The Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21) - collecting some posts

I have found in this little section rather more than I could fit into a single all age harvest thanksgiving:

http://marclloyd.blogspot.com/2018/09/so-who-made-jesus-arbiter-and-judge.html

http://marclloyd.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-rich-fool-luke-12-2-mistakes.html

http://marclloyd.blogspot.com/2018/09/success-and-how-to-respond-to-it-or-not.html

http://marclloyd.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-rich-fool-luke-1213-21-applications.html

http://marclloyd.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-rich-fool-luke-1213-21-another.html

http://marclloyd.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-rich-fool-luke-1213-21-handout.html

So, who made Jesus arbiter and judge?

There are no doubt many ways of reading this fascinating little exchange in Luke 12 which leads into the Parable of the Rich Fool. What follows is no doubt a guide to Jesus'  thinking here. But consider the question and answer and at least 2 ways of reading it, which could be seen as antithetical or harmonizable.

³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

¹⁴ Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” ¹⁵ 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.”

"Who appointed me as a judge or an arbiter between you?", Jesus asks.

Answer 1 is rightly or wrongly, "nobody". 

Jesus might be saying this belongs to a secular or civil realm.

Or I have no legal authority here.

Or this is not my concern. Or not my chief concern.

Or why can't you sort this out between you?

Or go to the courts or priests or whatever.

The section which follows certainly implies that Jesus cares more about the heart and eternal destiny of the questioner than about the precise financial and legal settlement required.

But Jesus often asks questions or makes statements which are ambiguous and permit a fuller or deeper meaning, or even which are meant to provoke a more profound response.

Answer 2 might be "God the Father". You are the Messiah, the New and Better Moses, the Son of God come in the flesh. The judge of all the world is before me, so, maybe, though I understand you have bigger fish to fry, you could please just quickly help us with this one which is a big deal to us and our families. You have all authority in heaven and on earth, Jesus, so you are Lord of family disputes and inheritance rights.

But as far as we know the man didn't say that.

The Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21) - Another outline

Another way to go might be something like:

(1) Something good: blessed by God with success

(2) Something questionable: just build bigger barns!

(3) Something wrong: wrong motives, wrong ends, wrong calculation etc.

(4) Something terrible: the coming judgement of God on the unprepared

(5) Something very good: God is good and loving and righteous and in control and will put the world to rights.

Or something like that and so on. You get the idea.

The Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21) Applications

It is of course vital to note Jesus' "therefore" in v22 which gives his application to his disciples. But assuming you are preaching that next week, you might apply or indeed expound the parable itself thus:

How to respond to success:

(1) Gratitude not pride

(2) Generosity not hording for yourself

(3) Useful purposefulness not self-indulgent luxury

You can find a final "G" like Goal-oriented or "Doing good" or something for yourself if you like.

Don't condemn lawful enjoyment of God's gifts, but tell them that eat, drink and be merry for one day in the far future we die and that is the end is not right! Yes, the parable says, eat, drink and be merry but remember God and his laws because you might die tonight!

Enjoy your day!
 

What is a racist incident?

Now, obviously, definitions of anti-Semitism have been much discussed of late. I'm afraid I have not followed that debate terribly closely.

And this is not an area I know anything about, but today I caught sight of a document which seemed to say that the organisation will adopt as its definition of a racist incident the Macpherson report definition of a racist incident as "any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person".

I think it lacked a footnote. 

Now, this may or may not be a useful working hypothesis. It might have value as a simple and clear way of collecting police statistics, for example. But we have to be clear here that what we are saying is that we are going to call anything someone thinks is racist, racist for certain purposes. 

Clearly it would be absurd to say that all perceptions are reasonable, well-founded, sustainable or true. 

If we adopt this definition, then racism will (for these purposes) be in the eye of the beholder. We will then need another category of intentionally racist incidents or probably racist incidents or something, won't we?

Or am I missing something?

When was the Bible written and formed?

Jono and his school have asked:

When was the Bible written and when did it reach its final form?

So I did a quick bit of Googling and this is my answer:

Obviously, scholars like to argue about this stuff and no one knows exactly for certain!

Traditionally it was thought that Moses basically wrote the earliest first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy – sometimes knows as the Torah or Pentateuch). The early Rabbis date Moses birth to 1391BC and the early church Father, Jerome, says he was born in 1592 BC.

The rest of the Old Testament was written, edited and compiled by lots of different people over a long period, book by book and with collections of Psalms and Proverbs and so on.

The Old Testament finishes 400 years before the birth of Jesus. It had almost certainly reached its final form as we have it today by the time of Jesus and Jesus accepted our Old Testament.

