How much land does a man need? - Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 12: 13 - 21
The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy wrote a short story entitled ‘How Much land does a Man Need?’ It tells the story of a peasant named Pakhom who sees his greatest need as being to remedy a lack of land. Should he have enough land, he comments that he would not even fear the Devil himself.
His opportunity arises when the landowner of a nearby estate decides to sell her property and so he decides to buy forty acres of this land. To finance this, he has to sell a colt, half of his bee colony, hire out one of his sons and to borrow the rest from his brother in law. The purchase works out well. Thanks to a good harvest he is able to pay of all his debts.
End of story you might think but No! Soon he feels cramped and develops problems with his neighbours and so hearing of land beyond the Volga which is available at a decent price, he sells his land and purchases more land than he could ever have dreamt of owning.
But once again he comes to the conclusion that he needs yet more land. Some years later he hears that another landowner is prepared to sell 1,300 acres for a good price. Pakhom is on the verge of buying this land when he hears from a passing dealer of some far away land which he could buy for next to nothing. And so off he sets again. There he meets a chief who offers to sell him all the land he could walk around by day for a mere 1,000 rubles. There is but one catch. If he has not returned to his starting point by sundown, he will lose both the 1,000 rubles and the land.
Pakhom spends the night before the walk in a state of total excitement about the riches that apparently lie ahead. In the morning he meets with the Chief who puts his hat on the starting point and with that Pakhom sets off to the rising Sun. And so Pakhom walks for mile after mile. Each time he thinks of turning, the land seems too good to lose and so he goes on and on until at breakfast he makes his first turn. The next turn, he puts off time and again until just after lunch. But by then he has gone so far that he is tiring and the walk back becomes ever more difficult. He realises that he has tried to cover too much ground. As he look up, he sees the Sun setting. Fearful that he is about to lose everything he runs, runs despite the pain in his legs and chest. But time is short, too short and so with the Sun nearly set, he makes a final surge towards the starting point where the Chief is waiting for him. And as he reaches the by now laughing Chief, his legs give way.
“Ah that’s a fine fellow, he has gained much land” says the Chief. But for what? Pakhom has died in the effort and now in Tolstoy’s immortal phrase, “Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.”
A strange story! Like Jesus’ story of the rich fool a rather morbid story. But No! For the message of both of these stories is about how we chose to live our lives. Pakhom like the Rich Fool has been seduced into living for things. Like the rich fool, he has lost the capacity to be satisfied for both Pakhom and the fool are powerful warning of how materialism at its worst can distort our lives.
Now, at this point a brief cautionary note. This Parable reminds me of a much misquoted Scripture. How often we hear it said that ‘money is the root of all evil.’ Nowhere does the Bible say such a thing. The relevant Scripture is that ‘the love of money is the root of all evil.’ And so, the failing of the rich fool is not that he had money or even that he invested it for any economic system requires profits to be invested for future requirements. No, the sin of the rich fool is that he has allowed the acquisition of things to dominate his whole life. His view of life was a self centred view that emphasised Me and Mine above all other considerations.
In a sense the Rich Fool is an echo of the Rich Young Man who approached Jesus. In neither case are they condemned for their affluence. In both cases, their problem is that they put that affluence at the centre of their lives pushing God out to the edges. Here is where the conflict comes with the teachings of Christ who urges us to be open to God in our lives and to be aware and responsive to the needs of others.
But perhaps at this point we need to open ourselves to the message of Christ in this parable. For are not we all open to the same attitude as the Rich Fool. We live in a society where modern day marketing has immense power to create in us needs we never knew we had. Gadgets, bigger wardrobes and flashier cars nag away at all of us. We all know the need to do or achieve something different and in no time our focus can depart from God. Our parable this morning is a wake up call. It doesn’t call us to hair shirt living for such a call is not in the nature of Jesus but it reminds us that as creatures of God, we need to keep our focus on God and what God calls us to do.
As Mother Theresa put it;
“At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done.
We will be judged by
“I was hungry and you gave me to eat.
I was naked and you clothed me.
I was homeless and you took me in.”
Hungry not only for bread
But hungry for love
Naked not only for clothing
But naked of human respect and dignity.
Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks
But homeless of rejection.
This is Christ in distressing surprise.”
Ultimately this is a story about priorities. I imagine that Jesus tells this story with all its exaggerations to remind us that we need to build our lives on sound foundations. This parable invited us to make God’s Kingdom the basis of our lives.
Back for a moment to Tolstoy’s story. Right at the beginning, the Devil has seen in Pakhom’s growing obsession with wanting more and more land, the means to get Pakhom into his power thinking;
“We will have a tussle. I’ll give you land enough; and by means of that land I will get you into my power.”
Contrast that with Jesus who doesn’t offer to meet all our wants but who instead wishes to journey with us through the changing scenes of life, not wanting to get us into his power but desiring to help us to make good use of our freedom.
It is a choice between undending craving and finding true satisfaction. Who can doubt which is the more beneficial in helping us to life with true abundance?
