Harvest Home Sunday

Grace be to you and peace from God our father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

On this day, when we celebrate Harvest Home Sunday, Jesus tells us about a farmer with a great harvest. A bumper crop! Glory be! However, the great harvest is causing him a problem: What will he do with all that grain? He has barns, barns big enough to make him a rich man, but not big enough to hold this record yield. What can he do? Well, he’ll need to build bigger barns so he can keep all his stuff for himself.

This man is not a bad man. He is not a cheat or a thief. Jesus doesn’t have a problem with him being rich. The problem with this man is a spiritual problem: All his wealth gives him the illusion that he is safe, that he is secure, that he is independent, that he won’t have anything to worry about.

That is the message our culture is pushing on us: More money means more security and happiness and independence. How often we fall into that way of thinking! If only we got a raise, if only the mortgage was paid off, if only the kids were done with college, if only I won the lottery, if only (fill in the blank), then my life would be great and steady and worry free.

And so we work crazy hours to make money, and then we use that money to buy stuff, because buying stuff and owning stuff feels good.

Have you ever seen an episode of the TV show “Hoarders”? It is about people who take this need for security through stuff to the max. Their houses are overfilled to the point where they can hardly move around anymore. One hoarder describes her situation this way:

I’ve always had trouble throwing things away. Magazines, newspapers, old clothes… What if I need them one day? I don’t want to risk throwing something out that might be valuable. The large piles of stuff in our house keep growing so it’s difficult to move around and sit or eat together as a family.

My husband is upset and embarrassed, and we get into horrible fights. I’m scared when he threatens to leave me. My children won’t invite friends over, and I feel guilty that the clutter makes them cry. But I get so anxious when I try to throw anything away.  

This woman describes the desire to build security by owning things. She gets anxious when she is asked to throw anything away because she might need it some day in the future. She is so anxious about her future that she neglects to see the damage her hoarding causes in the present. Her husband is upset and embarrassed and the two are constantly fighting. Her kids don’t want to invite anyone over. If she keeps this up, she will be all alone in the midst of her possessions.

Which does remind me of the farmer. He, too, is all alone. When he has to make the decision about the bumper crop, he has no one to talk this through with but himself. Did you notice his little speech? “I will do this: 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 goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’” It is an absolutely egocentric conversation he is having with himself!

At the end of the harvest, this man will sit with a full plate and a lovely view of his huge barns out of his dining room window, but all alone. Or he would have, had not death come to his door that night.

Death is really the standard by which Jesus asks us to evaluate what we cherish, what we invest in, where we look for security and happiness. At the hour of death, will we be like the man in a New Yorker cartoon, who is lying on his deathbed and says to his wife:” I should have bought more crap!”? Will we long to have one more drive in our dream car or watch one more game on our flat screen TV? Will we say our life was good because we did build the house we wanted or achieved the promotion we desired? Will we ask people to show us that Rolex watch or that newest edition I-phone one more time?

Or will it be people we yearn for, people we want to see one more time, people we want to spend time with? Will it be memories of touching the lives of others that make us feel satisfied with our life? Will it be the promise of God’s forgiveness and love that will give us peace?

When Jesus encourages us to use what we are and what we have for a life that is rich towards God, these are the things he has in mind: relationships with God and with other people. When Jesus began his ministry, he knew early on that he would be killed for the way he challenged authority. Facing death, what did he concentrate his time and effort on? Not money or possessions, but people he wanted to serve and touch with the good news of the kingdom of God.

The things of the Kingdom, the things of the life rich towards God, are things like this: relationships, community, purpose, hope, faith, love. Unfortunately, these things are not nearly as tangible and as easily procured as material possessions. It is much easier to go shopping than to build a relationship. We know how lovely it feels to be accepted in a community, but we can’t just go out and buy that feeling at Walmart. And so we are tempted to substitute buying things for the gifts of the kingdom we really yearn for.

This whole nation has engaged in this substitution. Consumerism is through the roof. The rise of consumer spending in the US is twice the rate of that in other industrialized nations. We have bigger houses than ever, the average house now measuring 2,300 square feet. And that even though our families are smaller. Yet still, one in 10 American households rents a self-storage space. In fact, this country now boasts 5 square feet of rented storage space per citizen. The self-storage industry now exceeds the revenues of Hollywood, making $39 Billion per year.

And what is in these storage lockers? Have you seen the show “Storage Wars”? In that show, people can bid on the contents of abandoned storage lockers, with the hopes of finding something valuable inside. Sometimes they do, but more often than not the storage bins are full of junk. Junk that the owner couldn’t bear throwing away and so paid $100 per month to store.

The farmer builds bigger barns. We have built bigger houses, sheds, and storage lockers. Are we any happier for it?

Jesus does not have a problem with us having possessions. Where the problem comes in is when these possessions take center stage in our lives; when these possessions are expected to make us happy and secure and independent. When we end up isolated because we focus so much on material things. When we have no one to talk to when we need to make big decisions. When we are faced with a surplus and the thought of other people doesn’t even cross our minds.

Times were hard in Palestine in Jesus’ day. People were hungry. People were losing their farms. People were sold into debt slavery. If the rich man had had a single other person to talk to, or talked to God, or just looked out his window, he might have made a very different decision: He would have been satisfied with his current barns and shared the surplus.

How different would his life have been! The people in the village would have loved him, grateful for being fed. They would have stayed in touch, would have cared for him in time of need, would have prayed for him. He would have been part of a community. His funeral would have been packed.

When God places blessings into our hands, he would like us to use them to build a life rich towards God: a life of community and caring relationships, of generosity and sharing, of love and hope, of mission and sense of calling.

Many years ago, my husband gave me an old fashioned hand-crank ice cream freezer. We love home-made ice cream. Eric bought the biggest size he could find: 8 quarts.

Now this ice cream freezer is mine. I have a choice of what I want to do with it. I can keep it on the shelf in the basement, secured in its original box, and enjoy seeing it when I get down there. Or I can get it out, invite a bunch of people, and have an ice-cream party. What would be more in sync with God’s will? And what would make my life richer?

We could read this parable as law: Shape up and share your stuff or you will die alone. Look how lonesome the farmer is. When he dies that night, how long will it take for someone to find him? Who will miss him? Who will mourn him? And who will get his bigger barns full of possessions that are now absolutely useless to him? Bigger barns that totally failed in giving him happiness or security.

But we can also read it as gospel: Jesus says, I invite you into a different way to live. Enjoy your possessions and use them to be a blessing. Share your surplus. Share your income. Share your time. Share your faith. Share who you are and what you have, and you will touch lives and be loved and become part of a community that carries you. Share, and you will be blessed beyond imagination.

Harvest Home Sunday reminds us of this truth every year. We are reminded that no matter what we own, we are not independent. We still need God to provide good soil, favorable weather, and a thriving harvest. We still face death totally dependent on God’s grace and his promise of salvation. We still need God and God’s people in our lives in order to experience a life rich towards God.

We are doing that today. By sharing this food with the hungry in our very own community, we show that our faith and trust in God liberate us to give freely. God has been good to us, and in turn we bless others with the gifts we have received.

Let us continue this way of life, a life filled with love and generosity, community and joy, mission and purpose, faith and hope; a life that is rich towards God. Amen.