Orthodox Christian Church of the Holy Spirit
Orthodox Church in America - Archdiocese of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania
145 N. Kern St Beavertown PA, 17813
Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Great and Holy Pentecost

Glory to Jesus Christ!  Glory forever!

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The rich man in today’s parable shares a common dilemma with the poor: “’What shall I do?’”  They both ask the same question when faced with their circumstances: the poor because they lack what is necessary, if not essential, for life and the rich man because he has more than he knows what to do with.  What shall I do?  How shall I pay the electric bill, the rent, the insurance, and put food on the table?  What shall I do?  How shall I store up the overflowing abundance afforded me by my fertile land?  Where should I put it all?  “’What shall I do?’”

There is a great, if not grave, disparity between the two.  Both are anxious about life today, but for very opposite reasons.  We must be very careful – unlike those social justice warriors out there – to automatically equate the poor with righteousness and the well-to-do with the unrighteous.  In Sacred Scripture, there are indeed the righteous poor whom the Lord loves and there are poor who are just as unrighteous – as unrighteous as the rich who perpetrate evil.  Yet, not all who are comfortable in this life with goods and possessions, bank accounts and homes, are automatically consigned to the category of the wicked as so often happens in the social justice warrior mindset.  Such righteousness or unrighteousness is demonstrated by the life of that soul.

The rich man in today’s parable could be any one of us because it’s not his goods but the state of his soul that is examined.  He reveals it by how he manages and relates to his blessings, and to whom he turns to in giving thanks and credit for the plentitude of his fields – for his success.  There is a great disparity – a wide gulf – between this self-centered steward of God’s gifts and God Himself, the great Benefactor and Lover of mankind!  We see this great divide in both the parable of the rich man and Lazarus heard not long ago (Lk. 16:19-31) as well as in the story of the rich young ruler in search of Eternal Life, challenged by our Lord to divest himself of all his worldly goods that were holding him back, so as to allow himself the freedom of faith to re-invest himself in others and to follow Jesus (Mt. 19:16-30; Mk. 10:17-31; Lk. 18:18-30).

There is a great disparity between our good God Who loves mankind and the steward in today’s parable.  “’For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,’” His holy and most treasured Child (Jn. 3:16; 1 Jn. 4:9).  And what does the steward give in today’s parable?  Nothing.  But, he has gladly received plenty, benefiting from the good graces of God.  God loves outside of Himself, especially a world that has rejected Him.  God loves because God is love and all who love are like God (1 Jn. 4:7-21).  Love is at the heart of God and it’s what motivates Him.  What motivates our rich steward?  Who or what does he love, and how do we know?  “[God] . . . did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, . . . .” (Rm. 8:32).  What does the steward in today’s parable, the rich young ruler in search of Eternal Life, and Dives at whose doorstep Lazarus was laid each day – what do they spare?  They spared nothing because they were not willing to spare anything.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ calls us out – we are the “called out ones” [ecclesia] – called out of the world, called out of ourselves, called out of the self-centered world we call home.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ calls us out in order to let others in so that the salvation of God might be for both them and us.  Hear that again: for both them and for us.  For we are not saved by ourselves but in the community of the ecclesia – the Church – the called out ones.

The steward in our parable has done quite well for himself.  We don’t know if he worked his highly productive fields or his hired hands did.  We don’t know if he put any effort into making them so fertile, but he certainly reaped their rewards.  It might be said, at least in regards to the success of his crops, that he managed them skillfully.  But, then, what does he do?  He hangs on to it all.  He stockpiles, hoards, and amasses.  He turns inward – to himself – and away from others, yes, even God. 

We, too, follow suit in our approach to life.  We collect, save up, hoard, and amass a multitude of things during the course of our lives be it goods or money or properties or all of the above.  These are our treasures, things that are treasured by us.  It’s where our heart can be found.  But, such things are not inherently or even necessarily evil because God has given them (pre-supposing, of course, that we have obtained them without fraud or deceit or any other immoral or unethical way).  It is God Who is the great Giver and Benefactor, the Source, St. James tells us, of all good gifts (Jm. 1:16-17), even if we do fancy ourselves as proprietors and sole owners.  It is God, however, Who provides the wherewithal for us to harvest what we harvest and to glean what we glean and to collect what we collect.  God – and not us, ourselves – is the key here.  This is not to diminish what we have contributed (for there is always synergy involved, cooperation with the Almighty), but it is God Who is both the Blesser and the Blessing, the Priest and the Sacrifice, the One Who offers and the One Who is offered.  The question for us – as it was for our steward – is, What shall we do?  How shall we respond?  Or, to borrow the title from a once popular Evangelical book, “How Then Shall We Live?”  To what end or for what purpose might we desire to stockpile and hoard the gifts of God?  The Patriarch Joseph did so on behalf of a people he had been forewarned by God would be subject to seven long years of drought after seven long years of plenty (Gn. 41:1-36).  Our steward, however, is no Joseph and shows no inclination to preserve for the sake of others in faithful obedience to God.  Are we like Joseph or are we like this parabolic steward?     

