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Sunday, Aug. 3, 11:00am, Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

All articles for Sunday, Aug. 3, 2025

All articles for the previous Sunday, July 27, 2025

“Crepes Myrtle” came to Charleson, SC in 1786 from China by way of England and France. The southern climate allowed it prosper and it blossoms in Va. in mid-July

Pentecost 8 – The Rich Man in Luke
Lectionary, Pentecost 8
Commentary, Pentecost 8
Visual Lectionary

The lectionary this week collectively warn against placing ultimate value in material wealth and temporal accomplishments, calling instead for a deeper orientation toward God. Ecclesiastes wrestles with the futility of toil and possessions, declaring all as “vanity” in the face of mortality. Psalm 49 echoes this by reminding listeners that riches cannot save one from death or secure eternal life. Luke’s parable of the rich fool reinforces the danger of storing earthly treasure while neglecting one’s relationship with God, showing how life can be taken from you at any moment. In contrast, Colossians urges believers to “seek the things that are above,” putting to death earthly desires and embracing a new life hidden with Christ. Together, these readings offer a sobering but hopeful message: true life and lasting value are found not in wealth, but in God.

Focus on the Rich Man
The Gospel in August, 2025
Voices on the Parable of the Rich Fool
The Rich Man, a 2019 sermon
The Rich Man – becoming rich toward God
Focus on Attitudes toward Stuff

The Transfiguration celebrated, Aug. 6
The Transfiguration
Transfiguration Gallery

Remembering
William Wilberforce, man of faith, abolitionist

I. Theme – Finding True Riches to Enjoy a Happy Life 

“St. Lawrence Delivering the Riches of the Church” –  Master of the Osservanza (1440)

The lectionary readings are here or individually: 

First Reading – Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23
Psalm – Psalm 49:1-11
Epistle – Colossians 3:1-11
Gospel – Luke 12:13-21 

Today’s readings encourage us to discover true riches in order to live a happy life. In Ecclesiastes (Track 2), a Jewish wisdom teacher ponders the vanity of human life. The psalmist invites us to bow in worship and praise before God our Maker. The second reading encourages followers of Christ to focus on the things that are above. In the gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the rich fool.

God suffers or celebrates, depending on how we live our lives. Injustice is an affront to God; it literally pains God and leaves in its wake divine sorrow and anger. God is not an amoral force, but God’s energy encompasses us all – believer and atheist, pacifist and terrorist, humankind and the non-human world.

To live for earthly things “is vanity and a striving after wind,” and work that is driven by such vanity “is an unhappy business” (Eccl. 1:13–14). The man who lives like that has nothing to show for “all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun … all his days are full of sorrow” (Eccl. 2:22–23). We can’t take it with us. So why do we worry so much about it?

The foolish live their lives solely for their own pleasures on earth and ignore the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized. The Wisdom Tradition of the Bible tells us this is vanity, a chasing after wind, something that will never be fully realized or satisfied. Life is empty. On the other hand, the foolish also live their lives focused solely on heaven and not caring about this life or the people in this world.

So, too, your “covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5), makes a god out of that which cannot give you life or happiness. For “one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15)

The wise look to living their lives for God, which means living for others. But “Christ who is your life” (Col. 3:4), in giving you Himself, gives you all the wealth of heaven. Instead of striving to lay up treasures for yourself, be “rich toward God” in Him (Luke 12:21). We are called to love and care for others, but especially the ones in need. With that, we live with the hope of resurrection, knowing that life continues after death, though we may not know what that looks like, we hold on to that hope. We live our lives on earth with the same hope for eternity—to live into God’s ways of love and justice that restores and heals and brings wholeness.

