Sermon

Sunday, November 23, 2008

The Rich Fool-Stewardship II

In my hand, I have a shiny new quarter. Imagine if I gave you this quarter and said, “This quarter is of the utmost value. You need to carry it throughout your entire life. You need to keep it shiny and new. And when your life is over, the value of your entire life will be measured based on you presenting this quarter back to me in the shiny and new condition in which you received it. You must carry it with you at all times, because I am going to come to retrieve it from you at a time that only I know.” Now you might think, how hard can it be to carry that quarter around in your life? I mean, if you carry a purse, you could just throw it in there—people have their purses all the time, don’t they? Well, if people had their purses all the time, then no purses would get stolen. So I don’t know if I’d keep the quarter in your purse, because it could get stolen. You might think, I could just carry this in my pants pocket every day, except what about when you go swimming, or take a shower, or go to sleep, what happens to the quarter then. And how do you keep the quarter clean in your pants if you are mowing the lawn or working out? You might be tempted to put the quarter away in a safe place, like a safety deposit box at a bank, someplace where it won’t get lost or worn, and say to yourself, “It will for sure be safe there until I need it.” The problem with that course of action is that what if tonight I come for the quarter, and you have it some place not with you. Perhaps you will become tired of the quarter, and as you earn lots and lots of money, you’ll forget about the quarter. I have so much money, you’ll say, when he comes for the quarter, he’ll be impressed by thousands of dollars and forget about the quarter. And that’s not going to work either. Taking care of a quarter for many years would indeed be a challenge.

In our lives, we all have something we’ve been given by God to take care of. It is not something flashy. It’s something we carry around with us at all times. It’s something we are supposed to keep shiny and new. And when our lives are over, the value of our entire life will be measured base on our presenting this back to God in the shiny and new condition it was received. It is a soul. When we are born, our souls are pure, new, pristine. And throughout our lives, our souls get worn, damaged, even misplaced at times. It is indeed a challenge to maintain our souls clean and pure until the Lord comes for them. That, in a nutshell, is the purpose of the church. The church is the institution God founded in order to help us maintain our souls throughout our lives.

In this morning’s Gospel lesson, we meet a man whom the Lord called a fool. And He called him a fool because his life was so filled with material things and yet the man lacked the most important thing, a soul in pristine condition, ready to meet God. There is nothing wrong with having riches or material things. In every service of the Orthodox Church, there is a petition “for our deliverance from all affliction, wrath, danger and necessity.” So, God certainly wants us to have our basic needs met. In the wedding service, there are several prayers for God to bless the couple with material riches, “so that in having sufficiency for themselves, they may share with those who are in need.”

The problem becomes then, what is sufficient for ourselves and what is too much? In this morning’s Gospel lesson, the man we encountered had not only his basic needs met, he had not only sufficiency, but his land yielded plentifully. So much so that it created a problem of where to store his crops and his goods. And so rather than divest some of them and share with those who are in need, he decided to solve his problem by tearing down his barns and building larger one to hold all of his crops and his goods. He decided to insulate himself against any future want by making himself so secure that he could say to his soul, “Soul you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.” Then God visited the man and said, “you are a fool. This very night, your soul will be required of you, and all those things that you have, whose will they be?”

Lots of people spend a lot of time trying to attain financial security. We buy homes, then we buy bigger homes, then some of us buy second homes. We buy cars, then bigger cars, then multiple cars. We make investments, save, squirrel away money, and wait for the day when we can retire. The American dream used to be to own a house with a white picket fence with two kids and a dog. The American dream now is to have enough so that life becomes easy, to have financial security, to get the point where one is like the rich man, without a care in the world.

The irony is that whatever things we amass in this life do not go with us when we die. I’ve actually been to funerals where people try to put material goods, even money, into the casket with the deceased. I’ve heard people say at funerals in regard to the materials good, “these are things they’ll need once they are up there, where ‘there’ is.” The only thing we take with us from this earth when we go is our soul—we don’t take college degrees, spouses, children, awards, homes, cars, investments, just a soul. Life begins when God puts a soul into human matter and a new life is formed. During our life on earth, the soul is encapsulated by our bodies, our talents and our life experiences. When a person dies, the soul separates from the body. The body decays and returns to the earth, and the soul leaves from the body and returns to God to God for eternal judgment. And that soul will be judged on its faith and its good works. And was the faith genuine and joyful, and were the works the first fruits or the leftovers, were they offered generously with joy and sacrifice, or begrudgingly.

I am very thankful to the people who pray for my mother, and for those who ask about how she is doing. Her treatments are going well—they will continue through the middle of January, and then we’ll see where we are at. In my family, this has been a sobering year. When my mother visited last Easter, I never considered that it might be the last time I’d see her in Tampa, or that it would be the last Easter I might ever have with her. After all, she is young and energetic. Having reached retirement age, my parents have done well for themselves—they could retire without financial worry. And yet in September, I raced home faced with the possibility that my mother could die. And as we sat in the hospital and she started talking about things she wanted me to have when she is gone, I said, “Mom, more important than my future inheritance, is your future inheritance. More important than what I might get when you are gone, is what are you going to get when you are gone—will it be eternal life in God’s kingdom?” And then the very painful conversation about “are you ready to meet your Maker” and “is there anything you need to do to get your soul back to pristine condition in case it happens today?”

