For first-century Jews, there was no consensus and no defined doctrine of resurrection – no accepted understanding of how God would punish evil or reward good. Instead, many looked for God’s approval or disapproval in this life: Those who lived long lives, and had material blessings and lots of children, were seen as favored by God, while those who had little were seen as less favored.
Based upon that, the rich landowner in today’s Gospel would have been seen by the crowd as favored by God. And yet Jesus turns that expectation on its head, using the parable to speak about proper worship of God and the material things of this world.
From the very beginning, we see the rich man as misled by the accumulation of wealth. Far from living in God’s favor, he is actually deaf to God’s voice; in fact, the only voice he hears is his own, and it is full of self-concern and materialism. See how he refers to himself eight times – six times in the first person, and twice in the second – clearly his heart lies with his possessions.
For Jesus, this mindset is the very opposite of what life is about. As He had said prior to the parable, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Yes, this man has great material security, but God calls him a fool! For he is not rich in what matters to God.
It seems this man has given himself over to idolatry – the idolatry of greed and self-worship. Now idolatry may seem a strange word to our modern ears and yet it is alive and well for many in our world. We might not worship the ancient gods, but there are many who worship the modern ones of wealth, power, and pleasure, and have placed the one true God on the sidelines of our lives.
We cannot commit to living as God wants and then try to hedge our bets at the altar of materialism. Instead, before the reality of death we are asked to put our trust firmly in God. We are called, in the words of today’s psalm, to listen to God’s voice, not so focused on the things of this passing world, but looking to the next and eternal life in Heaven.
I saw this played out at a funeral once, well probably more than once, but this last time it was so clear to me and so heartbreaking actually. The wife of the deceased was describing her husband’s recently discovered commitment to God, in prayer and in reading of the scripture. He had an app which sent him a daily bible verse that he would read and meditate on in prayer.
She told me, “He loved praying and learning from the bible, and wanted to do more of it, but he was just too busy.” Just too busy!? Too busy doing what? What is more important than taking that time with God, especially when the desire is there? Paul encouraged us today in our second reading, “seek what is above… Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.”
This is a common funeral reading used to remind us to do what matters to God - we still have time to change what we should be doing with our time. We get 168 hours every week, it's not too much to ask to spend more than one of those with the God who created us, loves us, and died for the forgiveness of our sins.
Ironically, one of the funeral readings the family chose was from the book of Wisdom which said this, “Having become perfect in a short while, he reached the fullness of a long career; for his soul was pleasing to the LORD, therefore he sped him out of the midst of wickedness. But the people saw and did not understand, nor did they take this into account.”
His family didn’t understand this either, that this man had been sped out of the midst of this wickedness of worldly busyness which held him hostage to the busy expectations of everyone around him without allowing him to do the one thing that really mattered, devoting more prayer and time to God, seeking what is above, storing up treasures in heaven.
The greatest blessing we can receive is an increased amount of time with God, everything else is secondary - the money, the possessions, the experiences - but we treat them as primary, evidenced by the time spent. These are idols which won’t matter when we die, and the idols need to be “Put to death.” Paul says “Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly,” so that we can encounter God in a deeper way in our lives each and every day, becoming “rich in what matters to God.” (END HOMILY)
Announcements: (Both of these things I forgot to put in the bulletin…)