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CHILDREN'S EDUCATION |
SERMONS The
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost By David Christian Ed was a close friend of my parents. He was well educated, an engineer. He had taught for several years at the college level and then had had a successful career in industry. His wife was a delightful woman, his children all launched into promising occupations. Many years ago Ed had become interested in the stock market. For years he had carefully invested his money and had followed it closely. Every evening he would spend several hours with the newspaper, ledger sheets, and graph paper, carefully tracking his investments. Later, after his retirement and the beginning of the home computer era, he followed the market electronically, tracking its every quiver. When the market was doing well, Ed did well. But when the market was doing poorly, so would Ed. Several years ago the market took steep fall, and Ed did very poorly. His wife walked into his office one morning and found him dead. Ed had killed himself. He did not kill himself because he was financially ruined. Although he had lost a significant amount of money on paper, he still had more than enough to live comfortably. He did not kill himself because he had disgraced his family. They had little interest in the stock market, and only cared about it to the extent that it affected Ed's moods. Ed killed himself because his god failed him. The financial market had become the most important thing in his life. He had placed all his trust in it; it had provided his security. And when it failed him he had nothing left. He had no reason to remain alive. Ed's story seems to be quite different from that of the rich fool in today's gospel. This man has just come into his fortune. His fields have produced to such an extent that he has grain enough to provide for all of his needs for the rest of his life. "Now," he thinks, "now I can begin to live. I can settle back and not worry about a thing. I can eat, drink, relax. I can do just what I want." He is a success. He has hit easy street. He has achieved the American ideal. He is "independently wealthy;" he is "financially secure." And yet ultimately he ends up just as Ed did. Dead. Dead because he finds his security in what he possesses. Dead because those possessions become his god. And dead because ultimately that god fails him, just as it had failed Ed. In giving us this parable, Christ is not saying that we should deny ourselves all that the world has to offer. We are physical beings, and we require certain things in order to survive: food, shelter, clothing. It is necessary and right that we should seek these things, both for ourselves and for others. What Christ warns us against is an excessive interest in things. He says, "Be on guard against ... greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." The danger of being absorbed with acquiring possessions is that it blinds us to those things that are of real value. The late Lee Atwater, political consultant and one-time chairman of the National Republican Party, had this to say after discovering that he had a brain tumor. "My illness helped me to see what was missing in me; a little heart, a lot of brotherhood. The 1980's were about acquiring?-acquiring wealth, power, prestige. I know I acquired more wealth, power, and prestige than most. But you can acquire all you want and still feel empty." What Jesus and the Church call us to as Christians is a kind of detachment; a detachment from the things of this world. We are neither to disdain them nor to covet them. We are to hold them lightly, as gifts to be delighted in and to be used for our well-being and for the well-being of others. This detachment is expressed well by Paul in his letter to the Church at Philippi: "I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It can also be seen in this story from the life of Horetz Chaim, a Polish rabbi from the last century. One day a tourist from America paid him a visit. The visitor was astonished to see the rabbi's house was only a simple room filled with books, plus a table and bench. "Rabbi," asked the visitor, "where is your furniture?" "Where is yours?" replied the rabbi. "Mine?" asked the puzzled American. "But I am only passing through." "So am I," said the rabbi. "So am I." David Christian The
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