'Jesus and the parable of the rich man'
A sermon given by our Assistant Curate, Revd Tessa Stephens
May I speak in the name of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit....
When I was a student I had to spend some time in Russia as part of my course. So during the winter of 1995 I was teaching English in St Petersburg in Russia. During that time I became familiar with the Russian grandmother or babushka. The babushka is a force to be reckoned with in Russian society. For example, you might think that whether or not you wear a hat on a cold day is your personal choice. You would be wrong. You will soon be corrected and warned of the appalling consequences of not wrapping up properly. I soon realised that going out without my hat was more trouble than it was worth.
The babushka is the source of much wisdom on how things should be done and also of many proverbs. One which I particularly remember is this: “It’s better to have a hundred friends than a hundred roubles.” Back in the early nineties when inflation was rampant and the value of the rouble declined to just a few pence it was easy to smile at the irony of this saying. A hundred roubles wouldn’t have bought you anything much at all. But even in times of prosperity the proverb expresses an important truth about the relative value of relationships and money.
Two weeks ago our gospel reading concerned a disagreement between two sisters – Martha and Mary - over the housework. This week’s gospel begins with a dispute between two brothers.
This time it isn’t housework that’s causing the problem but money. An inheritance has been received by one brother but he is refusing to share it with the other. The disadvantaged brother asks Jesus to solve the dispute by ruling in his favour.
But Jesus isn’t interested in solving property disputes. Instead he challenges the man to think about what matters most in life and he does this, as he so often does, by telling a story or parable. Jesus uses parables because they help him to draw in those who’ve come to listen to him. By telling stories he can help his listeners to see familiar situations in a new way.
In this case, the story of the rich man who builds new barns to store all his grain and goods without realising that he may die very soon seems to be a warning about keeping our possessions in perspective. The parable ends with a reminder that our lives here on earth are only temporary and that one day material things will no longer mean anything at all.
But what kind of warning is it? Is Jesus telling us that we should neglect material things and focus only on the spiritual? Well I don’t think he is. And I think that part of the significance of this story lies in the meaning of inheritance to the Jewish people who lived in first century Palestine. For the Jews, inheritance was not just about money but also about the land. And the land meant far more to them than just a place to live or a source of income. The land was part of their covenant with God. Moses had been promised that his people would come into the Promised Land. The history of the Jewish people and their land included times of victory over invaders, times of conquest and exile and times of return. At the time that Jesus was alive the land was ruled over by the colonial power of Ancient Rome. Despite this, the land continued to be a source of spiritual meaning and security to those who lived on it and a sign of God’s faithfulness to the people of Israel.
But Jesus has come to show Israel that God wants his covenant to be much broader than that. Instead of relating to the Jews alone as the chosen people, God wants to reach out more widely to all the nations of the earth with an outpouring of grace freely available to all.
Israel was repeatedly unable to follow the original covenant that they had made with God. God promised to create a new, different covenant that would bring them the salvation they needed. That new covenant took the form of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We still remember this today every time we celebrate Holy Communion and the priest speaks the words of Jesus: “This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
The story that Jesus tells about the rich farmer seems to suggest that God expects us to show something of the same generosity towards him that he has shown us. It’s so easy to forget that everything we have is part of God’s creation and that we have these things not by right but as gifts freely given to us by our creator. Perhaps Jesus is also encouraging us to think about how we share what we have. The rich farmer seems to be very focussed on himself: he talks about my barns, my grain and my goods. Part of being good stewards is not just keeping material things in perspective but also learning how to practice wisdom and generosity.
So for the two brothers that Jesus meets this is decision time. Are they going to continue to focus on their dispute or will they turn instead to the choices that have eternal significance? Are they going to focus primarily on material wealth or on building and sustaining the relationships that will help to get them through life?
This question is a challenge for us too, though perhaps for different reasons.
In this parish, we probably don’t need to worry about neglecting God because we are so busy storing up our wealth in big barns or whatever the 21st century equivalent of that might be. But we do have choices about how we spend what we have. And we have choices not just about how we spend our financial resources but also about how we use our God given gifts and talents. I don’t yet know you very well, but I have already seen that this parish is rich in the gifts which encourage hospitality, warmth and welcome. And although my family and I haven’t been here long we’ve already seen so many examples of this: different people in the parish have helped us with all sorts of things for example with sorting out the garden, painting the back room, cleaning the house before we moved in, doing loads of washing when our machine wasn’t working and of course, organising the coach to Ripon for the ordination and a great party afterwards.
So is it better to have 100 friends than 100 roubles? Well, whether or not we have a lot of money we can be friends to each other and to those around us. It is my hope and prayer that God will continue to bless us as we seek to serve one another and those around us and to make his name know in this place. Amen.