Preached August 4, 2019 at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Prescott Valley, AZ, the year before I entered seminary.
Grace to you and peace from God from our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Christ. Amen.
“Storage Wars” is the name of a show on the A&E Network. A group of second-hand shop owners go to storage-unit auctions and bid on units that people have abandoned. The bidders can only peek inside the unit. They can’t enter, move things, or open up boxes. So, buying a unit is a gamble. It could be empty boxes, or boxes of old clothing and junk, or it could be valuable equipment, antiques and collectibles that will return their investment many times over.
Abandoned storage units. Their owners get behind on payments, leave town, or die, and the storage business sells the contents to recoup its losses. Someone’s possessions and treasures become sales inventory, or they end up in the landfill.
Industry statistics say storage is a 38-billion-dollar-a year-business in this country. Enough rental storage space exists in the United States for every adult and child to have nearly 5 1/2 square feet!
Storage. A place for our overflow of stuff. Like when the kids move away, and you want to turn their bedrooms into your office, a guest bedroom or a crafting space, you box up their “stuff” and put it in the garage, because “Someday, they’ll want that.” You put it next to the boxes of “stuff” you brought home from your parents’ home when you moved them into assisted living, intending to sort through them. And when winter comes and you want to put the car in the garage again, you get the coats and sweaters from storage, and put away those boxes.
Organizing stuff is another big business. A few years ago, Marie Konde had a best-selling book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” She was named one of 2015’s most influential people and has converted the art of Feng Shui and the phrase “Keep What Sparks Joy,” into four books, a branded line of organizing products, and a Netflix series.
But even Marie Konde knows that our accumulation of stuff is more than buying what we can afford, more than our desire that our families have decent clothing, toys, and educational materials. Our materialism goes far beyond our needs.
She explains it like this, “We all have clutter in our hearts, and that’s what needs tidying.”
Cluttered hearts. That’s not a diagnosis from the cardiologist, but the condition the Healer talks about in today’s Gospel:
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.” In the parable today, Jesus shows us the three symptoms of a cluttered heart.
· The First Symptom, an emphasis on Bigger, Better and More. Bigger, better and more – the rich man was going to tear down his smaller barns to build bigger ones, so he could store ALL of his grain and his goods. But have you ever noticed, for some people, ENOUGH never is? There is always something else they need: a bigger house, another vehicle, more toys. There’s a bumper sticker that was popular for a while: “He who dies with the most toys wins.” My reaction always was, “Wins What?”
· The Second Symptom of a Cluttered Heart: Self-Centeredness. Suddenly, your sentences are dotted with “I, me and mine.” Listen to the rich guy:
“And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 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.’ Goodness, he even has a conversation with himself about his abundance. He is Self-Centered, Self-Absorbed, Self-Important and Self-Obsessed.
· And the Second Symptom is usually followed closely by the Third and most profound Symptom of a Cluttered Heart: Loneliness. When I, me and mine become one’s priority, where is the room for family, friends and God? Nowhere in the story does the man say he will celebrate his harvest with this family and ask them what he should do. Nowhere does it say the man will see if his neighbors’ harvests were equally abundant, and make sure all of them have enough.
And especially telling is the rich man’s lack of Gratitude for his abundant harvest. Not a word of thanks for the sun and the rain, the good seed and the good earth, and the generous amount of grain that he reaped. Not an offering of first-fruits, or a donation to the local synagogue’s “grain bank.” Nope. He’s stacked up his grain and goods so he can eat, drink and be merry for years to come.
· As with many diseases, there may be False Positives. Some people think being educated, talented, successful and/or wealthy are additional signs of Cluttered Hearts. And sometimes they co-exist with “Bigger, Better and More.” All of us can name famous athletes, actors, CEO’s, politicians and billionaires. The diagnosis depends on how they use their gifts and wealth. Is it all about them, 24/7, or are they generous and giving, humbly providing for others?
Most of us have heard of American steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie. The American steel tycoon is said to have donated 90% of his wealth – about 19 billion in today’s dollars – to charitable causes. Carnegie, the author of the book, “The Gospel of Wealth” wrote, “No man can become rich without himself enriching others. The man who dies rich dies disgraced.”
Another example is Chuck Feeney, the co-founder of Duty-Free Shopping. He has given away $8 billion dollars to charitable causes, signing a document in 2003 to sell his assets while he is still alive. “Giving While Living,” he calls it. Feeney, who is 88, is said to have lived frugally throughout his life, currently living in a modest rented apartment in San Francisco, just $2 million of his total wealth remaining. Like Carnegie, Feeney’s wealth was not greed, but a means to make the world a better place. His heart remained uncluttered.
If Jesus was concerned enough to warn us about Cluttered Hearts, how can we avoid contracting this disease? Fortunately, the cure is a simple triple shot of Vitamin B: Basics, Building Up and Belonging.
The first shot – Basics – is realizing more is not always better. Back to Marie Konde, Simplifying is her thing. Keep what brings you joy -- donate or discard the rest. Decluttering isn’t a one-time thing. In fact, it’s a daily thing. Learning to draw boundaries, saying no to too many demands is part of avoiding a Cluttered Heart.
The second shot – Building Up – is the opposite of Self-Centeredness. Let others have the limelight, mentor, let others lead. Take pride in others’ accomplishments. I love to watch Larry Gordon work with the youth and see his humble guidance of these leaders. Not young people. Not tomorrow’s leaders. LEADERS. Our youth are bright, inventive, eager and giving. It’s great to see them take over.
And the final shot is Belonging. Remember how the story ends? After the abundant harvest, the rich man is off planning bigger barns, not knowing he would die that night. Was his legacy his work, his elaborate plans for a farming empire? Or was it a grateful and trusting faith? An unsurpassed love for his family? A generous, giving spirit for his neighbors? Let go of the work, the full schedule, the worrying about tomorrow, and be present with God, your family and your friends right now. Or as Jesus told it:
“But 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?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
Cluttered Hearts? Or Rich Toward God? I pray that you are guided to live well in mind, body, soul, and especially your precious heart.
Amen.
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