Scripture: Proverbs 3 and 8, Luke (Selected Verses)

March 7, 2004

Reverend Marietta T. Smith, Associate Minister

Proverbs 3: 5-8 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones.

Proverbs: 8:10-11 Receive my instruction and not silver. And knowledge rather than the choice of gold. For wisdom is better than rubies and all the things one may desire cannot be compared with her.

Joel Robinson was a self made man. He developed a trucking firm that grew from two slightly used trucks to a fleet of thirty trucks that hauled goods all over the southeast.

Joel was thinking about this one day as he looked at a framed photograph of the original trucks. He mused, “I have really come a long way since those early days. I have build this business into what it is today. I have done it all by myself. This is my business and my equipment. Maybe I can retire one of these days after expanding my territory and my fleet of trucks a little more. Then I can have all the time in the world to spend more time with my family.”

So Joel Robinson sat down at his computer and began to bring up business records and spread sheets. He figured he might be able to retire in five more years.

His secretary came inquiring a little while later when he didn’t answer his phone. She found him slumped over his computer keyboard. Emergency Medical Techs couldn’t revive him and he was pronounced dead at the local hospital emergency room. Massive heart attack at age forty-six.

In case you didn’t recognize this story, it’s a slightly souped up version of the parable of the rich fool, which Jesus tells in Luke, Chapter 12. Jesus had been teaching the crowds for some time when a man in the crowd called out to Him to settle a dispute over a family inheritance. In those days such disputes were usually settled by the local rabbi. Listen to Jesus’ words:

The selfish question that was asked of Jesus was a prelude to this story of the rich fool. There is no indication that the man in the crowd had even heard what Jesus had said. He was too interested in getting what He thought he deserved to get. The rich fool was too interested in keeping what he thought he deserved to keep. After all, he had made this fortune by this own effort, or so he thought. He took complete credit for his success as if God had nothing to do with it. He wanted to tear down his barns and build bigger ones so that he could store more crops and make more money so that he could eat, drink and be merry. He had spent so much time preparing for the temporal that he forgot about eternity. He bustled about, as the Psalmist says in Psalm 39, heaping up wealth, but not knowing who would get it. He had no inkling that that very night he would step into eternity unprepared and leave all those things he possessed behind him.

Jesus was not about to be drawn into a family squabble over a little inheritance. Rather, He turned the question into a teachable moment. He warned the crowd not to let the masqueraded face of greed delude them into thinking that life could be reduced to a banker’s balance sheet. Jesus told them the story of a man with a bumper crop harvest but a bankrupt heart. The account of a man who really didn’t know himself. The tale of a man who thought that creature comforts of ease, epicurean delights and entertainment were the way to live.

The rich man worried about adequate storage for his possessions. His silos were marked “grain only.” He had not time for spiritual things, no place in his life and soul for God.

All the money Joel Robinson possessed couldn’t buy back his life nor the time he had neglected to give his wife and children. His “window of opportunity” was forever closed.

Now, let me tell you about the life of a real live person. Millard Fuller is a name you will recognize as being one of the founders of Habitat For Humanity. What you don’t know about Millard Fuller is that he almost became a rich fool.

He graduated from Auburn University and the University of Alabama law school. He and a college friend had established a marketing business while they were still in college that made them millionaires by the time they were twenty-nine years old. But as Millard Fuller’s career progressed, as his business grew, his integrity diminished, his health deteriorated, and his marriage floundered.

Millard Fuller came to himself as did the Prodigal Son. He came to the realization that deep at the core of his being there was something terribly wrong. He sensed that his life was out of focus, that if he didn’t get a course correction soon he was going to crash big time.

So Millard Fuller evaluated his life; he re-ordered his priorities. He and his wife reconciled their marriage. Together they renewed their Christian commitment.

Then they took a drastic step: They sold all their possessions and gave the money to the poor. In the search for a new focus for their lives, they were led to Koinonia Farms, a Christian community located near Americus, Georgia, where people were looking for practical ways to apply Christ’s teachings. Along with Koinonia founder, Clarence Jordan, the Fullers initiated several partnership enterprises, including a ministry in housing. They built modest housing on a no-profit, no interest basis, thus making homes affordable to low-income families.

Millard Fuller had realized what Joel Robinson and the Rich Fool couldn’t understand: That a person’s life indeed does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Millard Fuller got his priorities in the right place.

Jowl Robinson always meant to spend more time with his family, but his window of opportunity slammed shut before he got around to it.

The Rich Fool? Well, about all you can say about him is he was just that: Too much of a fool to understand what was really important. Too full of himself to see the world beyond the end of his own nose. Too selfish to want anything but more to keep for himself. The Rich Fool was a fool because he was not attentive to the things of God. Joel Robinson was too silly to realize that there are no pockets in a shroud.

I’ve heard it said that all we can hold in our cold, dead hands is what we have given away. Joel Robinson and The Rich Fool went out of this life as empty-handed they could be.

Let me tell you one more story.

A young man had just graduated from college and he was talking with his grandfather.

“Grandpop,” the young man said, “I am going to learn a trade and get set up in business.”

Grandpop said, “And then?”

“I am going to make a fortune.”

Grandpop said, “And then?”

The young man said, “Then I am going to grow old and retire and live on my money.”

Grandpop said, “And then?”

The young man stammered and said, “Well, I guess I’ll die.”

Grandpop said, “And then?”

Which of these stories might describe you or me? What things do we treasure? Where is your heart? Where is my heart?

Farther on down in the chapter from which our text is taken are these words of Jesus:

Amen