How Much Is Enough?
Luke 12:35 – 48
The Lord Be With You.
A parable on our Gospel …
There once was a very rich man who had spent his life gaining wealth. He would look for ways to take advantage of any situation to increase his wealth no matter if it caused another person harm. He was viewed with much disdain in his community and soon no one would dare befriend him for fear that they would be taken advantage of too. This became a problem for the rich man as he had to expand his wealth gaining searches farther and farther from home. As he would leave his home to go on these extended trips for money, he would have to leave his home empty as he didn’t trust anyone to look after it and most would not even offer to help based on his prior deals with them. On one of the trips, that lasted many months, the wealthy man returned to find his home had burned to the ground and nothing he had was left. He began to question everyone as to how this could happen but no one would give him any answers. Through his own investigations, though, the rich man had ascertained that the fire was started by a broken electrical wire. But, the rich man was now poor because all that he had accumulated and stored in his home had melted away. He found that some of what he stored, the extravagant food bought with money that he had cheated others out of, had been eaten by the animals surrounding the house and it was those animals that had caused the fire by chewing through the electrical circuits.
Here ends the parable.
Verse 48 ends with, “from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” and I’ve gone to this part because I’m constantly asking myself if what I do to walk with the Lord is enough of what He wants me to do or have I missed something along the way. What happens if He comes and I’ve neglected, in some way, the mission that He’s put in my life? Is there something else I can do to not be the one He’s talking about in this verse? You like me?
I believe that we all want to have a way to have confidence that we’re walking in His light. I believe that when we do His work in the life of His house and be welcoming to all those in our community then we’re not the slave that beat his menservants or maidservants. The good news is that it says, right in verse 37, that God and us switch places. And it’s in that switching that God gives us the strength, the tools, we need to overcome the pressures of this world that want to keep His message silent. In this passage, we are to become both the master and the slave. The master of our courage and the slave to what is needed by those surrounding us.
Now, I don’t know when the last moments will arrive. 1st Thessalonians 5 says, “you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” And what if I had not told my neighbor, the guy who delivers the mail, the delivery driver, the person at the Subway, what happens if that time comes and I’ve left them without them knowing that their next life in eternity can be so, so good. Beyond anything they will ever know. Beyond anything they can even imagine. You know, it talks of Jesus coming like that thief in 6 or more different areas. Revelations tells us that if we don’t wake up to the reality that Jesus is right around the corner, if we don’t wake up to our defined existence, if we don’t wake up and realize that being a follower is also being one that creates more sheep, then we will surely miss the opportunity to spend our forever in a place that can only be hinted at but never fully understood.
But, there is another angle to what Jesus is telling us. Jesus is telling us to look at our own relationships with those who are closest to us. How are we treating them? How are we dealing with the endless trials that family just naturally puts us through? How do we attend to their needs and are we wise in what we do? And do we include our maker in our relationships. Do we invite the creator to our table? Revelations 3:20 says this, “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.” And that’s saying, folks, that when you include Jesus as a regular part of your life then you’ve invited Him to your table as well. Invited Him into your relationships as well.
I’ve called this message, “How Much Is Enough?” because I can take a look around our society and come to the conclusion that no one can come to a definitive definition. There are so many folks that are trying to earn their way into the good graces of God, so much so, that they’ve forgotten the core meaning of the word grace. All Jesus is telling us is to be ready. But it’s in that waiting that we can also do His mission as well. And, here’s the really good part, you don’t have to be a scholar to do His mission. You can be yourself. That’s being honest after all. You can give it all you got and, surprisingly, that probably will be enough. You don’t have to understand the workings of God and Jesus to make a difference. To do God’s mission here on this earth.
It’s like the day a cattle farmer heard one of his cows bellowing out in the north forty. She sounded like she was in hard labor. He went out and, sure enough, found that she was having a breech delivery. He tried to turn the calf around, but it was too late – the legs were already coming out. All he could do was pull on the legs to assist in the birth.
The farmer’s field was right next to the interstate, and a red fancy sports car stopped and out jumped a librarian type with glasses and a bun in her hair. Vary apparently a city slicker. She asked, “Is there anything I can do to assist?”
The farmer said, “Yes, please! Grab a leg and pull!” So they both pulled, and they were able to get the calf out.
