Together...

Photo by Nicole Baster on Unsplash

Luke 12:13-21

Grace to you and peace…from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

‘Treasures for himself, but not rich toward God…’ The Rich Fool, as he has come to be known, has set a chasm between himself and his God by the greed and covetousness he exhibits in the grand plan he articulates. “I, me, my, mine…”

What is a treasure you cherish? Something old, something brand new? In my sock drawer I have a few treasures that are old.  One is 50 years old … the mask I wore in the delivery room when my son was born.

My newest treasure is one I got as a gift for my birthday last month.  From my Granddaughter, Petra, she will be a High School Senior next month. It’s a book. A book I never would have known about, I think, if not for her, and I’m a pretty big fan of books and reading and stories. Ask anyone, I am sometimes like the fellow in the parable who often tells things about me or my favorites or things that are mine! I, me, my, mine…sorry…

So the book from Petra… As I unwrapped the paper and looked at it, she broke into my contemplation… “I’ve heard about it Grandpa, it’s supposed to be really good.  I bought myself a copy too; I thought we could read it together.” Wow.   Yes, pretty cool huh?  “Together.”

That gift is a treasure I will treasure, noun and verb… because of what she said… “I thought we could read it together.”

As I was preparing this sermon, the more I thought about what Petra said and how it made me feel, I suddenly remembered another treasure in my sock drawer. I got it in 1990, as a farewell gift.

It’s a baseball.  An autographed baseball.  There are 9 nurses’ signatures…  years ago in the midst of my time as Pastor here, I was asked by a Visiting Nurse I knew if I would consider becoming a volunteer chaplain to the new Farmington Valley Hospice Visiting Nurse Team. I said yes. The  job had two parts… one was to call or arrange for another Pastor to call on folks who wanted a visit but didn’t have a church of their own. And, each month, I was responsible for a brief devotion before each Hospice Team meeting. We sat at an oversized square table in that old building on the left before you turn into the Farmington Library. All the nurses, a Doctor or two and a pharmacist… and I found something supportive or gentle to read and always ended with a brief, all -faiths- welcome prayer that ended, every month, not with the word Amen but with the word Together… Everyone said it, out loud, like the Amens we share here... “Strengthen this team and undergird each of us as we work to bring a sense of comfort and wholeness to those in need… (and everyone said) “TOGETHER.”

This building, here on Lovely Street, is the place we come to pray. Together.  Especially in unsettling times.  To listen to the world of God TOGETHER  even when it seems  dark.. or unsettling on its own.

The Bible is full of stories… and as a good friend has written “sharing our stories reminds us what we believe in, and helps make sense of a fickle world. They are common, yet we tell them because our experiences are so uncommon.  No two stories are ever the same, even when told by the same person, using the same words…”

We are here TOGETHER to be reminded of the story that matters. Especially in unsettling times.  The story of Jesus Christ. The preaching, the teaching, the casting  out demons.  The parables, the healings, the feedings. The arrest, the crucifixion, the resurrection. The empty tomb, the appearances, the ascension… the stories of Jesus Christ.

What do we say after we read these stories?  “The word of the Lord.”  And together we answer… “Thanks be to God.” “The gospel of the Lord.” And together we say…“Praise to you O Christ.”

Today’s story is only in Luke's Gospel.  Scholars call it ‘special Luke’.  Only he tells it. Each of the four evangelists have a few “special” stories that only they tell. Matthew alone tells us about the Wise Men, Only John tells of the marriage in Cana, Jesus changing water into wine… only Mark tells of the young man running away naked after Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane…

And yes, there are many different stories that all four evangelists tell, sometimes using the same words…

A number of those stories use the word treasure. As at the end of our parable today, ’those who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich toward God’.

This special Luke story today begins with a man in the crowd asking Jesus to intervene in the family probate and get the man's brother to share the inheritance…with him!   Jesus demurs, he is not a judge in issues like this he says;  Luke tells us that then Jesus offers a parable to the whole crowd about a wealthy man doing very well for himself.. Listen… ‘he thought to himself what should I do for I have no place to store MY crops.  I will pull down MY barns and build larger ones and I will store all MY grain and MY goods.

I, me, my, mine.

I get the feeling the rich man in the parable could be on the TV News today or be talked about on line today and instead of barns he’d be talking about his billions, not his millions, his billions. While others. Children. In Gaza. In America. Go without. Instead of building barns he might even burn his crops if it somehow benefited his goals. I, me, my, mine.

It’s a pretty good clue that things will be unsettling for others, if one individual speaks like that.

His mistake is his covetousness; the man in the parable is covetous. That’s the biblical word for greed.

Unsettling.  It seems to me that we live in unsettling times. Personally unsettling times. Nationally unsettling times. Unsettling times in Ukraine, Haiti, Myanmar, Sudan, Palestine, Ethiopia. Yemen…

Ruth and I chat in the morning over coffee.  We each say three things that we are grateful to God for… a thing to celebrate that lifts our spirit, to a happy place, or a holy place. But, also more everyday treasures, like “our son called to talk”, or “the heat wave is over”; silly… but important to us. Not I, me, my, mine stuff… And we do it together.

Sometimes after the “gratefuls” we talk about the news.  We are on the same page but when it goes on too long, as it can, we are thankful to God when one of us says, as Alice did in Wonderland, “RABBIT HOLE”. And we leave that conversation. Rabbit Hole…

Unsettling times, emotionally confusing times… We have all endured them. Perhaps before a test… or a doctor visit  or after a failure, perceived or real.. or a loss.  Or the death of someone close to us. That happened to me just last month.

These are exactly the times to be reminded to listen, to a story that matters…

When Luke tells  what Jesus said, can we listen together? Can we listen completely?

We are blessed to be the Church together. How might we hope to do that more completely?

Helpfulness to one another, to those in need, to those who deserve better.  As Bob Dylan sang to my generation in 1967 - ”Pity the poor the immigrant.”  Maybe by building longer tables, not bigger walls.

We are blessed to be the church together as a sign for others. The strong and the needy, and those perceived to be flawed who actually are not...

Our faith has given us a vision. Jesus Christ is the very image of that vision. We can see the direction even if we cannot see the future. Care, help, feed, speak out … not by amassing treasures or power for ourselves. But by treasuring the values of Jesus Christ.

We will sing the next hymn… together.

Listen.. as we do… Try and listen completely as you sing. It is a prayer.

Ours.

We sing it. The music lifts us. Martin Luther said, ‘if you sing, you pray twice…’

We ask it of Jesus. Together. Even as we know how personal it is... “Be thou my vision.”

Sing, let the music lift you, and listen also as we acknowledge the absolute treasure, that the cross of Christ is for us… together and as individuals… “My treasure thou art.”

This very day. Together. Amen.

Pastor William Carter | August 3, 2025