Spiritual Nearsightedness
And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample good laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not right toward God." Luke 12:16-21, RSV.
Nothing like having a conversation with yourself. The good news in that approach is that at last you have found someone who agrees with you. The bad news is that "both of you" might be wrong. Conversations with ourselves have no room for a reality check. They just might based on nearsightedness.
Jesus is the ultimate reality checker. He is the ultimate optometrist and ophthalmologist to fix our eyes for better vision.
Someone has said that money is like seawater: the more you drink, the thirstier you become. That is certainly the case with the man talking to himself in today's passage. Never once did it seem to come to his mind that he might share some of his "bounty" with others less fortunate than himself. Helping others transcended his mental world. The really important thing was taking care of himself. And that meant getting more and more and more so that he could build better and better and bigger and bigger barns so that he could get still more and more and more.
He never saw beyond this world. And he made all his plans accordingly. In that he was a "normal" human being.
William Barclay tells the story of a young man conversing with one who had been around longer. "I will learn my trade," said the younger. "And then?" asked the older. "I will make my fortune." "And then?" "I suppose that I shall grow old and retire and live on my money?" "And then?" "Well, I suppose that someday I will die." "And then?" came the question that hit him hard. The person "who never remembers that there is another world is destined some day for the grimmest of grim shocks."
Jesus put it right when He set the stage for the parable of the rich fool with its theme text: "Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (Luke 12:15, RSV). Here is a real pair of spectacles.
Try them on today.
And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample good laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not right toward God." Luke 12:16-21, RSV.
Nothing like having a conversation with yourself. The good news in that approach is that at last you have found someone who agrees with you. The bad news is that "both of you" might be wrong. Conversations with ourselves have no room for a reality check. They just might based on nearsightedness.
Jesus is the ultimate reality checker. He is the ultimate optometrist and ophthalmologist to fix our eyes for better vision.
Someone has said that money is like seawater: the more you drink, the thirstier you become. That is certainly the case with the man talking to himself in today's passage. Never once did it seem to come to his mind that he might share some of his "bounty" with others less fortunate than himself. Helping others transcended his mental world. The really important thing was taking care of himself. And that meant getting more and more and more so that he could build better and better and bigger and bigger barns so that he could get still more and more and more.
He never saw beyond this world. And he made all his plans accordingly. In that he was a "normal" human being.
William Barclay tells the story of a young man conversing with one who had been around longer. "I will learn my trade," said the younger. "And then?" asked the older. "I will make my fortune." "And then?" "I suppose that I shall grow old and retire and live on my money?" "And then?" "Well, I suppose that someday I will die." "And then?" came the question that hit him hard. The person "who never remembers that there is another world is destined some day for the grimmest of grim shocks."
Jesus put it right when He set the stage for the parable of the rich fool with its theme text: "Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (Luke 12:15, RSV). Here is a real pair of spectacles.
Try them on today.
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