The Rich Fool
Icebreaker
If like Job you were to lose everything, what three things would you miss most? Share with group if you can?
What worries keep you awake at night? Share if you can.
Wisdom from the Old Testament
The readings this week are all about getting our perspective and priorities in life focused on things of lasting value.
Read Ecclesiastes 2: 17-23.
1. How does that make you feel? Do you think the writer was depressed? What had he concluded?
He has recognised that all the possessions we accumulate in this life, any fame and honour we achieve, last only as long as this life. He deliberately uses extreme language like hate to reflect the disappointment that so much he has done will count for nothing in the sweep of time. His wealth and possessions will go to another who has not even worked for them and even his memory will fade.
Read Ecclesiastes 2: 24-26. What is the writer trying to say to us?
He is not saying don’t apply yourself to earning a living, providing for yourself and those you love. He is telling us to live and take pleasure in the present but not to make money and possessions our goal. Rather we should seek wisdom, which the Bible tells us is knowledge of God and His ways.
The parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12: 13-34)
Jesus returns to this issue of right priorities for life in Luke Chapter 12 in the Parable of the Rich Fool.
Read Luke 12: 13-34.
The modern western world is built on anxiety. People are often tired and puzzled, wondering if this was the Surrey Dream they signed up for. We are expected to set higher and higher goals, and our reward for achieving them is to graduate to a yet greater challenge. Over every hill is… another hill.
In Jesus’ day the anxiety was different, with many of Jesus’ hearers only having enough to live on today and being only one poor harvest or one piece of bad luck away from disaster. Yet it was to people living much closer to extreme poverty than most of us, he gave the message not to worry about food and clothing.
So where does our story start? What is going on?
It appears to be an inheritance dispute.
Under Jewish Law the eldest son inherited a double portion compared to other sons, and presumably had the responsibility of sharing out the inheritance.
Who would normally mediate in such a dispute? Why had the man brought this to Jesus?
A Rabbi, and Jesus was seen as a Rabbi, a Teacher by many of those who heard him.
Inheritance was security, typically land which had deep religious significance to the Jews as well as practical value. As so often Jesus refuses to answer the question posed, but goes to the heart of the matter, our attitude to our possessions. Jesus saw that Israel was in danger of being consumed like the Rich Fool by holding onto their possessions and believing their long term security could be found there. Jesus was saying you have got your priorities wrong.
2. What is Jesus trying to teach us in this passage about our Father God?
He is faithful and can be trusted to care for our future.
3. Does that mean we should not plan and work for our security?
No, but we should do so with a heart of joy and gratitude as we trust in God’s care.
So what does Jesus have to say about our possessions? Reading the New Testament it is clear throughout this time most Jews and then Christians lived in their own houses with their own goods around them. There is no sense of them being seen as second class followers of Jesus. Jesus is not telling most of us to sell all we have and give it away to the poor, the church or anyone else.
So what is Jesus telling us to do? What is being ‘rich towards God’ in verse 21 or ‘treasure in heaven’ in verse 33? Is this something we only see when we die?
Tom Wright says Heaven is God’s sphere of created reality, which will one day colonise our earth completely. What matters is that the Kingdom of God is bringing the values and priorities of God himself to bear on the greed and anxiety of the world. Those who welcome Jesus and his kingdom message must learn to abandon the latter and live by the former.
As so often Jesus is teaching on his favourite subject the Kingdom of God. He is telling us to use our money and possessions wisely as citizens of the Kingdom.
Practical action
So what is the practical outworking of this? Jesus cares about our attitude and the way we use our money and possessions. He wants us to hold our money and possessions lightly and to use them to help build God’s Kingdom here on earth and for eternity.
So what should we do?
We should pray about the choices we make with money and possessions? We should be accountable to God and perhaps to others for our stewardship of what we have? We should look for opportunities to use our money and possessions to build God’s Kingdom now and for eternity.
Our world tells us that what we have we deserve. That we have earned it by our hard work. By implication that condemns all those who have not. In truth hard work is never the whole story of success. The good fortune of birth, physical size and wellbeing, avoiding serious illness, being in the right place at the right time, being chosen when others have been passed over, all help to create success or if we are less fortunate prevent it. All have had a major effect on our life chances. If we recognise the reality that all we have gained in this life is a gift as much as it is a result of our hard work, perhaps it will be easier to be generous in using our money and possessions to build God’s Kingdom inside and outside the church.
Prayer
It would be good to spend some time thanking God for His good gifts to us, for all that we have received for Our Father has led and guided us throughout our days.
It would be good to pray that He will break any hold that money and possessions have on us that prevent us seeking more of His Presence in our lives and more of His Kingdom in our Church, our workplace, our home and our country.
Lastly it would be good to pray that He will give us hearts of generosity for God’s Kingdom and those who good fortune has passed by.