St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday Sermon – Tenth Sunday after Pentecost – August 1, 2010
“Huge Miscalculation!”
Text: Luke 12:18-21

Given the saying that “God works in strange and mysterious ways
His wonders to perform,” wonder of wonders it is no small coincidence
that on this Sunday when we hear from the Friedrichs about their
deep & Christ-centered love for mission work and a great financial
need for that work to continue, this Sunday’s Gospel reading is a
timely reminder there are a lot better things that can be done with
money than what many people do with it – which in today’s glamorized—
lottery everywhere - techno-gadget - bigger-is-better culture often
means money, more of it, and spending it on oneself.
So it was - in response to a man who complained to Jesus that his
brother wasn’t dividing an inheritance evenly with him - that Jesus
told a parable to show that “life does not consist in the abundance
of possessions.”
“The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop,” said
Jesus. A terrific crop!
First, to get a feel for the rich man’s newly acquired wealth, I
asked around. What would be a terrific crop? I heard: 80 bushel to
the acre dry land wheat with wheat up near $5 a bushel; 250 bushel
to the acre irrigated corn; 70 bushel to the acre beans. Imagine,
several years ago, a farmer had 200 acres of dry land beans to
harvest & the beans yielded 70 bushels to the acre when the price of
beans was on the rise, pushing upwards of $18.00 a bushel! That’s
roughly $250,000 worth of beans.
That’s what Jesus in this parable is talking about. “The farm of a
certain rich man produced a terrific crop.”
Secondly, keep in mind that abundance, richness, money in the bank
is not the point of this parable. There’s nothing wrong with a terrific
crop. There’s nothing wrong with owning or selling off valuable
antiques, or inheriting a couple of hundred shares of Berkshire Hath-
away Class A Stock, or building & living in a bigger & better house.
The crux of this parable is that the rich man was guilty of a huge
miscalculation; a huge miscalculation.
It’s true the rich man said to himself, “Need more storage; time
to tear down the old barns and build bigger ones.” That was OK,
nothing sinful or wasteful or regretful about that. Happens a lot!
I’ve seen it happen around here! Bigger storage bins! More acres to
farm! New & bigger farm machinery! Expensive boats! Bigger homes!
It’s all apart of how many Americans picture the good life & want to
live the good life for themselves.
But the crux of this parable as Jesus tells it is not that the
rich man was rich but that the rich man said to himself: ‘Self,
you’ve done well! You’ve got it made. Now you can retire. Now you

can take it easy and have the time of your life.”
What a huge miscalculation that was said Jesus. Imagine, “Just
when the rich man was setting things up to take it easy and have the
time of his life,” God showed up and said, ‘Fool! Tonight you die;
tonight is the end of the good life as you imagined it, and as for
your barns full of goods – who will get it?”
Thirdly, here’s man’s problem. It’s not that he’s rich, but that
the rich man is not rich toward God! Shame on him!
The third verse of a grand hymn written by Harry Emerson Fosdick
that praises God as “God of Grace, God of Glory”; the 3rd says,
“Cure your children’s warring madness, bend our pride to Your
control;
Shame our wanton, selfish gladness, rich in things and poor in
soul.”

Rich in things, poor in soul is not rich toward God; not rich in God’s
favor; not rich in God’s grace; not rich in fearing, loving & trusting God
in Jesus Christ -- for which there is always God’s forgiveness.
And we need that forgiveness; we need the richness of God’s forgiving
grace in Christ to put all wonderful, earthly, helpful possessions & things
in their proper perspective.
So we sing to the God of grace & glory: Grant us wisdom, grant us
courage Lest we miss Your Kingdom’s goal, Lest we miss Your kingdom’s goal.”

What is God’s goal for us? It is not God’s goal for us first &
foremost to make a god of the good life. God does not want us to
pursue the good life in terms of what our neighbors have or what all
the commercials tell us we should have & want that for ourselves?
It is not God’s goal first & foremost to gather up & treasure this
world’s goods to the point of losing sight of, losing touch with God.
“Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions or land
or money in the bank or bigger is better,” Jesus teaches us. Don’t
substitute the good life for a blessed life. There is a good &
God-pleasing alternative life, but it’s not easy to get there.
It’s been said any pastor who chooses to preach on this text
about a blessed life as being rich toward God in front of a typical
North American congregation might get 10, 15 minutes of the people’s
attention. But over the course of the next three/four days these
same people will also hear over 20 hours of messages pushing the good
life, messages presented in short & easily digestible sound bites
hard to get out of our ears and often very self-centered. (ie. “You
owe it to yourself . . Your only go around once . . Don’t wait! . .
Have it your way! . . Treat yourself.”)
So, lest you & I as brothers & sisters in Christ be guilty of
miscalculating the value of the blessed life God wants us to live
over against the good life the world wants us to live, here are a
few short thoughts in contrast to the thinking in this parable that
“bigger is better,” or “take it easy, eat, drink, and be merry and have

the time of your life”

First, “being rich toward God” means living simply. When we are
obsessed about possessing something or worrying about preserving and
protecting earthly possessions, we take on added burdens & headaches.
The poor are not burdened with such worries & headaches. The person
who is truly a rich person is the person wise in the knowledge that

possessions, prosperity, piling things up is not what life is all about.

Second, “being rich toward God” means enjoying the harvest and
sharing it with others. From the poor, poor country of Haiti comes
a Haitian proverb that says “God gives, but he does not share.” God
is the Giver of every good & perfect blessing, but WE are the ones

responsible for dividing, sharing & distributing all that God gives us.

Third, “being rich toward God” means offering & giving thanks for
signs of the blessed life around us; a young girl plays her accordion
in a large care-home dinning room full of elderly people; a few car-
loads of Junior High Students & adults work together for a couple of
hours to package hundreds & hundreds of nutritious meals for poor,
impoverished people around the world.
In Luke, chapters 9, 10 & following, Jesus has set his face toward
Jerusalem, but along the way there are obstacles, among them, money
& possessions & how these are used. The same obstacles are present in
many churches today as churches try to address the needs of minis-
tries & missions in the name Jesus who clearly calls us to value a
blessed life more than the good life.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus stands in our midst and reminds us we are
not here to build bigger barns but to pursue that which is a better
life, an alternative life, a blessed life. God grant us wisdom, grant
us courage to pursue better when - according to the book of Proverbs:

“Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it.”
“Better is a bread crust shared in love than a slab of prime rib served with hate.”
“Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice.”
“Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity that one who is crooked in speech
and is a fool.”
“Better to be free of possessions, than to be a slave to them & controlled by them.
“Better a poor farmer, than a rich fool.”

God grant us wisdom, grant us courage to pursue a better life
– a more excellent life - to live simply – share willingly – give
generously – act justly - and walk humbly with our God. Amen