C, Post-Pentecost 8, Proper 13 - Luke 12:13-21 & Colossians 3:1-11 "Good, Guilt, & God"

Luke 12:13–21 (ESV) Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear 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.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Existing with unrepentant guilt is not good for one’s existence.  Guilt though however, is an essential part of our created being through which we can learn about ourselves and our relationships with others.

Think about how you feel when guilt comes over you.  How do you react?  What do you do?  What do you think?  What do you try to hide?  Perhaps you’re defending a treasured idea or object! Reflecting on our guilt, despite the discomfort, helps us to identify what is broken within ourselves.  And once recognising what our guilt uncovers, it’s a powerful tool to rebuild what’s busted.

Jesus tells parables, to teach the truths of God the Father to those who have ears to hear.  He does this by exposing our emotions in the stories or parables he teaches.  In them he uncovers the emotional truths hidden within the hearer.  The parables can be painful because he gets to the core of our being where our human hidden reality bubbles and boils like lava deep within the earth.

Jesus tells parables to expose fault in our humanity.  So, in exploring the guilt and its cause, faults can be found, and our humanity can have the holy healing it needs. 

However, no one can fix their own guilt.  Trying only makes the fault line worse, because the internal tectonic plates of our emotions grind against each other only increasing guilt all the more.  Yes, one may be able to fool others with a calm external persona.  But in reality, we only fool ourselves, as the pressure builds before the emotions erupt and one emits the sulphuric state of their true being.

Instead, Jesus tells the parables, we hear his Word, so the Holy Spirit can expose guilt and guide us from it to the goodness of God.  As we’re reminded by the Psalmist in Psalm 107, to “give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!  For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.” (Psalm 107:1,9 ESV)

On the other hand, what we think is good, seems good, until good gives way to guilt.  In the parable of the rich fool, Jesus touches your heart to reveal guilt, so the Holy Spirit can teach you about your guilt, and the products of fear and anxiety that come from it.

That’s why just prior to this parable Jesus teaches and warns us about hindering the Holy Spirit saying, “…everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” (Luke 12:10–12 ESV)

In fact, it’s here Jesus gives us the answer in the Holy Spirit, even before any questions can be thought of, or asked.  Any question only comes from our guilt being provoked by hearing this parable of the rich fool. 

This is the question: What is the good treasure that makes me rich in and towards God?  The Answer: It’s allowing the Holy Spirit to make me holy, through the workings of God’s goodness in Jesus Christ. Alternatively, one could ask: What are the treasures I lay up for myself that diminish richness towards God? The answer: Anything that leads me to put God in second place, cheapen the pricelessness of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and hinders the Holy Spirit from delivering us to Jesus’ forgiveness.

Therefore, Jesus begins the parable by warning the hearer to, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15 ESV)

The rich man covets his goods, and he believes this to be good.  His land is full of life given by God, and it produces plentifully.  But he doesn’t treasure the coming of God’s kingdom nor God for giving him good things.  Instead, idolatry takes a hold of him as he builds his kingdom of pleasures by tearing down and building bigger barns to house his grain and goods. 

The idol of pleasure is his treasure.  This seductive shortsighted “good” is ingrained in him.  Eating, drinking and being merry, appears to be a good thing for many years to come.  But the idol he has built and worked so hard to protect as a result of the productive land will be left to someone else.   He built his barn but didn’t fear or trust that God had built him.  Therefore, his kingdom of coveting collapsed when God demanded back the very life God had given him.

What goods are ingrained in your pursuit of pleasure?  What blasphemous barn are you building to cover your coveting?

The call to not covet is the last of the commandments, but coveting begins down deep in the seat of the emotions and boils up through a person, leading us to fail in some, or all, of the other commandments. 

When one covets, one desires what one thinks is good.  Coveting makes one feel good!  When we get what we covet, chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, and oxytocin are released in the brain giving a hit of immediate pleasure that quickly fades.  No one ever covets something that will make them feel bad.  Feeling bad comes after the apple is eaten; after our knowledge of good proves not to be good in the way we’ve imagined and idolised.  After this comes guilt and its various reactions.

Jesus doesn’t tell us about the reactions of the rich fool after God says to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:20 ESV) The reaction is never heard from the rich fool, but instead the heart of the hearer is provoked by Jesus’ parable because of the goods coveted and treasured instead of God.

In Colossians 3 Paul calls all who are raised with Christ and wish to appear with him in glory to, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:2 ESV) And to, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”  (Colossians 3:5 ESV) This earthliness is that which is ground into your being.  It’s the dirt of Adam ingrained and deeply rooted in you.  This is the dirt of sin deep within one's mortality from where idols are cast from molten emotions deep within the earthliness of one’s humanity.

The human goodness ingrained in us does not like having its guilt revealed.  But those in Christ, we whose earthliness is revealed by the dirt of our deeds, know although it’s painful having our guilt revealed now, it’s a blessing from God.  It gives opportunity for the Holy Spirit to move us in the goodness of God who has sent the Holy Spirit, to give you faith.  Firstly, belief you are human. That is, earthly vessels or sinners who will perish.  But also, it’s belief that the death and resurrection of God the Son, Jesus Christ, saves from eternal death.

God the Holy Spirit comes from God the Father and God the Son to bring us to the Father through the Son.  The Holy Spirit brings us to Jesus with life-giving faith.  Faith is a good gift from God through the Holy Spirit.  When the guilt of our ingrained greed is shown within, the Spirit wills you to run in repentance to Jesus Christ knowing that these trials test, “the genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  (1 Peter 1:7 ESV)

Through repentance, the Holy Spirit puts to death guilt within, and covers forgiven sinners with the blood of Jesus.  We allow the Spirit to put to death what is earthly within because, “On account of these the wrath of God is coming.” (Colossians 3:6 ESV)

Existing with unrepentant guilt is not good, but learning from one’s guilt, by the power of the Holy Spirit, reveals the eternal goodness of God in his Son, Jesus Christ.

When you allow the Spirit to teach you to treasure this, you are reassured, “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4 ESV)  Because, “you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” (1 Peter 1:18–19 ESV)   Amen.