Winning the Lottery: Eighth Sunday After Pentecost

What Will You Do if You Win the Lottery?

The Gospel lesson this morning is about greed, which is not the easiest subject to preach. Especially when we’re going to ask for your money when the offering plate comes around in a few mins.

I noticed something about greed, it is almost like a fog. Fog is dangerous; it distorts vision and easily confuses us. I experienced the confusion of fog one morning in the Hollywood Hills… I couldn’t see where to go. It was so thick even the GPS was lost too. 

Every morning in L.A., the sky is thick with fog. Most accidents happen in the morning when the fog blurs the view. 

The ancient Scandinavian culture had insight on the foggy hour before dawn. They called it, “The hour of the wolf.” In their folklore, that was the hour of the day when most men were born, most men died, and time diminished the ability to perceive truth. 

But worse than fog, is greed. It curves our focus off God and toward the “bigger barns” mentioned in today’s Gospel lesson. Some assume that money, fame, advancement, or popularity, will make them happy. Then, once they are set, kick back and say, “Soul, you need nothing, you did it all yourself.” That’s the spiritual fog of greed.

You can usually spot it in the Gospel lesson. 

Greed wants God to fix other people

The text shows us a young man who came to Jesus and said, “Make my brother give me half of our father’s money.” Jesus didn’t take the bait, nor did he “fix” his brother. It’s easy to want God to “fix” the people who disagree with us. It’s telling that Jesus said, “I’m not the court system; I’m a Rabbi. As a Rabbi, I tell you to be on guard because life is more than an abundance of possessions.”

Jesus used the word “possessions.” It means land in the original language. Jesus probably knew this man’s inheritance was farm land. But he didn’t get as much as he wanted. He didn’t win the lottery, and he was mad about it.

It’s easy to quickly criticize him, but most of us probably understand him because it’s hard to relinquish control, and hand it to God. Yet, Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but yours be done.” 

Luke contrasts this man and Jesus. This man would not pray, “Your will be done.” Greed compelled him to ask Jesus to “fix” his brother. He couldn’t see through the fog.

Two prayers: “God, fix them so I can be at peace.” OR “God, fix me, so my expectations don’t control love and peace.” Greed didn’t blind Jesus. It doesn’t have to blind us if we follow him. 

The lesson shows us how greed wants everyone else to change.

The lesson also shows us how greed demands more than its share.

This younger brother wanted to take more than his inheritance. In the 1st century, families divided an estate according to birth order. The firstborn son inherited 2/3 of the father’s land and money at his father’s death. The second son would get, at most, 1/3 of the land. 

Hear him again, “Tell my brother to give me more…” He sounds like the prodigal son. Both wanted to take more than his share from their brothers and his families. The man in today’s reading gleefully accepted the role, “that one kid in the family.” You know the type, the one who is existentially invigorated at the thought of being a cinder block in someone’s oyster. 

He tried to get more, but somehow he couldn’t finagle his way into the deal. So, he did the one predictable thing you expect from greed… he tattled. He ran to the Rabbi and said, “Jesus, make my brother cooperate with my desire to agitate him.” Some Rabbis would offer their advice in civil disputes. Not Jesus! He turned the tables and said, “Stop making me your family therapist or your court system. You have a spiritual problem, not a civil lawsuit.”

In my words, “The unrelenting necessity for control caught you in the hour of the wolf.”

To make his point, Jesus told a story about a man had barns full of food and wheat. But then he won the lottery, and he wanted to tear them down for more. The man became so comfortable with his possessions that he said he no longer needed anything. Then God said, “Tonight your soul melted away, and the wolf caught you in the fog.”

I wondered if the man who demolished his barns, was in fact, the young man’s father. The younger son came to Jesus; he wanted his father’s riches. But Jesus was more concerned with the man’s wealth toward God than his bank account. I wish Luke told us what Jesus meant by “rich towards God.” He doesn’t. He leaves the guesswork to our creativity and spirituality. 

Allow me to say; I do not think the Gospel is advocating poverty or destitution. I think the passage is more about keeping the focus on God and not letting the rabid wolf of Wall Street steal our dedication to God.

Greed is common, and we’ve all been there. But if we look closely at our lives, we can probably realize that most of our greed is motivated by fear. We build personal bigger barns to insulate our fears. 

Greed has consiquences

Greed can make people do strange things. Let’s be honest for a moment; money often reveals character quicker than anything else can. I’ve heard the phrase, “Money changes people,” my whole life. Consider this, last night’s Powerball was $120 million. That’s enough to change anyone’s life for generations. 

Last week I read an article related to sudden wealth. It was titled, “What notto do when you win the lottery.”It could have easily been titled after the rich man in our lesson: “When greed makes you stupid.”

That article gave a few examples of people who, as Jesus said, tore down barns so they could build bigger ones. 

One story stood out to me more than the others. The story of Denise Rossi is as fascinating as it is compelling. Dear Denise won the lottery and decided that it was time to divorce her husband…. The next day. 

Oh, it gets better, buckle up. When she filed, she, “forgot to mention” the fact she was a newly minted millionaire.

Denise must have been a fan of The Steve Miller Band, “Take the money and run.” …… And she ran… straight to the court house.

She almost got away with it too. But those obnoxious asset disclosure laws interrupted her relocation to the islands on a private jet. During the divorce proceedings, her lawyers discovered her new fortune. Then, by a slip of the tongue, she said that her husband gave her money to buy the ticket… for him. 

The court awarded all the winnings to her husband! She tore her barns down in foggy weather, and she paid for it. Oddly enough, they couldn’t reconcile their “irreconcilable differences.”

The sermon title today is, “What will you do if you win the lottery?”

Amen.