Too Much Barn, Too Little Heart

Too Much Barn, Too Little Heart

Luke 12:13-21

One of the things I like to do, when I have a few extra hours and a few extra dollars, is to search on eBay for what are known as “antiquarian and collectible” books. Some people go camping, some go to movies, I buy old books. It turns out that if you are patient, and the seller is just getting rid of a library they inherited, you can get some extraordinary books which haven't been in print for over 100 years!

My oldest book is 319 years old. Published in 1697, “Travels Before the Flood,” is an English translation of anArabic story of Noah's brother’s journey to figure out why God was going to destroy the world through a flood. I have a 7th edition copy, published in 1786, of “An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion” by John Wesley. I have the diary of Fanny Newell, a Methodist woman lay preacher, published in 1833.

One of the stranger titles I have is “Tom O'Jack's Lad: a Lancashire Story of the Days of John Wesley”, written by someone who calls himself“Uncle Jacob”. It was originally published in 1861, though my copy is from 1894. It is the story of an English coal miner, Tom, the son of Jack, brawler and dog-fighter, who comes to know Jesus through the ministry of a Methodist lay woman who went to the mines to teach reading and writing and Bible.

When he is first saved, Tom gives up his vices and rough-house ways. He is so full of thankfulness for his salvation that he often gives as much as 40% of his income away to help those in need. He feels he can afford to do this because he lives simply and is single, and he makes as much as those miners who have greater needs because they are married and have families to support. It was the genuineness of his witness which attracted the attention of the Methodist hierarchy.

But this is where the book takes what I believe is an odd turn. A representative of the Methodist Church is assigned to groom Tom to become wealthy, so that he can change society from a position of power. In order to achieve this goal, Tom is told to stop being so generous with his money and time. He is told not to give more than 10% because he will need all of the rest of his money in order to build wealth. He is told not to spend so much time with persons in need because building wealth is where he should spend his time and energy.

Tom was trained in running a mercantile, and he was married to a woman named Jane, a servant in a wealthy family’s household. Together they learned how to control inventory, how to expand their business, and more. Together they did become wealthy, and they were welcomed into the circles of the nobles. From this position of power and wealth, they used their money to open new chapels and to influence those with power to improve the working and housing conditions of the poor.

From most every way you can look at this, it seems the plan was successful in doing much good for many people. It is the plot of every Horatio Alger story, but with a religious twist at the end. It is filled with the good advice to work hard, be disciplined, be focused, become successful. But it still feels odd to me because this plan was so very different from the financial counsel given in John Wesley’s sermons and tracts.

I suspect that not everyone here is as read up on John Wesley's thought as I am, but I don't want you to just take my word for it, that what Wesley said is different from what is presented to Tom O'Jack's lad.

For example, in John Wesley's sermon on the Golden Rule, he said that we want others to behave towards us according to justice and mercy and truth. When we are in need, we desire that others may do for us all the good that they can without injuring themselves. This may mean giving up their trifles for our conveniences. It may mean giving up their conveniences for our necessities. And it may mean giving up their necessities when our need is extreme.

If that is how we want to be treated when we are in need, Wesley wrote, then we need to act in the same way towards our neighbors. And that is exactly how Tom acted before “the plan” was put in place, which told him to ignore what others needed until he was in a better position to help them.

John Wesley had a 3-step program for ordering your financial life according to scriptural and spiritual truths: gain all that you can, save all that you can, give all that you can. That sounds like the same plan given to Tom O’Jack’s lad, but with one important distinction. Wesley recommended these three steps to be done continually, while the story recommended the steps to be done consecutively.

Wesley argued against doing this plan as a series of consecutive steps. He argued against a consecutive plan because our sinful tendency is to “get stuck” on either gaining or saving, without ever getting to giving.

Wesley wrote that if we only do the first step of “gain all that we can,” then our life consists of nothing more than work, and we are defined and valued by how much we have, and not by Whose we are as children of God. We risk making money our master and God our false idol.

We are to gain all that we can, Wesley counseled, as long as we also do no harm in our gaining. If we unreasonably harm our souls or our bodies, it is not worth the gain. If it necessarily harms our neighbors, now or in the future, our gain is not holy. We cannot attain a potential good while engaging in an actual evil.

An actual evil would be anything we do to others which we would not want done to us. An actual evil would be anything which does not reveal the love and grace of Jesus Christ when we are dealing with our neighbors. To stop the plan at “gain all that you can” is to risk our very souls for that which cannot save us.

