Scripture: Luke 12:13–21
What does it really mean to be “rich toward God”? In this sermon on Luke 12:13–21, we examine Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Fool—a story about a successful farmer who tore down his barns to build bigger ones, believing his wealth would give him lifelong security.
God calls him a “fool” not because he worked hard or prospered, but because he lived as if God did not exist. When we rely on material abundance for ultimate safety, we fall into practical atheism, turning inward and isolating ourselves from community. Discover how to recognize the line between wise planning and spiritual self-deceit, and learn to anchor your security in God’s grace rather than expanding ledgers.
Transcript
**** There was a famous French novelist and playwright named Honoré who would later be celebrated for his intricate characters and his unique writing style. But like any young artist, he had to endure those early years, those starving artist years.
One night, a thief slipped into his very modest one-bedroom apartment and made his way over to the desk where he was trying to get into Honoré’s desk. But just then, the thief was startled by a laugh coming straight from Honoré’s bed. The thief assumed that he’d been sleeping the whole time, but instead, he was watching very intently.
“What, why are you laughing?” the thief asked.
Honoré replied, “I’m just amused at the risk you’re willing to take to find some money in that desk at night when even its rightful owner can’t manage to find any there during the day.”
**** Now, that man had a little bit different of a problem than the one in Jesus’s parable today, who seems to have gotten himself into the opposite problem. Here’s a guy who’s been so successful in his farming business that he doesn’t know what to do with the excess, this incredible abundance that he’s had. He actually has to come up with a plan to figure out what to do with all of it. And his plan—not just to build new barns or to renovate or put on an addition—but actually to tear down the old ones and then put bigger, better ones in their place, which had to have been all the more time-intensive and an expensive thing to do.
Nevertheless, the man obviously had more than enough to do it. He had more than enough to put his mind at ease about the future. Things were going well for him. That is, until God shows up. God shows up and calls the man a fool. A fool! Why? What has this man done wrong? God doesn’t call him a sinner or accuse him of breaking some financial law. No signs of ill-gotten gain here. God doesn’t call him a dirty capitalist or something like that. God doesn’t even seem to scold his plan or his productivity. After all, who wouldn’t store up things in a part of the world that’s prone to drought? But just as this man is plotting bigger barns, he drops dead and, for whatever reason, becomes forever the “rich fool”—or in the Greek, mōros.
**** What did he do that was so moronic or foolish? Well, in the Bible, particularly in those books we refer to as the wisdom literature—so Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, the Psalms—there’s a tradition of contrasting foolishness with wisdom. And in that context, which is more than likely at least a part of what Jesus has in the back of his mind when he offers this parable, a fool in that context is someone who lives as if God doesn’t exist. The fool is the one who says there’s no God, or even the practical atheist who lives as if there is no God.
In scripture, a fool then is not somebody who listens exclusively to Fox News or to MSNBC, or fails to diversify their portfolio, or drops out of college to take up a trade. Nowhere does Jesus say the poor are foolish either, although we often, you know, point our fingers and say, “Why can’t you just get a job?” and things of that nature. Rather, in scripture, the foolish are the ones who in their hearts say, “There is no God.”
**** That’s the kind of person that Jesus introduces to us today. You know, here’s a guy who has effectively said, “I’m insulated from the cares and concerns of this world. God doesn’t really have to be a part of my reality. I have, sort of by my own effort and by my own stuff, kind of built a firewall against all that.”
And so it’s not how he made his money, or even how much of it he has, but what he believed it could do for him that is foolish. He believed it would provide everlasting comfort and security. His wealth has become his God, and it has turned him increasingly inward. In fact, some have pointed out the almost comedic way that Jesus sets up this guy’s internal dialogue: “And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.'” Or the way we might say it today: “And I will say to myself, ‘Self, take it easy.'”
We can almost imagine him taking that selfie with his great big, beautiful barns right behind him. His abundance is only for himself. He thinks only of the future he has secured for himself. God doesn’t even seem to have anyone else to talk to but himself—maybe because he’s already alienated himself with his selfishness, his attachment to material things.
**** And what was it again that prompted this whole parable to begin with? Ah, that’s right: those two brothers bickering over their dad’s inheritance, which one person says, “People swear, everybody swears they’ll never do until the last parent dies.”
“Is it really selfishness, though, if it’s what I’m supposed to get?” the one brother might have asked. Well, maybe. Because to the brothers, Jesus doesn’t say, “Y’all be fair now.” I love the way one person put it: Jesus cuts to the heart of even a just claim. A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. Recoil if you wish, but even our fair claims can expose how hitched our hearts are to things and wealth.