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So how is your barn ? Parable of the Rich Fool

The second part of this scripture is the reframing of the man’s question and the parable -“Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” Since there is stuff to be divided there could be “abundance of possessions” and the next step beyond that – greed 

The Greek word used here for greed means “yearning for more”. It is a form of idolatry. If greed is a desire to get more — then there is never a point where a greedy person has enough. Greed can never be satisfied. It is always looking to get more. In other places, there are writings against greed. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and Ephesians 5:3-5. The greedy will not inherit the kingdom of God. It brings god’s wrath. greed can take many forms: the greed for attention, the greed for control, the greed for security.

Luke, by situating the parable of the rich fool right in the middle of Jesus’ predictions of his own death and the plots to kill him, connects this universal human desire for more with universal human insecurity and fear of death.

The parable is about a farmer who does well – he has produced abundantly and has no place to store his crops so he will build larger barns. So what’s wrong with this ? David Lose causes us to assess the situation “He is not portrayed as wicked – that is, he has not gained his wealth illegally or by taking advantage of others. Further, he is not portrayed as particularly greedy. Indeed, he seems to be somewhat surprised by his good fortune as he makes what appears to be reasonable plans to reap the abundance of the harvest. What is wrong, we might therefore ask, about building larger barns to store away some of today’s bounty for a potentially leaner tomorrow?

Lose goes on. “Except for two things. First, notice the farmer’s consistent focus throughout the conversation he has with himself: “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” 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. And I will say to my soul….”

The relentless use of the first person pronouns “I” and “my” betray a preoccupation with self. There is no thought to using the abundance to help others, no expression of gratitude for his good fortune, no recognition of God at all. The farmer has fallen prey to worshiping the most popular of gods: the Unholy Trinity of “me, myself, and I.” This leads to, and is most likely caused by, a second mistake. He is not foolish because he makes provision for the future; he is foolish because he believes that by his wealth he can secure his future: “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”

Wealth is not the problem but how we use it – wealth for its own enjoyment or own end. It’s thinking that possessions lead to a satisfied life. Bigger barns do not necessarily bring happiness and contentment. They rob us of the person who builds the barns. People retire and set them up to separate themselves from a world they help to build. The man in this story does not have the vision and/or imagination to see beyond his own walls. He is his own prisoner.

The text says that the man decided to gather in these new barns not just the grain from the harvest but “my goods” (v. 18). He is thinking of barns not just for the grain but also for his “goods.” He can kill two birds with one stone, but in Jesus’ parable, it is as if he is killing his soul by the expansion project. Then he has thoughts that he has made it and can kick back. Idea of celebrate goes back to the parable of the prodigal son to describe the festive atmosphere at the return of the prodigal.” In the end the grim reaper may be coming for him.

The story ends:” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

The parable tells us about two different kinds of riches–those toward oneself and those toward God

That is, the question to put to our hearers (and also ourselves) is not, “Is material abundance bad?” but rather, “Is our material abundance sufficient to meet the weight of meaning, significance, and joy that we seek?” Can our wealth secure a relative degree of comfort? Certainly. Can it grant to us confidence that we are worthy of love and honor and in right relationship with God and neighbor? Certainly not. Only as we recognize that the gifts of ultimate worth, dignity, meaning, and relationship are just that – gifts offered freely by God – can we hope to place our relative wealth in perspective and be generous with it toward others.

How does one become “rich towards God”? There is a parallel with the Good Samaritan. There the question “What must I do to inherit eternal life?

1. Faith in God. Worship is where we are reoriented toward a way of life that seeks the peace and justice of God’s kingdom. Worship is where we find the inner resources to follow the example of Christ in our daily lives. Worship is where we become “heavenly minded” in the words of St. Paul enough to be able to do some earthly good in this world. It’s our starting point.

2. Approaching God as hungry, needy, people — letting God give us what we need rather than trying to secure it on our own. The gift is not making money for its own sake but gifts of ultimate worth, dignity, meaning, and relationship are just that – gifts offered freely by God. We have people that done this is history and they are called saints.

