A couple of years ago I was
fascinated by an article I read in Time Magazine about a guy who is on a
mission in life. John Winter
Smith’s goal is to drink a caffeinated cup of coffee at every Starbucks
in the world! Oh, yes! I did a little research about him this week (there is
nothing you can’t find on the internet…kinda
scary isn’t It?) As of July 17,
2007 he had visited 7047 stores in
Winter, who double majored in
philosophy and computer science (I am ashamed to say) at the
He sleeps in his car, when he can sleep, since he averages 10 cups of coffee a day. Some days the taste of coffee makes him sick. Not surprisingly, he is frequently jittery.
"I can’t foresee myself
stopping," (says Winter). "It’s too
rewarding an experience."
What do you think about that? Personally I think this guy is “one bubble off plumb” if you know what I mean. But in all fairness, he is going after what he wants and it makes him unique. He obviously gets something out of it, and who am I to judge? But, you have to wonder. Do you think that’s why God put him in this world in the first place? Is that a goal worthy of a life? On the other hand, I know a lot of people whose chief purpose in life seems to be to make themselves as comfortable as they can before they die. Is that why God sent them into the world? Is that a goal worthy of a life? Which leads me to ask, what is your mission in life? Why do you think God sent you into the world? What is your life worth?
The parable Jesus tells us today raises the question through one standard answer that is as old as time and as modern as The Wall Street Journal. If someone asks you what you’re worth, you are expected to answer in numbers, by bank accounts and assets. But Jesus says, “Thanks for playing that’s the wrong answer.” He even tells us the motto before he tells us the tale: "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in an abundance of possessions." To illustrate, he continues with a common story: This rich farmer got even richer… a bumper crop and he needed more room to store it all. So he decided to tear down his barns and build bigger ones. He said to his soul, "Soul, when you get these big barns built, then you will be happy and can you enjoy your life." But his life ends that very night. And someone else enjoyed the fruit of his labors.
Lots of lessons there. We shouldn’t live in the future. We shouldn’t sights on "someday when." We can only live in this present moment, because we have no guarantee of the next moment … the next breath. We will all surely die. And the ends of our lives will show us the means. We need to spend our precious time on what really matters, on what really lasts.
Another lesson from this simple story is that greed is an insatiable addiction to a cruel false god. The problem with greed is that it is constantly postponed happiness. Greed means never being satisfied … never understanding the word "enough." It cannot value what it already has; it is always focused on what it lacks. It can never feel secure in what already is; it always demands more. And it pits us against one another instead of leading us to cooperate for the common good. If you remember, that’s the context for Jesus telling this story in the first place. This guy tries to triangulate Jesus. "Lord, make my brother divide the inheritance with me!" But Jesus refused to get mixed up in it, and wanted to show them the true riches they were missing.
The story reminds me of a joke I recently heard … Jimmy and Bobby were arguing about who would get the first of the Saturday morning pancakes. After listening for a few minutes, their mother decided that this could be a spiritual teachable moment and asked the boys what Jesus would do in this situation. She explained to the boys that no doubt … Jesus would certainly serve his brother first. After their mother had finished, Bobby spoke first … “You’re right Mom. Ok Jimmy, you be Jesus”
Another lesson to be learned through
this passage of scripture is that greed is essentially narcissistic, and
narcissism is finally a self-destructive disease. The profoundly sad symptoms of this disease, fatally
affects some people, who in their self-love, cannot connect in love with each
other. And I truly believe that our
American culture encourages self-involvement to such a degree that it is very
difficult for us to pay attention to anything but ourselves and our own
gratification. We have so many opportunities for self-gratification and our appetites
are so endlessly stimulated, that it becomes difficult to know where our center
is and to know what our true size is. When we don’t know what our true
size is, it’s really hard to move through the world with grace and
responsibility.
