“Bricks and Barn-Building”    2011

Exodus 5:1-18        Luke 12:13-21

 

Exodus 5:1-18

5Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.’“ 2But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should heed him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”

3Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has revealed himself to us; let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord our God, or he will fall upon us with pestilence or sword.” 4But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their work? Get to your labors!” 5Pharaoh continued, “Now they are more numerous than the people of the land and yet you want them to stop working!” 6That same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people, as well as their supervisors, 7“You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as before; let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8But you shall require of them the same quantity of bricks as they have made previously; do not diminish it, for they are lazy; that is why they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’ 9Let heavier work be laid on them; then they will labor at it and pay no attention to deceptive words.”  10So the taskmasters and the supervisors of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw. 11Go and get straw yourselves, wherever you can find it; but your work will not be lessened in the least.’“ 12So the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt, to gather stubble for straw. 13The taskmasters were urgent, saying, “Complete your work, the same daily assignment as when you were given straw.” 14And the supervisors of the Israelites, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and were asked, “Why did you not finish the required quantity of bricks yesterday and today, as you did before?”  15Then the Israelite supervisors came to Pharaoh and cried, “Why do you treat your servants like this? 16No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ Look how your servants are beaten! You are unjust to your own people.” 17He said, “You are lazy, lazy; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18Go now, and work; for no straw shall be given you, but you shall still deliver the same number of bricks.”

 

Luke 12:13-21

13Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” 14But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” 16Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

 

There is a cable TV program in its fourth season this year

            that I watched for the first time last week.

It’s a reality-TV / documentary show called, “Hoarders”,

            and it’s about people who have trouble throwing things away.

 

These folks will save and accumulate   such vast amounts of stuff à

            that it can create a fire and health hazard in their home

                        and interfere with living out their daily lives.

 

The TV program profiles one or two interventions each week;

            when family members, a psychologist and extreme cleaning-crew

                        with permission,   will show up with a huge dumpster …

                                    … to conduct a two or three day de-cluttering,

                                                to make room, - the home safer and more livable.

 

It was shocking

            that when they began,  there were only the narrowest of trails

               through the house filled with piles and piles of possessions,

                        that the hoarder values and is sure will be needed later on.

            One women had accumulated so much stuff all through her home,

                        that her husband was having to live and sleep in the car.

 

            At another house, the family was helping a grandmother dig out,

                        and uncovered things under the stuff she had accumulated,

                                    that she had lied about stealing from her own family.

                                                                                      It was incredibly painful.

 

The TV show is about an obsessive-compulsive disorder    so common,

            that I found more than 3,330,000 websites describing it.

Clearly

            our desire for material things can work its way into our lives,

                        and lead us down a very dangerous and lonely road

                                    that allows greed  to distort and destroy human lives…

          … and for any of us,

                  discerning true value & worth can be a very tricky business.

 

In Luke 12 Jesus warns against the danger of possessions & hoarding,

            and tells a parable about how easily greed can infect our lives.

vs. 15-17

            And he (Jesus) said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."  Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, 'What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?'

 

In the story Jesus told, set in 1^st century Palestine,

            the fields and workers of a very wealthy landowner

                        have produced an exceptionally abundant harvest…

 

… and the blessing of such a plentiful and abundant harvest

            would involve the whole village with everyone celebrating

                        and expecting to share in their mutual good fortune;

                                       but this landowner’s only concern was that

                                             his barns weren't large enough to store it all.

 

    When Jesus told this story, his listeners would have been shocked,

            that rather than being grateful to God for having blessed him,

                        and toward those who had so successfully worked his fields;

                              he is focused only on his own selfish desires & greed,

                        and has no intention of sharing this bounty with others.

 

His use of "I" and "my" reveals his selfish attitude:   vs. 18-19.

            Then he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.   And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.'

 

                        This is common and human tendency, to hold and to hoard ----

                                    ---- and have you ever wondered why that is so?

 

          Why do we strive so hard

                    to acquire, to accumulate and possess more and more,

                             to gather in excess even more than we will ever need?

Is it a fair question to ask ourselves,   how much do we need in life ?

