Beyond the Patio

Rich Toward God
Luke 12:13-21

Whenever I face the death of another person, whether old, young, or in between, I can’t help but face my own death. I can’t help but face the fact that I am going to die. I’ve been thinking about that this week. I realize that I am already over 20 years older than my father was when he died. That’s a sobering thought for me. I am getting old. Where has the time gone? It just seemed that I got rid of my pimples, and I started losing my hair. One of these days, and it could be at any time, I am going to die, and people will gather around, and the preacher will say a few words, some other people might say a few words and then everyone will go into the hall and eat sandwiches, and other kinds of goodies, maybe even raisin bread and cheese. And I think, “What will be important about my life?” What will people remember . Will the stand around and say, “Alex Thomas, he owned a 2004 Honda, he lived in a nice house with an ocean view, and had a computer, with a DVD drive, re writable CD burner, cable internet access, WiFi and is on “Facebook” What’s important about that when you are dead.? You can’t surf the internet anymore.

Jesus said in today’s Gospel today, “One’s life does not exist in the abundance of possessions”

The Jesus tells them this parable about a person who had a truly miraculous crop. It was so miraculous, that he decided that the old granaries that he kept his crops in were not good enough. He wasn’t even going to add to them or update them. He was going to tear down those granaries, get rid of them completely, and build new ones. He must have went on the theory, like a lot of people today, that NEW AND BIGGER IS BETTER. Then he felt very satisfied that he would have all of this security for a long life —– and he dies.

It is rather tragic, isn’t it? Because all his possessions have no value to him at death.

Jesus ends that parable with the punch line, “So it is for those who store up treasurers for themselves, but are not rich toward s God.”

So what is important? being rich toward God! How are you rich toward God? Jesus didn’t have anything, but he was rich toward God. How you ask? He gave his life for others. You are rich toward God in what you give away to others, not in what you accumulate. Jesus gave everything. His whole life was an investment in the lives of others. He finally died for others. When people met Jesus, they realized that he believed in them so much and he gave himself to them in such a way, that they were never the same after they met him. The only ones that he couldn’t give himself to were those who were turned so much in on themselves that he could never reach them.

What is really important for us? I think that what will be important is at our death someone will be able to say that we lived our lives in such a way that it made a difference to the lives of others.

Let me tell you a story. I know I’ve told it before but I love this story and some stories are worth repeating:

There was a teacher, we’ll call her Miss Thompson. You know what a lot of teachers say at the beginning of the year: “I love you all. You are all important to me. I have no favorites.” Teachers lie sometimes. Of course they have favorites. Some of their students they just don’t like. Teddy Stollard was one of those students that Miss Thompson did not care for. He was unkempt. His hair was disheveled. He stared blankly at you, and uttered one syllable answers to the questions that he was asked. Miss Thompson took special delight in marking an X in red pencil beside wrong answers. She wrote the F on the top of a paper with great flare. She should have known better. She had the records. Teachers have records. Grade one, Teddy is an average student but is not working to his potential, a bad home situation. Grade Two, Teddy is distracted and is not working well. His mother has terminal cancer. Grade three, Teddy is getting worse. He is not keeping up with the rest of the class, His mother died this year. His Dad seems disinterested. Grade four, Teddy will fail unless something happens.

At Christmas all the children brought presents for the teacher and piled them on her desk. Teddy brought a present. It was wrapped in brown paper with masking tape. Miss Thompson opened it. A rhine stone bracelet with some of the stones missing fell out, and there was a bottle of cheap perfume half gone. The other children laughed. Miss Thompson had the sense to put the bracelet on and dabbed the perfume on her wrist. Then she her arm up for all the children to see. Due to the example of the teacher, all agreed that it was a wonderful gift. Teddy stayed after school that day. He said, “Miss Thompson, when you put that perfume on you smell like my mother…..and her bracelet looked nice on you too.” After Teddy had left, she fell on her knees and prayed for forgiveness. When school resumed, Miss Thompson was a changed person because she was determined not just to impart information but to make a difference in the lives of her students. She was going to truly invest herself in the lives of her students. She started with Teddy. She gave him extra classes, and by the end of the year, he had caught up to the rest of the class and was ahead of many.

Years later she got a letter:

Dear Miss Thompson, I’m doing fine. I am second in my class. I wanted you to be the first to know. Signed: Teddy Stollard

Few years later, she got another letter,:

Dear Miss Thompson, I have just been informed that I will graduate first in my class. I thought that you would like to know. University has been hard, but I have enjoyed it. Signed: Teddy Stollard

Four years later she got another letter,

Dear Miss Thompson, I have finished my course, and as of April 30th will be Dr. Teddy Stollard, M.D. How about that? I am going to be married on July 27th. I want you to come to the wedding and sit where my mother would have sat. You are all the family I have left. Daddy died last year. I surely hope that you can make it. Signed Teddy Stollard.

Miss Thompson went, and she sat where Teddy’ mother would have sat. She deserved it because she had given herself in such a way that a student was brought alive and it made all the difference in the world? (1)

What’s really important? I think that it is in giving ourselves in such a way that others could say we made a difference. That also is being rich toward God.

(1) As told by Tony Campola in Let Me Tell You a Story, Word, Nashville 2000 p. 167

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