Rich Fool 2023

First Sunday of Advent, after we've heard the

parable last week of the Good Samaritan, you

see the church has taken us to think about the

interior life and the life of charity, the life

of prayer, the life of being rich with God. Let

me start with a little background, back up a

few verses that you did not hear the deacon read.

It's not appointed to be read, these verses.

And what do we find there? Well, we find Jesus

preaching, and he's preaching deep and profound

things about the Holy Spirit, about the spiritual

life. And a man in the crowd is elbowing his

way forward in order to get close enough to Jesus

to get his attention. He thinks, now this rabbi

is going to tell me what I need to do. And when

he got close, he cries out, and he says to Jesus,

I have an inheritance. My brother is not sharing

it. Tell him to divide it up with me. He demands

that Jesus do a rabbinic thing. Work out this

dispute in the family. It's an all too frequent

situation even now, isn't it? What did Jesus

say? Sure, I'll take care of that for you. No,

no. He said, who appointed me? to be a judge

or an arbiter between you two. Who appointed

me, O man? And then he issued not a ruling, because

he's not that rabbi, but he offers a warning.

Take heed. Be on guard. Watch. Beware of covetousness,

for one's life does not consist in the abundance

of the things he possesses. Then the Lord says

this parable. There was a certain rich man, and

on and on, you just heard it. Now please understand

that those listening to Jesus at the time were

ordinary people like us. They weren't wealthy

people. He's not slamming the rich people. These

people would have believed that this industrious

and wealthy man was extremely blessed. Otherwise,

how could he have this wealth? He was doing something

right. He worked hard. He planned for the future.

Both things are good. Work hard, plan for the

future, take care of your church, take care of

your family, be a good citizen. Of course those

are good things. He was industrious. He was like

the man in Proverbs. He was steady. He was like

the ant. He did all this work. He just kept going.

He understood the fragile nature of life. He

understood that the threats posed to our security,

poverty, illness. He didn't think. He did plan

for the future, just not far enough. This parable,

we hear the man say something like 13 times,

I will do this with my things, me, mine, and

I, over and over again. I'll eat, drink, be merry,

relax. Here we are in the Christmas fast. We're

told to not relax, but be watchful. Be careful

what you eat. Watch what you drink. And don't

be merry. Be joyful. Because the Lord's coming

at Christmas to us. Suddenly, as this man is,

there's a great painting. It's by Rembrandt,

right? Shows this guy with all this stuff on

his desk and piles of papers and money, money

bags. And suddenly, this man hears the voice

of God. What would you like God to say to you

if you heard his voice? Well done, good and faithful

servant. You'd like to hear that. But this man,

what does God say? He says, fool, fool, this

night your soul is required of you. He's a fool.

Keep in mind, Jesus says, for us, call no one

a fool. That's Matthew chapter 5. But here God

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

calls the man a fool. Well, God can do that because

he knows the situation, doesn't he? Imagine the

mourners at this man's funeral. He was a good

man. He was an industrious man. He was someone

to emulate words of admiration, but he's a fool.

Why? Point number one, brothers and sisters,

the fool, says Proverbs, believes that no one

is more trustworthy or wise or reliable than

himself. It says, he who trusts in his own heart

is a fool. Because the heart is fickle. He planned

ahead, as I said, just not far enough. He lost

sight of God with the piles of stuff in front

of him. This fool was not really a good man of

business because he didn't look at all the ledgers.

He missed one. He imagined his soul was worth

less than his possessions. He was also wrong

about his expiration date. We don't know the

date of our departure from this life. We go along

thinking it might be sometime in the future.

Even when you hit 66, like me, you think, well,

80s maybe. You know, I'm good till then. Really?

We don't know. It's coming. These are huge business

mistakes that this man made. Point number two.

Notice how the parable begins. It says this.

The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.

He thought to himself, this I will do with my

things. which I have of my own power. He thought.

He became a victim of his own fantasy, which

came out of his heart because his heart was corrupt.

Today, well, last night, Father Nicholas spoke

about peace, the peace of God. Today, you heard

the choir and the readers saying, the Lord will

give strength to his people. The Lord will grant

his people with peace. And then you heard the

epistle immediately. Christ is our peace. This

is what he forgot to acquire the peace of God,

to acquire Christ himself. His heart did not

have Christ in it. And so he was disturbed by

demonic suggestions through thoughts and enticing

images of a possible and beautiful future. Devoid

and forgetful of the grace of God and his responsibility

to the poor. Very many people, including Orthodox

Christians, do not realize that all our thoughts

and our feelings actually come not from our true

selves or from the Lord, that some of these thoughts

and feelings are temptations. They come from

our own fallenness. They come from outside. We

call them logismi. They are negative passions,

directly sometimes from the evil one. whom our

tradition warns us about so much, so we will

not be ignorant of the wiles of the devil, says

St. Paul. This is why we are to be on guard and

watch. God sows his word richly in all places

and all times. We heard about that weeks ago

with the seed and the sower. What matters is

the condition of the heart. This man believed

his thoughts. And his thoughts were like drawn

as if his money and his possessions were a magnet.

They were a magnet. We are given this gospel

reading today, brothers and sisters, for a couple

of reasons. Let's ask ourselves a question. Who

is this directed to, this parable? Do any of

us think that it's not for me personally? Do

any of us think that we don't suffer from covetousness?

Raise your hand, but then you can take over.

We all suffer from this. Otherwise, why would

the gospel be given to us today? Why would Christ

speak to us? It's he that is speaking to us.

Beware of covetousness, he says. A person's life

does not consist in what they own. We may think

of that intellectually, but be challenged. This

requires a response from us. Take heed. Be on

guard. Watch. What does covetousness mean? Well,

I looked it up. Merriam -Webster says, It means

the condition of having a craving for possessions,

for your own time, for things, for people. A

craving. I would say the spiritual condition

of having a misplaced, misdirected desire. St.

Paul says in Colossians that covetousness is

idolatry. Yes. The wonderful thing about church.

And the gospel is that a word can be given to

us which challenges us, which afflicts us, which

might even insult us. But you know, most of us

walk out the door without being touched by it.

We should take these words of the Lord seriously

and examine the condition of our heart and our

thoughts. Because coveting is number 10. on the

list of the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not

cover. It also means robbing God by being stingy

with either the church or the poor. Now, again,

hearing this parable, we might think, oh yes,

I know so -and -so. That's the person this parable

fits. It's directed to you and me. Are we aware

of this sin in our hearts on this first Sunday?

On the other hand, are we aware, do we have a

desire to be, as St. Peter says, as St. Paul

says, to be rich in God? What does that mean?

I'll leave you with the words of St. Peter of

Damascus from the Philokalia. He says, rich in

God, to the extent that a person thanks God and

labors out of love for God. shall God come near

him with his gifts, and God will desire to comfort

him. That's rich. Amen.