When a soul is rich toward God, it becomes pretty apparent.  But, when we are rich towards ourselves that answer gets obscured by our self that gets in the way.  Sure, we’re very good at masking and justifying ourselves, as I’m sure this steward was adept at doing and the lawyer in last Sunday’s Gospel was so eager to do (Lk. 10:25-37).  But, such justifications, rationalizations, and excuses are little more than ploys that never lead us to true repentance, true confession, true amendment of heart, mind, and life.  God, however, is the true Light and He points us to the answer: look to your neighbor.  Remember how we said our salvation is tied up with others outside of ourselves?  In your neighbor you will find your salvation.  How so?  St. John Chrysostom says it this way, “The rich exist for the sake of the poor; the poor exist for the salvation of the rich.”  When God saves us, He saves us for the sake of our neighbor.  We are blessed and graced divinely in order to bless and to grace in turn.  This is how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is re-produced in the life of this world.

To build bigger and better barns certainly is an option.  But, is it a demonstration of Christian grace and love?  Does it properly understand the saving Gospel that acknowledges we are but recipients ourselves of something bigger than ourselves?  Building bigger and better barns is rather a strategy of the world.  Granted, it is “justified” by those who promote it who typically can find good reasons.  But the question is, When is enough enough?  When will you stop building bigger and better and how will you know you have arrived?  And, then, let’s say, you do stop.  What then?  What do you propose to do with all that accumulation?  Eat?  Drink?  Be merry?  Retire?  Sit back and relax?  Hold onto it for that always looming emergency? 

I think the key to our stewardship of all the graces and good and blessings afforded us by God is to ask ourselves, “To what end am I blessed by God?  Graced by Him?  His mercies made new every morning undeserved as they are and certainly unworthy as we are?”  For what purpose does God so love us that He voluntarily laid His life down so that we might take His Life up?  Are we stewards of God’s love or are we stewards of self-love?  The one leads us to Life Eternal, the other to death eternal.  The choice, however, remains ours to make until the time “they” come to require our soul.  Then, whose things shall they be?  Then, whose shall you be: God’s or the devil’s? 

What we do in this world matters for the world to come.  Some of us look no further than this world.  No further than our limited and restricted – self-imposed – horizons.  This was Jacob Marley’s ghostly lament in The Christmass Carol.  He bemoans to old Scrooge, his former business partner, “’My spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before me!’” (p. 27).  To Scrooge’s praise that “’you were always a good man of business, Jacob,’” the specter Marley wails,

‘Business! . . . Mankind was my business.  The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence were, all, my business.  The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!’ (p. 30).

 

Just what are we willing to give in exchange for our soul?  Just what is the value of our soul these days if it costs us eternity (Sr. 10:28-29; Mt. 16:26; Mk. 8:36-37; Lk. 9:25)? 

Allow me to leave you with these concluding thoughts from the saints of God.  St. John Chrysostom exhorts us: “A rich man is not one who has much, but one who gives much.  For what he gives away remains his forever.”

St. John of Kronstadt tells us,

The purer the heart is, the larger it is, and the more able it is to find room within it for a greater number of beloved ones; while the more sinful it is, the more contracted it becomes, and the less number of beloved can it find room for, because it is limited by self-love, and that love is a false one.

 

And, finally, St. Cyril of Alexandria:

It is true, therefore, that a man’s life is not from his possessions, by reason of his having superfluity; but very blessed, and of glorious hope is he who is rich towards God.  And who is he?  Evidently one who loveth not wealth, but virtue rather, and to whom few things are sufficient; one whose hand is open to the necessities of the indigent, comforting the sorrows of those in poverty, according to his means, and the utmost of his power.  It is he who gathers in the storehouses that are above, and lays up treasures in Heaven (Wisdom of the Divine Philosophers II).

      

Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ!  Glory forever!

PROPERS:

 

Ep. 2:14-22

Lk. 12:16-21

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