Greed Creeps

 

  Luke 12:13-21

The Parable of the Rich Fool

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “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.”

Jesus reminds us that "life does not consist in an abundance of possessions." Yet, it we look around our homes, what do we see?  An abundance of possessions! We tend to collect, accumulate, pile up THINGS that we don't really need but for some reason hold on to.  The clutter might not matter until it stands in the way of our helping others or contributes the the easy or "eat, drink and be merry" life. Jesus reminds us that all of this can disappear in a flash and that being "rich toward God" or in the things of God, that is sharing our material things with those who have less, is a way of counterbalancing the insidious creeping of greed and hoarding into our lives. 

Bro. Rene

Dear God, open my eyes to the presence of greed in my life, and help me to curb it before it curbs me. Amen.