{"id":10022,"date":"2021-02-07T19:49:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-07T19:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theologie.whp.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/?p=10022"},"modified":"2022-10-03T22:36:16","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T20:36:16","slug":"luke-1213-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/luke-1213-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke 12:13-26"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Someone in the crowd said to him, \u201cTeacher, tell my brother
\nto divide the inheritance with me.\u201d Jesus replied, \u201cMan,
\nwho appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?\u201d Then he said
\nto them, \u201cWatch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed;
\na man\u2019s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.\u201d
\nAnd he told them this parable: \u201cThe ground of a certain rich man
\nproduced a good crop. He thought to himself, \u2018What shall I do?
\nI have no place to store my crops.\u2019 Then he said, \u2018This
\nis what I\u2019ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones,
\nand there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I\u2019ll say
\nto myself, \u201cYou have plenty of good things laid up for many years.
\nTake life easy; eat, drink and be merry.\u201d\u2019 But God said
\nto him, \u2018You fool! This very night your life will be demanded
\nfrom you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?\u2019
\nThis is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself,
\nbut is not rich toward God.\u201d (NIV)<\/em><\/p>\n

POSESSED BY POSESSIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two brothers are quibbling as brothers do, and they put their argument
\nto the rabbi as was the custom. Their father had died and the elder
\nbrother got the inheritance. That was the way it was, but the younger
\nwanted something too. Under normal circumstances in the society of the
\nday, he would be required to hire himself out and earn a living like
\neveryone else. Should he just forget about the inheritance? It wasn\u2019t
\nhis to start with by the laws of his day. Unhappy with this reality,
\nhe decides to put the matter to Jesus anyway. Jesus\u2019 response
\nis not encouraging. He says, \u201cWho made me a judge over property
\nrights?\u201d His concern is not his authority in the matter, but the
\nunimportance of the issue in the face of much more important considerations.
\nThere are urgent matters at stake in this time and place, and these
\nmen are quibbling about who gets the property! God\u2019s concern that
\nyou discover the purpose and meaning in your life wants to be heard.
\nThis is a time for decisions. Jesus sounds a somber note in this situation,
\nbut there is a grace note in the fact that he sounds it at all.<\/p>\n

I. Improper priorities invite Jesus\u2019 judgment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus tells the story of a rich fool to the quibbling brothers. There\u2019s
\nreally only one point in the story. There was nothing wrong with the
\nfarmer building bigger barns to take care of his large crops. It probably
\nmade good sense. What was wrong was that he was unprepared for the fact
\nthat the night on which he made that decision also happened to be his
\nlast night on earth! It wasn\u2019t that God was being unjust to him.
\nIt was simply that his time had come and he had given no thought to
\nit and he had no relationship with the one with whom he was destined
\nto spend eternity. What he has are investments for children who might
\nsquander them shamelessly, and an impressive legacy for those who might
\nsoon forget him. All this is said to the quibbling brothers to make
\nthe point that a person\u2019s life does no consist in what he owns.
\nReal life simply consists in a relationship with the one who gives life
\nin the first place, and then also with those who share this kind of
\nabundant life with you. Everything else is ultimately only death.
\nIt was a judgment story and it must have hit the brothers between the
\neyes. It said, \u201cGet your act together. Like the fool in the story,
\nyou\u2019re fiddling around with your lives, piddling with issues which
\nin the long run aren\u2019t important. You\u2019re possessed by possessions
\nand you\u2019re not rich toward God.\u201d It\u2019s a word none
\nof us would like to hear addressed to us. We don\u2019t like judgment.
\nWe like religious messages to be comforting, affirming, encouraging.
\nWe want to feel good about ourselves. The fact is, however, that like
\nthe brothers and the fool, we too play with life and often do a poor
\njob at recognizing what\u2019s most important. We would like to tell
\nsuccess stories about ourselves and our children. We love to tell how
\nwe or they have got it all together: The house, education, job, bank
\naccount, investments. We had a young man visiting us from Hanover Germany
\nand he confided to me that our subdivision was just as he had pictured
\nit would be from the movies: Well-manicured lawns, two cars in the driveway,
\nnicely-kept private homes, children playing with their bicycles. It
\nmay be a great success story, yours and mine, but Jesus says it doesn\u2019t
\namount to a hill of beans if we aren\u2019t rich toward God.<\/p>\n

If you could have heard Jesus continue his conversation, he probably
\nwould have said something like this: \u201cLife is a proving ground
\nfor the right decisions. In all of life\u2019s circumstances, you are
\ngiven the opportunities to choose between the unimportant and the important.\u201d
\nOver and over again in the imagery used in his language, he talked about
\nseparating sheep from goats, wise from foolish, hearers from doers of
\nthe word, children of light from children of darkness. To you and me
\nwho all to often want the soft life and the comforting word, there is
\nin this parable a word of judgment: \u201cIn terms of the time you
\nspend, the talents you share, the money you sacrifice, are you putting
\nGod first in your life? Are you prepared to meet him face to face?\u201d<\/p>\n