This sermon is to be preached at Alwington Methodist Church on Sunday August 5th 2007
The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy wrote a short story entitled ‘How Much land does a Man Need?’ It tells the story of a peasant named Pakhom who sees his greatest need as being to remedy a lack of land. Should he have enough land, he comments that he would not even fear the Devil himself.
His opportunity arises when the landowner of a nearby estate decides to sell her property and so he decides to buy forty acres of this land. To finance this, he has to sell a colt, half of his bee colony, hire out one of his sons and to borrow the rest from his brother in law. The purchase works out well. Thanks to a good harvest he is able to pay of all his debts.
End of story you might think but No! Soon he feels cramped and develops problems with his neighbours and so hearing of land beyond the Volga which is available at a decent price, he sells his land and purchases more land than he could ever have dreamt of owning.
But once again he comes to the conclusion that he needs yet more land. Some years later he hears that another landowner is prepared to sell 1,300 acres for a good price. Pakhom is on the verge of buying this land when he hears from a passing dealer of some far away land which he could buy for next to nothing. And so off he sets again. There he meets a chief who offers to sell him all the land he could walk around by day for a mere 1,000 rubles. There is but one catch. If he has not returned to his starting point by sundown, he will lose both the 1,000 rubles and the land.
Pakhom spends the night before the walk in a state of total excitement about the riches that apparently lie ahead. In the morning he meets with the Chief who puts his hat on the starting point and with that Pakhom sets off to the rising Sun. And so Pakhom walks for mile after mile. Each time he thinks of turning, the land seems too good to lose and so he goes on and on until at breakfast he makes his first turn. The next turn, he puts off time and again until just after lunch. But by then he has gone so far that he is tiring and the walk back becomes ever more difficult. He realises that he has tried to cover too much ground. As he look up, he sees the Sun setting. Fearful that he is about to lose everything he runs, runs despite the pain in his legs and chest. But time is short, too short and so with the Sun nearly set, he makes a final surge towards the starting point where the Chief is waiting for him. And as he reaches the by now laughing Chief, his legs give way.
“Ah that’s a fine fellow, he has gained much land” says the Chief. But for what? Pakhom has died in the effort and now in Tolstoy’s immortal phrase, “Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.”
A strange story! Like Jesus’ story of the rich fool a rather morbid story. But No! For the message of both of these stories is about how we chose to live our lives. Pakhom like the Rich Fool has been seduced into living for things. Like the rich fool, he has lost the capacity to be satisfied for both Pakhom and the fool are powerful warning of how materialism at its worst can distort our lives.
Now, at this point a brief cautionary note. This Parable reminds me of a much misquoted Scripture. How often we hear it said that ‘money is the root of all evil.’ Nowhere does the Bible say such a thing. The relevant Scripture is that ‘the love of money is the root of all evil.’ And so, the failing of the rich fool is not that he had money or even that he invested it for any economic system requires profits to be invested for future requirements. No, the sin of the rich fool is that he has allowed the acquisition of things to dominate his whole life. His view of life was a self centred view that emphasised Me and Mine above all other considerations.
In a sense the Rich Fool is an echo of the Rich Young Man who approached Jesus. In neither case are they condemned for their affluence. In both cases, their problem is that they put that affluence at the centre of their lives pushing God out to the edges. Here is where the conflict comes with the teachings of Christ who urges us to be open to God in our lives and to be aware and responsive to the needs of others.
But perhaps at this point we need to open ourselves to the message of Christ in this parable. For are not we all open to the same attitude as the Rich Fool. We live in a society where modern day marketing has immense power to create in us needs we never knew we had. Gadgets, bigger wardrobes and flashier cars nag away at all of us. We all know the need to do or achieve something different and in no time our focus can depart from God. Our parable this morning is a wake up call. It doesn’t call us to hair shirt living for such a call is not in the nature of Jesus but it reminds us that as creatures of God, we need to keep our focus on God and what God calls us to do.
As Mother Theresa put it;
“At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done.
We will be judged by
“I was hungry and you gave me to eat.
I was naked and you clothed me.
I was homeless and you took me in.”
Hungry not only for bread
But hungry for love
Naked not only for clothing
But naked of human respect and dignity.
Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks
But homeless of rejection.
This is Christ in distressing surprise.”
Ultimately this is a story about priorities. I imagine that Jesus tells this story with all its exaggerations to remind us that we need to build our lives on sound foundations. This parable invited us to make God’s Kingdom the basis of our lives.
Back for a moment to Tolstoy’s story. Right at the beginning, the Devil has seen in Pakhom’s growing obsession with wanting more and more land, the means to get Pakhom into his power thinking;
“We will have a tussle. I’ll give you land enough; and by means of that land I will get you into my power.”
Contrast that with Jesus who doesn’t offer to meet all our wants but who instead wishes to journey with us through the changing scenes of life, not wanting to get us into his power but desiring to help us to make good use of our freedom.
It is a choice between undending craving and finding true satisfaction. Who can doubt which is the more beneficial in helping us to life with true abundance?
This sermon is to be preached at Alwington Methodist Church on Sunday August 5th 2007