“When is Enough Enough?” sermon based on Hosea 11:1-11 Luke 12:13-21 preached at York Pines United Church August 4, 2019

Hosea 11

 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. But the more they were called, the more they went away from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.

 “Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent? A sword will flash in their cities; it will devour their false prophets and put an end to their plans. My people are determined to turn from me. Even though they call me God Most High, I will by no means exalt them.

 “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah?  How can I make you like Zeboyim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again. For I am God, and not a man- the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities. They will follow God, who will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west. They will come from Egypt, trembling like sparrows, from Assyria, fluttering like doves. I will settle them in their homes,” says God.

Luke 12

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”  Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

“God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
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This May, I spent a month in heaven – on earth. Ten years ago my husband and I started travelling to Portugal, to a lovely villa in the southeast Algarve. First it was a week, then two weeks, then two wasn’t long enough, so we went to a month – even that is no longer long enough.

It’s a gorgeous place, complete with two large patio areas – one with a dining table, the lower one with a barbecue area, under a shelter by a pool, surrounded by garden which our hostess works on constantly. Six years ago she decided to grow olive trees – so we now have an olive grove along one side. The house is on a hill overlooking the ocean on two sides. It’s just outside a tiny village with a medieval church, a fantastic café in the city square under purple flowering jacaranda trees,  and three five-star restaurants. This year we had an entire month of sunshine, no humidity, and 28 degrees every day. Heaven.

We’ve made friends there, and each year we go back we make more. Our life there is generally a series of dinners at one home or another, one restaurant or another, and always wine flowing freely. Our hosts are Dutch and Swedish, our close friends on the other hill are Chinese and American – we go to the Swedish information lecture series, the Algarve Wine Festival, the Norwegian National Day dinner. There’s even the Algarve Pop Choir led by a former cruise director.

Beside the pool, in a corner against the stone wall, is a huge carob tree. That’s my meditation place – secluded and quiet, perfect place for reading and doing some writing. Out of reflection and meditation there, grew an occasional blog called “Under the Carob Tree”. It’s heaven.

Have you had times like that – when you felt like you’d lucked out on a slice of heaven here on earth? And you can’t get enough?

This morning's texts have a lot to do with living, getting a new perspective, and even gratitude. Jesus is coming down to the last days, teaching his heart out, trying to squeeze in whatever he can. Thousands have come to hear his down-to-earth teaching, to be healed of physical and spiritual maladies. Time is short. With his own death before him, Jesus now pulls out the stops and has one more go at his often-heard "No Fear" sermon.

And he gets interrupted…. "Jesus, would you please tell my brother to give me my share of the family inheritance." A man in the crowd disturbs and disrupts the sermon. He hasn’t heard a thing that's been said. Jesus snaps back: “Do you think I’m some judge that God has personally assigned to you? Take care, my friend, about greed; there's more to life than getting things. "

And Jesus goes on to tell a story about a man whose land produces a bumper crop. A huge harvest. He's blessed with abundance. So Jesus says that this farmer demolishes the buildings he has, and builds larger ones in order to make room for the surplus crop. Well, no problem right? He’s worked hard, he deserves to expand. But then Jesus lets us overhear the man as he begins to talk to himself; a sort of brain to wallet to soul meeting. “I’ll build bigger storage, then relax, kick back, eat and drink and have an easy life.”

The famous author Leo Tolstoy wrote a short story which was made into a short movie, starring Raymond Burr. It is called “How Much Land Does a Man Need?

A peasant named Pahom overhears his wife and sister-in-law argue over the merits of town and peasant farm life. He thinks to himself "if I had plenty of land, I shouldn't fear the Devil himself!" Unbeknownst to him, Satan is present sitting behind the stove and listening. Satan tells Pahom that he will give him more land and then take everything away. A landowner in the village decides to sell her estate; the peasants of the village buy as much land as possible. Pahom purchases some land, and by working it repays his debts and has a more comfortable life. But he becomes possessive of his land and causes trouble with neighbours, and threats to burn his building. Finally he gets a larger area of land at another Commune where he can grow even more crops and make money, but he is frustrated that he has to work rented land. Pahom meets the Bashkirs, simple people who own a very large property. He goes to them to see what he can buy. They tell him that for one thousand rubles, Pahom can walk around as large an area as he wants, starting at sunrise, and marking out the land. If he returns to the starting point by sunset, all the land he has walked around will be his; if not, he will lose both his money and the land. Pahom thinks this is a slam dunk – that he has pretty well won a lottery. Yet that night, he dreams that he is lying dead in front of the Devil, who is laughing.

Pahom gets so involved in marking out all the land he can, that he loses track of time. He suddenly realizes he is far from where he began, and the sunn is close to setting, so he starts to run -  arriving where he started just as the sun sets. The Bashkirs cheer his good fortune. Worn out from the run, Pahom drops dead. His servant buries him in an ordinary grave only six feet long. The original question is answered.

It’s a straightforward story about greed – about enough not being enough. We're trained to be greedy early in life. The average child has watched 15,000 TV commercials before he or she even starts school. We spend more money on advertising than on our public institutions of higher education. Billions of dollars have been pumped into our world to convince us that Jesus was wrong, about greed.

Jesus seems to be warning us against being greedy, but I think there is something more here. Something much larger than greed. Something to do with the way we view life--and death. The Good News of the Gospel reminds us that life does not consist of things, but is found in our relationships with each other and with the world. The psalmist reminds us that God fills us with good things, and where else do we hear this echoed but in Mary’s song when she becomes pregnant. In the wisdom literature of Ecclesiastes, we hear “There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God; for apart from God who can eat or who can have enjoyment?”

The foolish man thought it was a matter of storing up “enough” and then relaxing in the good life. I’m not convinced that’s what is meant – a life of excess, of looking after our own pleasure at the expense of another. Ecclesiastes didn’t think so either. I think it’s a call to be realistic. We need to have food and drink to stay alive. No matter how healthy we are, every one of us will die. In the end, the end is the same for everyone – and how much is enough? When is enough enough?

Yes, let us take moments to eat, drink, and be merry! That's what summers and families are about, that’s what travelling and being with new and old friends is about. But it’s also about learning how to live in a healthy and fulfilling way, recognising when we have enough and being satisfied with what we have, instead of looking around for more. It’s about eating, drinking, being merry – and living. Amen.

Sources:

1.     How Much Is Enough? a homily based on Luke 12:13-21 by Rev. Thomas N. Hall

2.     Tolstoy, Leo. “How Much Land Does a Man Need” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Much_Land_Does_a_Man_Need%3F

3.     Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 NIV