The temptation is there for all of us to squirrel away more and more to get ourselves more “security.” And the irony is that security is an illusion. The man in the Gospel lesson built bigger barns to store more things, to have more financial security, to allow himself to eat, drink and relax. And his security didn’t even last one night—just as he put his crowning glory on all of his possessions, the Lord came to him and said, “this very night, your soul is required from you, and all those things you have whose will they be. So is he who lays treasure up for himself and is not rich towards God.” There is no guarantee we’ll live to see next year, next month or even next week. How secure are our financial doings in a bad economy? How secure are our houses in a bad hurricane? Material security is an illusion. The only true security is spiritual security.

Some asked me the other day, what are the requirements to be Chrismated in the Orthodox Church? I actually wrote an article about this in the Messenger that you’ll receive this coming week. But an even more simple answer came to my mind than the 2 page article in the Messenger. Baptism and Chrismation are acts that unite us to God, and unite God to us, in almost the same way one is united to a spouse in marriage. Baptism and Chrismation are supposed to create an indissoluble bond of love between us and God. So using the marriage analogy, I said, when you a ready to make a life-long, loving, joyful commitment to God, then you are ready to be Baptized and Chrismated. Going through the ceremony with form but no commitment won’t make one a good Christian any more than going through a wedding ceremony with form but no commitment will make one a good spouse. Being a Christian requires effort and work, just like a marriage. The successful marriage is not marked by the accumulation of goods. It is not even marked by having many children, but rather by continued love between husband and wife, love that is still as strong on the day one of them dies as it was the day they got married. That’s not to say that accumulating wealth, traveling or having children aren’t good things for a married couple to aspire to and achieve. Indeed they are. But what good are things if there is no love between two people who are married.

The successful Christian is not marked by health, wealth and prosperity, but rather commitment to the tenets of the faith—a deep seeded love of God, manifested by loving one’s neighbor. Loving God is demonstrated through faith and worship. Loving one’s neighbor is demonstrated through moral living, use of your talents for the betterment of society, and through stewardship to the church, the institution established by God as the meeting place between God and His people, us. The successful life is not marked by the accumulation of goods, fame, fortune or even family. But rather by continued love between us and God, a love that is strong each day of our lives. That’s not to say that accumulating wealth, fame or having a family are not good things for a person to aspire to. Indeed they are. But what good are things if there is no love between someone and God—after all, as Jesus points out in the Gospel lesson, as for all those things you have—wealth, fame, prosperity—whose will they be when you die. A soul that is still shiny and new as it was the day one got baptized—this is what we aspire to have from our life on earth when it is over. The soul is the only thing that goes with us.

The human body, and all of its talents and gifts, is designed to both protect and nurture the soul in its journey through life. For one to be all about the body and neglect the soul is foolish indeed. To be concerned with the things of the world to the exclusion of the things of God is foolish indeed.

So, how much is too much to have? Some in politics want to legislate how much is too much by taxing the rich and giving to the poor. And while each of us has an opinion on our tax structure I’m sure, it’s not man’s law that guides me to answer that question. While certainly paying my taxes according to how the law requires me to, I do so out of obligation. Paying a tax is an assessment, not a gift. Stewardship of talents to help the world, and stewardship of resources to help the church are required responsibilities—because the state of our souls is directly affected by them. If our goal in life is for our soul to reside with God when it leaves from our body, then we have to be careful what we do with our bodies—do we use our talents to glorify God and to help our fellow man? Do we give of our resources to help our fellow man and to help spread the word of God? God intends for each of us to do the best we can with what we have. From the one who has more, God expects more. From the one with many talents, God expects many talents to be offered to the church and to the world. From the one with much treasure, God expects much treasure to be offered to spread the message of the Gospel.

There are a fair number of people in our community who do not participate in stewardship. As I went over the mailing list, I was surprised how many who I see on at least a semi-regular basis do not participate at all. And that’s a little disappointing. Everyone needs to do his or her part in order for our parish to continue to function, to thrive and to further the message of the Gospel. Does being a steward threaten one’s financial stability? I choose to believe that it doesn’t. We know the rich man in this morning’s Gospel was not a good steward, not because he was rich, but because he was self-absorbed. And we know that his lack of stewardship affected his eternal standing. Upon surrendering his soul to God, he received a punishment of condemnation, not a reward of salvation.

The soul is like a shiny quarter slipped into your pants pocket that you are to protect and carry with you your entire life. You keep it shiny and new by loving God and loving your neighbor. It can be required of you at any time, so it must always be shiny and new and ready. And stewardship of your time and talent and treasure in this world and especially in this church, the place where God communes with His creation, where we His creation commune with Him, your stewardship will have a great bearing on whether God views you as a righteous person or a fool on the night He requires your soul from you.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this week, we each have a lot to be thankful for—the ability to praise God without persecution, health to get out of bed this morning and come to church, ability to laugh and have a good time, a talent that is used to make your life and the lives of others to be more enriched. Please prayerfully consider your stewardship pledge for 2009 this Thanksgiving—And offer something to God that is joyful, sacrificial, and loving, with a thankful heart, and a soul that desires to be prepared and ready for the day it separates from the body and goes to meet God. What you do today is of the utmost importance. If today is your last day, or this year is your last Thanksgiving, or your last Christmas, what you give today will have a big impact on your soul and its eternal standing. Amen.