Spiritual Blindness and Idoldatry - The Legacy of the Rich Fool

Welcome to Hill Country Homilies. Weekly homilies from Holy Annunciation

Orthodox Church in Liberty Hill, Texas. Holy Anunciation is an

old calendar Orthodox church sharing the faith of the Apostles

and the love of Christ with all who seek His truth. Now,

let's listen to this week's homily, Men of.

The Father and Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen, Glory

to Jesus Christ. I see it if you like, beloved

in Christ. Today for our gospel reading, we heard the

parable of the rich fool from the Gospel of Luke.

This is a man so rich, so overflowing with blessings

from God, that he imagines that he must tear down

all his barns and storehouses to build bigger ones to

contain his abundant holdies. His seems to be a prudent

plan until he hears from God thou fool, this night,

thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose things

shall these be which thou hast provided? And the parable

concludes with this warning from Christ. So is he that

layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

Now there are a number of different issues we could

consider from this parable. It's a short reading, but the

audacity of the rich fool is such that he leaves

much for us to think about first, particularly in this

country where we come from a background of rugged individualism.

We come from a country where we prize honor and

honor self sufficiency. The person, the person who can grow

their own food or provide their own needs, can be

off the grid and thriving. This is kind of a

secular icon of our nation, and those abilities have as

their underpinions a number of very commendable qualities. The person

who reflects that ideal has a variety of talents that

they can call on for their very survival and the

provision defense of their family, and glory to God for that.

But this is the problem with the rich food. Where

does he put the glory? Because it's certainly not to God. Rather,

he labors under this delusion of self sufficiency and forgetfulness

of God. Listen to his own words, what shall I

do because I have no room to bestow my fruits?

I will pull down my barns and bill grater, and

there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.

He views all that is in his grasp as being

of his own doing and of his own possession. He

does not consider for a minute that without the provision

of God, his own doing would have been futile. He

sees his rewards as his entitlement and not as a

blessing bestowed upon him. And I think that it is

easy for us to do as well. When we work hard,

when we taste success, when we begin to realize some

of the fruits of that work, we can become very

self congratulatory. We hear things that like you earned it,

which swell our heads up. And that focus, which is

very ingrained in our culture, is dangerous because it puts

the focus on us and it omits any role for

God in our blessings. Let us instead be very careful

not to fall into the trap of attributing our accomplishments

solely to personal effort. When we receive promotions or financial

windfalls career success, we need to consciously pause to thank

God and to recognize Him as the source of all

blessings beginning ending each day, acknowledging God's providence and acknowledging

Him in moments of achievement, audibly responding thanks to God

when we receive congratulations, are making a practice say even

to ourselves glory to God rather than I did it.

Then we're showing some remembrance and placing the praise and

the glory in the right place rather than leaving it

when we walk away from the mirror. This parable also

serves as an example of how greed is more than

just simple avarice. Rather, it manifests itself in us, as

it did with a rich fool, as spiritual blindness and

even idolatry. When we hear this parable, we often forget

that it's told in a specific context. Immediately before he

tells the parable, a man has come to Christ to

ask him to speak to his brother, to convince him

to share his inheritance with him, and Christ decline, saying,

who made me a judge or a divider over the two

of you? And he warns them take heed and beware

of covetousness, for a man's life consists not in the

abundance of things which he possesses. And then he tells

the parable of the rich fool. Say no, how, Saint

Cyril of Alexandria explains that Jesus does not leave us

without instruction because he's now found a good opportunity, and

he makes a profitable and a saving speech. He shows

that covetousness is a pitfall of the devil and hateful

to God. Saint Cyril writes the wise Paul even calls

it idolatry, perhaps being suitable for only those who do

not know God. For this reason, he says, very correctly,

take heed and keep yourselves from all greed, from great

and small, and from defrauding anyone who may be the

words of Paul say it. All the riches become the

idol and they are not bad in themselves, but when

they're placed in front of God, as the rich man did,

then they become the object of his worship. And so

too does he show this how it had led to

spiritual blindness when he says it's found only in those

who do not know God. And maybe it's maybe this

parable has been put providentially before us today, immediately after

Black Friday, when our cultural commitment to acquisitiveness is probably

its greatest. But we can actively resist this consumerism of

the season by practicing the very gratitude which the rich

fool lacked, having gratitude for what we have and by

choosing generosity. A few years ago, someone had the idea

to follow Black Friday with Giving Monday. That's a nice idea.