3. Using our wealth to be generous with it toward others, sharing God’s life. Using wealth responsibility to see that it all comes from God and should be used to further God’s kingdom. Paul in Colossians has a concern with how you live your life here and now—including purity, respect, honesty, and compassio

On another level, this parable is about security. We try to build in our own security and control when we know life is insecure and uncertain. The farmer is called “fool” because of neither his wealth nor ambition but rather because he accords finite things infinite value. He doesn’t see his own life as on loan from God. He has tried to insulate himself from fate and fortune through productive farming and adequate finances, and he has come up empty. Since 9/11 we have inundated with super hero movies – over 30 movies within 6 years after the event. This is another way to promote security.

Lee Koontz in article on his passage quotes Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. Niebuhr “in an article of this passage. went so far as to say that human nature was paradoxical. On the one hand, we are immersed in nature and subject to all of its perils, including death. But on the other hand, human beings have the ability to transcend nature and ponder not only our finitude and the reality of death but also how we might respond to it. (Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man (New York 1941), p. 182.) We are bound by our limited human nature, our finitude, but at the same time we are free to respond to the perils of life on earth in any way we choose. That, I believe, is what Jesus’ parable of the rich fool is really about. It’s about how to respond to insecurity, finitude, and death.”

The Sermon in 2019 using Luke, Ecclesiastes and Colossians. The rich man in Luke only knew life in the horizontal feeding his own wishes but not the vertical leading to God. “What the rich man has forgotten in his grasping focus on this horizontal line of his life is the vertical line that reaches up toward God.”

Catherine showed how the early Christians prayed – “The early Christians prayed like this—by reaching up and out with their palms up. As they prayed in this way, they remembered this vertical line of their lives, their feet rooted in the goodness of God’s creation, while they reached up to God with open hands…”This prayer posture with open hands stretched out and up reminds us that God is the one that fills our open hands when we ask. Open hands are open to all that God wants to give us, and all that God intends for us to share. Open hands reach beyond the finite into the infinite. Open hands reach up into God’s light.

“In the Colossians reading for today, the writer shows us that reaching up into the infinite helps us become rich toward God and generous toward our neighbors…In the light of God’s love, then, our lives are not meaningless, but full of meaning, full of light and God’s goodness that we shine into the world.

Finally Catherine used a story Rabbi Daniel Cohen writes in his book What will they say about you when you are gone? Creating a Life of Legacy

“And then he tells a story about a man who wanted to decide which of his three sons would inherit his estate. So the man came up with the idea of giving his inheritance to the son who could best fill an empty room. The third son won with a candle, lit a flame which filled the room with light.

Cohen says, “When we lighten a dark world, we emulate God, and our souls will be on fire. When we make small differences in the world for even one person, we align ourselves with life’s purpose,” and, I would add, we align ourselves with God’s purpose for us.

“When we live with open hands full of God’s light, everything that we do in this life, on this horizontal line, is full of meaning that will stretch far beyond the day when our hearts stop beating because we have become conduits for God’s infinite light to flow into the world through our us long after our hearts have stopped beating.

“Stand up again. Reach up into God’s light in prayer, open your arms in love, open your hands, and go be God’s light in this world. ”

1. Augustine of Hippo (354–430) – Church Father

Writing (Sermon 36):
“The rich man’s land had produced abundantly. But the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully, not the man’s industry. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do? because I have no room where to bestow my fruits. He did not think of saying, I will relieve the poor, I will feed the hungry, I will clothe the naked. He did not think of the commandments of God.”

Augustine critiques the rich man’s self-centered plans and failure to use wealth for the good of others. He emphasizes charity as the appropriate response to abundance.

2. John Calvin (1509–1564) – Reformer

Writing (Commentary on Luke 12:13–21)) “Christ shows how absurd it is to be solicitous about a future which we cannot command. The rich fool is condemned, not because he had treasures, but because he made them his confidence.”

Calvin points to the folly of trusting in material wealth instead of God, emphasizing the uncertainty of life and the need for dependence on divine providence.

3. Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) – Danish Philosopher and Theologian

Writing (Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing)

“A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. For the fool, riches are the goal; for the wise, they are merely the means… The fool thinks he owns the riches; the wise man knows they own him unless he holds them loosely.”

Kierkegaard uses the parable to explore themes of inwardness and purity of intention, warning against the soul’s entanglement with materialism.

4. Oscar Romero (1917–1980) – Archbishop and Martyr of El Salvador

 (Homily, July 10, 1977):
“What does it profit a nation to have endless riches, and yet so many people hungry, jobless, and poor? The Gospel today reminds us: God will ask for an accounting. ‘Fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you.’”

Romero connects the parable to social justice, calling out systemic inequality and calling for a Gospel-based redistribution of resources.

5. N.T. Wright (b. 1948) – New Testament Scholar

Writing (Luke for Everyone):
“Jesus is not just giving good advice about how to handle money. He’s warning that the kingdom of God is breaking in, and people who are sleepwalking through life focused only on themselves will miss it entirely.”

Wright emphasizes the eschatological urgency of the passage, calling readers to align their lives with the inbreaking Kingdom rather than with personal security.

 

Sunday Focus on “attitudes toward stuff” in the Kingdom

The four lectionary texts assigned for this Sunday have a common theme: “wealth”. More specifically, the texts are concerned with attitudes toward wealth. The theme is considered in a variety of literary types: a parable, a piece of wisdom literature, a letter, and a psalm.

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 Background- Parable of the Rich Fool -Luke 12:13-21

Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem. People seek him out – the Centurion that wants him who servant was on the road to death; in other cases with the widow of Nain he wonders into situations. Some might come to challenge him or justify themselves, like the lawyer who provided the context for the parable of the Good Samaritan (10:25-37). Others came to Jesus with a complaint. We saw this in a previous exposition of the Mary/Martha story (10:38-42). Actually for this story we don’t know the motivation but it leads to another teaching moment. The gospel reading is here.

Jesus is in the middle of encouraging his disciples to confess even when they are under duress, when he is interrupted by one of the crowd who wants Jesus to settle a financial dispute between siblings. Jesus, however, refuses to enter into the family squabble and instead uses the situation as an opportunity to teach about the seduction of wealth.

The problem the man faced was a common and significant one–how to divide the property between siblings. At that time the older son received twice the inheritance of youngers ones – maybe this is a younger. It may be natural to come to Jesus – Rabbi’s were expected to arbitrate on matters of law, but Jesus is unwilling to play this role.

If Jesus had taken up the man’s challenge and entered into his life, he faced two problems: the first is that his intervention might provide the occasion for the brothers both to turn on Jesus; the second is that Jesus’ intervention would just open a Pandora’s box of more questions until Jesus had actually become the man’s attorney. Jesus may be a healer or teacher or proclaimer of the message of the kingdom, but he isn’t a judge in domestic disputes. . He knows his task and his limitations. Thus, Jesus really isn’t a “problem solver.”

Do you have a clear sense of what you are about it in life? Jesus has an instinctive sense of what he ought to be doing; of when he ought to enter in and when he ought to keep his distance. Jesus’ explanation is “who made me a judge or arbitrator over you? Jesus doesn’t give an explanation for why he doesn’t want to intervene but finds the heart of the matter (abundance, greed) and throws it back to the questioner. Jesus reframes the question and it becomes a parable.

Jesus deals with those he speaks with in various ways.   When Jesus is with the disciples, his teaching is demanding and often blunt. When he is with the crowd, strangers and foreigners, Jesus proclaims the Good News of God’s unconditional acceptance and universal compassion. When he is with the religious leaders of the time, Jesus turns  their criticism back on themselves.

