The Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12)

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

¹⁴ Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 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.”

Mine, mine, mine! How many of us have absorbed a mentality of scarcity, causing us to hoard our possessions “just in case”? We fill up closets and garages with things, and when there isn’t enough room we may be tempted to consider buying a storage unit. After all, they are one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. We have been taught that consumption and wealth are the greatest good– even to the detriment of our environments and wellbeing.

When it comes to food, we know that as Americans we have access to more food and waste more food than any other country in the world. Still, wealth inequality is pervasive in our country, and we know that hunger is in our communities. Perhaps we have known the sting of hunger at one point or another.

In seminary, a friend introduced me to Sinead O’Connor’s song “Famine”. Here are the opening lyrics:

 Okay, I want to talk about Ireland
Specifically I want to talk about the “famine”
About the fact that there never really was one
There was no “famine”

The song goes on to address the wealth inequality and exploitation that leads to starvation, and the story continues today. How can we grapple with our identity as a nation of bigger barns in the face of global poverty? What shall we say when our lives are demanded of us?

When we are blessed with abundance, let us seek ways to share with others. May God grant us the freedom from fear.