And so Jesus gives us today’s parable about this rich fool, where there’s so much emphasis here on him and him alone. There’s no community, no neighbor, probably no pesky brother to have to share with. And probably what we’re supposed to notice more than anything else: until He makes His own appearance, neither is there any mention of God.
**** In 1976, the famous atheist Richard Dawkins claimed in his best-selling book The Selfish Gene that we can’t expect humans to be anything but selfish. He says, “We are survival machines, robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.”
Dawkins’ claim is not surprising. While it might be a bit illogical to suggest that we are programmed without a programmer, it is a logical conclusion, at least in an atheistic worldview, to say that we can’t be expected to be anything but selfish. Because apart from God, it really is just a knockdown, drag-out survival of the fittest, where we all compete for scant resources, where it’s not a surprise to us when the weak and poor are trampled, and where certain individuals or groups are just inherently superior and destined to dominate due to their fitter qualities.
**** It’s said that Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, who pulled off the largest fraud ever resulting in shareholders losing $74 billion, once said that his favorite book was The Selfish Gene by Dawkins. I wonder why. If we ultimately only have ourselves to answer to, if there is no God, then why not amass as much wealth as possible, and by any means possible, and spend it on whatever our hearts desire?
Now, it’s easy to scapegoat the Jeffrey Skillings and the Elon Musks and the Fortune 500 people of the world, but I know this is a topic that I wrestle with, and I don’t think I’m the only one in this room. You know, I actually have a pension, and I’m not saying there’s anything necessarily wrong with me having a pension, but I have a pension with the United Methodist Church. And honestly, I feel like that has to be squared with a lot of things that Jesus had to say about what it means to really follow him.
**** Or I could be reminded of the time Warren Buffett—who obviously we know is not hurting—once said that money has no utility to him. I think he still lives in his same house that he’s always lived in, and he’s content with just, you know, just give him a Coca-Cola and he’s fine. But he also said this once: “The current bottom 2% in terms of income in the United States, the bottom 5%, and for sure the top 1%, all live better than John D. Rockefeller was living when I was six years old.” The bottom 2%, the bottom 5%, all living better now than then.
Buffett is acknowledging advancements in medicine, education, entertainment, technology, transportation, and how that’s contributed to a higher quality, a higher standard of living for a wider segment of the population. Maybe it’s easier now more than ever for us to feel like we don’t need God, for God to be a part of our reality.
**** One person says, “American life simply isn’t set up to promote common life. Rather, it’s designed to maximize individual accomplishment as defined by professional and financial success, where there’s little time or energy for forms of community that don’t contribute to one’s own professional life.” And this was out of a book that was explaining why we’re seeing a cultural shift away from faith communities. It’s because the church has become a consumer product: “You know, what kind of goodies does the church offer for me and my family?”
It is ironic that this very successful, self-made farmer—who we would probably lift up as an exemplar in our community—God calls a fool. Because a fool thinks he did it all on his own. Apart from God, a fool doesn’t see how his fortune can make a positive impact on the future of others as a part of God’s larger future for the whole world.
**** There’s an old story about a rich yet selfish man who kept all of his wealth hidden away in an attic—a secret chest somewhere up there. It was a nightly ritual, so he would go up there and open up that chest and just look at all of his money, at this great treasure of his. He’d sneak up there, make sure he did it when no one was around or could possibly be looking.
But one night, he realized that somebody had obviously discovered his hiding spot, because somebody had stolen it. It was all gone. And he was so distraught, he ran out into the street moaning and groaning. Many of his neighbors came out to try to see what was going on. One came over to console him: “You know, what’s going on? You say you would just go up there to look at your money. You never took any of it out, you never gave any of it away.”
The man said, “No, I just went up there to look at it.”
To which the neighbor said, “Well, in that case, the money wasn’t doing anything for you or anyone else anyway. You might as well have been staring into an empty chest every night.”
**** Let us pray.
Lord, most of us have a plan when it comes to our finances. Most of us have a plan for when to retire, how much to work, how much or how little to give. We say we do it for our family, our kids. And yet, you still have a word to share with us today about our self-deceit and the pursuit of bigger barns. We know there’s a line we can cross when our stuff becomes our spiritual undoing, and we confess that we too often flirt with that line. Give us the grace to put our trust in you for our ultimate comfort and security, that we might be wise. Amen.