Barnstormin’ Believers

Sermon for 7th Sunday after Trinity – 3 August 2025 – All Saints Kesgrave

Text: ‘But God said to him, “You fool!  This very night your life will be demanded from you.  Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” ²¹ ‘This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich towards God.’  (Luke 12v20-21)

God give you peace my Sisters and Brothers.

Way back in the day when David Essex wore face paint and Jeremy Irons rainbow striped bell-bottoms with a pair of platform shoes that I would have given my eye teeth for, I went to London to see my very first West End Show.  A reward for a year of faithful service as chapel sacristans at the Royal Hospital School, the chaplain borrowed the Tilly Bus from the CCFand we drove to Wyndham’s Theatre just off Leicester Square to see (I’m sure you have guessed it by now) Godspell^[1] the hippy version of Jesus Christ Superstar.

It was breathtaking, eye-opening, liberating and life-changing.  Sadly our chaplain didn’t let his young charges join the cast on the stage during the interval for refreshments – a ‘cup of wine’ that took the place of the Last Supper – but I returned to school with songs and dialogue ringing in my ears and filling my heart for years.

None more so than this little scrap of monologue which comes after the telling of today’s parable:

LINDSAY

Yet despite all his riches, he found it still wasn’t enough.  ‘Oh, what am I to do?’ he said. ‘I have not the room to store my produce.  Ahh, this is what I will do,’ he said.  ‘I will tear down my storehouses and build them bigger.  I will collect in them all my corn and popcorn and tuna surprise, and M&Ms… And then I will say to myself:  “Man, you have plenty of good things laid by you, enough to last you many years.  Take life easy.  Eat.  Drink.  Enjoy yourself.” 

[play Audio here…]

But, then God said to the man,… ‘You fool, this very night you must surrender your life.  You have made your money.  Who will get it now?

‘You have made your money.  Who will get it now?’

These words, though we have never been wealthy, will never own a property, and by this time next year will have registered for Income Support, have haunted my life.  

Not because we have not tried to be generous with our possessions – every day of our married life Lesley-Anne and I have given away at least 10% of all of that with which God has blessed us.  But because generosity is not simply about money and possessions.  

The parable is not about barnfuls of goods, after all it was God who provided the abundant harvest that caused the Rich Fool to ponder securing planning permission for an extension.  This parable is about what we do with that with which God has provided us.  We are only wealthy when we learn to be ‘rich towards God’ and refuse to ‘store up things for ourselves’. [Cue another song from Godspell….]

It’s not about money or goods or barns.  Jesus himself said, ‘life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.’  It’s about open hearts and lives.  Yes we may build barns but their doors should be flung wide open so that those who need help and shelter, the beloved little ones^[2] whom Jesus cherished and commanded us to protect, are able to come to us and find food and shelter, succour and the love of God.

In the end it’s about God providing us with Daily Bread so that we can be God’s hands and feet for God’s children everywhere. 

John Wesley who famously at the end of his life had only four silver spoons and a few coins for his estate said this in one of his sermons;

“What shall I do?”  And is not the answer ready?  Do good.  Do all the good thou canst. Let thy plenty supply thy neighbour’s wants; and thou wilt never want something to do.  (John Wesley – Sermon 119: On Worldly Folly)

Listen again; 

Do good.  Do all the good thou canst.  Let thy plenty supply thy neighbour’s wants.

The parable of the Rich Fool, and in fact the whole of Chapter 12, is not about money, nor about bread, nor even about barns.  It is about being, ‘rich towards God’ and so proving the faithfulness and loving kindness of God by living generous lives of active service.  And being ever-ready to do so.

Later on in the Chapter we read:

Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? ⁴³ It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns.   (Luke 12v42-43)

To be Barnstormin’ Believers and show our thankfulness for the provision and generosity of the LORD the Creator of all, requires;

To be a ‘faithful and wise manager’ requires that we live lives of complete and utter generosity.  Lives with its doors wide open so that the rushing wind of the Spirit of Pentecost is able to storm through us and share all that we have to those in need.  

It is only as we allow that to happen that we begin to demonstrate that we are rich towards God rather than storing up possessions for ourselves.

During September and October, Sunday by Sunday, we will be going on a journey with each other learning how to Live Generously.^[3]  Yes, we will talk about giving money for the work of the Church, but that will be for one Sunday only we promise.  Generous Living cannot be measured by pocketbooks but is instead demonstrated by open lives.

Laurence the Deacon, whose feast day is next Sunday, was martyred in the year 258 by being roasted alive on a gridiron.  Prior to his death those torturing him demanded that he produce the treasures of the Church to ’render them unto Caesar’.  He promptly did so: assembling all the poor, he is reputed to have said, ‘These are the treasures of the Church.’ 

Would that we could see the poor, the Little Ones that Jesus loved, as treasure!

My beloved friends, when we follow the words of our Lord and Master and pray in the way we were taught to pray we aspire to lives of heavenly worship, lives of divine forgiveness, lives of daily provision, lives of godly protection, how can we not respond to this profligate generosity other than by living generous lives?

Or as Jesus would put it later in this same Chapter:

Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. ³³ Sell your possessions and give to the poor.  Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. ³⁴ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.     (Luke 12v32-34)

[This blog ‘Barnstormin’ Believers’ is copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2025 and may be reproduced free of charge on condition that the source is acknowledged.] 

 

oooOOOooo

The Parable of the Rich Fool

Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’ ¹⁴ Jesus replied, ‘Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?’ ¹⁵ Then he said to them, ‘Watch out!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.’

¹⁶ And he told them this parable: ‘The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. ¹⁷ He thought to himself, “What shall I do?  I have no place to store my crops.”

¹⁸ ‘Then he said, “This is what I’ll do.  I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. ¹⁹ And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years.  Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’”

²⁰ ‘But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”

²¹ ‘This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich towards God.’       (Luke 12v13-21)

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^[1] Many productions of Godspell have been performed and even a movie.  If you have not seen it, or simply would enjoy a refresher, click here.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPmY2zR-EM8&list=PLH8RT4Tt7Ne3iyu8G0YZxom-6S5r-R6Uk

^[2] Often called the Anawim, the poor ones of God who have no one to care for them.  For a good explanation please read this article – sadly only available in French, Catalan, and Spanish. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anawim

^[3]If you would like a preview please visit the Church of England resource; Living Generously.