Rich Fools -- FPC sermon excerpt

This year, Americans will spend nearly 10 hours a day watching television, surfing the Internet, reading, and listening to music. Yes, that’s right: 10 hours a day.

This number comes from the Census Bureau’s “Statistical Abstract of the United States” for 2007. It also says that we drink about a gallon of soda a week, along with a half gallon each of milk, coffee, and beer.

All of which may help explain another figure in the book: About two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and one-third are obese.

So we’re sedentary and well-fed. We’re also quite rich.

The Census Bureau reports that:

- A little more than half of our households owned stocks and mutual funds in 2005.
- Americans had 278 million debit cards in 2004, and used them to spend more than 1 trillion dollars.
- In that same year, we bought 2.1 billion pairs of imported shoes.

I know that some of you like shoes, but 2.1 billion pairs?

We may not feel rich — I know I don’t, especially when I pay my mortgage on the 5th of each month. But according to the Census Bureau, we are rich. So the question for us today, in light of our Scripture passage from Luke, is this: Are we rich fools?

Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool because he wants us to “be on guard against all kinds of greed.” (Luke 12:15). He reminds us that our life does not consist in the abundance of possessions, in “ample goods laid up for many years” (v. 19). Jesus knows that our well-fed, sedentary, affluent lifestyle can cause real problems for us — it can lead us away from being “rich toward God” (v. 21).

So, what are we doing with the treasures we have? Are we pulling down our existing barns and building larger ones? Are we filling up the rental cubicles that have popped up all around? Are we storing up treasures for ourselves?

Or, are we being rich toward God?

To be rich toward God is realize that we are blessed — blessed so that we might be a blessing. God gives to us, so that we might give to others. We are loved, so that we might love. We are forgiven, so that we might forgive.

God gives us many wonderful gifts, some material and some purely spiritual. But these gifts are not supposed to remain with us — they are supposed to pass through us.