Who has you?

One of my favourite authors, CS Lewis, once wrote "All these toys were never meant to possess my heart. My true good is in another world and my only real treasure is Christ." So, I think that when we reflect on the Gospel (Luke 12.13-21) we might want to ask ourselves a simple question. “Do we have our stuff or does our stuff have us?” I ask this question in light of things I am seeing and hearing in wider society about things like the Quebec Provincial government raising the amount people need to pay on their monthly credit card bills. If you spend $6200 on your Visa or MasterCard this month and you only make the minimum payment, it will take you 70 years to pay it off and you will pay the credit card company more than $34,000 in interest on what you borrowed.

I recall also hearing about a rich man in Texas, who just before his death directed that he was to be buried in his favourite limousine and that a tractor-tractor full of his stuff along with the truck and the trailer were to be buried with him. It gives fresh if not new meaning to the phrase, “The one who has the most toys when he dies, wins.”

All of this got me to thinking about the farmer in the parable Jesus tells in the Gospel. Here is a man who works hard, pays his taxes, keeps his nose clean and has lots to show for his life. In fact, he could be considered to be a good steward of all that he has because he has to consider looking after better all that has been given him and building bigger and better barns to house what is his. The problem with his life is not that he is a criminal, that he has been wasteful or careless. It is that he has forgotten to plan for eternity, and he has neglected his relationship with God. 

The farmer is poor towards God. As a rich and blessed man, he only thinks about and talks to himself. He keeps his own counsel as to what is right and what is good, instead of considering God and what good he could do with what he has been given. Jesus has just warned people about possessions: “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” (12:15) Hence the question about your possessions, do they have you or do you have them?

Ultimately, this is all about what we should pursue and how we ought to live our lives out as disciples of Jesus. We are warned about pleonexia or the constant gathering of more and more stuff. It is on the list of things that Saint Paul asks us to avoid in his writings. We are not called to be happy or prosperous but rather joyful, faithful and compassionate with others. I would say that it is even a tad dangerous to think that this is all that God wants for us: a safe and secure society.

What do we need to do to be rich towards God? We need to receive the gift of faith from God and begin to give out of that faith, towards others. This will teach us how to depend on God for our daily bread. It is both the risk we must take and the lesson that we must learn. And again, from CS Lewis, “The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing is to hand over your whole self – all your wishes and precautions – to Christ.” And yet the counsel of Scripture is to remember, “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13.8)

So who has whom?

Jason+