Wesley wrote that if we stop at the second step of “saving all that we can,” then our life becomes indistinguishable from the rich fool in Jesus’ parable. We risk being defined and valued by how much money we have in our bank and not by how much love we have in our hearts.

All the pleasures of the world, Wesley counseled, pale and fade away when compared to the joy of salvation. And, as a practical matter, if we are not wasting money chasing after fleeting pleasures, we will be saving money for the things God intends. Saving all that we can helps us do all the good that we can.

Jesus makes this same point from a different angle in our reading today. If we stop at “saving all that we can” then our only option is to just keep building bigger barns. We will need bigger barns, because we will be convinced that we will never have enough for what we might need, or for what we might want, or for what we might have happen to us in the future.

If we live forever on earth, then bigger barns are the way to go. But if we are mortal, if we are going to one day die and stand accountable before God, then the biggest barn in the world is at best a vanity, and at worst a monument to our sinfulness.

Bigger barns may become a sign that we do not depend on God, even though Jesus told us that the God who feeds the birds of the air and clothes the lilies of the field has promised to take care of us. Bigger barns may become a declaration that we do not wish to conform our lives to Christ, who emptied himself and took on our sins and even gave up his very life so that we might be saved. Bigger barns may indicate that we have no confidence in the Holy Spirit to work through us, or for us, to bring the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

Wesley wrote that destruction and unhappiness are the ends of this path of gaining and saving all that we can. There is no contentment to be gained when seeking after perishable pleasures instead of eternal joy. This path walks through a palpable shadow that unsettles you even when you sleep. This path is filled with pain, for the only true ease can be found in God. This darkness is the smoke that ascends from the bottomless pit of hell, the essential night that reigns in the land of the shadow of death.

Clearly, Wesley believed it was a matter of our salvation that we give all that we can! Wesley declared that all of our money – not just the tithe of the Pharisees – is accountable to God. We are to give all that we can, but that is not the same thing as giving away all that we have – and Wesley was clear about this, as well.

Wesley wrote that it would be imprudent, as well as unfaithful, to never have any money set aside beyond what we need at the moment. Faithful stewardship includes being able to pay for what we need. It includes being able to provide for ourselves those things which are needful so that we are not a burden to others. It includes being able to provide for our children and for those of our household the plain necessities of life. It includes helping our children to provide for themselves when we are no longer able to do this for them. And it includes having enough to cover our expenses in doing business which enables us to provide what is necessary.

We are not to give away all that we have while there is still a faithful reason to provide what is necessary. To overcome greed, Wesley tells us, we have to give all that we can, even as we practice good stewardship that provides for what is necessary. The problem is that most of us, most of the time, believe we are already giving all that we can. We want to believe that everything we are spending our money on is a necessity.

So, what others may see as a luxury, we see as a necessity. What others may consider frivolous, we considertrue frugality. What others may see as an opportunity for sharing with others, we believe is something that will just have to wait until we have built and filled our bigger barns.

Our reading began with someone in the crowd asking Jesus to help him get more of the family inheritance. We assume this was a younger brother asking, because an older brother would receive 2/3rds of the inheritance, and would be free to give any portion of that to a younger brother. It is the younger brother who would feel that what he received was unfair when compared to his brother.

It is implied that this younger brother wants more, but not in order to do more good for others. He wants more in order to have an easier life for himself. Jesus points out the vanity of being rich in this life while being poor in the next. The implication is that our stewardship, of whatever size we have, is to bring glory to God, and not to ourselves.

When the book of our life is written, will it be a story of too much barn and too little heart? Or will it be a story of how our stewardship – of our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness – brought glory to God?

A faithful story includes how we provide for our families, because it brings no glory to God if our family does not have what they need. A faithful story includes how we provide for those who work on our behalf, because it brings no glory to God if those who work for us struggle in poverty. A faithful story includes how we provide for our community, because it brings no glory to God if our children in schools have to do without, if our teachers have to make do, if our public servants have to find other ways to make ends meet. A faithful story includes how we provide for our church, because it brings no glory to God if we take more pride in our house than in God's house.

Jesus didn’t say that we have to get rid of our barns. And I can't tell you how big your barns can be and still be faithful. I can't even tell you if you need to give more to the church because I don't know about the rest of your stewardship in caring for your family, and your workers, and your community. But I can tell you this: Everything that is, is from God. Everything we have is a stewardship from God. Therefore, gain all that you can, while bringing glory to God. Save all that you can, while bringing glory to God. Give all that you can, while bringing glory to God. Don't let anything in this world get between you and God. Do this, and you will have a story of faith, a story worth telling and celebrating!

UMH 373 “Nothing Between”