Does our happiness come from building larger bins to store our possessions or do we find our fulfillment in giving back to God in a spirit of gratitude and sharing what we have with one another?

In today’s Gospel’s parable, an exceptionally good harvest made a rich farmer even richer.  The lesson of the parable leaves us with the question.  What is the farmer to do with the abundance of crops?  It never occurs to him to do anything with them except to keep them.  His problem then is simply is where to keep them, and the solution is a major building program on the farm.

The gospel message is:  Do not let greed take you over.  Easily, it will become your goal in life.  Give it free reign, and it will become the God you serve.

The learning for us as we pray over this parable is not where to store the crops but how can they be used to give honor to God?  How can they be used in the service of others?

As we pray this morning, what are our abundant crops that we are blessed with?   What talent, what possessions, and what wealth do we have?  The Gospel question for each of us is what we do with what we have?

In the parable, wealth, in and of itself, is not being maligned.  Rather, the appropriate use of wealth remains a challenge. 

The story is told about the wealth of John D Rockefeller.  When he died, many were curious as to Rockefeller’s monetary worth.  So curious was one man that he scheduled an appointment with Rockefeller’s chief financial aide and asked, “How much did he leave behind?”  Without hesitation, the aide replied, “He left all of it.”

As with the rich farmer featured in today’s Gospel, Rockefeller’s millions did not pass with him to the next life.  Just as the budging bins of grain would have been better shared than stored away, our mission in life is to be found in our relationship with God and in our relationship with one another.  Everything we have is for the sharing.  This is Gospel stewardship.

The seduction that can trap any of us is to think that our security is to be found in our possessions.  Rather the message of Jesus is that our spiritual security is to found in a life of gratitude, living with an attitude of gratitude. 

In today’s Gospel, someone in the crowd said to Jesus:  “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”  Sharing and gratitude are such important life lessons.  I had the privilege to spend some time last week with my niece Emily.  Emily and her husband have five children – ages ranging from 11 to 2 years old    -- three boys and two girls.  As you can imagine, the life lesson of teaching children to share is sometimes a bit of a challenge.    The movement from “this is mine and don’t touch it” to sharing what we have with each other is a beautiful parental challenge, is it not?  This movement to sharing among my five grandnieces and grandnephews is the spiritual challenge for all of us and is the message of today’s Gospel?

Does our prayer life reflect that we seek to give back to God the giftedness that we have been given.  Do we find the deepest meaning to life in all the ways we share ourselves in the service of others and in gratitude for the blessings of life?

The beginning of the parable has only one character living in his own world, making plans and anticipating the future as though he were entirely in control of it.  The abrupt divine intervention is the more startling because this is the only Gospel parable in which God Himself appears as a character and speaks.  The significance of this emerges when we notice that this story is about a man who thinks he can write his own story.  That is the value of his wealth for him: it gives him control over the future that enables him to say his story is going to go on.

The farmer’s fatal flaw is to believe that power comes from possessions.  This gave him a false sense of security.   The rich man understands security in terms of abundant wealth.   This control over life is an illusion.  The message of the parable is to beware of the seduction of wealth.  It provides the illusion that we are in control of our lives.  The rich man of the parable discovers in shock that it is God who really writes the story of his life.  The grace we seek is the spiritual awareness that God writes the story of our lives, and that all is a gift of God and all that we have is for the sharing.

We tend to think we can provide for our own future, but the Gospel reminds us that the future is God’s.   Our true inheritance is neither more possessions nor security but life with God.  All is a gift of God.  All that we have is for the sharing.  What is the vision by which we shall live?  Is our vision fixed on the person and the mission of Jesus?

From the first Scripture from the Book of Ecclesiastes, there is the clear message that obsession with the things of this world will never lead to happiness.  “Vanity of vanities.  All things are vanity.”

Yes, we need to be aware of the seduction of greed that keeps from giving back to God in gratitude.  This is such an important truth.  Even more important that going to your medicine cabinet for the right pill to cure what ails us, gratitude heals.  Further, sincere gratitude for what we have makes us less likely to covet what we don’t.

As we give thanks for all that we have, let us remember to be grateful for the gift of Eucharist.  The reason why we gather at Eucharist Sunday after Sunday after Sunday is to give thanks to the Lord our God.  When our hearts are filled with gratitude, we indeed are fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord.

Does our security and our happiness come from building larger bins to store our possessions or do we find our fulfillment in giving back to God in a spirit of gratitude and sharing what we have with one another?  This is such a fundamental spiritual challenge for all of us.

Have a blessed day.