Someone asks Jesus to settle a family squabble, and convince his greedy brother to give him his fair share of the family inheritance and Jesus answers with a farm story. But not any kind of story. A story that’s a parable. To say something is a parable is to say it is music, poetry, a work of art. It is not just a story with a moral. It is a work of art. And as a work of art it needs to be completed by the listener. Think of a parable as a painting. The purpose of a painting is to be viewed. The purpose of a parable is to be heard. I love what Walter Wink calls parables, tiny lumps of coal squeezed into diamonds. Notice diamonds are plural. Parables can have more than one meaning. The idea is listen more than to analyze a parable. Parables are like potatoes sitting in the ground ready to be picked. The way to listen to a parable is to dig gently around it the same way you would dig gently around a potato to find it. So let’s go digging.

A farmer hit the jackpot. Bumper crop after bumper crop. Like the old horse and buggy days, his neighbors watch every summer, his 6 combines working the fields and  his semis make a non-stop bee-line from the fields to the elevators. The next thing we know the farmer has a problem many of us wish we had. What are we going to do with all this money coming in? And so, the entrepreneur that he is, he makes a decision to expand his business and build a bigger barn. So far so good. That makes good business sense. Gotta have somewhere to put the grain. He had done very well and Jesus is not knocking him for doing that.  My brother Rick is in the bedding plant business and his whole family including myself would be behind him 100% if he made the decision to build bigger greenhouses in good years. Is anybody finding any diamonds yet?

The grain elevator is full to overflowing and this foolish person has a little huddle with himself and says to himself, “Self, your crops, your grain, your goods, your barns, and your soul…congratulations, you’ve made your millions. You’re fixed for life!  Now, finally you can do whatever you please. Self, kick your shoes off. Go get yourself a pink Cadillac. He’s got filet mignon every night, a walk-in wine cellar, the best power tools, backyard swimming pool, home theatres, cappuccino smoothies. It’s time for a party-of-one at the farm! And as the man opens the barn door he hears a loud voice coming from above the loft, “You fool!” Freedom 55! It’s party time! We don’t need a commerce degree to figure out that his motive for building bigger barns was a self-interest one to secure his own future. Then this rich person makes two fatal assumptions. He assumes that his good fortune will continue. He was obviously not a Manitoba farmer. And he believes that he himself has done all of the work that produces this prosperity.

Now God speaks. “You fool!” Now the word ‘fool’ is a special biblical word reserved for those who no longer believe in God. God hands out a verdict that says even though the rich fool thinks he has secured his future he’s going to die before his future begins. Everything he worked so hard for is going to evaporate from his hands. It wasn’t his after all, and it never way.

Except his is a party of one. Where are his hired hands? Where are his friends? Not in the parable, that’s for sure. It’s just him staring into his own coffin and the stuff he piled up. That’s his future. And as he is rubbing his hands together thinking about his soft future life we find out that his future lasts not even 5 minutes. He dies. Whose gonna get the stuff now, asks God? There’s an old story about a man who thought he had the future licked. By some magic he had gotten hold of a copy of the New York Times dated a year in advance. What a bonanza! He knew what stocks to buy and sell, what properties to purchase. And as he was rubbing his hands together with glee he turned a page and read his own obituary. The rich fool was  rich in the world but when his life ends what will he have if he is not rich toward God? The one who is rich toward God, Jesus says, is the one who recognizes here and now that treasure is not in what one has, or even what one leaves or gives away or even in what one does. Those are not riches. Treasure is defined in terms of the relationship one has with God. Treasure is knowing that you belong to God.

The author of a book I read recently is a member of a monastery [Paul Jones] and he writes about a meeting the monks had. They had baked fruitcakes for their livelihood and the past year had been particularly successful—a bumper crop in fruitcake sales, and the fruitcakes sold out before the year was over. They were meeting to decide whether or not they should bake one extra day a week so they would have more fruitcakes to sell the next year. One of the monks spoke up and said, “Right now we are monks who happen to make fruitcakes. If we increase our production over our needs, I fear that soon we will be fruitcake bakers who happen to be monks. See how easy it can be to serve selfish needs.

This whole parable begins with some anonymous person in a crowd telling Jesus to get his brother to share a family inheritance. What if the rich fool in the parable is his stingy brother. If that's the case then there’s a play on the word ‘inheritance’. This man from the crowd may be thinking of his inheritance from his parents but Jesus is thinking about inheritance from God. Aren’t we are inheritors in God’s family. The rich fool thinks he created it all but soon finds out that that’s a dead end. Isn’t everything we see in front of us and everything that comes to us in a day things that we have inherited from God. Aren’t we entrusted to care for all that we are given. If we are given prosperity like the man in the parable then go ahead and build bigger barns but share the wealth.

My mother-in-law Edith, died in 1999 and my husband and I had to clean out the house she lived in for well over 45 years. We discovered closets full of new dresses (big barns) many still with the price tag on them, and all sorts of things that she stored up over the years. Well made work suits—lots of them.  But, I have never met such a generous woman who shared everything she had. She had much and she gave much.

When we see a gift coming our way, even if it is the gift of living one more day the image that comes up for me is to let go into love. If you are gifted with the gift of prosperity lean into it and let go in love. If you are gifted with the gift of an open and compassionate heart lean into it and let go in love--but don't own it. If you have inherited a curious and searching mind lean into it and let go in love--but don't own it. If you are gifted with a deep appreciation for nature lean into it and let go in love--but don't own it.

Just like we receive inheritances from our parents, everything we have we receive from God. What is your gift? What are our gifts as a congregation? There are others no doubt but from what this newcomer sees is the gift of belonging to a community. Not everybody has this gift. Let us steward this gift of belonging well. It is not ours to keep individually, but ours to share. It is ours to share not only with our children’s children but with all of God’s family.