July 31, 2016
18th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C
(Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23; Psalm 90; Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11; Luke 12:13-21)
30/31 July 2016 – St. Austin Parish, Austin, TX
Our readings this week are on a theme older than Christianity itself: the danger of wealth. We all know countless books, plays, and movies on this theme. And it’s easy to say, “Well, I don’t need to worry. I’m not that wealthy.” But Jesus’ teaching can hit us right between the eyes even if we’re not as greedy as Gordon Gecko, as powerful as Oedipus, as hedonistic as Jay Gatsby, as isolated as Norma Desmond, or as selfish as Charles Foster Kane.
Most of us, to some extent, want to be self-sufficient. But whether we admit it or not, God sustains us at every moment of our lives. To believe otherwise is foolishness and vanity.
All Christians should include time for a type of prayer called “adoration.” A colleague of mine once described adoration as “recognizing that God is God, and we are not.” Come, let us adore our God!
I used to be an engineer and a musician. I was surrounded by people who were extremely detail-oriented. At the time, I didn’t realize how unusual this was. Engineers have to think of everything that could possibly go wrong, and then stop it from happening. Musicians spend hours rehearsing the exact sounds they will make months in the future.
Eleven years ago, when I moved to the seminary, I discovered that what I considered to be prudent and responsible behavior, my seminary brothers considered to be over-the-top and micro-managing. I’d like to think that I’m a “recovering perfectionist” now, but some people still quote one of the fake horoscopes from The Onion satirical newspaper at me: “People say you’re a control freak, but if you had your way, they’d say it a little slower and maybe even a touch louder.” You can make fun of me, friends, but when it comes down to it, most of us wish we had more control over our lives.
Control. That’s one of the things to reflect upon in Jesus’ story of the man we often call “the rich fool.” We are tempted to see this man not as a fool, but as wise. Even if we don’t have wealth beyond measure, what’s our idea of success? If we envision a life in which everything always goes our way, or a life in which we have the resources to comfortably address any adversity, our dreams aren’t much different than those of the man in Jesus’ story! In a time when terrorism dominates the news, we face the reality that many things are beyond our control.
Whether or not the fool believed in God, he didn’t allow his belief to affect his lifestyle. A friend of mine has asked, “If being a Christian were a crime, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” Christianity is supposed to be a counter-cultural lifestyle, after all!
There are other aspects to the rich fool’s folly, aspects which many of us struggle with. For example, the fool clung too tightly to his worldly possessions. Do you? As a vowed religious, thank goodness that I don’t do that… or do I?
Twelve years ago, when I was preparing to move out of my apartment, I was kind of insulted that the local St. Vincent de Paul Society did not think that my old furniture was good enough to be donated to a family in need. Even after taking most of my furniture to the dumpster and downsizing in each of my six successive moves, I still have too much stuff. Part of this is due to my parents, who were children of the Great Depression. The broken toasters piled up in our basement gave my parents a sense of security. If the world ever ran out of toasters, Mom and Dad could pay someone to repair one of ours.
I may not be living a life of true gospel simplicity yet, but I’d like to think that I’m taking steps away from secular complexity. Nevertheless, when I come across something that I haven’t used for years, my first instinct – and my second instinct and my third instinct – are to find a logical place to store the item, rather than to question whether I still need it.
The fool in Jesus’ story possessed a series of qualities that put him at odds with the gospel: he deluded himself into thinking he had complete control of his destiny. He was materialistic, greedy, and selfish. He never thought to share his wealth with his neighbors in need. But maybe even more than everything else, he refused to trust in God.
Trust. To trust in someone is to rely on them, to place your welfare in the other person’s hands. Do we trust in God? Think of the Bible and the lives of the saints. The story repeats itself thousands of times: a person struggles with adversity, the person places his or her trust in God, and God provides. At this point in my life, I’ve taken a few major leaps of faith, and God has led me to a future better than anything I could have imagined for myself. But despite all of that, it’s still hard for me to let go of control. I often catch myself praying, “Thanks for the gifts, Holy Spirit; I’ll take it from here.” In other words, I’m always willing to trust in God… once I’ve run out of other options!
Friends, the truth of our Scripture passages is clear: it is vanity to expect profit from toil and anxiety. One’s life does not consist of possessions. To be renewed, we must put aside greed. And yet we struggle to internalize these great truths – we want to believe the reverse. True security is not about fencing ourselves off from others, but trusting that God can handle whatever comes our way. May God give us nothing we want, but everything we need. Let us live simply so others may simply live. It is in giving of ourselves that we receive, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.