August 3 – Luke 12:13-21

From the crowd, a man called out to Jesus asking for help in a family matter. The man wanted his share of the family inheritance from his brother. Jesus first made it clear that he was not the man’s arbitrator and refused to enter the quarrel. But Jesus did use the opportunity to teach the crowd that placing too much emphasis on the acquisition of material wealth would lead to greed and greed would lead to conflicts in families. Jesus continued by making the point that true security did not exist in a surplus of goods when he relayed a parable about a man who had a bumper crop. So huge was the harvest’s yield that the man decided to tear down his storage buildings and build new ones to hold all his grain. Once everything was stored, the man would have no worries and could spend his life without care. But God demanded the man’s life that night.  Reminder—being rich in God is the goal for this life, rather than putting a priority on possessions. 

August 10-  Luke 12:32-40

Jesus told the disciples not to be afraid, but rather to get sturdy purses to hold all they will receive from God.  If they served God, their reward would be great—but it would not be the reward of worldly wealth.  In the second part of the Gospel, Jesus preached the message of watchfulness and being ready for his return.  In a servant explanation of his point, Jesus told them that God would be so happy to see them at the banquet that God would put on an apron and cook a meal for them, just as Jesus washed the feet of the disciples at the Last Supper, according to John’s gospel.   

August 17 – Luke 12:49-56

As Jesus announced his mission, he made it clear that there would be no compromising. Called to repentance and challenged to be ready, the disciples would most likely divide households and communities. Jesus knew already that there were divisions among the Jewish leaders. Jesus warned his followers that they, too, might face divisions among their own families. The coming of God’s kingdom on earth is not without conflict with the forces already in place.

August 24 – Luke 13:10-17

Jesus enters a synagogue and heals a woman who has been suffering for 18 years. Jesus heals the woman in sacred space (a synagogue, mentioned twice) and within sacred time, namely on a Sabbath (noted no fewer than five times), and he is criticized for this breach of the law. Jesus insists that the synagogue and the Sabbath are not the only things that are holy — so is this woman’s life. He is also guilty, in the eyes of the synagogue leaders, of touching a ritually unclean woman.  Jesus isn’t abolishing the Law of Moses but helping the people in the synagogue have a more compassionate and broader understanding of how to apply the law.

Jesus points out that while untying an ox or a donkey on the sabbath was forbidden in one part of the Mishnah (a Jewish book of laws), it was permitted in another. His point is that the woman is far more important than animals, yet animals are allowed more freedom on the sabbath than is the woman. This woman is a “daughter of Abraham,” heir to the same promise as Abraham.

August 31 Luke 14:1, 7-14

The fourth Sunday lectionary reading is set at a dinner with religious leaders on the Sabbath.  “There is no doubt that Jesus is a disturbing, even rude, guest at this dinner party, upsetting standard protocol, but his presence and his words open the way for the transformed structures of the kingdom of God.” 

The Transfiguration is a transformation and emphasizes that the mission of  Jesus in the way of the cross. We celebrate this event on Aug. 6

Collect for Aug. 4 O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with you, O Father, and you, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

From Luke – “Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” —not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

In his book, God Has A Dream: A Vision of Home for Our Time, Desmond Tutu tells about a transfiguration experience that he will never forget. It occurred when apartheid was still in full swing. Tutu and other church leaders were preparing for a meeting with the prime minister of South Africa to discuss the troubles that were destroying their nation. They met at a theological college that had closed down because of the white government’s racist policies. During a break from the proceedings, Tutu walked into the college’s garden for some quiet time. In the midst of the garden was a huge wooden cross. As Tutu looked at the barren cross, he realized that it was winter, a time when the grass was pale and dry, a time when almost no one could imagine that in a few short weeks it would be lush, green, and beautiful again. In a few short weeks, the grass and all the surrounding world would be transfigured.

As the archbishop sat there and pondered that, he obtained a new insight into the power of transfiguration, of God’s ability to transform our world. Tutu concluded that transfiguration means that no one and no situation is “untransfigurable.” The time will eventually come when the whole world will be released from its current bondage and brought to share in the glorious liberty that God intends.

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