In the late 60’s, the players’ union for the National Football League was seeking to change the rules regarding salaries.  The goal was to create a more open market for players.  The bottom line was free agency resulting in a tremendous jump in player salaries due to a more favorable negotiating position.  They’d seen what had happened with baseball and they wanted in on a similar piece of the action.  Eventually, the negotiations for change in the “collective bargaining agreement” ended up before Congress.  Apparently some interstate commerce laws would be affected and needed to be changed…or, it just might be that Congress wanted in on the discussions!  I can’t imagine that, but maybe it happens!  Anyway, several players from the NFL came before a congressional committee to testify to their need for a change.  One of them stands out in my mind, Roy Jefferson, who was a wide receiver, I believe with the Washington Redskins at the time.  Jefferson stands out because of a brief exchange that took place between Jefferson and one of the senators on the committee. The exchange was quoted in Sports Illustrated.  It went something like this—and the dollar figure quoted will show you how old this story is.  Apparently Jefferson revealed to the committee that his yearly salary was $80,000.  Now, this was the late 60’s, so $80,000 a year then was no small change!  Players make $80,000 a game today, largely due to the changes that eventually were made.  But, $80,000 a year in the late 60’s was still pretty good.  One of the senators asked Jefferson, “Mr. Jefferson, isn’t $80,000 enough?”  And Jefferson responded, “Senator, when you make $80,000 the temptation is to spend $80,000.”

That’s the problem, isn’t it?  When you make—fill in whatever dollar amount you want—the temptation is to spend that amount.  That is the problem, isn’t it?  That’s the problem Jesus addresses in this parable…a parable known as The Parable of the Rich Fool.

The story is initiated by a request from a man for Jesus to get involved in the inheritance negotiations in the man’s family.  Now there’s a sensitive situation!  It was not unusual for rabbis—teachers—to be sought out for answers to questions about life.  To get involved in an inheritance dispute, however, was another matter.  Wisely, Jesus declines.

However, in typical fashion, Jesus then addresses the real problem.  The man who sought Jesus’ involvement was probably a younger brother.  The law of inheritance in those days gave the oldest son a double portion of the inheritance and control over it as well.  The man was seeking arbitration from Jesus to get what the law wouldn’t allow for him.  Again, wisely, Jesus declines, but begins to address the real issue—for this man and his request, for the older brother, for those who were within earshot to hear his story, and for those who will hear his story today.  “The value of our lives,” Jesus says, “does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”  To illustrate, Jesus tells the story of a successful farmer.  In the middle of an abundant harvest, the farmer realizes his barn and his storage bins aren’t large enough to hold the crops.  So, he builds bigger barns and bigger storage bins.  That seems like a reasonable thing to do.  Then, the farmer sits back at the end of the harvest, satisfied because he has “good things laid up for many years.”  Only the farmer doesn’t get to enjoy it.  That very night, he dies!  I picture him never getting up out of the hammock in his back yard.  He just lay there in self-satisfied smugness as his life slips away.  “This is how it will be,” Jesus says, “with those who store up things for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

Let’s be clear about what is, and isn’t, the issue of this parable.  This parable is not an indictment against wealth.  Elsewhere, Jesus will tell stories about good stewards who manage well the things that are given to them and are rewarded with more.  “To the one who is responsible with a little, much will be given.” (cf. Mt 25:14-30; Lk 16:1-13)  It is not an indictment against wealth that is gained through good stewardship.  It is an indictment against wealth that is self-indulgent.  The problem with the farmer in this parable is not that he was a good farmer who experienced an abundant harvest.  The problem with the farmer, this rich fool if you will, is that he gave absolutely no thought to others in his abundance.  There is no contemplation on the farmer’s part about returning some of his abundant harvest back to God in gratitude.  The farmer doesn’t give any consideration about what good things he could do with his abundant harvest to help others in need.  He doesn’t even consider his estate and plan out his will for his descendants.  It is all about him!  Check out the personal pronouns used in the story—“I,” “me,” and “mine.”  10 times in three verses such pronouns are used.  “What shall I do?  I have no place to store my crops.  Ah, this is what I’ll do.  I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones and there I will store my surplus grain.”  He even has a conversation with himself and in a conversation with yourself, the second person “you” is also self-centered!  “And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years.  [You] take life easy; [you] eat, [you] drink and [you] be merry.’”  It’s enough to make one sick, isn’t it?  I-I-I, me-me-me, mine-mine-mine!  There is absolutely no thought of any others—no thought of giving back to God, no support of charitable causes, no estate planning for the benefit of family—it’s all about the farmer.  Rich fool, indeed!

But, before we too quickly move off this parable and pass the problem off as being the farmer’s and not ours—let’s consider where the rich fool surfaces in ourselves.