Jesus almost certainly died in AD 33 and then the New Testament was written. Maybe some notes were taken in Jesus’ lifetime. It seems pretty certain to me that some, much, maybe all of the New Testament was written before the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 but some people think bits of it might be rather later. For example, some people think John’s Gospel might not have reached its final form until AD 110. However, the oldest fragment of the New Testament we happen to have today is probably The Rylands Library Papyrus P52 which is 8.9 cm by 6 cm at its widest and is kept at Manchester University. It is part of John’s Gospel and is a copy which dates from 100 – 175 AD.

The letters and books of the New Testament circulated separately and together from very early on and the church basically agreed that the writings from the Apostles and their circle belonged to the Bible, but there continued to be some arguments about whether some books should be in or out.

The first official list of New Testament books as authoritative exactly the same as ours which we know of comes from Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria’s Easter letter of AD 367. The Catholic Church formally listed the decision on which books belong to the Bible in AD 382 at the Council of Rome.

Pride in Education

(This is not an article about LGBTQI+ issues in schools. Please move along nicely!)

I have been gnawing on my tongue over the years before saying this...

There is so much talk about pride in education. "We take pride in our appearance / work / achievements / the quality of our community and relationships" and pretty much any area of school life. Notice boards ask children: "What are you proud of today?".

I can kind of see positive versions of what such language might be trying to say - and of course I affirm that good intention.

If it means, other things being equal, we want to consistently try to do and be the best we can be then several cheers.

But, friends, remember this, the Christian faith and the Western Tradition which it has shaped has declared pride to be a deadly sin - perhaps the chief, primordial sin. Virtually any vaguely educated English speaker once knew that it goes before a fall (The Book of Proverbs 16:18. In the King James Version of the Bible).

The Romans did indeed celebrate pride and in the end it did not go well for them. See Fall of Rome (Google). Maybe we should save Western Civilisation by rewording our straplines and redesigning our school displays.

Christianity in fact introduced to the world an almost unheard of virtue: humility. That is, we should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought. Or maybe better, we should think not so much less of ourselves but of ourselves less. You are wonderful, but enough of that, what about others?

But the Christian still knows how to celebrate and even to boast. You see, our achievements are real and good. But they are all a result of grace, of gift. What do we have that we did not receive? There are no self made people. Yes, you did your bit, maybe, but Christians say God made you! Whether or not you buy that, what of your parents, friends, teachers, circumstances? If you think it is mostly down to your DNA well, why be proud of the accidents of genetics? In fact, if the universe is just chance, pride makes little sense - but that's getting a bit deep and off the point.

 So humility. But also gratitude and praise.

For the believer, let him who boasts boast in the Lord. And indeed, in the cross of Christ: the humility of God!

Success and how to respond to it. Or not.

There is more than a hint in the text of Luke 12 that the rich man in the parable is not exactly a model. God Himself calls the man a fool in v20. But let us parse his folly. Where exactly do his mistakes lie?

Much could be said. But part of his problem is his reaction to the success he experiences in v16. His ground has produced a good crop. Fantastic! That is, after all, one of the key aims, other things being equal, of arable farming.

How does he react? He has a good problem. V17: “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.”

But a plan is at hand: v18: “This is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”

It is easy to be too down on this fellow. Building projects are okay. The Lord does not hate storage or larger out buildings as such. The man has gotten his possessions, as far as we know, lawfully. They are rightly his. Prudent provision for the future and enjoyment of what you have are perfectly legitimate.

But I think we can see a number of issues.

As I said in the previous post, v20 reveals two big mistakes. The man forgets about God and about the judgement to come. He thinks only of himself and though he plans for the long-term future, he has no apparent post-mortem plans!

But we can say more about the man’s reaction to success.

“I” and “myself” are very prominent in vv18-19.

Where is the man’s gratitude to God for the blessings he has received? Man plants and waters but only God gives the growth. The man may have worked hard and wisely, but there is no such thing as a self-made man, not really. We are all we are by the grace of God. It is gift all the way down so the right response to success is always gratitude and never pride.

Has the already rich man been tithing? And could he be even more generous? What good could his money do for his family, friends and community? What would it look like to love his neighbour with his wealth? He might easily transform the lives of many strangers in need. What gospel work could he support that might have a massive eternal impact?

Yes, enjoy the good things God has given you. But do not think only of yourself, your ease and enjoyment.

Where is the man’s sense of vocation to rule and subdue the world, to make earth more like heaven? What is his vocation beyond ease and merriment? (v19) It is good and godly to eat drink and be merry but the Bible says that a life plan which reads “take life easy for many years” is suboptimal. Yes, sabbath and lawful recreation, but not a 40-year holiday.

Jesus himself sums up the man’s mistakes in v21: he stored up things for himself but was not rich towards God.

What does it mean to be rich towards God? That deserves another post.

