A large barn at Comberford Manor Farm, between Lichfield and Tamworth in Staffordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and yesterday was the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XXI, 20 October 2024).
We are still in the past week in the Marian boutique lodging house, waiting for the air conditioning in the flat to be repaired. But I’m not complaining, and hope to have the opportunity to go for a swim later this morning. But, before the day begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
A barn on a farm at Cross in Hand Lane, outside Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Luke 12: 13-21 (NRSVA):
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ 14 But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ 15 And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ 16 Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” 18 Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull 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, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” 21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’
A barn on a farm in Co Wexford waiting for the harvest (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Reflection:
If money was no barrier, what would I buy?
Would it make me happy?
Would it make anyone else happy?
Would it tell anyone that they are loved, loving, worth loving, that I love them, that I really enjoy their love?
On the other hand, I understand why the man in today’s Gospel reading (Luke 12: 13-21) does many of the things he does.
He has a bumper crop one year, and not enough room to store it in. Was he to leave what he could not store to rot in the fields?
It is a foundational principle of all economics, whatever your political values – from Marx and Malthus to Milton Freedman – that the production of surplus food is the beginning of the creation of wealth and the beginning of economic prosperity.
Even if you are a complete suburbanite, it should have brought joy to your heart the see the fields of green and gold in recent week, for the abundance of the earth is truly a blessing from God.
And it would have been wrong for this man to leave the surplus food to rot in the fields because he failed to have the foresight to build larger barns to store the surplus grain.
It provides income, creates wealth, allows us to export and so to import. Surplus food is the foundation of economics … and makes possible generosity, charity and care for the impoverished.
For the people who first heard this story, just image those people who first heard this parable – they would have imagined so many Biblical images of the benefits of producing surplus food.
Joseph told Pharaoh to store surplus food in Egypt and to prepare and plan ahead for years of famine (see Genesis 41: 1-36). In the long run, this provides too for the survival of the very brothers who had sold him into slavery (see Genesis 42), and, eventually, for the salvation of the people of God.
The production of extra grain in the fields at the time of the harvest allows Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi to glean in the corners of the field behind the reapers (Ruth 2: 1-4). In the long run, this provides too for the survival of Boaz and his family line, and, eventually, for the salvation of the people of God.
When the people of God go hungry, the provision of surplus food is seen as a sign of God’s love and God’s protection … whether it is:
• the hungry people in the wilderness who are fed with manna (see Exodus 16), which is also referred to in the psalm (see Psalm 107: 1-9, 43);
• or the way the Prophet Hosea reminds the people that God is the God who can say throughout their history: ‘I bent down to them and fed them’ (Hosea 11: 4);
• or the hungry people who are fed with the abundant distribution of five loaves and two fish (Matthew 14: 13-21; Mark 6: 30-44; Luke 9: 10-17; John 6: 1-14; see Mark 8: 1-9);
• or the Disciples who find the Risen Christ has provided for their needs with breakfast (John 21: 9-14).
Surplus food, wealth, providing for the future, building bigger and better barns … it is never an excuse to ‘relax, eat, drink, [and] be merry.’
Today’s Gospel reading offers the abundance and generosity of God’s provision as a sign of God’s love, for us as individuals and for all around us.
The rich man is not faulted for being an innovative farmer who manages to grow an abundant crop.
The rich man is not faulted for storing up those crops.
The rich man is not condemned for tearing down his barns and building larger ones to store not only his grain but his goods too.
The rich man is not even condemned for being rich.
The man condemns himself, he makes himself look foolish, for thinking that all that matters in life is our own pleasure and personal satisfaction.
We are human because we are made to relate to other humans.
There is no shared humanity without relationship.
We are made in the image and likeness of God, but that image and likeness is only truly found in relationship … or God is already relational, God is already revealed as community, in God’s existence as Trinity.
This man thinks not of his needs, but of his own pleasures. He has a spiritual life … we are told he speaks to his Soul. But he speaks only to his own soul. His spiritual life extends only to his own spiritual needs, to his own Soul, it never reaches out to God who has blessed him so abundantly, the God who reminds us in the Psalms that he ‘fills the hungry soul with good’ (Psalm 107: 9).
His spiritual persona never reaches out to or acknowledges God who has blessed him so abundantly, or to the people around him who have needs and who could benefit from his charitable generosity or from his business acumen.
In failing to take account of the needs of others, he fails to realise his own true needs: for a true and loving relationship with God, and a true and loving relationship with others.
He has no concern for the needs of others, physical or spiritual. He is spiritually dead. No wonder Saint Paul says that greed is idolatry (Colossians 3: 5).
But if he has stopped speaking to God, God has not stopped speaking to him. And God tells him that night in a dream that this man is spiritually dead.
God says to him in that dream that his life is being demanded of him (Luke 12: 20).
Curiously, we never hear how he responds, we never hear whether he dies.
The story ends just there.
Unlike the story of the rich man who kept Lazarus at the gate, and then died (Luke 16: 19-31), we are never told what happened to the rich man in today’s Gospel reading.
Did he die of fright?
Did he die after drinking too much?
Did he wake up and carry on regardless?
Or, like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, did he wake up and realise his folly, and embrace the joys of the Incarnation?
I am challenged not to pass judgment on this Rich Man. Instead, Christ challenges me, in the first part of this reading (Luke 12: 13-15), to put myself in the place of this man.
If we are to take the earlier part of this Gospel reading to heart, perhaps we might reserve judgment on this foolish rich man.
Perhaps, instead of judging this young man with the benefit of hearing this story over and over again, perhaps in the light of the first part of this Gospel reading, I might reflect on this Gospel reading by asking myself two questions again:
‘If money was no barrier, what would I buy?’
and:
‘Would that choice reflect the priorities Christ sets us of loving God and loving one another?’
A full barn on my grandmother’s former farm near Cappoquin, Co Waterford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Today’s Prayers (Monday 21 October 2024):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Persistence in Prayer’. This theme was introduced yesterday with a reflection by Ella Sibley, Regional Manager Europe & Oceania, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Monday 21 October 2024) invites us to pray:
Merciful God, we pray for your concerns for the world. Teach us and show us your cares, for people, situations and creation. Let our hearts beat with yours.
The Collect:
Grant, we beseech you, merciful Lord,
to your faithful people pardon and peace,
that they may be cleansed from all their sins
and serve you with a quiet mind;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
Father of light,
in whom is no change or shadow of turning,
you give us every good and perfect gift
and have brought us to birth by your word of truth:
may we be a living sign of that kingdom
where your whole creation will be made perfect in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Almighty God,
in whose service lies perfect freedom:
teach us to obey you
with loving hearts and steadfast wills;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued tomorrow
Filling the barn at harvest time in Calverton, near Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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