In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
46 years ago, the world’s richest woman died in her penthouse apartment in Beverly Hills. Once known as the “Poor Little Rich girl”, Barbara Woolworth Hutton was only 66 at the time of her death and had barely $3500 left in her bank account. So, what went wrong? At the age of seven, she had a sizable inheritance from her grandfather Frank Winfield Woolworth who left her a 3rd of his estate at his death in 1919. Five years later after her grandmother died, she inherited $50 million which in today’s currency would amount to $2.5 billion. During her lifetime, she had married seven times. Always looking out for her own self-interests, she never gave away money on the scale that many of America’s oldest and wealthiest families had.
With $300 million dollars in trust funds, slowly Barbara Hutton kept spending and spending, money was no object. During the Depression, she saw potential benefits in moving to the regency mansion known as St Dunstan’s in Regent’s Park, London. She bought the house which although it sustained some fire damage, it could have been restored, but instead she had it demolished, replacing it with a Georgian mansion twice the size that cost $5 million dollars and renamed it after her grandfather.
Winfield House would be the scene of extravagant garden parties, formal dinners and countless social events. Barbara Woolworth Hutton spent her entire fortune on lavish homes, priceless jewels and husbands (save one) who never loved her. Money does not buy happiness.
After her death, her cousin had this to say: “I was sad she didn’t do more with her life and didn’t use some of the money she had to help other people, because whenever anybody is blessed with something like that, you have to put something back into the world, and I think she would have gained so much as a person by doing that, and would have had so much enjoyment from life.”
Perhaps we can draw a comparison between “The Poor Little Rich Girl” and today’s Gospel about the man who had land which brought him plenty and had barns to store his crops, but wasn’t satisfied with them so he had t hem torn down and he built larger ones. He could now say that he had enough crops in store for many years and didn’t have to worry about anything, so why not celebrate: eat, drink and be merry?
S. Luke’s account about the parable of the Rich Fool focuses directly on greed, as Jesus tells his disciples about this hard to discern spiritual killer. He reminds us to be on our guard against all kinds of greed. It is not only a matter of having lots of things, but having too much for one’s good, for the good of others, for the good of the Community, even for the good of earth’s ‘ecosystem’ — “Abundance” is not the issue, what we do or do not do with our abundance is.
God wants to deliver us from idolatry of abundance, of acquisition, and liberate us for liberal living for others, including caring for the world around us. If greed is foolishness, ‘being rich toward God’ is freedom, liberation, liberality, and liberal living. We should ask ourselves, are we rich towards God or rich in the sight of God? Greed breeds possessiveness. How many times did the Rich Fool mention himself? It’s all about I, I, and I. What I can get out of life, what I can get if I push my own agenda, what I aspire to as long as I am in control. In his estimation, everything depends on himself, and everything is his and so he speaks. He brings reasoning to himself: It is thinking and debating which is solely on the sinful human level, devoid of faith and spirituality. His only worry is that his storehouses are not big enough. He calls the crops ‘his’. God is given no credit. Possessions—we can’t take them with us when we leave this world and are faced with God’s Judgement, —— we think of the climax of life and what we have done, living in a way that is pleasing to God.
So far as Jesus was concerned we lay up treasures for heaven by humbly living for him now. Giving to the needy, praying, fasting, doing good deeds without expecting gratitude. Nowhere do we see the idea of ‘works of righteousness’ that this can easily be twisted into. There are no brownie points for us to redeem before God, but rewards. They lie in contrast to selfish actions that accrue to our earthly wealth. Greed will not get us to heaven, and may well hinder us from ever arriving there.
Greed is akin to the sin of idolatry—-erecting and worshipping a false God, in this case, the god mammon. Greed takes all sorts of forms, and is easily hidden. Since greed is defined as excessiveness, how much is enough? How much is too much?
Nineteen years ago I preached in S. Mark’s Church, Mupfana in Zimbabwe. During the mass there was a baptism of a very small boy. The congregation overflowed into the open air. This tiny mission church, with its corrugated iron roof that leaked when it rained and a make-shift altar, made do with what it had and it didn’t have much. There was no font to baptise the child in but there was a colourful enamel bowl produced—-that would do just fine. Water was poured into the bowl and the child was duly baptised. In our Western Society, a simple bowl would not do for us. What is needed is a “proper” font. We want the best that money can buy, we hire experts to design a font or for that matter a stained glass window that will be worthy, or the envy of other churches. If a church decides to spend £30,000 or £40, 000 on a newly designed baptismal font or a stained glass window is it really needed, is it justified? Is it for God’s Glory or for our own? Is this the best way to spend money given a parish church’s limited resources? I wonder what that amount of money could do for such churches in Zimbabwe, South Africa or in our urban cities and towns? After warning his disciples against greed, Jesus gives the reason for this warning because our life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. Jesus’ word to his First Century disciples is a radical statement even in the twenty-first century, yet this runs contrary to the way our society thinks, and values and lives:
Rich people are more successful than poor people. Wealthy people are more important than poor people. Well-to-do people are more sought after to serve on civic boards and commissions since they bring status, money and presumably have wisdom. Well-off people are more believable in court than the poor. Success in our culture is determined largely in terms of quantity—quantity in degrees, wealth, salary, perks, and possessions. We are ambitious and conditioned by our society not to settle for less, but to want more, to strive for more.
The Good News is that Jesus sees both realistically our futile quests for security in things, and sees beyond them to more enduring reality, being enacted here and now. “Real” reality transforms our priorities, frees us from obsession with acquisitions, and sets our vision on ‘life’. True reality makes us [as the Greek order puts it], want to have a “toward God wealth”. We make our wealth more towards God—-to serve God’s purposes rather than “storing up treasures for ourselves.”
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.