Luke 12:13-34 “Giving
from the Heart”
Everyone knows this
scene. There are two children -
maybe you and a sibling, or
two of your own children, or your child and her friend. And sitting there on the table is the last
chunk of chocolate cake
with rich fudge
frosting. Just enough for two hungry
children.
What do you do?
There’s an unwritten rule
that whoever cuts the cake in two
lets the other person pick
first.
If I cut the cake, my friend
gets to pick the piece he wants.
If he cuts the cake, then I
get to pick first.
The idea, of course, is that
letting the other person choose first
will keep things honest and
fair as the cake is cut in two.
This familiar scene speaks to
all of us,
because there is something
human about our desire to take the biggest piece.
To grab first. To cut in line. To hoard the best.
Yet we also know what today’s
scripture reading teaches -
no matter how much we take
the biggest, grab first, cut in front,
hoard for ourselves -
in the end, we will never be
satisfied.
And although the unwritten
rule about how to divide the last piece of cake
teaches children to be fair,
it doesn’t necessarily teach them to share.
Because sharing is not just
about being fair, or keeping score, or staying even.
Sharing is giving from the heart.
In today’s scripture reading, Jesus is concerned about
matters of the heart.
We need to understand this
word heart from the perspective
of the culture and times when
this gospel was written.
When we talk about heart, we
are very often thinking love and romance.
But in the Greek culture of
the first century, heart was understood differently.
The heart was considered the
center and source of the whole inner life --
physical, spiritual, and
mental.
The heart had to do with a
person’s will and decisions.
Woven throughout the OT and
the NT is this idea of heart:
we are to love God with all
our heart, soul, and strength in Deuteronomy.
In Jeremiah, God promises to
write a new covenant on the hearts of his beloved people.
In Ezekial
God promises
In the gospels Jesus teaches
that the greatest commandment
is to love the Lord with all
your heart, soul, mind, and strength,
and to love our neighbors as
ourselves.
God wants nothing more and nothing less than our
hearts.
So in today’s reading, as
Jesus once again is dealing with questions from the crowd,
he is concerned about what is
in the heart.
It begins with a question
from someone who is having a family quarrel.
“Teacher, Rabbi, tell my
brother to give me my fair share of the family inheritance.”
Jesus refuses to get into it
--
and not because he wasn’t
rabbi enough to offer wise advice.
Instead he is addressing what
is in the heart of this brother who
asks the question.
True living is not about
possessions, he says. True living is
about the things of God.
He then tells them the
parable -- familiar to many of us --
about the rich man who is
wildly successful, and in his success,
has to build bigger and
better barns to store all his excess.
Success is not the sin
here. Selfishness is.
If you listen again to the
conversation, it is “all about me” for this rich man.
“I don’t have a place to keep
my crops; what can I do?
This is what I
will do: I will build even bigger
barns.
Then I will have all the good
things I need for many years.
Then I can take it easy, and
eat, drink, and be merry.”
This is a mistake Jesus tells
us.
Piling up riches for
ourselves does not make us rich in God’s sight.
After this parable, Jesus
continues with this teaching.
This time, he questions us
about something that is oh so human --
our anxieties and worries
about our lives.
But as Jesus questions us, it’s
not an inquisition.
Instead he gently probes at
what is in our hearts -
the basic fears that keep us
from trusting in God.
Jesus reminds us that even
birds and flowers are cared for by our Father in heaven.
These creatures made by God
do not store up a harvest, or make their clothes.
Yet God feeds them. God clothes them.
If God takes care of these
creatures, will he not surely take care of us?
Jesus asks. What little faith - what a lack of trust - we
show by our anxieties and fears.
What we need to be concerned
with, Jesus says, is the kingdom -
and everything else will
follow.
As paradoxical as it seems,
when we let go of our selfish strivings,
and start to care about and
share with others,
we begin to experience the
But as we come to the end of
today’s very beautiful scripture reading,
we hear a couple of verses
that are startling.
A verse that should trouble
us all.
It begins gently enough: “Do not be afraid, little flock.”
