Luke 12:13-21
The Gift of Wisdom
Marcus Borg wrote in, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: “Controversy about the Bible is the single most divisive issue among Christians in North America today” (Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, HarperSanFrancisco, 2001). That statement is more true today than it was when he wrote it twenty years ago. Christian nationalist, who believe that the United States was founded as a Christian nation and that it is the job of the government to keep this country a Christian nation, claim to read the Bible. But they never talk about loving our neighbor, which is the one thing we cannot stop talking about because we actually do read the Bible. The Bible says that we cannot say that we love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love our neighbor whom we do see (I John 4:20-21). I say this as a preamble to our reading for this morning which is about Jesus, the wisdom teacher, and the fool. What does this story teach us about love?
The fool in this story is the farmer who has a bumper crop and then builds bigger barns in which to store the abundant harvest. To be honest, the fool seems like a prudent fellow to me. He is doing what any of us would in his situation. He has worked hard, managed to save something for the future, and now he is kicking back and enjoying the fruit of his labor. And why not? His rest is well earned. The world population today is 8 billion people. By the end of the century experts tell us that number will be 11 billion people. It takes a lot of food to feed 8 billion people.
So why does Jesus, the wisdom teacher, call this man a fool?
A standard interpretation of the text draws a contrast between greed and generosity. In this interpretation the man who builds bigger barns is a fool because he is thinking only about himself, his personal security and his future, and, therefore, he ignores the opportunity to be generous toward his neighbor. He did not share his surplus. Maybe that makes him selfish, but does it make him a fool? I think there is more to the story.
Leaping from the first century to today, from the past to the present, the man who is building bigger barns represents what political philosopher C. B. McPherson calls a philosophy of possessive individualism. (The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke, Oxford University Press, 1962). In what McPherson calls a “possessive market society,” “getting a living” is related to getting things. The more we have, the easier it is for us to get more things. Our success and security is measured by how much we have in the barn, to use the image of parable. Those who have less have to live on the margins and in the economic shadows. They are what we might call “non-essential” members of society. The rich get richer, and the poor are left to fend for themselves, and the middle class has to make ends meet. McPherson says that this kind of society creates “a new equality of insecurity.” Isn’t that a good phrase–a new equality of insecurity. In terms of the parable, the only meaningful measure of the good life is the ability to build bigger barns for oneself. It’s a winner-take-all economy. The only thing that really matters is how much grain we have in our barn.
In the parable, Jesus calls the man who builds bigger barns a fool not because he is not a prudent person–he is. The problem is not that he should be more generous. He may be generous to a fault. The problem Jesus is asking us to confront is not in the person, but rather in a system that places profits over people. This is our problem, our challenge.
Speaking at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. . . True compassion is more than flipping a coin to a beggar. . . It comes to see that the structure that produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution in values will look uneasily at the glaring contrast between poverty and wealth.” He went on in this talk to identify the evils of poverty, racism and militarism as underlying causes of the maldistribution of wealth. Then he called upon us to “rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter but beautiful struggle for a new world.” “The choice is ours,” he said, “we might wish it were otherwise, but we must choose.”
The imperative to choose is also found In the United Nations Report on Human Development for 2022. The report is titled: “Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping Our Future in a World in Transition.” The report says that we are on a collision course with our planet if we continue with business as usual. The challenge for the 21st century is to create a new economy that expands the richness of human life, rather than the richness of a few and the expense of the earth and the many. Inequality and uncertainty are reinforcing divisions that lead to uncertainty and distrust. The report says that the roadmap for the future calls for solidarity with our planet and solidarity with each other.
This is what love looks like in the twenty-first century. Love is not bigger barns for the few, but a new share- economy that contributes to increased solidarity and ever-growing respect for this spaceship earth, to use Buckminster Fuller’s phrase.
I hasten to say that as a community of faith we are engaged in all kinds of ministries helping refugees, supporting schools, feeding the hungry, working to reduce gun violence and advance human rights. It is an impressive list. These ministries are essential. This is how we begin to build trust and community. But this work is only a beginning in what King called the long and bitter and beautiful struggle for a new world. We might wish it otherwise, but the choice is ours, and we must choose.