This is the narcissism of a culture which always needs to believe it is the greatest people on earth, the greatest who ever lived. It’s as if we have moved the childish "We’re number one!" cheer from the adolescent schoolyard into the realm of international politics. But maturity and healthy self-perspective requires having some inner depth instead of just living on the surface, and an acceptance of our own limitations. Ironically, the rich man in Jesus’ parable thinks he has an expanded view of his soul when in reality he has shrunk his soul into almost nothing.
Another lesson still: wealth is a means to an end and not an end unto itself. If we understand the meaning of "enough," we learn to be happy with what we have and use the excess to good effect. If we make wealth an end unto itself, we make gold our idol, and miss what really matters. The Bible is replete with warnings to us of this spiritual danger, Mark 8:36; Matthew 6:19-21; Matthew 19:23-24; 1 Timothy 5:vss. 9-10, 17-19, and I promise you that it wouldn’t have all these warnings about riches if we weren’t so tempted to make money the whole goal of our lives.
Why is greed such a strong temptation? Well, many of us let the world define us instead of seeing ourselves as God’s beloved children. And the world wants to define us in its own terms. It says, "You are what you own. You are what you drive. You are where you live. You are what you have." We all want to be somebody. We all want to matter. We all need to see ourselves as having some value. This need feeds our greed, and that’s where the advertisers snag us. Greed is the energy that runs the engine of a capitalist economy. Of course, a lot of people get left out in the cold, because they don’t have much. The world says they don’t really matter, and some of them believe it.
There are other answers, too, to this question of value and identity. The world wants to tell women, you are how you appear, sending them into great, expensive, and ultimately useless efforts always to look young, wear the latest fashions, fight every sign of normal human aging. Some women have wrecked their inner health to maintain their outer appearance because the world tells them they have no other value than their looks, and they believe it. And some men fall prey to this lie, too. The world wants to tell men, you are what you do. You are your title, it’s all about your season tickets …your membership in the club… work takes precedence over family, but when they retire or are let go, they don’t know who they are and they don’t have a family to tell them. A lot of women fall prey to this lie, too.
My friends, don’t ever let the world reduce you to a job or a dress size or a number on a bank account. That’s not who you are! Don’t ever, ever let the world tell you that you don’t matter because you don’t have much, that you don’t matter because you don’t have a job at the moment, that you don’t matter because you have not been voted the sexiest man or woman alive by People magazine. That’s not who you are! You are a child of God, beloved by your Creator, worth the very life of Christ. That’s who you are. Invest your best energies growing into that identity. Do your soul work…use your imagination…focus on your relationships. Create yourself as a collaborator with your Maker into the image of God. Then you will understand what it means to have peace and security within. Then you will know the meaning of "enough" and use your riches as a means to do good in the world. Then you will be rich in the things that matter, in the things that last forever. Then you can live because you will not be afraid to die.
Says William Sloane Coffin:
There are people and things in this world, and
people are to be loved and things are to be used. And it is increasingly
important that we love people and use things, for there is so much in our
consumer oriented society that is encouraging us to love things and use people.
If we live by the greed and narcissism of the world around us, we are increasingly put into relationship with stuff so that we are no longer practiced nor skilled at relationship with people. Our souls become stunted. Our lives are reduced to a mechanistic interaction with the machines around us. Beloved, don’t sell yourselves short. You don’t have to visit every Starbucks in the world to wake up and smell the coffee. Let God define your worth and make your life something beautiful and unique, a gift to others and a joy to yourself. Concentrate on who you are becoming and the growth of your inner riches. And when that sudden moment of transition from time to eternity happens, you will leave behind a heritage of grace and move into everlasting life.
May we pray?
Great lover of our souls,
We need your help to resist the pressures of a culture that wants to define who we are and what we’re worth by numbers on a page instead of places in people’s hearts. Open us to the possibilities of defining our souls by love. Grow our Spirits by a connection with your mercy. Remind us always that we are your children. Give us the humility to know our place, the self-esteem to know your grace, and the wisdom to seek your face through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Mary Anne Biggs, Pastor
Nekoosa United
Nekoosa