Pentecost 11 Luke 12:13-21

Pentecost 11 Luke 12:13-21

August 4, 2013

One day you’re digging a hole in your back yard to plant a shrub and you hit a rock with the shovel. You pick it up and the sun glistens on the surface “Gold!” you whisper. You drop your spade back in the hole and hit another rock. More gold! Your heart begins to thump in your chest. You rush into the house and show the rock to your wife and children. Soon the entire family is digging, and as you uncover more and more chunks of lustrous gold you start to plan and dream. Who knows? You may be the ones to strike it rich and have enough to do whatever your heart desires.

It’s hard to hide what you’re doing, and one day a passerby strolls into your yard and asked what’s going on. Cautiously you show him a piece of gold speckled ore. He looks it over and laughs. “You’re all wasting your time. This isn’t the real thing! This is fool’s gold!” You can hardly believe your ears. It can’t be! All the time and energy you poured into it, the wonderful hopes,theexciting dreams – gone! Your whole life depended on it- all for nothing! What a rude awakening!

An unlikely story for any of us, right?Here’s another one. Jesus told a parable about a farmer who struck it rich. Not with gold, but with abundant crops. The farmer began to hope and dream and make plans for a life of ease and plenty. He wouldn’t have to work for years! But one day God interrupted his little world of self-interest, self-indulgence, and greed with a rude awakening. “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.” All his plans and hopes and dreams gone like a puff of smoke. His little heaven on earth turned out to be a fool’s heaven.

We breathe a sigh of relief. I’m glad I’m not in his shoes! But my friends, those shoes may fit us more than we realize. Jesus warned, “This is how it will be with ANYONE who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” Jesus’ story makes me think about my own plans, hopes, and dreams and moves me to ask, “WHERE’S MY HEAVEN?”

The modern version fool’s gold and a fool’s heaven is found all over the world, but in our country it’s given the romantic name, “The American Dream.” Anyone can dig for it right in the back yard of their own life. It is our birthright as U.S. citizens.We are entitled to it. In fact, we’re encouraged and cheered on. Parents teach their children from little on to dig and plan and dream. Who knows? You may be the one to strike it rich. The generation born after WWII is the richest generation that ever lived. We’ve grown up with luxuries that King Solomon could not imagine: electricity, telephones, television, all kinds of transportation, refrigerators, air conditioning, computers – and more than we can list. One of our friends from Africa says “Everything in America is too much!” God has blessed us so abundantly and we’ve become so used to having it that Paul’s words to Timothy sound so foreign, “Having food and clothing, we will be content it.”

Content? Why, advertising thrives on urging us to be discontent!

• From the time they’re born children don’t have one or two toys but a room full of toys. And they have to talk and make music and run on batteries or your child won’t develop right.
• Grade school children talk about what they’ll have when they grow up: glamorous jobs, big money, big house, nice car, lots of vacations, lots of friends
• As they grow toward being adults, life is more and more about “me” and my image – what I wear, whom I impress, what makes me happy, how I choose to spend my time and my money and with whom I choose to spend it. It’s my piece of the American Dream.
• My first home must be perfect and fully equipped with everything that will make me happy, all the things I’ve ever dreamed of. We’ll work hard and save and eventually look for the day when we can finally say, “There! I’ve made it! Enjoy life- you’ve earned it! Eat, drink, be merry! You have things stored away for many years.”

“What shall I do? I will store all my grain and my goods. I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy.” The focus of his life was himself. No mention of gratitude to God for his blessings. No intention of using his blessings to God’s glory. No thought of sharing his blessings with those in need. No plans to use any of his spare time to serve his God. How did God assess the man’s hopes and dreams? “You fool!” he said. You spend your whole life making your little heaven on earth. Now it’s over. “Who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”

Jesus concluded, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Ouch. We don’t like it when someone is honest and tells us to examine the attitudes and motives of our hearts. But Jesus comes to us in love as a friend who doesn’t want us chasing after the wind trying to make heaven on earth, trying to find meaningin the things that are supposed to make life better, more complete, happier and less stressful. Solomon tried, and after he’d done everything to make his heaven on earth, he summed it all up with one word: meaningless!

Solomon, the wisest , richest man who ever lived, who could buy and do whatever his heart desired, realized that life without God is nothing but chasing after the wind. One day it all comes to an end, and on that day we leave it all behind. “Without God,” he concluded, “who can eat or find enjoyment?” A friend comes and tells you the truth. That friend is Jesus. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also…life is more than food, and the body is more than clothes. I have come that you may have life – real life –and have it in abundance.”

What is Jesus talking about? He’s talking about himself, where real treasure, real gold, real heaven are found. “In [him] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”.

• In Jesus we have the forgiveness of sins: “There is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”
• In Jesus we have the security of a heavenly home, “an inheritance that will never perish, spoil, or fade, kept in heaven – the real heaven – for you.”
• In Jesus we have the security of his unchanging love, love that was willing to suffer and die to rescue us from hell and fill us with contentment in this life by satisfying all our needs

One day we will all face the reality of death. One day our lives will be shown for what they really were. For many the unseen inscription on their gravestone will read, “Here lies a fool who tried to make heaven on earth – a short, troubled, guilt-ridden, disappointing heaven – a fool’s heaven – to go where his soul was demanded on him. He only had room for himself and had no use for Jesus or his gift of heaven. He lost it all.” For others it will read, “Here lies a child of God through faith in Christ Jesus. He was delivered from this vale of tears and brought safely to the home Jesus prepared for him in heaven. He died in the hope of the resurrection from the dead and committed his soul to God who bought it. His hope was in Jesus, and he showed it with a life of thanksgiving. He was rich toward God. He has it all.”

Where’s your heaven? What is the focus of your life? What are your hopes and dreams? Jesus shows us what is real, and it is worth more than anything on earth. He is our priceless treasure. You can throw down your shovel and stop digging. In Jesus you already have all you’ll ever need. And as one Christian man put it: “A man is not a fool who gives us what he cannot keep in order to gain what he cannot lose.”