Eat, Drink and
Be Merry
Alan Brehm
The
Parable of the Rich Fool
15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on
your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the
abundance of his possessions.”
16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The
land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I
do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’
18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down
my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my
goods.19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample
goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’
20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your
soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they
be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for
himself and is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:13-21 English Standard Version (ESV)
Greed is one of those words that by
definition simply has no positive meaning.
Only the most callous Wall Street
capitalist could say with a straight face that “greed is healthy.”
Most of us will agree with that on the
surface of things, but once we walk out the doors of this church, our lives
betray a different creed.
I am afraid we are all more products of
a culture of “consumptive consumerism”
than we would like to admit.
One definition of this way of living is
“The preoccupation of society with the
acquisition of consumer goods.”
I’d say that pretty much sums up the
way we live these days--preoccupied with the acquisition of stuff.
So when Jesus says, “one’s
life does not consist in the abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15).
I doubt that too many people in our
world really believe that.
We might nod our heads in assent.
And none of us would go so far as to say “greed
is healthy.”
But, as a people, we continue to occupy
ourselves with acquiring more and more.
It would seem that we really do believe
that our lives consist in the abundance of our possessions.
It would seem that we believe that’s
what it takes to be able to “eat, drink,
and be merry.”
All of that is fairly obvious to anyone
who has the eyes to see it. I do not think belaboring it helps
anybody.
I think the real issue is where this
obsession comes from, and how we free ourselves from it.
It seems to me that the source of our
greed is a lack of satisfaction with life.
We just do not seem to have it in us to
look at where we are today, what we have, what we are doing, and say to
ourselves that it is just fine the way it is.
There is always something we want to
change. Always another “golden calf”
out there that we imagine will make our lives complete.
But no matter how much stuff we manage
to acquire, it is never enough. There is still an empty place inside us
that would not be filled with newer, nicer, better things.
Others among us think that we can fill
the void with activities.
If we work hard enough and long enough,
we can distract ourselves from the real question that haunts us - the question
of what it will take for us to be truly happy with our lives.
It is a painful question, and one that is not easily resolved. So we really rather not have to face it at all.
Instead, we run from one activity to
another, immersing ourselves in busyness so that we would not have to think
about that emptiness that gnaws at us when we’re too still and quiet.
But the solution to the compulsion to
fill our lives with something, with anything, so that we do not have to feel
that emptiness, can only be found elsewhere.
Centuries ago, Saint Augustine said it
this way, “Thou hast formed us for
Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.”
The ancient truth is that the only way
to be free from the obsessions that fail to satisfy us is through the steadfast
love of God. It is a love that surrounds us constantly.
It is a love that is in the very air we
breathe, in the sunshine that drives the trees to produce the air we breathe,
and in the chemical process in the leaves of the trees that gives off
oxygen.
If God’s love can be found in something
so basic to our very existence, surely it can be found in the other aspects of
our lives as well, if we have the eyes to see it.
The Psalmist reminds us that it is the
steadfast love of God that provides us with the very food we eat (Psalm 107:9).
And so he calls us to “give
heed to these things” (Psalm 107:43).
I think that means we are supposed to
catch a clue, get the hint, learn the lesson.
If God goes to such lengths to
establish the very cycle of nature that supports our lives in ways we take for
granted, we can surely trust God with the other aspects of our lives that we
think we have to manage.
St. Paul took that one step
further. He reminded us that God also gave us what was most
precious. God gave his only Son for us all so that we might have new
life.
And Paul draws the natural conclusion: “He
who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not
with him also give us everything else?” (Romans
8:32).
The real solution to seeking our lives
in how much stuff we have, or in how much we can do to distract ourselves, or
how well we can “eat, drink, and be merry,” is to find our lives in the new
life that God offers us all.
It is a life that is truly fulfilling,
a life of learning that becoming content with God’s love turns whatever we have
into everything we could ever need.
It is a life of loving God in return
and therefore serving those around us in love - especially by sharing what we
have with them. Jesus calls this “being rich toward God” (Luke 12:21).
When we find our lives in this way,
then we can see the folly of thinking that anything else could possibly satisfy
us.
Then we can see the truth that “one’s
life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
Would you want God to change your life?
God has made it possible for you to know Him and experience an amazing change in your own life through a relationship with His
Son, Jesus Christ, and have eternal life.
Say the following prayer:
“Father
God, I confess I am a sinner and my sins have separated me from You.
I
am truly sorry. I now want to
turn away from my past sinful life and live a new life pleasing to You.
Please
forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again.
I
believe that Your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the
dead, is alive, and hears my prayer.
I
invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from
this day forward. Thank You that according to Your Word, I am now born again.
Please
send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of
my life. I promise to study Your Word – the Bible.
Use
me for Your glory.
In
Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.”
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