, “You have ample good laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, and be merry.”  (v.19)

God, however, had other plans and said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”  (v.20)  It was, in the word of Ecclesiastes, nothing but vanity.

Both Ecclesiastes and Jesus deal with a basic human concern, the quest to have enough by making sure we have more than enough.  Hoarding is our method.  I know no one who is exempt from it.  But Ecclesiastes and Jesus have two different approaches.  Ecclesiastes is despairing of the basic human condition.  “Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”  (1:2)  In other words, all is worthless.  All is lost.  We spend our days toiling for that which will not get us what we long for and that which will not last.  And there is no way out. 

Jesus, however, offers an alternative way to live.  We are not bound by the basic human condition after all.  There is an antidote to hoarding. 

Perhaps it is a bitter pill to swallow, but all need not be lost.  Referring to the futility (vanity) of the rich man’s hoarding, which he did not live to enjoy, Jesus said, “So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.” (v. 21)  He refers to one who was rich in possessions but not rich toward God.  The implication has to be that it is possible to reap an abundance and still be rich toward God.  And here’s how.

In the context of the parable, what stood between the rich man and God was not the abundance itself.  Abundance, after all, comes from God.  It was the larger barns necessary to keep the abundance for himself.  The only solution to hoarding is to give the abundance away.  It is admittedly not an easy thing.  Still, it is the only way. 

Hoarding has to do with surviving, and as the parable illustrates, even that it cannot guarantee.  Giving has to do with living.  And living for all its worth is what it means to be rich toward God.  Anything else is but vanity.

Peace,
+Stacy