Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he 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.” Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 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.’ 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.” Luke 12:13-21
“Nothing in our lives is more immediate and constant than the requirement of food. Food is the most specific materiality that is before us daily. For that reason, mature materiality must address it and invite critical reflection on food. In the first instant, the concern is to eat “real food” that nourishes, to eat with mindfulness and restraint, and to maintain good weight and bodily health through food choices and exercise. That must be a major agenda in a society beset by junk food, eating disorders, disordered eating, and obesity. Beneath that immediate concern about food, however, our deeper difficult question pivots around the issue of scarcity and abundance. That matter is made central in the parable of Luke 12:13–21. Jesus’ story portrays a rich man, a rich farmer who specialized in accumulation, who strategized to store up more and more food (grain) because in his anxiety he imagined he did not have enough yet. His appetite for more grain became insatiable. And his insatiability turned out to be lethal for him; he died in his “foolishness.” He was a victim of imagined scarcity. He believed there was not enough, so he had to secure for himself much more than enough.”
Walter Brueggemann in Materiality As Resistance: Five Elements for Moral Action in the Real World (Louisville: WJKP, 2020), 30.
With the proliferation of cancers, I appreciate Brueggemann’s call to eat real food that nourishes rather than processed food or junk food that seems to accelerate health challenges and even diseases.
But I love that he went deeper to address the insatiability issue. The fact that the farmer has the label ‘rich man’ implies he has more than enough. That’s what rich means in the biblical narrative, you have more than enough.
So, what should the farmer do with the surplus?
As a “victim of imagined scarcity” which riddles a person with insatiability, he keeps it for himself. His foolish failure to share costs him his life. And he misses the privilege of sharing, a task which God will see to without him.
Where do you see yourself in this picture?
Do you eat real food to show generosity toward your body which is the temple of the Holy Spirit to care for it, so you can serve God for a long time. Or do you feed on junk food, or have disordered eating, or weigh in with obesity?
And since most of us are not farmers, what do you do with your surplus. If accumulation is your answer, then I suggest you rethink your strategy before God chooses someone else to redistribute that which is perishable.
As I think about my dear wife at home tending our garden whilst I travel, I think of the abundance of vegetables.
Imagine how silly it would be if our garden produced hundreds of tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, and other vegetables. Not only would it rot, we would miss out on the joy of sharing generously with our neighbors.
God’s people do well to think about money in precisely the same way as garden vegetables.