What Will You Leave Your Children?

July 25, 2010

Hosea 11:1-11 and Luke 12:13-21

While the Dead Sea Scrolls were in Milwaukee, researchers made a huge discovery. I’m shocked it didn’t make the front page of the newspaper. Among the precious fragments of ancient scripture, they came across a hitherto unknown document.

How the Dead Sea Scrolls were originally found, and how they passed through several hands under a cloak of secrecy is an adventure story in itself. Needless to say, plenty of shady dealing & skullduggery was involved.

So too with the latest discovery. I cannot divulge how the document fell into my hands. Lives may be at risk. But unable to contain myself any longer, and must show it to you. I assure you, it is authentic. Scholars are very excited – especially the ones who worked on the “Indiana Jones” movies.

Using my amazing skills with biblical languages, I will read it to you. It is only a fragment, and less ancient than the articles seen at the Public Museum; but I think you will instantly recognize it as a textual variation on the passage we just heard from the Gospel of Luke.

Here it is. (Remember: it is only a fragment.) This is what it says:

“Yeshua [that is, Jesus] said something, something …” (the script is too faint to read).

“Farm of a rich man … [another blank] … said, ‘I will build bigger barns, & meanwhile store all my possessions with farmer Bernie at the Madoff Ranch.’

Wait! I hadn’t noticed! “Barns” and “Bernie” are crossed out. Scribes sometimes did that. A couple letters are written in the margin.

“Beta … Pi.” I guess someone decided Madoff was too risky, and decided to entrust their future to BP!

Then another gap, then two words … not sure what they say. Oh, got it! It says,] You fool!

And there’s this other piece. It says, “Life depends on an abundance of possessions.” Just kidding! I wanted to see if you were listening! “ Life does not depend on an abundance of possessions.”

* *

No matter whether you tell the parable with barns, BP or Bernie Madoff, it hardly needs explanation. It is quite clear – especially as part of a chapter dealing with the devastating effects of wealth. Jesus shows the folly of living as if accumulating possessions is life’s goal. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declares that, “[anyone who says] ‘You fool’ will be liable to the fires of hell.” Yet so misguided is the allure of wealth that Jesus himself uses those words on the rich man and his barns.

Some parables are mysterious, open to multiple layers of interpretation. This one, not so much. It’s hard to spiritualize it, hard to hide from what it says about the human inclination to have too much stuff.

But if its meaning is so plain, why did Jesus tell it? He told it in order to answer a man who couldn’t wait to get his hands on the family estate.

No one in this congregation has died lately, so I can talk about this. The reality is that, often in our lives, and almost always in the Bible, the urge to get one’s inheritance (or otherwise get rich without lifting a finger) is a sure prelude to trouble.

In the story of the Prodigal Son, the younger brother doesn’t even wait for Dear Old Dad to kick the bucket! He goes to the old man & asks for the money up front. Then he wastes it on “loose living” while the older brother stays home steaming that there’s no one else to help with all the chores. You know where that leads

In today’s parable, at least the father has died. Rather than asking dad to divide the inheritance, the man in the crowd begs Jesus to “Make my brother” divvy up the funds.

They may be going home at that very moment from the cemetery – a fresh mound of dirt over Papa’s casket – and already the wrangling has begun.

It happens that way sometimes, doesn’t it? Parents gather up treasures over the course of a lifetime – savings accounts, property, heirlooms and antiques. But rather than cementing the family for generations to come, those things eat away at the family like acid on metal as soon as the parents are gone.

For the next thirty years, siblings don’t talk to each other. Then the phone call comes that one of them died, and the other has to go to the funeral home pronto.

A few weeks ago, someone came to my office and told me about an uncle in his 90s who has cancer. He has decided not to endure any more chemotherapy. I asked how that felt. She said, “I’m okay with him dying. It’s the kids I’m worried about. Kids! They’re in their 60s! Before their dad dies, they’ll be stealing from each other … and from the rest of us too.”

Having too many possessions can be worse than the bubonic plague, destroying a whole family in a matter of hours.

And what about the man in the hospital who tells his three adult sons,

“If heaven has pearly gates and streets paved with gold, its got to be an expensive place to live. So I’m giving each of you an envelope with a million dollars in cash. When I die, I want you to tuck the envelopes in my casket so I can take it with me.” A few days later, the man dies. Three envelopes go in the casket. Twenty years later, the three men are together. They start talking about dad’s request. One confesses, “I took out some of the cash to put my kids through college.” Another says, “We had medical bills; so I took some out of my envelope too.” The third one says, “No problem. I made up for both of you. I took your envelopes out of the casket and dropped in a check for the whole $3 million.”

On a more serious note, William Willimon, a Methodist pastor, says, “If I were asked,

“Why is the American family in trouble?” I wouldn’t cite the sex & violence in movies, or the gay rights movement. I’d say ‘materialism.’ Lots of people are working themselves to death, working themselves out of a marriage, working themselves out of a family …”

Two thousand years ago, a man died. You’d think the son would come to Jesus pleading, “Rabbi, help me get over my grief!” But no! He says, “Tell my brother to give me the keys to Dad’s speedboat & the timeshare in Miami.”

* *

What kind of inheritance will you leave your children … or your grandchildren after that? And what kind of inheritance will we as a church give Savannah – and every other child we baptize?

The dead father in today’s Gospel left his sons a pile of stuff … a lot of heartache … and a squabble in court. Other parents leave a legacy of good character, strong values, and abiding love for Jesus and neighbor. Which would you prefer … to give … or get?

What inheritance will we leave those who follow – pain and mistrust & bickering? Or something better?

Hosea tried to leave an inheritance that says we are God’s children forever. No matter how far short Israel fell in its covenant with the Creator, God could not forsake them. God would not reject them.

“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son,” Yahweh says. It was I who taught her to walk. I who took them up in my arms, but they did not know … How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? … I will not unleash my fierce anger … I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.”

God will return them to their home … restore them to the place where family dwells in unity and peace. That’s one inheritance we might try to impart to our offspring – the assurance of God’s steadfast love, and an unbreakable covenant of love.

And maybe this inheritance too: The courage to listen to hard texts like the parable Jesus told … the courage to let Jesus challenge and change what we and our culture think is important, including our love of money that sometimes gets out of hand. We can seek to pass along to our children a willingness to listen to Jesus, really listen, and then to examine our lives and bend to his will.

The rich man who provoked Jesus’ parable wanders off. He blends into the crowd and is never heard from again. But you’ve hung in there. We’ve let him remind us what isn’t worth dying for … & what is. He has given us a holy inheritance from him

Surely we want the next generation to have that too. Anything less isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. To the glory of God.