Pentecost 11, July 31 2016
Ecc 1:2, 2:21-33; Col 3:1-5, 9-11; Luke 12:13-21 
Brookdale

We’ve all heard the saying that you don’t really know somebody until you have shared an inheritance with them. Today’s Gospel passage begins with an example of two brothers in the audience listening to Jesus. One has inherited the family wealth—probably a farm—and we can imagine the have-not brother dragging him off to see Jesus and asking Jesus to make him share the inheritance.
Jesus refuses to step in; he’s not a judge or an arbitrator. We can imagine a conservative rabbi acting as judge; he admonishes the have-not brother: “Your father left the farm to your brother. He knew what he was doing. You have no right to complain.” We can also imagine a progressive rabbi as judge; he tells the brother who inherited to share: it’s not fair that he should have everything and the other brother nothing. An arbitrator would find out about the details of the case: Is the brother who inherited a better farmer? Is there enough land to make two farms? If not, can the brothers own the farm together, or can the one who inherited give the other a job?

Jesus refuses to be either judge or arbitrator. Instead, he tells the crowd—including the two brothers—the story of the rich fool. Now Jesus is not just changing the subject. The parable is not directly about sharing an inheritance, but it is aimed at those two brothers, who are totally focused on possessions. The challenge for us as listeners is to figure out how to apply this and other parables to our own lives.

In the parable, the rich farmer gets an extra-large harvest and decides to invest in a new barn to hold the grain. Is Jesus saying it is wrong to build up your business, or to save for the future? Of course not. In today’s world, we in this room would all be in big trouble if we hadn’t saved for the future while we could. Nor is Jesus saying that the man should share the harvest with the poor—though perhaps he should. His point is that the rich man is so focused on building, planning, and saving for the future that he forgets about living now. This is the same point made in the first reading from the book of Ecclesiastes, or Qoheleth, from the Hebrew Scriptures. The thought of death has the power to help us see our lives in perspective and to think about what is important. Possessions are necessary for life, but they don’t make life worthwhile.

So Jesus refuses to judge between the two brothers or to arbitrate. An arbitrator has to have all the facts of the case. But the brothers already have all the facts of the case. All they lack is the mindset of the arbitrator: the desire to find a fair solution, and generosity, a lack of selfishness. The brother who inherited is afraid to lose what he has. The have-not brother wants some of the inheritance for himself. In their focus on the inheritance and on making a living, they are forgetting their most precious possession: each other. They would risk losing each other’s love and support for the sake of some fields and barns. What a waste!
I once worked for a man who had the opportunity to get a great job in Washington, DC. He was thrilled at the high salary and the chance to work for a larger company, with more opportunity for advancement. Then he went house hunting in Washington, and found that all he could afford on his big salary was a house with an hour commute each way on clogged highways. He turned down the job and still lives in Ithaca, in a house with a garden and space for his dogs, a few minutes away from work. He’s a great example of what Helen and Scott Nearing said in their book Living the Good Life: money has to paid for, like anything else.
But today’s Gospel passage also tells us that we can often solve disputes ourselves, if we focus on human relationships, if we are satisfied when our basic needs are met, and if we remember to take time to smell the roses.