Deuteronomy 8:11-14, 17-18 (NIV) 11 Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. 12 Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
Luke 12:15-21 (NIV) 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” 16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Why did this hardworking farmer receive the name Fool? The word fool literally means to be unmindful, and that was this rich man’s sin. The farmer was unmindful that he had received his bountiful crop from the hand of God and was responsible to God to use and to enjoy that crop according to God’s will. The farmer violated Israel’s most basic belief about wealth. He believed himself to be a possessor rather than a manager of his money.
Wealth, money, and material goods are meant to be received from God and then passed through our hands according to the will of God. Wealth passes through our hands and is invested in the material security God wants for our life. It is invested in the lives of our family. It passes through our hands and is invested in the lives of those beyond our family. It passes through our hands to express love, thanksgiving, and joy, and yes, even to support government and community needs.
Life does not come from the abundance of our possessions. Life comes from God. It is His gift to us, and abundance comes not from having but from the way we use what we have. It is in seeing ourselves as managers that we become rich toward God. We are rich because we recognize that we have received, and we have received from an owner generous beyond our deserving who has resources beyond our wildest imagining. Managing our gifts produces an air of expectation as we wonder and ask what God wants us to do.
We are rich toward God because as managers we become aware of how God is intimately involved in all the ways we use our money - not only what we give, but as the parable emphasizes, on what we spend and save. Our wealth is either a mirror in which we see ourselves, or a window through which we see God.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope November 16, 1986
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell
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