A guest preacher arrived at a country church. One person was there and the time came and the time went for him to preach and still there just was just one person there, so he said to the man, “Did you tell them I was coming?” The man said, “No, but word must have gotten out.” Well, on this Capital Campaign Kick-off Sunday, what we are working on is getting the word out. We are beginning the process of getting the word out about the needs of this congregation to be able to minister through this place and this community of faith, literally, to the world. That’s the job of the Capital Campaign committees to get the word out and human nature being what it is, schedules being what they are in our lives and in a certain level of selective listening, we wind up answering a lot of questions. Sometimes we answer the same questions over and over again which is part of the process, to make sure that everyone has had an opportunity to ask the questions and get the word out about the needs and about their role in this call of God to step up in faithfulness and follow suit with all those who have preceded us; those who put this place here where we worship, who put the tools in our hands, to minister in the name of Christ, to make an impact in the world that is lasting and that is, in fact, eternal. And so we have this kick-off and work to get the word out.
We begin today to think together, to work together, to pray together and to seek God’s will – together – as to what he would have us do. So today I will talk a bit about money as we launch this Capital Campaign and this Stewardship emphasis for this coming year. I won’t talk about money often although Jesus did. Jesus spoke more about money than any other subject. As I’ve mentioned from this pulpit before that Jesus spoke about money more than anything but love and maybe the kingdom of God. He did so, I think, because it’s difficult for us to deal with that subject. It may be the simplest way to give back to God, the most basic way to give back to God and the people around us but it can be one of the most difficult and I think that’s why Jesus spoke to that so many times and so many ways.
And so it is with our scripture lesson today. I mentioned this story in a sermon last week, in passing, and today I would like to take a closer look at this parable that has been entitled, “The Parable of the Rich Fool.” In this parable Jesus tells of a man who has been a huge success, he’s had a bumper crop and so he has decided he is going to pull down his barns and build bigger barns, store up all of these things, retire and eat, drink and be merry and save it all for himself. God says, “You are a fool! You are a fool, because tonight your soul is required of you. So tonight who will get all of this that you have produced?” Well this parable was spoken to those people who have an abundance. Jesus spoke also to people who didn’t have much but this one is for those who live with abundance, and in our world that’s you and me. Twenty-first century Americans are the wealthiest persons ever to walk this earth in the history of the world. We are by far the wealthiest in the world and the wealthiest ever to walk the earth. If this parable is aimed at anyone in history it’s us. And so we need to tune in to the message in this parable. The issue is not what happens to his stuff. The things that he accumulates are going to go to someone else and that’s always the case. We really can’t take it us…it’s all going to wind up with someone else. This rich man had the opportunity to designate who would receive the bounty and he decided it would all go to him, to himself, and so this parable is not about the things but about the inner life of this man, his soul, his spirit, his inner-spiritual, secret self. And please note, this is not a bad man, there is no indication here that this is an evil man or a bad man. He has not defrauded anyone, he has not abused his servants or employees, and he hasn’t been dumping toxic waste. He has participated in no malfeasance or crime. The fact is that through his work, sun and rain and soil have produced a great deal and made him rich. His folly is he thought that he could be secure through his material things and through his wealth and God called him a fool.
Bruce Cockburn is a songwriter and a singer that I like and he has a song, the chorus of which is just laughter, ha, ha ha, ha, ha ha, ha, ha, ha, and one of the lines is “A laugh for the ones who thought they could make things work, tried to build the new Jerusalem and ended up with New York.” Well New York is a great place but it ain’t the New Jerusalem and we can’t get there by simply investing our financial and material selves. It takes far more than that. It’s deeper than that. You can’t do it apart from God. Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches…apart from Me, you can do nothing - zip, apart from Me you can do nothing – zero - apart from Me. No matter how hard you work no matter how bright you are, no matter how much achieve, apart from Me – zero. Jesus, instead said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all these things will be added unto you.” And so, first of all, this man had no thought for those around him. It was all about him. It was said about a woman who was self-absorbed, “Edith lived in a little world, bound north, south, east and west by Edith.” And that’s the way this man was. I had a couple of friends who had a son my age and I overheard a conversation they had about their son. Someone asked, “How’s Jim doing?” And for about twenty or twenty-five minutes they talked about Jim and the main theme of that was, “he’s really taking care of himself;” taking great care of himself. Here’s how he’s taking care of himself – and I thought if that’s all you can about your life, that’s rather sad. Can you imagine your epitaph – “Bill McCoy, took really good care of himself.” If that’s the high water mark, it’s a sad state of affairs. And that was the case with this man; he was looking after himself, period! The second thing is this man had no thought, no consideration for those who would follow him. He was completely self-centered. He had an abundance of goods and it never occurred to him to give any of it away.
