There’s a scholar called
Sakari Häkkinen who studies Jesus’ parables by traveling to subsistence rural
villages, in East Africa and the Middle East. He goes to those villages, and
tells the stories Jesus told, and asks them what they think. Part of the reason
he does this is that when we read these stories with Western eyes, we miss
things. When we read these stories with several layers of remove between the
work we do and food on our plates, we miss things. If we don’t know food
insecurity, if we don’t look at the sky and feel in anticipation either
fullness or emptiness in our stomachs, we miss things. That’s not to say that
the cultures in the villages that Häkkinen visits are identical to the villages
in which Jesus would have preached. But they might have some insight that we
don’t.
He told
this story in Tanzania. The villagers told him that it was a story about a man
for whom things went very badly, especially because the man had been insulted.
He had been called a fool, and he had been called a fool by God. Better to be
poor and honored, than rich and shamed. The villages told Häkkinen that the man
was deservedly called a fool, because he was lazy. This was the first surprising
thing for Häkkinen. We might think of lots of things that this man does wrong,
but laziness, at least for me, wasn’t the first thing that came to mind. After
all, his land had produced a great harvest! “His land had worked hard; he
hadn’t worked hard. Are you changing the story now?” “No, no, I don’t get to
change this story…” They explained that he was lazy because he hadn’t worked
out what to do with all his possessions, beyond putting them in barns. They worried
that when he died, his children would fight over who would get what. He should
have done the work of distributing the goods while he was alive.
It’s notable
that even though the parable never mentions that the man has a family, the
villagers just assumed that he must. The parable doesn’t mention any kind of
relationships in the man’s life. He doesn’t talk to anyone else, he doesn’t
think of anyone else, he doesn’t even pray. He just talks to himself. He even
talks to himself about talking to himself! And a life like that, a life that is
completely self-referential, is futile. It’s foolish. There’s a line in one of
the psalms that Jesus might be referring to here: “The fool has said in his
heart, ‘There is no God.’” This fool has acted not just as if there is no God.
He’s acted as if there is no-one else.
But there
is a God, and God is for us. Paul told the Colossians, “God has raised you with
Christ.” Not just, God has raised you. God has raised you with Christ. God has
raised you for relationship. God has raised you to see how much humans matter,
for God’s own son was incarnate, fully human, and died for each and every one
of us. “Seek what is above,” he tells them. This doesn’t mean to be so heavenly-minded
we’re no earthly good. For Christ is above, and Christ is human. When we seek
what is above, and we can, for God has raised us, we find Christ’s love for humanity.
“Avoid greed, which is idolatry,” Paul tells us. Greed is putting things above God,
and if God thinks humans matter so much, it’s putting things above people.
“Store up
for yourselves treasure in heaven,” says Jesus. Seek what’s above. What is that
treasure? It’s not how we buy our way into heaven; that’s not how it works. But
Jesus does say there’s a way for us to store up treasure in heaven, and,
whatever that looks like, it doesn’t look like building bigger barns on earth
to horde all our stuff. A lot of people wonder what it can mean to store up treasure
in heaven, because heaven is already always fully heavenly, and no amount of
treasure could make it more heavenly. But, try this as an image. Think of a child,
abutting that border between infant and toddler. Let’s say this child loves his
mother, loves nothing more than being with her. He also loves his favorite toy.
He doesn’t love his favorite toy in the same way he loves his mother. Being
with his mother is as good as it gets, but being with her and playing together
with that pound and tap bench with slide out xylophone? That’s as good as it
gets with a cherry on top. That’s delightful. For both of them. Now, imagine being
in heaven, seeing God face to face, and having a little treasure you can play
with together, a little treasure that you brought (even though momma God
actually paid for it). Isn’t that an extra level of delight?
What might
that little treasure look like? I really don’t think it looks like a bounteous
harvest that was horded away in bigger barns. Maybe it looked like being willing
to spend the time and emotional energy dividing that amongst family members.
That’s what the villagers Häkkinen met with thought the man was also hoarding.
Maybe it looks like recognizing that, and this is St. John Chrysostom’s insight
into this parable, the only safe barns are the stomachs of the poor.
What are
you rich in? Is there anything you’re hiding away in a barn? What could you do,
that could be a treasure, that you could store up in heaven, and delight to
share with God? Because God would delight to play with that with you.
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