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
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.