Pentecost Eight | 03.08.2025 | Luke 12.13-21 | Pr. Carl A. Voges |

The Passage

One of the multitude said to him (Jesus), “Teacher, bid my brother to divide the inheritance with me.» But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?” And he said to them, “Take heed, and be aware of all covetousness; for man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’

But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” [Revised Standard Version]

“Protect me, O God, for I take refuge in you; I have said to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord, my good above all other’…those who run after other gods shall have their troubles multiplied.” [Psalm 16.1, 3]

In the Name of Christ + Jesus Our Lord

In the research of this passage from Luke’s twelfth chapter, one is struck by the conversations into which our Lord draws us. While we are accustomed to speaking with one another (when we aren’t noodling around with our phones and laptops!), the conversations with our Lord take us to a deeper level. Our speaking is instinctive about living in this world, but it’s startling and invigorating to discover the realities of the Life streaming from the waters of Baptisms into the LORD God!

So while we are inclined to converse about the workings of the Federal Reserve, recoveries of close friends from surgeries, parishes seeking to jump start their ministries through social media, latest accomplishments or misfortunes of our favorite athletes and teams, putting up with relentless heat and humidity or unending activities of self-serving politicians, our Lord is much more determined to pull us further into his Life and, through his conversations with us, reveal the huge impact of our rescue from self-absorption, evil, destruction and death! Such pulling and conversing, thankfully, goes on from Sunday to Sunday in the Church’s liturgies!

As we converse with our Lord, though, it becomes increasingly clear that the realities of sin continue to surface in our speaking with one another. Remember that sin, biblically defined, is the desire to have all of life revolving around one’s self. Knowing that, we cannot avoid how sin’s realities keep messing up our lives, turning us from the Life given at Baptism and/or twisting it into a version which fits with our thinking and doing.

Powerfully, through the Son’s crucifixion and resurrection, he deals with those realities by smashing the grip they have on us while immersing us in the much richer and fuller Life which streams from Good Friday and Easter Day! Consider how we used to have little idea of Baptism’s impact on our lives – when we thought Baptism was just a spiritual vaccination or social custom! Or where we studied books written by Christians rather than the holy ones written by the LORD God! Or where we bragged that confronting our sin and confessing it is not really necessary anymore because we have good access to support groups and therapists! Or where we were careful to not schedule the Lord’s Supper in our parish communities too often!

Against such a background, it is a stunning reality to observe that as the Lord’s holy places (Baptism, Scriptures, Forgiveness and Supper) become larger in a parish’s life, it makes the parish’s life more rich and full! The way in which this shift occurs is brought out in today’s Gospel through Jesus’ conversation with us. The passage deals with greed, a reality that makes every list of the seven deadly sins!

As the passage opens up, someone in the crowd is saying to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” Note that the questioner starts off in a flattering manner. Is he playing off the wisdom which Jesus has obviously been displaying in his ministry and is now seeking that wisdom for his own advantage?

But Jesus says to the person, “Man, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?»

With the word, “man,” Jesus is reflecting his attitude as a friend toward all people. But his question is edgy; is the man thinking that Jesus is to do something for him just because he wants it?

Jesus says to the man and the crowd, “Take care!” This phrase snaps us to attention because Jesus uses it significantly and heavily in the Gospels. Our Lord goes on, “Be on your guard against all kinds of covetousness (which is greed); one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.» All of a sudden, our Lord is pointing our attention to a reality we would just as soon ignore! We recognize this is what our Lord thinks, but it does not reflect what the world thinks, the world into which we are born! Baptized or not, we envy the people who appear to be basking in the abundance of many things!

Unpacking his thinking even more, Jesus relates a parable to this man and the crowd – “The land of a rich man produces plentifully and he thinks to himself, ‘What should I do; I have nowhere to store my crops?» The parable turns right here – the man is not recalling the Giver who makes such abundance possible, he is thinking of no one but himself! The parable continues – “Then the rich man says, I will do this; I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. I will say to my soul; Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry!”

In a way the man’s comments are describing the American way of life nearly two thousand years before the emergence of this country! Then the parable concludes – “But God says to him, ‘Fool! This night your life is required of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’”

It is striking that the rich, smart man gets nailed with the designation, “Fool!” Usually such a designation is applied to a poor, ignorant person. All the things this man has accumulated are probably destined for the people around him who cared about him or who put up with him or who anticipated a share of his estate!

Jesus ends the parable with this comment – “So is the fool who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God!” This comment also runs up against our lives – Are we storing up treasures for ourselves or are we impelled to be rich toward God? As we wrestle with that question, note three Greek words vital to this passage – “life,” “store up,” and “rich.”

“Life” is used in verse twenty. It is a word describing the world’s life, the one into which we are born. It is not describing the Life that pours out from Baptism! “Store up” occurs in verse twenty-one. Its Greek word is “thesaurus,” referring to a book that accumulates words with similar meanings. “Rich” is also used in verse twenty-one. The word really means “full,” indicating that our lives are not truly complete until they are immersed in the Lord’s Life.

Let us pose Jesus’ question again – Are we going to store up treasures for ourselves or are we going to be rich toward the LORD God? The question is difficult because it reminds us of the tough struggles which rage between the world’s life and the Life of Baptism. Greed is an honest characteristic of the world’s life (that’s why it always makes the list of the seven original and deadly sins!). By being born into the world’s life, greed comes naturally to us. It flows from the obsessive concern we have for ourselves.

Most of us attempt to dodge Jesus’ question by running from it or by pretending we are not all that greedy (we are just gifted managers of what has come into our possession!).

But our Lord, out of his deep concern for our salvation, will not let us dodge the question.

He wants us to honestly, yet nervously, face up to our instinctive greed! How come? So we can see how he frees us from it, making our lives richer and fuller in the Life he shares with the Father and the Spirit. Such freeing up takes place in his dying and rising; it pours in on us steadily from and through his four holy places of the Scriptures and Sacraments. We can run from greed or pretend it is not affecting us, but that is foolish.

Let us confront that instinctive greed, then, letting our Lord pry us loose from its choking ways. Let such sin, along with all the others, surface in our conversations with one another during these Pentecost months. Such speaking will turn us back into the Forgiveness which the Father, Son and Spirit steadily pour into our lives. As they do so, we will find the lives of our parish communities becoming more rich and full because of their continual and compassionate activity! We will notice that our conversations will revolve less around the dispiriting realities of the world’s life and more around the magnificent realities of the Holy Trinity!

During these six months of the Pentecost season, the Lord’s people find themselves in weekly conversations with him and one another. The conversations are anchored in the Lord’s Holy Writings and in his Sacraments of Baptism, Forgiveness and Supper. Every Sunday these holy places expose us to the rescuing and sustaining realities of the Lord’s Life, reassuring us that the new Life given us in Baptism will dominate our lives in this world.

Rather than being a judge or a divider of the realities important to us, our Lord desires to converse with us on a deeper level so our lives in him, the Father and the Spirit can be full and rich. May such conversations continue throughout the remaining months of this Pentecost season!

Now may the peace of the LORD God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus Our Lord

Pr. Carl A. Voges, Columbia, SC; carl.voges4@icloud.com