Luke 12:29-40
Let’s put today’s scripture into the context that Luke gives it when he edits his gospel: Jesus has been teaching the crowds about income inequality. The stories that precede this one are about the greed of rich and powerful people. In particular, a wealthy landowner has so much grain that he has no bins in which to store it. So rather than returning some of the grain to the struggling farmers who grew it, he tears down his small bins and builds big ones. There his excess grain can be stored, where he can see it and be glad of how much he has. The twist of the story is that the landowner dies suddenly in the night and all his wealth hasn’t saved him from mortality.
In Jesus’ day income inequality was everywhere. There were a few men who owned the land and everything it produced – grain, wine, sheep, fish. They had more than enough for a comfortable life of feasting with their rich and powerful friends. Most of the people worked for these landowners as farmers, fisherfolk, servants, day-laborers. They literally didn’t know where their next meal is coming from. If the landowners had shared, there was enough food for everyone. In practice, most people were hungry. Jesus is speaking against that injustice.
He tells the crowd that wealth doesn’t come from possessions; it comes from participating in the reign of God in which everyone shares in the bounty God provides. Wealth isn’t a bank balance, it’s an attitude toward life that sees the world and all her peoples filled with the goodness and the presence of God.
People practice living in God’s reign by being generous, confident that God will provide enough to share and still have what’s needed for life. They live this way because they see God everywhere they turn. God is in the opportunity to hire someone without work, give bread to someone without supper, offer shelter to someone without a home. Treasure isn’t in a bank balance, but in the experience of living in community with all God’s people and lightening the load some folks carry.
Jesus goes on to explain that they should expect to see God moving among them all the time and should live in anticipation of seeing God show up in unexpected places. He says it’s like servants waiting for the master to come home from his honeymoon, staying up late so they won’t miss the arrival. Those who are waiting are rewarded for their diligence. The master shares the banquet leftovers with them and serves them, rather than expecting to be served. Being ready to serve each other is pretty much the point.
These days we’re encouraged to be vigilant…to watch out for undocumented folks trying to take advantage of us, to guard the national budget against people expecting food and health care without earning it, to report coworkers who dare to say something inclusive or accepting of others. That’s no way to live. Instead, Jesus tells us to be vigilant for the ways God’s love shows up as opportunities to help each other. God shows up all the time.
When the community fund spends a few dollars for life-saving medication…
When the weeders pick up a neighbor’s branches downed by the storm…
When we can cheer for the Boy Scouts…
When you encourage a store clerk having a bad day…
We do Light Signs every week to remind us that we can see God in ordinary places every day, and seeing God there makes each day holy.
The first century folks were in a battle with the Empire over who got to define how life worked. Was the Emperor in charge, making life scary and threatening? Or was God in charge in spite of the Emperor, making life a beloved community where there were signs of love everywhere. More and more we’re in the same kind of battle with a similar Empire. Are we to see each day as a struggle to grab what we can from a world that’s out to take what’s rightfully ours? Or are we to see opportunities to share God’s abundance with one another so everyone thrives? Are we to see ourselves surrounded by enemies or encouraged by neighbors? Are we to watch our backs or open our hearts? Just like those who first followed Jesus, we get to choose how we’ll see the world and how we’ll respond to one another. We can live in artificially created fear, or we can live in faith and confidence that God is good and Love Wins.
I saved this week’s extra reading for this spot because it talks about living in troubling times. The book is The Impossible Will Take a Little While, a collection of essays about how even when times are tough, people can do good for one another. This essay is The Optimism of Uncertainty by Howard Zinn. I want you to hear the opening paragraphs:
In this awful world where the efforts of caring people often pale in comparison to what is done by those who have power, how do I manage to stay involved and seemingly happy?
Some quick lessons: Don’t let “those who have power” intimidate you. No matter how much power they have, they cannot prevent you from living your life, thinking independently, speaking your mind.
Find people to be with who share your values and commitments, and who also have a sense of humor.
Understand that the major media will not tell you of all the acts of resistance taking place every day in the society – the strikes, protests, individual acts of courage in the face of authority. Look around for the evidence of these unreported acts. And for the little you find, extrapolate from that and assume there must be a thousand times as much as you’ve found.
Note that throughout history people have felt powerless before authority, but that at certain times these powerless people, by organizing, acting, risking, persisting, have created enough power to change the world around them, even if a little. That is the history of the labor movement, the women’s movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, the disabled persons’ movement, the gay and lesbian movement, the movement of black people in the South.
Remember that those who have power and seem invulnerable are in fact quite vulnerable. Their power depends on the obedience of others and when those others begin withholding that obedience, begin defying authority, that power at the top turns out to be very fragile. Generals become powerless when their soldiers refuse to fight, industrialists become powerless when their workers leave their jobs or occupy the factories.
When we forget the fragility of that power at the top, we become astounded when it crumbles in the face of rebellion. We have had many such surprises in our time, both in the United States and in other countries.
Don’t look for a moment of total triumph. See engagement as an ongoing struggle, with victories and defeats, but in the long run slow progress. So you need patience and persistence. Understand that even when you don’t “win,” there is fun and fulfillment in the fact that you have been involved, with other good people, in something worthwhile. You need hope.
In the first century people who followed Jesus looked their world square in the face and said no to greed and yes to community. Now it’s our turn to see how our own Empire wants us to treat each other and to say “no”. Instead we will share what God provides, see each person as God sees them, and believe in a world in which the kindom of God is growing among us every day. Be ready, for God is working wonders among us and those who expect it to happen will see when it does.