We face the temptation every day in our culture.  It can move into our lives so subtly that we won’t even recognize it.  That’s one of the themes in a book I’ve just started, Making Room for Life, by Randy Frazee.  At our recent officers’ retreat, we discussed the themes presented in this book and how it impacts our church.  Subsequently, we ordered several copies of the book for myself and others who wanted it—and ordered a couple of copies for the church library.  You might want to check it out.  Frazee begins the book with a description of an average day in the life of an American family of four.  Everyone’s up at 6 a.m. and fends for themselves for breakfast.  Dad’s out of the house by 6:45 to beat the traffic so his commute is only 45 minutes instead of an hour and a half.  Mom drops the kids off at school on her way to work.  They’ll be in an after school program until she can pick them up at 5.  She can get there by 5 because she skips lunch.  Mom picks the kids up and off they go to a baseball game for one kid.  Mom calls Dad on her cell phone to make sure he can pick up kid #2 at the field by 7:30 to get him to his game.  Dad barely makes it, traffic was bad, but waves to kid #1 in his game while swooping up kid #2 for his game.  They arrive just in time.  Kid #1’s game ends and he and mom stop at Taco Bell on the way home and eat in the car.  Once home, kid #1 plays video games while mom checks her e-mail.  Game #2 finally ends and dad and kid #2 stop at McDonald’s on the way home.  They arrive around 10:30, where kid #2 shares he hasn’t studied yet for a history test tomorrow.  Mom reviews pertinent facts with him while he finishes his hamburger.  Finally, everyone’s off to bed around 11:00.  Mom’s asleep almost as soon as her head hits the pillow.  Meanwhile, dad lays awake thinking about how it all will start again tomorrow at 6.

Far too many of our families can identify with that schedule.  Frazee goes on to say—and this is the point to grasp—that such a schedule is rooted in the thought that a privileged life can only be maintained with hard work and discretionary money.  He writes, “The initial thought is that the more financial resources you have, the more likely you are to have a stress-free, relaxing life.  In reality, though, studies show that with increased resources comes increased complexity, not simplicity.  If they aren’t especially careful, the ones who have more actually have more with which to destroy themselves.”  You see, it’s true, isn’t it?  “When you make $80,000 the temptation is to spend $80,000.”

We face the temptation every day in our culture.  Frazee goes on to write about the celebration in America of individuality and consumerism.  The philosophy, “I think, therefore I am”—already rooted in self-centered ego—has become in the U.S., “I purchase/accumulate, therefore I am.”  Frazee cites a column in the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram by Rich and Bill Sones about the difference in marketing between individualistic cultures like the U.S. and communal cultures like Korea.  Toyota, for example, produces an ad to run in the United States with the tag line, “I love what it does for me…from any angle,” with rotating camera around the entire car.  For Korea, however, Toyota produced an ad with the tag line, “The best relationships are lasting ones…Toyota quality.”  A chewing gum company found that the following line worked better in the U.S., but not in Korea, “Treat yourself to a breath-freshening experience.”  And what worked in Korea, but not in the U.S. was, “Share a breath-freshening experience.”  Our culture bombards us every day with the temptations of the rich fool.  Usually, one understands the parables of Jesus better if one understands some of the culture of 1^st century Palestine addressed in the parable.  For example, it helps to know the status of Samaritans in that culture to better understand the parable of the Good Samaritan, or the role and responsibilities of shepherds in understanding the parable of the lost sheep.  However, that’s not a problem with this parable.  The rich fool fits easily into 21^st century America.

The question is, of course, what do we do about it?  I’m looking forward to learning more from Frazee’s book and sharing the journey with you…but, I know now that doing something about the rich fool in my life will require some serious re-evaluation of my life.  Such re-evaluation will include reflecting on the quote from Joseph Stowell on the cover of today’s bulletin.  Stowell gets it right: “The real point of materialism is not how much we have, but what has us.  It’s not what we hold, but how tightly we hold it.  Not what we have, but how we got it.  The test of materialism is whether our goods have made us proud or grateful, self-sufficient or God-sufficient.”  The rich fool in our parable for today was proud, not grateful, self-sufficient, not God-sufficient.

The parable of the rich fool is a parable for our time, requiring little catching up on cultural differences.  Jesus wants us to live life to its fullest.  But, he knows the self-indulgent temptations of our culture are not the way to life.  Life is not about how much we have, but what has us.  Life is not about what we hold, but how tightly we hold it.  Life is not about what we have, but how we got it.  Jesus knows that life is about whether we are proud or grateful, self-sufficient or God-sufficient and warns us in this parable of the rich fool against the empty vanity of storing up things for ourselves, and calls us instead to the fulfilling life of being rich toward God.

Let us, in silent reflection, ponder the impact of Jesus’ story for us today.