II. Jesus graciously leads us beyond judgment<\/strong><\/p>\n

The good news in all of this is that there is a measure of grace in
\nthat Jesus brings us this hard message at all. You parents know how
\nit is at times with your children. You may criticize a lack of promptness
\nor discipline in your children. You try to help them polish their social
\ngraces and they lash back, \u201cYou\u2019re always on my case. You
\ndon\u2019t care about me at all!\u201d The truth of the matter (something
\nwe know in our heart of hearts), however, is that we say what we say
\nbecause we do care. If we didn\u2019t, we\u2019d let them do whatever
\nthey want. Likewise, Jesus\u2019 warning to the people of his time
\nwas a mark of his love for them as well as for us. The whole of life
\nis an opportunity to draw closer to God and grow in his kind of life-style
\nfor us. If we miss that opportunity by allowing ourselves to be possessed
\nby possessions, by committing ourselves to the things of this world,
\nthen we will have missed the point of life and we will stand empty-handed
\nbefore God with no excuse.<\/p>\n

The other piece of good news besides that Jesus loves us enough to
\nwarn us is that he shows us how to live the emancipated kind of life
\nin which we are tied not to possessions but to our love for God. By
\nhis rich prayer life, his regular visits to the synagogue, his time
\nspent caring for people, teaching people, loving people, Jesus demonstrated
\na freedom from the kind of life which commits so much time to amassing
\nproperty, caring for property and disposing of property. In spending
\nhimself for us at the cross he surrendered the most important possession
\nhe had as a human being, his very self\u2014and he did it in freedom.
\nThere is no more beautiful picture in all of history of the life perfectly
\nlived than this free, self-giving, loving life of Jesus. We live in
\nanother time and place today and we are not about to surrender all that
\nwe have to walk in the marketplace with our toga and sleep on the ground–
\nnor does God ask that of us. We are, however, encouraged by Jesus to
\ntrust that the life he gave for us at the cross seeks to live within
\nus and empower us. We are encouraged to claim the freedom he offers
\nat the cross to live for God and for our fellows through the power of
\nJesus\u2019 loving spirit living within us.<\/p>\n

There is a question which the parable puts to us today. Perhaps we
\ncan find the time to consider it as we sit together at table or as we
\nreflect while driving or working-out at the fitness center. What would
\nfulfill me more, free mo more, establish me more as a person\u2014acquiring
\nmore things, or sharing more of myself with others? I overheard two
\nadult students talking in a class I taught this past week. They were
\nassessing their priorities in life. One considered living and working
\nin Austin, but then retiring in Dallas because she felt you could acquire
\na house with a basement and more square footage for the same money there.
\nThe other was more concerned about how her salary and vacation time
\ncould be improved by relocating to Virginia, based on information she
\nhad received. As with the farmer in the parable, there is nothing wrong
\nwith such reflection. The question is whether it forms the basis for
\none\u2019s self-understanding in life, whether it preoccupies it above
\neverything else? What is the essence of your own ongoing serious reflection?
\nA new home-theatre system? The latest Chrysler sports car? A new deck?
\nA remodeled family room? A vacation in Puerta Vallarta? Would that do
\nit? Would that do it once and for all?<\/p>\n

Or is it possible that you might become more fulfilled, because you
\nwere created to be fulfilled differently, as a person who shared more
\nof yourself, willingly, freely, lovingly with your spouse, your children,
\nyour neighbor, your friend? Would you be more fulfilled if you shared
\nmore of your treasures to make a difference in someone\u2019s life?
\nI was struck by the billboard highlighting the Afro-American woman who
\nspent her life as a single woman putting all of the classmates in her
\nsmall high school through college! What a legacy! The big question is
\nwhether you are really freed and established in God\u2019s unique kingdom
\nby acquiring \u2013 or by giving yourself away? Perhaps that is the
\nquestion to think about today\u2014at the same time as you consider
\nthe one who asks the question. He is, on the one hand, the one who said,
\n\u201cYou fool,\u201d to the farmer in the parable. He is also the
\none who said \u201cFather, forgive them, for they know not what they
\ndo\u201d from the cross. His love seeks to empower us and to free us.
\nAnd, as we know from Jesus‘ imagery-filled language, we always have
\nthese choices? What would it be like never to realize that we have choices–
\nor not to understand that pure grace leads us to know what kinds of
\nchoices make us truly rich?<\/p>\n

Prof. Dr. Dr. David Zersen, President Emeritus
\nConcordia University at Austin
\nAustin, TX
\ndzersen@aol.com<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Someone in the crowd said to him, \u201cTeacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.\u201d Jesus replied, \u201cMan, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?\u201d Then he said to them, \u201cWatch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man\u2019s life does not consist in the abundance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,727,108,110,400,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-10022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lukas","category-archiv","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-12-chapter-12-lukas","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13903,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10022\/revisions\/13903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10022"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=10022"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=10022"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=10022"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=10022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}