The farmer, very grateful, said, “Wait a minute while I run and get my wallet – I owe you for this.” “Oh no, I wouldn’t dream of accepting any recompense for this service. However, there is one question you can answer for me.” “Anything!” said the farmer.
“How fast was the little one going when it ran into the big one?”
Folks, all it takes is a smile to someone who’s feeling down, an ear to someone who can’t get anyone to listen, a word to someone who’s lost the ability to put into words what they’re feeling, all these things are doing God’s mission. But, according to our passage, knowing this and then not doing anything about it is worse than not knowing what to do and getting it wrong. James 4:17 says, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins” and couple that with what 2nd Peter 2:21 says, “It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them” and you should be getting the picture. I mean, how are we to stand before and answer to God if we kept His message of truth and grace and mercy to ourselves? We certainly would fall well below what is enough.
It really doesn’t matter when the Parousia, the end of days, will come. Our mission is to fulfill what role we’ve been given. Each of us has been given a different calling. Each of us has been given different talents to use and we all have one. Each of us has been given the opportunities to show to others that this house that God built is truly a welcoming home for all. Every one of us can extend a hand, extend a word, extend a welcoming smile. Every one of us can show to others, that are certainly looking, that this family of God is where they will certainly hear the truth in all the parts that it can express itself and that will give rest to their weary souls.
The rich man, in the parable, can be what we see as truth. It can also be the blinders from that truth that we wear sometimes. The theme from the parable is not the monetary gains that the rich man took from others but the value towards others that the rich man had none of. He passed by the truth of the innate value of his neighbors to develop those truths that would suit his own ideas of what that truth really was. The rich man is the servant that begins to beat others because he can.
But like the fire that consumed the wealth of that rich man by God’s creations, Jesus is saying that if we take on the negligence of the servant who took advantage of others then we will be as the riches the rich man stored. We will have substituted our own flavor of truth for what it really is and has always been. And the fire the rich man got at his house might just be the fire that we will certainly be facing for eternity when we do, in fact, stand before our final judge.
Jesus is saying we are both the abusive servant and the rich man at the same time if we ignore our calling from God. When Jesus is speaking about those that know what God has told them and those that have never heard from God, He’s talking about the core values that each of us has towards one another and what do we do with it. He’s taking the society of the time and telling everyone that we cannot simply do as we wish and get by with it. That applies to our time today too.
He’s saying that if we act as the rich man in the parable then we’ll surely be cast out. He’s telling everyone that when we hold back, in our hearts, the opportunities to tell others of the Good News then our hearts become just a little bit darker and we can find ourselves lashing out at others because grace has been deeply buried within ourselves. We will start to spend our days in an endless pursuit to convince everyone else that we are worth something rather than knowing for sure that we are valued by the one who created us.
How much is enough? That might be undefinable in the short run. But, you’ll find out the answer, for sure, when you’re standing in front of the Father and He asks you if you were a good and faithful servant. How much is enough? That’s something that you innately know in your heart but may be afraid to quantify it because you fear you might end up counting your own value less than the value that God has given to you. How much is enough? You just might be able to finally answer that by answering the question of are our lamps burning or have we blown them out because we’ve lost hope. Are we asleep just like the disciples were when Jesus needed them, needed you, the most.
How much is enough? Well, can we answer the knock at the door of our heart by our savior that is only there to show you the way to eternal life? Can we open the door to our lives so that the others can hear and know the truth of what real grace is? How will we answer to God if we kept His truth to ourselves and kept it from another who might need it? Desire it? Depend on it? We have a choice to make to find out the answers for ourselves to what is enough. We can face the truth of that choice or not. Choose wisely. Something to think about! Something to pray about?
Can we pray? …
Father, we pray that you give us the wisdom to see the beauty that you’ve created for us. We pray that we can look into our own souls and see how much more of your grace and love we have room for. We pray that we can have the courage to impart on your other creations a bit of that truth and that, by doing so, will have enlarged your grace in our lives. Father, you sent your Son here to show us the way. So many times we forget that the way of following you fills us with the light that only you can give. Send down your Holy Spirit into our presence so that we can lift the troubles of our own lives in order to walk with those that can’t see your mercy because they’re caught in the darkness of this world. Send down your Holy Spirit to guide us in everything we do and say so that those in our communities who are searching for a place to rest can finally find it here in your house. Father we pray for your peace and your mercy. We pray these things and more in the name of your Son, Jesus the Christ.
And all God’s people said – Amen?!
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