Face with abundance rather than focusing on the next purchase

or the next president under tree, we can ask who

needs this more than I do? We can feed, We

can feed the hungry, we can support the church, We

can help struggling families. Every windfall becomes an opportunity for

almsgiving rather than for hoarding. And the blindness of our

spiritual eyes will be lifted when our focus becomes not

on the gifts and the purchases that are laid before us,

but on the one who has permitted them to become hearts.

And finally, let us consider and heed the closing caution

of our Lord. So is he that layeth up treasure

for himself and is not rich toward God? If this

is the example of what laying up treasure for ourselves

leads to, let us ask what we must do to

be rich toward God. For the reward of the rich

fool is not to be envy. He labored and labored

to acquire all that he desired, and he planned his

final great building projects so that he could now take

his leave and rest and be married. But that treasures

that he worked so many years to acquire availed him

not another day, for that night his soul was to

be required of him. We truly don't know the day

or the hour when our soul will be called for.

The rotting grain in the storehouse has become the memorial

of this rich man's life. He chose to live for

the temporal, not for the eternal kingdom, and so it

is for he that is not rich toward God. Saint

Gregory Paul Moss points out how damning this failure to

be rich toward God can be using the very example

of the rich fool. Saint Gregory points out nothing in

this parable suggests that this fool acquired his goods by

sinful means. He didn't seem to steal them. He didn't

cheat or swindle anyone. He just labored. But his acquisition

was not without sin. His sin was his self centered

self satisfaction, which resulted in his heart being hardened against

the needy and his mind being forgetful of God. Saint

Gregory says, because he did not make good use of

the abundance he resis from God and was not rich

towards him. Through being generous, he made himself deserving of

death and gain nothing from all his wealth. So one

way we can be rich toward God is by being generous.

But what else shows that we are rich toward God?

The Saint Cyril of Alexandria says that the man who

is rich toward God is evidently one who does not

love wealth, but rather loves virtue, to whom few things

are sufficient. It is one whose hand is open to

the needs of the poor, comforting the sorrows of those

in poverty. According to his means and the utmost of

his power, he gathers in the storehouses that are above,

and waves up treasures in heaven. So, whether we are

rich or poor, we can be rich toward God when

we serve those in need as our means permit, and

to the greatest extent we're able. Take the widow's might.

The widow's might was within the means of both the

widow and the rich man, but it was her utmost

power to give just that, while for the rich man

it would be such a trifle as to almost be

insulting if that were all he gave. So give as

we can, as much as we can. This is one

who is rich toward God and this is our challenge

in uncertain times. As we begin this Nativity Fast, let

us take a moment to give ourselves a quick spiritual

audit and ask ourselves what are we truly investing in?

Is our time spend in prayer scripture? Are we losing

ourselves in carnal entertainment? Is our treasure given to charity

here we spending it on luxuries? Have we focused our

talents on our family and our community? Are we solely

furthering our own desires? And let us take that audit

and practically commit to increase all areas that are deficient

to add a spiritual discipline during this fast, whether that's

more daily prayer, coming to more services, setting aside alms

specifically for those in need during the season. Brothers and sisters,

the rich Fool was a worldly success, but his time

in the world was short. Let us learn from his

example and not revel in abundance and look instead to

find our storehouses in the bellies of the poor, our

treasuries in the pockets of the needy, And let us

make merry in the joy of the Lord rather than

our owned indulgences. For the prayers early Father's Lord Jesus Christ,

our God, have mercys and save us. Amen.

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