 

            For some, enough   will always be, a little bit more than I have,

                       or at least a little more than my neighbor has…

                                    … which Jesus warns, leads to short-sighted    greed.

vs. 15

            And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”

 

The problem was not that the rich man had stolen or cheated anyone.

            He has simply been very successful,    and so he makes plans

                        to use his good fortune to retire early and live well…

        … but doesn’t concern himself with the welfare of his neighbors.

vs. 20

            But God said to him, 'You fool!  This very night your life is being demanded of you.   And the things you have prepared, (now) whose will they be?'

 

          So why is he a fool? 

In the Greek, two different words can both be translated, “fool”.

            One word refers to a silly or incompetent fool,

                        and the other word is a more intentional fool, a jerk,

                                    someone who lives in wicked opposition to God’s will.

 

Because he trusted his future,  his life & security to possessions,

            to hoarding wealth far in excess of what he could possibly use,

                        and walked away from an opportunity to accomplish good…

                                                 …  God says, he is a fool, a jerk sort of fool.

 

2^nd       This very night your life is being   "demanded of you",

                  this is a banking term that refers to the repayment of a loan.

            The point is, this mortal life and all that it contains

                        are entrusted to us only for a season, our mortal lifetime …

 

… and then all the stuff   we accomplish, acquire and hoard,

          we'll not taking any of it with us.

*               We won't need any pockets in the suit we are buried in,

                      and the hearse that carries us, won't be pulling a U-Haul.

 

This wealthy man has been selfish with his possessions

            hoarding more than he could spend or use during his lifetime,

                        ignoring needs of his neighbors and the good he might do …

                                                                        … and God    calls this man,   a fool.

 

Our lives are already secured in God’s grace through Jesus Christ,

            anxiety and worry over possessions

                        in fact,  works against our walk with God & feeling secure…

            … because these things we want and desire can become idols to us

                    and to focus on our possessions will detract from our lives.

 

A family that put up a hummingbird feeder with four feeding stations.  Almost immediately it became popular with the hummingbirds that lived in the area. Two, three, or even four birds would feed at one time. The feeder would be refilled at least once a day.   Suddenly the usage decreased to almost nothing. The feeder needed filling only about once a week.

 

            The reason for the decreased usage soon became apparent. A male bird had taken over the feeder as his property. He was now the only hummingbird who used it. He would feed and then sit in a nearby tree, rising to attack any bird that approached his feeder. Guard duty occupied his every waking hour. He was an effective and obsessive guard. But by choosing to assume ownership of the feeder, he forfeited his freedom. He was no longer free to come and go as he wished. He was tied to the work of guarding his feeder, hoarding his STUFF.  He was possessed by his possession.

 

This desire to own in excess, beyond the needs of our lifetime,

                or measuring life and human value

                        by the accomplishment and accumulation of possessions

                                    is very much like the lie and myth of scarcity,

                                      the  fear and greed that there won’t be enough

                                                that drove the evil of Pharaoh in Exodus …

 

            … who was afraid that there wouldn't be enough bricks, 

                        if the people were allowed to break from production,

                                    and to worship and celebrate God and God’s blessings.

 

The Exodus 5 passage is about the struggle between

            two distinct  and opposing   world-views and perspectives,

                as a sharp competition between Pharaoh and the God of Israel…

 

… and the question really is, “what makes human life worthwhile?”

                   Is it God’s gracious love    or human accomplishment?

 

God’s Creation is characterized by grace and abundance .

            The natural world does produce enough, plenty for all,

                        even to rest on the Sabbath and not be productive that day…

  … while Pharaoh is ruled by greed and by his fear of scarcity,

                        which demands, ever more work and endless production.

 

~Under Pharaoh, slaves never had a day off or down time for rest;

               but always endless work and always making more bricks.

~Under Pharaoh's system, you are worth only as much as you produce,

            and your worth is determined by your accomplishment and labor.

