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The Bigger Picture
Date: 5th August 2007
Preacher: The Revd Canon Dr Jonathan Draper
Our Gospel reading this morning invites us to think about two ideas which are often related in the biblical literature: greed and idolatry. Today’s story is told as a part of a whole series of encounters between Jesus and a wide range of other people, but centring on the religious leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees. In the previous chapter Jesus has been personally and publicly very rude to them, and he has since warned his disciples about their hypocrisy. So perhaps it’s not surprising that Jesus has also reminded his disciples that, as they follow him, so they may face persecution, but that they shouldn’t worry for God values them more than those who might be able to kill the body, and that the Spirit will help them to speak when the time comes. It is at this point, when Jesus is speaking to his disciples about these weighty and significant things, that someone from the crowd shouts at him to settle a family dispute about money.
The Pharisees must have loved it when this sort of thing happened to Jesus, for these are the opportunities, they thought, to catch him out, when he might say something unguarded, or even act in ways that could be interpreted as Jesus assuming an authority he claims not to have or to want. The temptation in this case must have been to call the brothers to him, to bang their heads together until a proper arrangement was made and then to send them on their way with a fair agreement reached. And as a result, I’m sure, some would have spoken of Jesus as having the ‘wisdom of Solomon’ and his reputation would have been enhanced.
But Jesus saw the danger in this. This was not the kind of authority he wished to exercise among people; he was not setting himself up as a sort of alternative to the normal processes of the state and the law. Jesus came to move people beyond their small horizons to a new way of life, and not to make judgements between them. So he asks: ‘who set me to be a judge [or ruler] over you?’, and he refuses to act.
But he doesn’t miss the opportunity the interruption brings. Jesus may not wish to set himself up as a kind of shadow government, even one that’s going to bring justice to poor people, for instance, but he does want to bring people into a new kingdom where God is the only God and love is the currency of worth. So Jesus takes the opportunity of a question about money to tell a story about greed and idolatry and what kind of treasure really matters.
I always feel a bit sorry for the rich man in this story. He doesn’t seem to be a particularly evil sort of man, and in some ways he’s doing a quite reasonable thing: he is no longer accumulating simply for the sake of it – he knows he has enough.
His aim, however, in doing this is not very high. What he really wants to do is simply to focus on himself and his pleasure and not to have to bother with anything or anyone else. But he gets greedy none-the-less; he decides to build bigger barns in which to hoard all his wealth, and to make his wealth the object of his trust and devotion, actions generally reserved in the biblical traditions for God; so his petty greed tips him over the edge into idolatry. His actions may not plumb the depths of evil as we have seen evil in our generation, but they none-the-less show what really matters to him, literally where his treasure is, and why, though he was rich, he remained poor.
The really interesting thing about this story, though, is what happens next, which of course the compliers of our lectionary, in their great wisdom, choose not include. Not surprisingly, Jesus turns to his disciples, following this story, and begins his next sentence with the words, ‘Therefore I tell you…’, and what you expect to hear, as you do elsewhere, is something about how they should, therefore, lay up treasures in heaven where they will have lasting value, or something like that. Instead of that we hear Jesus saying this, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.’ Don’t let these things, which God knows you need, stand in the way of your relationship with God; or more than that, become a substitute for God. No, says Jesus, set your mind on the kingdom of God, and the rest will come your way as well.
Relax, don’t be obsessed, focus on the really important things, don’t be misled by secondary things, don’t let anything stand in the place of God; hardly the clarion call of our generation with its focus on the superficial and banal, on the immediate and never on the ultimate. Jesus wants us to pull back the focus, as it were, so that we can see the bigger picture, see something of how our lives can have meaning within the meaning God gives, but most of all so that we can have that abundant life that Jesus says he came to give. Jesus didn’t come to call us to something crimped and mean, but something as dazzling as Solomon, as soaring as the birds and as splendid the lilies of the field. Why settle for something less? Why be obsessed with the things that don’t matter? This is not, by the way, a recipe for irresponsibility, as my wife likes to remind me now and again: the Lord may provide, but we have to do our bit too. This is about focus and keeping things in perspective, the perspective of God.
I used to think that idolatry, like evil, was something monumental; it was fiery gods demanding human sacrifice, and priests soaked in ritual blood. But now I realise that idolatry, like evil, is often altogether more banal. Sure there are other gods to be worshipped, as it were, but for most of us, most of the time idolatry is simply a place, a comfort zone where we hide from the God of light and from our own fears. It may be that that place is as banal as a pension or a certain status in life, it might be the right kind of car, at last, or finally getting into that golf club. Whatever it is, and however important it seems to you now, it’s not; and you mustn’t allow it to stand in the place of God. For who wants to end up like the man in the story who is, after all, little more than an empty husk?
The vision Jesus offers us is of life in all its fullness, of abundant life, of a banquet of delights over which he presides with prodigal generosity. And it’s not about ‘pie in the sky’, it’s primarily about how we live together on this earth in his name and for the sake of the world for which he gave himself.
Jesus says to his disciples -
‘Life is more than food, the body more than clothes. … Think of the lilies: they neither spin nor weave; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his splendour was not attired like one of them. … Do not set your mind on what you are to eat or drink; do not be anxious. These
are things that occupy the minds of the Gentiles, but your father knows that you need them. No, set your minds on his kingdom, and the rest will come to you as well.’
Amen.