But then here’s the tough
part: “Sell all your belongings and give the money to the poor.”
Even if we do give money to
the poor and to those in need,
how can we possibly meet the
requirements of “Sell all your belongings?”
(This is a verse that I would
like to discuss with the folks
who believe the only way to
interpret the Bible is literally.)
The early church actually did
take this literally.
Listen to the way the early
church was described:
Acts 2:42-47
They devoted themselves to
the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
to the breaking of bread and
the prayers.
Awe came upon everyone,
because many wonders and signs
were being done by the
apostles.
All who believed were together and had all things in
common;
they would sell their possessions and goods
and distribute the proceeds
to all, as any had need.
Day by day, as they spent
much time together in the temple,
they broke bread at home and
ate their food with glad and generous
hearts,
praising God and having the
goodwill of all the people.
And day by day the Lord added
to their number those who were being saved.
Acts 4:32-35
Now the whole group of those
who believed were of one heart and soul,
and no one claimed private ownership of any
possessions,
but everything they owned was held in common.
With great power the apostles
gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was
upon them all.
There was not a needy person
among them,
for as many as owned lands or
houses sold them
and brought the proceeds of
what was sold.
They laid it at the apostles’
feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
Although I think it is
possible that Jesus literally means for us
to sell all our belongings
and give the money to the poor,
if we look at the last 3
verses of today’s reading
it is also possible that
Jesus is urging us to take a look at our
hearts.
It’s almost as if he is
saying in these last couple of verses - “Forget about your stuff!
Give it all away if it is
going to keep you from the kingdom.
Don’t let your possessions
possess you.
Seek after heavenly riches -
strive for the
Where your treasure is, there
your heart will be also.
The real treasures in life
come when we open our hearts and give to others.
That’s what makes us rich in God’s sight.
We Christians know this. It has been handed down through the
generations.
An important requirement of
Jewish law was to care for those in need.
Jesus taught us, “It is more
blessed to give than to receive.”
St. Francis shared a similar
message: “It is in giving that we
receive.”
As familiar as this may be,
it’s hard to live by.
There is an old Jewish story
told about a farmer who had two sons.
As soon as they were old
enough to walk,
he took them to the fields
and taught them everything that he knew
about growing crops and
raising animals.
When he got too old to work,
the two boys took over the chores of the farm
and when their father died,
they decided that their working together had gone so well that they would keep
up the partnership. So each brother
contributed what he could and during every harvest season,
they would equally divide
into their own storage barns what they had
produced together.
Down through the years, the
younger brother married and had 8 wonderful children. The elder brother never married, stayed an
old bachelor.
Some years later when they
were having a wonderful harvest,
the old bachelor brother
thought to himself one night,
“My younger brother has 10
mouths to feed. I only have one.
He really needs more of the
harvest than I do, but I know he is much to fair to renegotiate.
I know what I’ll do. In the middle of the night when he is fast
asleep,
I’ll take some of what I have
stored in my barn and I’ll slip it over into his barn to help him feed his
children.
At the very time he was
thinking this way, the younger brother was thinking to himself, “God has given
me these wonderful children.
My brother hasn’t been so
fortunate.
He really needs more of this
harvest for his old age than I do, but I know him.
He’s much too fair. He’ll never renegotiate. I know what I’ll do.
In the middle of the night,
when he’s fast asleep,
I’ll take some of what I have
in my barn and slip it over into his barn.”
And so one night when the
moon was full, as you might already have anticipated,
those two brothers came face
to face, each on a mission of generosity.
And as they met each other
under the moonlit sky,
even though there wasn’t a
cloud in the sky, it’s said that a gentle rain began to fall.
Do you know what it was?
God, weeping for joy, because
two of his children had understood.[1]
Two of his children had
understood that giving was at the heart of true living.
If we have a heart for
giving, we’ve understood the treasure of the
[1]Story told by John Claypool in sermon, “Life Isn’t Fair, Thank God!” http://jmm.aaa.net.au/artciles/2497.htm