I was in the Dominican Republic about ten years ago. From New Wilmington we launched a hands-on effort and the church in the Dominican, a mission effort. We took building supplies, educational supplies and clothing and various things. I took my guitar because I knew in that church they sang a lot with that sort of accompaniment. We shared music back and forth and sang. A young man named Francisco was the head of Youth Ministry for the entire Dominican Republic in that church and he didn’t even have a guitar. He would lead songs with borrowed guitars and borrowed mine some. I was there with a guitar that I really liked and it was one of four guitars that I owned. Now Francisco, head of the Youth Ministry for the church in whole Dominican, with no guitar. Bill McCoy with four guitars – it was a no-brainer. It didn’t matter how I felt about it – and I really liked this guitar – but I realized this guitar needs to stay in the Dominican Republic, which it did. We left clothing, medical supplies and we left the guitar. Sometimes it’s a no-brainer. With this man, even at that, it was fairly obvious that he was completely absorbed with himself, never thought about those who would follow, never thought about anyone else.
There is a story of an older gentleman talking to a young man just starting out in his life and his career and he asked the young man, “What will you do,” and the young man said, “Well, I’m going to learn my trade – soup to nuts.” The man said, “Well, what then?” He said, “Well I’m gonna set up in business, going to get it set and launched the right way.” “Okay, great, then what?” “Well, I’m going to make my fortune.” “Super, what then?” “Well, I supposed I’ll grow old and retire and live off of my money, my fortune.” “What then?” “”Well, eventually I guess I’ll die.” “What then?” The young man couldn’t answer, he had nothing to say and the older gentleman said, “Young man, you are thinking like a fool.” You must start out, track through life having in mind where you are heading – finally, where you will spend eternity and what that means.”
Some of you know I am a funeral director, my family had funeral homes in Wheeling, West Virginia and I worked there in junior high in summers and senior high and college and was full-time for three years with my father before seminary and never once in all that time did I see a hearse followed by a U-Haul. Not once! You cannot take it with you! I learned that doesn’t work. Although there is a story of a man who actually pulled it off. He got into some kind of spiritual thing, a metaphysical kind of a loophole and he managed to take it with him. He arrived at the Pearly Gates with a pillowcase full of gold bricks. Peter had never seen that before. St. Peter said, “What do you have? How did you do this? I’ve never seen this before.” He said, “Well, I worked it out.” “What’s in there?” He opened it and looked and saw the gold bricks and said, “pavement?” “You went to all this trouble to bring pavement with you, that’s it!” You and I work and work and slave and struggle to gather together a pile of what is equal to asphalt in the Kingdom of Heaven. That is really the perspective of Jesus. We think maybe we can secure our lives with all the things we have and the finances we have. When finally that doesn’t do it – it’s a false security. My wife Mary has an Aunt Ruth who is in heaven now but Aunt Ruth, when in her 80’s would periodically go out on the roof of her apartment, which was a 3rd story apartment. She was way above the pavement and she would sweep the gutters – in her 80’s. Mary’s dad would get calls saying, “Stewart, your Aunt Ruth is out on the roof again.” He would go down and tell her, “Ruth, you can’t go out on the roof, it’s just not safe.” Well the last time he went down there he said, “Ruth, you just can’t get out on the roof. You are sweeping, you are on the edge, and it’s just way down there.” She said, “Well, I had a rope around my waist.” Well Ruth had a rope tied around her waist, the other end tied to the bedstead, but the rope was longer than the distance from the roof to the ground. This was not a good plan….not a good plan. Well, remember Aunt Ruth’s rope, I want you to remember Aunt Ruth’s rope. That is what it is to place your sense of security in material and financial things – it’s a false sense of security. You feel pretty good about it but the rope is longer than the distance from the roof to the ground and that’s what Jesus is pointing out here.
