God’s Financial Plan

 Luke 12:13-21

 by Reverend Jim McKinnon

 

The problem with too much is that it is never enough … and the problem with an overabundance of material things is that things do not give life.

 

We are well acquainted with the problems caused by too much …

 

We are a consumer driven society … and consume we do at an unprecedented rate …

 

One only needs to compare closet space in homes built 50 years ago with those of today, to see the impact of shopping malls and big box stores and easy credit and the resulting addictive shopping of our time.

 

We know all about abundance and the false security of material things … we spend so much of life like an adolescent in anticipation of a driving license … thinking that if we ever get to the point that we have this that or the other, surely then we will have it made and life will finally be good … filled with joy and peace … but of course material things produce neither, they simply rust and wear out and lose their fascination … and in the end we feel deeply the disappointment of putting value in the wrong places.

 

The problem with too much is that it is never enough.  Like the unquenchable thirst of an uncontrolled diabetic, we always want more.   An overabundance of things never satisfies our deepest longings.

 

In the scripture for the morning, Jesus speaks to the destructive inclination toward greed and selfishness that is a part of our nature, reminding us that “life does not consist in an abundance of things” … but instead is found in being “rich toward God”.

 

In the passage, someone comes to Jesus asking that he settle a dispute about his inheritance.  Such disputes can be very messy, tearing families apart, and Jesus refuses to get involved in a family dispute that may have been in truth only about greed and envy.  Instead, he uses the occasion to teach us about the place of material things in life … declaring the truth that, “life does not consist in the abundance of possessions”, and then illustrating that truth with a parable that we know as the parable of the rich fool.

 

The rich fool had not learned that too much is never enough …it never occurred to him to share his abundance, or that he was in any way responsible to God or anyone else for how he used his fortune. His notion was that he made it, and he would do with it as he pleased.  The thing that pleased him was the thought of unending prosperity … if he could stash away his abundant crops in bigger barns, he was set for life.  He could prop up his feet, sit back, and eat the best foods, and drink the best wines …  he had it made, all he had to do was to keep his portfolio strong …

 

But Jesus called him a fool for not taking into account the fragile nature of human existence … saying to him that that very night … before the bigger barns could be completed, before the gluttonous meals and the unrestrained drinking, before he got his feet propped up … before any of that, his soul would be required of him, and all of

his prosperity would be useless to him

 

Material things are not life, and we are foolish if we expect them to bring happiness.

 

The story is told of John Wesley … when he was in Oxford, his income was 30 pounds a year … he lived on 28 and gave 2 away … when through the years his income increased to 60, 90, 120 pounds a year … he still lived on 28 and gave the balance away.  Once when asked to document the silver in his possession for tax purposes, he replied, “I have two silver tea spoons in London, and two in Bristol.  That is all of the silver that I have at present, and I shall not buy any more while so many around me want bread.”[1]

 

How much better focused and more meaningful life could be if we all had the capacity to look at the things that we acquire in terms of what we need, and not what we want, or what we covet because someone else has something that we think we want.

 

By a preoccupation with himself and his own needs, the rich fool missed out on life.  For all that he had, he had nothing.  He never knew the joy of generosity.  By not understanding that too much is never enough, life passed him by.

 

Jesus looks upon this man and calls him foolish not out of scorn, but out of pity.  With profound pity, and as John Claypool says of this parable, he looked upon him “with infinite sadness because he had missed what it means to be a human being”[2]

 

The heart of the gospel is generosity.  If we fail in generosity, we can live an entire lifetime and never really live.  Or on the other hand, we can tear down the barns and share the crop, and find in every day the incredible joy that comes to those who live as those who are truly thankful for the blessings of Almighty God!

 

The question of Christian stewardship is always one of how we use the things that God puts at our disposal.  God does not expect us to be steward of what we don’t have … the one talent servant wasn’t held responsible for five talents … but we are expected to account for how we manage what we do have.  So, it always boils down to this …how well are we doing in light of our potential?  With blessings like ours, what does God expect of us?

 

For many of us, the worst thing that a teacher could ever put on our report card … “Jimmy is not working up to potential” … that one phrase was enough to take away all of my privileges from one reporting period to another when I was growing up .. my momma was a school teacher, and not working up to potential was the worst sin on her list.

 

Martin Luther said that people “go through 3 conversions, their head, their heart, and their pocketbook … unfortunately, not all at the same time!” … which means that we grow into our giving patterns.  We reach our Christian potential over time.

 

This morning I want to suggest to you that you consider deepening your spiritual life by trying to live according to what I believe is God’s financial plan … simply put it means that if you are still in your productive years of income, you are asked to work toward trying to arrange your life and commitments so that you can live as nearly as possible on God’s financial plan … to give away 10%, to save 10%, and to live and pay taxes on the other 80% … only you and God know your circumstances.

 

It may take a great leap of faith, a significant change in lifestyle, a serious rearrangement of priorities … but it can bring great joy and do much good.

 

I have never known anyone in now over 40 years of ministry who tithes and does not find it spiritually rewarding.  I have known many who do not, and who are miserable with what money hasn’t provided and cannot buy.

 

Obviously, I do not know your circumstances, but I would appeal to you to take an honest inventory … so that you don’t miss out on the great joy of glad and generous giving.

 

John D. Rockefeller, Sr. once said, “I could not have tithed the first million dollars I ever made if I had not tithed my first salary of  $1.50 per week.”  It has to start somewhere with a conscious decision to manage life in a different way.

 

I pray for you that in your giving you may find life, true and abiding joyful life, in all of the fullness that God intends, as you give appropriate measures of your treasure for the work of the church and the sake of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

 

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