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Building Bigger Barns
When two brothers asked Jesus to help them divide their property, he responded by telling them a story about a man who built bigger barns. The farmer built because he couldn't imagine doing anything else with his crops except to store them away. Which brings me to the fact that a recent Faith Focus dealing with 'collecting stuff' and 'saving things that we don't need and our children don't want', resulted in an usually large response from our readers.
I return to this theme. Jesus said, "Take care, be on your guard against all kinds of greed"(Luke 12.13-21). The human condition is anxiety; anxiety teaches us that we never have enough, that our cup is never full, that each happiness is fragile and won't last and must be exceeded by the next happiness. So we save. We collect. We hoard. Greed, in its many forms, is a response to our anxiety about life and death.
Grace is sufficient. Grace can free us from our need for 'more'. Grace is built on trust, that we learn to trust that God will provide. As the Heidelberg Catechism (1562) so eloquently states:
Q.1. What is your only comfort, in life, and in death?
A. That I belong -body and soul, in life and in death -not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
In faith,
Pastor Tim
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