Harvest Home Sunday
Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
A rich farmer has an abundant crop. He is already rich, and now he has even more. What is he to do? Well, he decides to tear down his current barns and build bigger barns and store the whole harvest for his own enjoyment. He is exchanging rich barns for super-rich barns.
Jesus calls this man a fool. Now, Jesus has no problem with people enjoying life. Jesus himself was accused of partying too much. The fact that the farmer wants to eat, drink, and be merry is fine by Jesus.
What then is the foolish part? The farmer thinks having stored up all that harvest will secure his life for years to come. He thinks his wealth will protect him. He thinks his stored goods will make his soul well, will make him happy. He thinks all this abundance is meant just for him.
The farmer thinks that all is stuff is making his soul well, yet the exact opposite is true. Here I come with the Greek again: In our translation, verse 20 reads, “This very night your life is being demanded of you.” What the original text actually says is this: “This night they are demanding your soul from you.”
This is interesting in a couple of aspects.
First, the subject of the sentence is plural; “they” are demanding your soul. So this is not God acting. Jesus is not saying, “Just when you thought you were all set, God is going to send death your way.” No, “they” are demanding your soul.
Second, who is “they”? The last plural noun mentioned before “they” is the ample goods the farmer has laid up. The goods will demand his soul. All his grain, all his super-rich barns, all his wealth, all his stuff – they are demanding his soul
Third, the same Greek word is behind both the word “soul” and the word “life” in our translation. Listen to Jesus’ words when we use the same translation both times: “’Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This night they are demanding your soul from you.’”
The exact same thing that farmer thought would save his soul is actually demanding his soul from him, is draining the life out of him.
What an apt description of the foolishness this society as a whole has bought into. We have been taught that more is always better. That the one with the most toys wins. That achieving that promotion, that house, that car, those killer abs, that perfect hair, that portfolio, that club membership, that dream vacation will fulfill our soul. Only once we have that, then commercials tell us that there is even more, and that our soul would be even better off if we get that, too. And on it goes. And the quest for finding happiness in this way leaves us exhausted and frustrated. It sucks the life out of us. It is demanding our soul.
Jesus says today, “So it is with those who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich toward God.” Did you notice that God was not part of the rich farmer’s deliberation? When he tries to figure out what to do with his bumper crop, he only talks to himself. He asks himself what he should do; he never asks God.
My guess is that he doesn’t ask God because he knows what God is going to say. Which would be what God consistently says throughout scripture. Like what he is saying today through the Prophet Isaiah: “Is not this the fast that I choose: To break your bread with the hungry and to bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”
If the farmer would have asked God what to do with his surplus crop, God would have told him to feed the hungry and take care of the naked and to bless the whole community.
But the farmer didn’t ask God. He didn’t think he needed to ask God. He didn’t connect God at all with what was falling into his lap. In his mind, this was all his and he could do with it what he wanted. As a result, he kept everything for himself and died alone, with no one to talk to except himself. I wonder how long it took the community to realize that he was dead.
How differently this all could have turned out if the farmer had asked God. God would have told him to share his abundant crop with those in the community who were struggling to make ends meet. In the days of Jesus, with the land under Roman occupation, more and more people were falling into poverty. Life was really, really hard for the majority of the population. What a difference the farmer’s generosity would have made! What a blessing he could have been! What a community he could have built! What joy he could have felt when seeing his generosity easing the burden of others! How well his soul would have been!
That could have been his life if only he had remembered one important thing: Everything we have is a gift from God. Everything we have is entrusted to us by God for a time, while we live on earth. Our appropriate response to God’s gifts is gratitude.
When we give thanks to God, we acknowledge that everything comes to us from God. Giving thanks reminds us that we are but stewards of God’s gifts. It keeps us from thinking the way the farmer thought: ‘This is all mine, and I can do with it what I want.’ Instead, we say: ‘Thank you, God, for what you have blessed us with. Now what do you want me to do with it?’
Today we are celebrating Harvest Home Sunday. We are gathered to thank God for yet another year of seed time and harvest. God has been so good to us, has blessed us with daily bread; has given us what we needed to make it through some trying times.
By giving thanks to God, we open ourselves up to God’s direction as to how we should use our blessings. The answer we receive today from Isaiah is this: We are called to use our possessions to help the hungry and the homeless, to fight injustice and oppression, to satisfy the needs of the afflicted, to remove the pointing of the finger and all slander.
The prophet first spoke these words to the people of Israel when they were returning from 50 years of exile in Babylon. They were delighted and grateful that the exile was over and they were back in their homeland. Yet that homeland was devastated by war and desolation. How were they to rebuilt?
Into that situation, Isaiah speaks his call for people to take care of one another. Rebuilding the nation and rebuilding every person’s life begins by building community, and community is built when everyone cares about their neighbor and uses their resources to support their neighbor.
When you do that, Isaiah proclaims, then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.
These promises of rebuilding and healing are balm for my weary soul. We are in the time of rebuilding after two years of pandemic. We drive through a city filled with street after street of ruins that cry out to be rebuilt. We will be repairers of the breach, Isaiah says, and I can’t help but think about the many breaches that cause us pain in this present age: breaches between political parties, between rich and poor, between races, between family members. So much that needs to be repaired.
We begin that hard work of rebuilding ruins and repairing breaches by offering ourselves and all that we have to build community. We thank God for the countless blessings we have received by using them to care for one another and to make the kingdom of God become real in this world.
By doing that, we present God with the fast he is pleased with, with the true worship God desires. We head Jesus’ counsel to store up treasures with God, not for ourselves. We use our blessings to be a blessing.
The amazing thing is that in this way, we ourselves will be blessed, as well. As Isaiah says, “Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. The Lord will satisfy your needs in parched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail.”
Our relationship with God will grow closer, and we will be surrounded by God’s people, who help us when we are in parched places.
I just recently experienced how true this is. Four weeks ago, we had a really tough week in this congregation. We knew it was going to be busy that week, with a wedding, the fall festival, a baptism, and healing services. Then, in the midst of it all, a young man from our church died by suicide. It was devastating.
Overall, I still feel exhausted from the time of COVID and I am anxious about the future of the church, searching for how God is calling us to be the church in these days. Experiencing all this additional stress and heartache really threw me for a loop.
I don’t think I would have made it through that week without the people of this congregation. You supported me, checked in with me, prayed for me, brought me chocolate, gave me hugs, asked how you could be of help. I was in a parched place, and through this faithful community, God was satisfying my need and was watering my inner garden. You replenished me soul, and you are still doing it with the amazing outpouring of gifts and cards for pastor appreciation month.
All you faithful people give of yourselves and your blessings, and in doing so you build up the ruins and repair the breach. You are rich towards God, and as a result, so am I.
Harvest Home is a day of thanksgiving. In giving thanks, we adjust our priorities. Our gifts and possessions are no longer things that give us false security and demand our soul. They are tools we use according to God’s will to build community and repair the breaches, so that both we and all God’s people can be refreshed like a watered garden. Thanks be to God. Amen.
And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.