The Rich Fool (Luke 12) - 2 mistakes

Of all the thousands of sermons that I have heard and preached in my life, I can recall relatively few, but one of the outlines that has stuck with me is about the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21), about which I am due to preach on Sunday.

The preacher said that this man foolishly made two big mistakes:

(1)   He forgot about (or chose to ignore) God

(2)   He forgot about (or chose to ignore) the judgement to come

"God must have something better planned for you!"

Godly and well-meaning Christians sometimes try to comfort one another. Say you didn't get that amazing-looking perfect-fit job you had set your heart on. Some keen brother or sister is likely to say to you, "well, God has an amazing plan for you life: he's got something much better in store for you."

Has he? Well, yes and no. It all depends what you mean by better.

You didn't get the great 60K job? God has 90K and a company car in store for you? Maybe. Maybe not.

It is vital for our happiness and long-term faith that we are clear exactly what God has and has not promised.

Yes, he has amazing plans for you and for the world which really are better than all you could hope and imagine.

But it may be martyrdom - and perhaps a secret unheroic one at that. It might be unemployment. Or mental health problems. Or financial insecurity. Or just plodding on in the ordinary.

God has promised to be with you and to make you more like Jesus and to get you to glory, if you will trust in him. And that is better by far.

We do look to a better city, but it is a heavenly one who's architect and builder is God. He means to give you great riches. Maybe in the next five minutes; maybe only beyond the grave.

What is your best? It is cross and then resurrection. That, we know, is God's plan. The rest is just detail, circumstances, background. In a way it hardly matters.

The great thing is to set your heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, and on things to come. We pray for God's kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, but it is only given to us to play the part we are given. It may be in great apparent success or not, but the victory is already won and it is glorious beyond our comprehension. All our triumphs and failures, real or imagined, will be caught up in God's better, best plan. As we await the consummation and renewal of all things, we take the next step with Christ before us and with us and in us. We are more than conquerors, even if outwardly we are wasting away.

Giles Fraser on the cosmological argument

I caught a bit of this programme as I drove to a meeting this week and it struck me as interesting on the idea of God as necessary being.

Luke 11:1-13 a sermon outline

Look away now if you plan to attend Dallington or Warbleton Parish Churches in the AM. Here is the latest draft of the handout:

Luke 11:1-13 (page 1042)

PRAYER POINTERS FROM JESUS

“Lord, teach us to pray” (v1)

(1) A PATTERN: ‘When you pray, say, “Father…”’ (vv1-4)

(i) The priority of the kingdom of God (v2)

(ii) Provision of daily necessities, physical and spiritual (v3)

(iii) Pardon of sin (v4)

(iv) Protection from temptation (v4)

(2) A PARABLE: God is a better friend, who is able and willing to help, so pray with bold persistence (vv5-8)

(3) A PROMISE: God is a better father, who knows how to give good gifts to his children, so pray with expectant confidence (vv9-13)

Fatherhood

From Our Own Correspondent: Fergal Keane's letter to his newborn son, Daniel, back in 1997. Audio. 

Text.

Prayer - a poem

You may wish to look away now if you are expecting to hear me preach on Sunday morning.

Luke 11:9

The Difference

Author unknown

I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day. 
I had so much to accomplish that I didn't have time to pray. 
Problems just tumbled about me, and heavier came each task. 
"Why doesn't God help me?" I wondered. 
He answered, "You didn't ask," 

I wanted to see joy and beauty, but the day toiled on, gray and bleak. 
I wondered why God didn't show me. 
He said, "But you didn't seek."

I tried to come into God's presence. I used all my keys at the lock. 
God gently and lovingly chided, "My child, you didn't knock." 

I woke up early this morning and paused before entering the day. 
I had so much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray.

 https://www.scrapbook.com/poems/doc/33747.html

Luke 10:38-42 - Mary and Martha

The one main point of this short passage (be Jesus' disciple, learn from him, don't be distracted from listening to Jesus' word, even by good things / Christian service) seems so clear and vivid that sermon headings are hardly necessary, but for those who like them:

William Taylor, St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, 11 January 2015, Knowing God (6pm), The only thing that matters

http://www.st-helens.org.uk/resources/media-library/src/talk/54174/title/the-only-thing-that-matters

(1) Luke’s comments on Mary and Martha (vv38-40)

(2) Martha’s complaint (v40)

  

(3) Jesus’ correction (vv41-42)

Summary / application:

Why listen to Jesus? 

What? Listening to his words in Scripture

  

How? Find a way!