 

vs. 5:1~9

            Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.’ But the king of Egypt said … why are you taking the people away from their work?  Get to your labors!"   Pharaoh continued, "… no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as before; let them go and gather straw for themselves.  But require the same quantity of bricks  for they are lazy; that is why they cry, 'Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.'   Let heavier work be laid on them; then they will labor at it and pay no attention to deceptive words."

 

By Pharaoh's reckoning, the people had value 

            only as they were useful for production,        and to Pharaoh à

                        worshipping God was just a deception and distraction.

vs. 13, 17

            Pharaoh said, "You are lazy, lazy; that is why you say, 'Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.' Go now, and work; …  and you shall still deliver the same number of bricks."

                        Ever work for someone like that?

 

In sharp contrast to the endless production demands of Pharaoh,

       the story of manna is an example of God's gift of abundance,

                        a sign of how God infused grace & abundance into Creation.

 

Every day, God provided abundant manna for all the people to eat.

                They didn't plant it or cultivate it, but it was freely given

                        to be gathered as a sign of God's blessings and abundance…

However much or little is gathered, it is always more than enough,

            there is always plenty, as much as any of them wanted or needed.

 

     God's love, God's gracious promise of abundance and provision,

            like manna in the desert   just appears as a gift of God's grace.

Its grace freely given, simply because our God loves us,

            and has promised to provide enough,   all that we’ll ever need.

 

The message is about trusting God who gives us freely all we need,

          rather than trying to acquire and secure it on our own,

                   or hold onto every morsel and possession that as we can.

 

And the Pharaohs of this world are like a self-destructive narcotic

            that will never be satisfied or pleased by our work & effort

                but are always disappointed that we couldn't accomplish more.

  Enough is always   something more than however much I already have.

 

The voices of the Pharaohs of this world

            echo and complain that we've never done enough or well enough,

                        and that even our best efforts are never good enough.

 

    But honestly, my struggle with these passages

            is not my employers or that I’ve worked for brutal bosses,

                   It’s that I become my own demanding & dissatisfied Pharaoh.

Because I can’t quite fully accept God’s free and healing grace,

            I drive myself relentlessly in fear of Pharaoh’s scarcity.

 

**        But that fear of scarcity that can result in greed and hoarding

                    is not how our loving Lord intends for us to live.

 

We live surrounded by the untruth of Pharaoh's fear of scarcity,

            which is a very powerful and pervasive debilitating force.

But learning to trust in God, and in God’s promise to provide

          breaks the enslaving bondage of this world's Pharaohs & fear.

 

In the parable,

            Jesus calls us to forsake our idolatry of possessions,

                        because our stuff  will never really make us more secure,

                                    while greed, fear and excessive possessions

                                                work against our walk and spiritual development.

 

The Pharaohs of this world constantly and fearfully tell us,

      we must make more bricks, and to build and fill bigger barns;

but in God’s grace, in contrast to Pharaoh’s incessant demands,

            we can stop our busy production and accomplishing

                        in order to simply be present with God in faith & in trust.

 

We are called to reclaim God's truth, promise and purpose,

     rather than trying to satisfy our Pharaoh’s with yet more bricks,

                  or building a bigger barn to store excess beyond our needs.

 

Our call is to more fully embrace, to experience delight and joy,

            and to celebrate God's great power and presence in our world;

                        because God loves us truly,

                                        not just for what we do, but simply because we are…

            … for we work     in order to live,

                        and it’s only Pharaoh’s slaves   who live    in order to work.

*  How foolish to think more things will give our lives more meaning.

 

Let us reclaim

            God's truth and purpose against Pharaoh's fear of scarcity

                   and stop making bricks long enough to listen & attend to God…

… and break our need to be always busy and productive,

            by making time and space for relationships

                  rather than all the other stuff that we cram into our lives.

 

So do we find ourselves hoarding our possessions and wanting more,

            as if this life and our accumulated stuff were all there is?

 

The question is,

          who & what are the Pharaoh's driving us to make more bricks?,

                   who and what is it  that demands our endless productivity?

 

Jesus doesn’t call us

            to make more bricks or build and fill bigger barns,

                        but Jesus did say, John 10.10

                                                I came that you may have life, and have it abundantly.