Congresses

Sermon

Sermon at the 2022 KEP Conference Service, Liebfrauenberg, Wednesday, June 15^th 2022

Text: Luke, 12, 13-21 – The Parable of the Rich Fool

‘If only it was me!’

I believe that would be the instinctive reaction from many a businessman or -woman seeking to make a sound business, if they were to listen to today´s gospel.

‘If only it was me who were in charge of a company, that had yielded a profit like the one made by the rich farmer in the parable.’

For isn´t it a true business-adventure we hear described in this text?

The farmer has created a result which any management at the yearly presentation of accounts to its shareholders would describe as ‘highly satisfactory’ – accounts with a profit so big, that he hardly knows what to do with it.

He´s been so good at making money that his profit exceeds all boundaries.

Had he lived today, the farmer would have been an obvious candidate for any business-award celebrating succcesfull management.

So why is it, that Jesus - instead of applauding him for his excellent business-skills – says: ‘You fool!’

We don´t hear anything about abusive management or exploitation of his workers, so what has he done to deserve the rather dubious honor of being called ‘fool’ by our Lord himself?

What is wrong with a healthy business and an economic surplus from your work?

What is wrong with financial security and independence?

A challenging question - not only to the rich farmer but from different perspectives to all of us.

I guess that – at least sometimes - most of us more or less can identify with the dream of being able to do like the rich farmer.

Of being able to say: ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’.

Of no longer needing to worry about job security, mortgages or the loan in the bank.

I believe most of us recognize that dream: the dream of freedom and independence.

The dream of being able – just like the rich farmer – to do precisely as we like, without being limited by anything but precisely that: what we like.

Basically, I believe, it is a dream of total freedom from responsibility.

It was this freedom the rich farmer was looking forward to.

The freedom where he wasn´t dependent on anything or anybody, but was absolutely free to decide what he wanted and when he wanted it.

And then he is met by a: ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

The answer is obvious: nobody!

Because in the rich farmer´s universe there isn´t room for anybody but himself.

With his money he has locked himself up in his own world, where there´s only room for himself and his own desires and priorities.

Just like was the case with the man in the crowd, who occasioned Jesus to tell the parable about the rich farmer.

He came to make Jesus intervene in a dispute with his brother over an inheritance.

His perspective was in a way the same as the rich farmer´s.

He also saw things solely from his own perspective and what he wanted and what he could get for himself.

When you claim your right, it always comes with the danger of closing in on only your own world.

The danger of excluding the others and their worlds.

And that ultimately only leaves room for yourself and what you want for yourself, keeping it to yourself.

‘Beware! Be on your guard against greed of every kind, for even when a man has more than enough, his wealth does not give him life’.

That is Jesus´ answer to both the man who would claim his own right in his dispute over the inheritance, to the rich farmer and his self-sufficiency in the midst of his richness and to all of us, when we try to be free of dependency on others and free of responsibility for others.

In that way he turns the rich farmer´s – and our – understanding of what freedom is completely upside-down.

Whereas the rich farmer dreams of freedom as independence and freedom from others and being able to do just as you like, Jesus claims that real life and real freedom is only to be found in our relationships - in being in community with others – in being bound to others.

That claim is valid, I believe, because God himself is community.

Because ‘God’ fundamentally means ‘being in relationship’. And when we are using the word ‘God’, we are talking about what is most fundamental and basic in our lives.

And therefore all human life – as part of God´s history - fundamentally is being in relationship.

Therefore the only freedom in which we can find true life and joy, is the freedom that binds us to one another in mutual dependency and recognition of our shared humanity.

We can only be ourselves as part of a community.

It is when we are dependent on each other, that life gets its real depth and fullness.

The rich farmer in us keeps objecting and claiming that the central person in our lives should be ourselves.

And the Christian gospel constantly keeps reminding us that that is not true and pointing us to a different perspective:

That our life is not something which we have on our own or can keep to ourselves.

That we cannot justify self-suffiency or disregarding the others and their needs.

That we cannot under any circumstances justify reducing others from fellow human beings to mere tools for reaching our own goals – whether it is in the political, financial or personal realms of our lives.

But beyond and before that it means, that we are never left alone in ‘creating’ our lives and finding meaning and fullness.

That meaning and that fullness is before all else a free and undeserved gift – from others and – through them - from him, who in our baptism and every day of our lives says: ‘be assured, I am with you always, to the end of time.’

Amen