Date: July 28th & 31st
Preacher: Pastor Ashley Rosa-Ruggieri
First Reading: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23
Psalmody: Psalm 49:1-12
Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-11
Gospel: Luke 12:13-21
I was once helping with a Vacation Bible school program and during one of the activities the leader had all of the kids hold their hands together like they had something in their hands. She told them to imagine that in their hands was a wonderful treasure. Something to support them and help them through life and that was so valuable that a price could not be put on it. Then she asked what they all had in their hands. These were little kids, so many of the answers were things like favorite candies, my dog, or a piggy bank, and then at the end the teacher explained how treasures can also be things we can’t really hold. One of the little girls said, “My Mom says I am one of her greatest treasures!” and the teacher said, “Yes! Exactly, the love and relationships we share with one another are special treasures in our life!” Finally, the girl responded, “That is why I always share my candy with my Mom!” These young ones already understood what can be hard for even some adults to comprehend, that the many treasures of this world are meant to be shared—immaterial and material alike.
Our Gospel today offers us a lesson about what it means to give our whole self into the riches and treasures that are present beyond the worldly ones we have here on Earth. To get deeper into this lesson today, I am bringing in a little Greek, because I think that it is important to the message of this passage. Having many translations in English can be a blessing, but it can also make it difficult to recognize when the same word is being used in Greek if the word is translated different in English within a couple verses. So, today’s Greek lesson focuses on two words: Zōē (have congregation repeat), and Psuchē (congregation repeat again).
The first word, Zōē, means life. This word is pretty straightforward translation wise, and it is only used one time in this passage. Our scripture from Luke opens on a man from a crowd standing before Jesus asking if Jesus will tell the man’s brother to split the family inheritance with him. Considering that Jesus has no context for this request and has no authority where this is concerned in their society, he asks the man, “Who am I to be judge or arbiter over you?” Jesus then redirects his speaking to the crowd as a whole and warns them about giving into greed because one’s LIFE, Zōē, is not about abundant possessions. Jesus starts this interaction with recognizing that what makes life worth living is not found in the greed that can overtake us when we search for possessions over relationships. This is the only time in this passage where Zōē, LIFE, is used, and it is talking about the lives that people are choosing to lead, hopefully as ones that pull away from greed.
Now, the second word that I said earlier is more prominent in the next part of the story. Psuchē is a harder word to directly translate. It is often translated as “soul,” but that does not quite encompass the word. Psuchē is the essence of a full person, the distinct life-force of each being. I sometimes like to translate it as, “self.” An all-encompassing core of a person. This word is used three times in our passage today, but in English, it is translated as “soul” and as “life.” As I explain what Jesus is saying through his story in our passage today, I am going to use the word “self” because I think that “soul” does not give a full understanding of the word with our modern understanding of a soul, and I also want the same word to be used for all the times it appears.
Now, we can return to our Gospel narrative. After Jesus has warned the crowd against greed in their lives, he then tells them a story. In this story, a rich man had an abundant harvest, and was debating how to store these crops. His decision was to tear down his old, small barns, and to build larger, new ones so that all of these grains and goods could be stored there for his use. When this is done, our reading says the man will says to his Psuchē, to his whole self, Self, you have ample goods stored up for your own use, so now you can eat, rest, and relax for many years. And as he says this, God appears and calls him a fool, saying, this very night, you Psuchē, your whole self is being demanded of you. All these things you prepared, whose will they be?
I find this distinction of the word being used important, because many interpretations of this passage assume that God showing up here and demanding the rich man’s “life” means that he has died. This is a valid way to understand the passage, but not the way we are looking at it today. Instead, I want us to think about what it means for God to demand our whole selves in our lives. God demands our whole selves in the ways we love and care for one another here on Earth, not only after we have died. Jesus’s commands for us to love God and love our neighbor are not tasks that we can do half-heartedly. These are actions that demand our WHOLE selves, mind, body, spirit, everything. Feeding the hungry, supporting the poor, welcoming the stranger and foreigner, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, caring for the sick, and liberating the captive. Any and all of these are not easy tasks. Nor are they ones meant to be accomplished alone. God demands our whole selves from us all the time, and this passage is merely a reminder that if we stow ourselves away, storing up riches for our own use without any thought to how those around us are living, we are ignoring God’s call to be in community and to bring our whole selves, all that we have, into it.
The final line of this reading is also a little different if we translate it differently, it might instead read. “so it is with one who stores up treasure for themself, but is not rich toward God.” There is an emphasis in this final line on an individual who has set themself apart, and hoarded the treasures and riches of the world for their own use and not for sharing with community. When we store for ourselves with no mind to our neighbor, we are not being rich toward God. Because being rich toward God is not all about tithing money to the church, it is about our neighbors in need who bear God’s face and yet are turned away, discarded, or ignored and not treated with the riches of relationship which we are called to share. To be rich toward God, we are rich in community, we are rich in sharing our treasures—immaterial and material—with one another until all are loved, fed, clothed, sheltered, cared for, welcomed, and free. In this way, community, relationship, and support become the treasures we share instead of hoarding luxury for ourselves. So that whenever we have a moment of reminder that God shows up and demands our whole self, we can answer the Lord’s question about these treasures and whose they will be. They will be all of ours, now and in the future, shared in community and focused on relationship. Find the treasures around you that come with connecting to your neighbors and live into those connections with your Zōē and your Psuchē. Your life, your soul, your whole self, given in search of the kingdom of God. Thanks be to God.