All Souls’, Langham Place website, Richard Bewes, Having the right priorities, C077 Right on to Glory (Travelling With Jesus in Luke 10-11), 16/07/1995

  

(1) We are not first of all workers, but disciples

  

(2) We focus not on many things but on the one thing

 

(3) We model ourselves not on each other but on Christ

 And also for your edification, a useful summary from Darrell L. Bock's Baker Exegetical commentary on the New Testament: 

“The key image is of the disciple at Jesus’ feet listening to his word. Labor at the expense of Jesus’ word is not a good choice. The disciple is to make sitting at Jesus’ feet a priority. Jesus’ rebuke is not of Martha’s action per se, but of action taken at the expense of sitting and listening to God’s word and her attitude towards another serving in a different way. It is better to be a listening disciple than an immaculate host.” (p1039)

The most valuable thing that this world affords

I always find this a very striking excerpt from the Coronation service. These are amazing words to address to the monarch on such a splendid occasion 

'When the Queen is again seated, the Archbishop shall go to her Chair; and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, receiving the Bible from the Dean of Westminster, shall bring it to the Queen and present it to her, the Archbishop saying these words:

Our gracious Queen:
to keep your Majesty ever mindful of the law and the Gospel of God
as the Rule for the whole life and government of Christian Princes,
we present you with this Book,
the most valuable thing that this world affords.

And the Moderator shall continue:
Here is Wisdom;
This is the royal Law;
These are the lively Oracles of God.'

http://www.oremus.org/liturgy/coronation/cor1953b.html


The Bible: the words of the King of Kings, better than all the wealth of a king or queen of England and better than an empire!

The Seedbed Psalter

This looks like an excellent resource for singing metrical versions of the Psalms with the ability to play well-known hymn tunes: http://psalms.seedbed.com/

Parish Magazine Item for October 2018

For the last few years, our diocese of Chichester has had an annual focus (Mercy 2016, The Bible 2017, Prayer 2018). The Bishop of Chichester has designated 2019 as a Year of Vocation, when parishes and individuals are encouraged to think about their Christian calling.

With a large number of clergy due to retire soon, the Church of England wants more people to explore a vocation to full time paid ministry (especially young people and those from black and minority ethnic communities). But the idea of the Year of Vocation is to stress the calling of all God’s people whether ordained or lay. It embraces not only our church life, where we will be encouraged to use our gifts and to serve others in a whole variety of ways, but we also want to think about our family and work lives, and other forms of volunteering as something to which God calls us.

One of the great rediscoveries of the Reformation was the lawfulness and dignity of what might be termed “secular” callings. You didn’t have to be a monk or a nun – or even a vicar! – to be really holy and properly spiritual. Obviously, it’s not open to the Christian to pursue a vocation as a bank robber or a fraudster, but one can be a Christian butcher, baker or candlestick maker. And neither is there a kind of hierarchy of jobs. We sometimes think of vocations to teaching or medicine, but any job that needs doing can be a calling done with faith, in the power of the Holy Spirit and to the glory of God. God wants us all to serve him full time, including through our employment, paid or otherwise.

We recently had a diocesan clergy conference on this theme of vocation. We were reminded of the primary call to follow Jesus. The Bible’s great concern is that we should hear the call of the gospel to repentance and faith, from darkness to light. Far more important that we seek to live a life worthy of the heavenly calling that we have received, than that we get just the right job.

Ideally there will be a recognised line-up between our personality, interests, gifts, opportunities, circumstance and needs. Sometimes callings are very straightforward and obvious. One of the conference speakers discussed the Venerable Bede, the father of English History, and his settled and acknowledged calling as a scholar and teacher. But sometimes a Christian’s calling is much less smooth. Sometimes the needs of the hour or the pressure of circumstances are so great that we can’t do what seems to be the best fit for us. We serve where God has put us. Christians are sometimes called to great suffering and to the witness of martyrdom. All Christian vocations are patterned after Jesus, but sometimes the cross to which Jesus calls us (“take up your cross and follow me”) looms very large in a life. Such Christian vocations that scorn worldly visions of success proclaim a confident hope of the resurrection.

As the writer to the Hebrews says, we seek not this world alone, but by faith we look to the as yet unseen promises of God. We see and welcome these things only at a distance and admit that we are aliens and strangers on earth. We are looking for a country not our own, longing for a better heavenly country, looking forward to a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God, which he has prepared for us.   

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.  (Hebrews 11)

The Good Samaritan - best ever sermon headings?

I’ve been away at the diocesan clergy conference this week, and I mentioned to one of my friends that I was preaching on the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) and he said, “oh, I know the best ever headings for that passage.” (I understand they're not original to him either). 

So see if you like them!

In Jesus’ story we can see 3 different sets of attitudes.

(1) First there’s the robber approach:

Their attitude with respect to the man they ambush is what’s yours is mine and I’ll take it if I can.

(2) Then there’s the priest and the Levite who pass by on the other side.

Their attitude is what’s mine is mine and I’ll keep it if I can.

(3) And then finally there’s the Good Samaritan.

His attitude is what’s mine is yours and I’ll give it if I can.

Neat, eh?