The financial heroes of our lives and our world will not be the Warren Buffetts and the Bill Gates and the Allen Greenspans, or the Sir John Templetons, but they will run more to the kind of person pointed out in the Bible. You remember the story where Jesus and his disciples are watching people bring their offerings into the temple and people are making a display of giving large amounts of money that really turned out to be small fractions of their income and a little old woman, who wasn’t noticed by anyone else, put in two coins and Jesus got excited. The scriptures say Jesus was excited about this and he said, “Do you see that, guys, did you see what just happened there,” and they are doing their usual “what,” “what happened?” The disciples probably, most of the time, spent their time with Jesus in confusion wondering what was He getting at, until finally the spirit brought them into it.
Again, I’m sure they are wondering what is He talking about. He said, “See that woman, all of these people are making a show and this woman gave everything she has.” She is the financial hero, in Jesus’ eyes.
Finally it is that kind of thing that Jesus calls us to – to be givers. I don’t know about you but that’s hard for me to get a handle on. I know that should be where I stand, I know I should feel that way, I know that’s true but it’s tough to really live that way and think that way. That God calls us to give a tenth of our income, a tenth of what we make, back to him, back to God and the work of Christ and then calls us to look to him as to how to use the other 90%. What he promises is that if we live that way we will know his joy, we will know fulfillment in life, we will know his grace and I believe that but it is so hard to change my thinking to that day in and day out. Finally, all we can take with us, all we are, is what we have given. All that we really are is what we have extended to others. You work to make a living but you “give to make a life.” So it is at this time of our Capital Campaign kick off and our stewardship focus, these issues are raised, these questions are raised – then how do we live? How do we give? Finally, God will judge how we’ve done in all of that. This is a time to reflect, to pray, to ponder God’s call to you and God’s call for you. The question one of you put to me, in talking about this campaign earlier this week; “Is what we’re going to do pleasing to God – is what my response will be pleasing to God?” It is in that relationship and in that responsiveness, in giving ourselves, that we really know God’s joy; a joy that we seek all of our lives.
I love the story of Eric Liddell that I mentioned several weeks ago. Eric Liddell was the Scots runner in the 1928 Olympics, depicted in the Chariots of Fire movie. In that movie there was another character, sort of the foil for Eric Liddell, who was an historical figure, although I don’t believe they portrayed him in an historically accurate way. Harold Abrams was another runner and he was depicted as having a secular mind-set. He was running in the Olympics for himself, to prove something to himself and others and so was very driven. In contrast, Eric Liddell was running as a called person. He said it himself that God made him for China, for the mission field, he believed, but he also believed that God had made him fast. And he said, “When I run I feel God’s pleasure.” And so when the two of them won their events in the Olympics, Harold Abrams was unfulfilled by it. It really didn’t bring him the joy he thought it would, but Eric Liddell did know that joy because it fulfilled something he was called to and it was a huge difference in the joy that he experienced. He had felt God’s pleasure. You and I, in our lives, seek all of our lives to feel God’s pleasure. We may not call it that. We may not conceptualize it that way but when you are seeking fulfillment in life, you are really seeking God’s pleasure, feeling His pleasure. We do it in all kinds of ways, we try to accumulate things, we try to accumulate funds, we try to get the right position and the right career, the right level of success, the right relationships, the right location – on and on and on. All of it is a desperate attempt to feel His pleasure and to know His joy. It is in giving of ourselves and the way God calls us to give that we will know His pleasure, that we will know His joy. So this time is a time to ask the question, “What is your role in this, what is God calling you to give?” What response will you make that will allow you to know God’s pleasure and know His joy? It’s what you are made for, you know, to feel His pleasure, to know His joy and to fulfill the role He has for you in this world and in His eternal kingdom.