8/20/2023
Several years ago a pastor and prison administrator who was a superintendent over a prison in Texas were talking about people who are incarcerated. They were good friends. One of the things the administrator told the pastor was “you might find this hard to believe, but most of the inmates in this institution I serve are more inept than evil.”
He said, “I’m not implying that there aren’t plenty of vicious criminals or bonafide sociopaths here, there are. That is not to say there aren’t plenty of people here who are down right mean, there are. But he said, most of the inmates are here because they just haven’t learned to function in society.
They are here because they have not learned how to live productively and in a healthy way. They weren’t taught skills early in life that could help them figure out how to get along in life and therefore they just drifted into badness. They got in the with the wrong crowd and set on a collision course with the state.
You may or may not agree with that assessment of those who are in prison.
Here’s the tragedy. Those who are inept can bring about as much harm and be just as destructive, as those who are evil.
But what is sad of course, is that you can’t help but think that if the inept could have been given some good healthy guidance along the way their lives might have turned out a whole lot better (and some of the harm they cause might have been avoided).
It’s been said that the man in our text today, in this parable of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke, was also more inept than evil
We know the story, right?
He was already rich, a farmer. Then he has this crop so bountiful even he is astonished by it.
It produced more than any storage facility he had could ever hold. So he had to come up with a plan for what to do with it all the surplus.
He doesn’t pray. He doesn’t seek advice from anybody. He did what a lot of us do sometimes…
He talked to himself.
Let’s look at vv.17-19
“What shall I do? I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones. And when I finish it all….I’ll be able to say to myself, “Dude—you got it made. Take it easy. You’ve got everything you need. Time to chill lax!”
I could be wrong but I think up to this point this guy’s life is unfolding a lot like we would all like our lives to unfold. His work is prospering.
I know I would rather win the lottery than not win the lottery. I would rather my crops produce more than I need than not enough.
We’ve all seen the bumper sticker, “You can’t be too rich or too thin,” and we are tempted to believe it.
George Bernard Shaw, who was not a Christian, but who was an intelligent and creative man, has said, “It is the lack of money, not the root of money which is the root of all evil.” And a lot of people agree.
So, if we are honest, we can kind of relate to this guy in Jesus’ parable.
But just as we might start thinking, this guy has got it made, just as we might start seeing this story as kind of an ancient fulfillment of the American dream, another character steps into the scene and we discover this guy hadn’t been alone after all, there was a partner with this guy throughout everything that has happened – a partner who has been ignored.
And this other partner, this other character, turns out to be……God…….
The One our Bible describes as the maker of everything that is the judge of all human beings.
Here is the ruler of all the universe. The owner of everything
God steps onto the scene and describes this guy with one word.
He doesn’t say he is evil. He doesn’t say he is bad. He doesn’t accuse him of being a sociopath or a criminal….
No.
He says, “You are a fool.” (v.20)
He essentially accuses the guy of ineptness, of not figuring out how things really work… and what life is really all about.
Because what that farmer didn’t know is that the night he was planning this big building project so he could enjoy the future would be his last night on this earth.
It’s been said “death makes generous givers of us all.” Nothing loosens up our grip on material possessions like the grave.
Much of what we think is so great and valuable is just going to be laid out in some garage sale our kids don’t even want to fool with…
So on the one hand this guy is trying to hold on to what he has, which seems smart in so many ways, but God is calling him a fool
How do we account for that? We kind of admire this guy, but then God calls him a fool.
There is a Bible commentary that suggests what might be helpful in coming to terms with God’s view of this farmer might be to imagine his widow being interviewed a week or two after his funeral.
So let’s just do that. Let’s imagine what an interview with this man’s widow might sound like.
Let’s say we drive up to see her. The first thing you might notice is how small the house is, and run down for such a rich guy. It doesn’t look like it has been well maintained at all. It’s almost just a shack. But there are these huge barns all around this little house…grain just spilling out of them, filled to the tops. The widow invites you in and the first thing she says, with her eyes filled with tears is, “my husband was a good man. He was the hardest worker I think I’ve ever known – up before dawn, stayed in the fields, never came home until supper. Work was his life. It consumed him. But he never took the time to enjoy the results of all that labor, all that hard work. Never. I remember a few weeks ago, when it was clear the harvest this year was going to be incredible. He himself was amazed at what had come up out of the ground. I said to him, “this is wonderful, maybe now you can relax and take it easy and not be so driven. Maybe we can take that trip we’ve always wanted to take, go to see family we’ve lost touch with, go those places we’ve always dreamed of seeing, maybe build another room on the house so guests could come. Our children are out struggling on their own, maybe we could help them. Maybe you could give a bonus to all those tenants who work so hard, you’ve always said you wanted to do something special for them.”
And then she said, he said, “I do want to do all those things, I really do, just not right now. Right now, I’ve got to build bigger barns. That’s what I’ve got to do. Then, when I get all that attended to, then, then, then.”
I can just imagine this man’s widow crying and saying, “’then’ was the operative word of his life and “then” never came. He was always postponing the enjoyment until something else got in his way and now it’s too late.”
See the poor guy was not evil. He was not a vicious criminal or sociopath, but you kind of begin to see why God describes him as he did. He was inept. Foolish. He never figured out how life really works. And he died without ever figuring it out. He died with those massive barns overshadowing his little teeny tiny shack of a house. He never figured out here and now is the only time we ever have. Here and now is the only life we experience.
John Claypool who was a great Baptist preacher turned Episcopal priest has said there are three verbs that describe our relationship with material possessions that really sheds light on today’s text.
We can enjoy them. Recognize them for the gifts they are. In our parable today. The land brought forth an abundant crop. That is not something you can control. When the sun and the soil and the wind and the rain all come together in just the right way it’s kind of a miracle. And when all that happened the guy in our parable today, the guy was so worried about the future he couldn’t enjoy what was happening then and there. He didn’t see what was joy for him could have been joy for somebody else. And so he didn’t enjoy what happened at all. But enjoy is one verb that can describe our relationship with what we have.
The second verb is “to do.” Doing things that can bring joy to ourselves and blessing to someone else. Think about this: what is the best thing to do with extra food? Where is the best place to store extra food? In a big ole barn somewhere where it’s likely to rot? Or is the best place to store extra food in the bellies of those who are hungry? This guy could have done something with that extra grain. This guy could have gone to an orphanage and said, I am going to feed these children for a month. And then a couple of weeks later he and his wife could have gone to that orphanage and seen what that food was doing. I really like that verb “to do.”
The guy in our parable today didn’t know anything about enjoying or doing. He only knew about that third verb that relates to material possessions. He only knew about having. Having, collecting, keeping control of – the only thing he knew to do with things was to acquire more and more and more.
So the guy in this parable Jesus told was inept. He wasn’t evil. He wasn’t a criminal, but he was inept. He did not figure out what life is all about.
That is sad. But this is just a guy in a story. The good news is we can figure out what life is all about. We can figure out that what we have can be used to bring joy to ourselves and others and that we can do good things with what we have so that a week after our funeral, those we love might say something about us other than just, “he was a hard-working man. She was a hard-working woman.”
We can rise above our ineptitude and embrace what life is really about….