TO BE RICH TOWARD GOD - THE JOY OF GIVING

TO BE RICH TOWARD GOD - THE JOY OF GIVING

Stewardship Sunday 2024

Fr Luke A Veronis

To be “rich toward God.” What does this mean? Take a moment and reflect on what this means – to be rich toward God.

We hear this beautiful phrase in today’s Gospel reading about the rich fool, someone who was not rich toward God. And yet, Jesus then challenges His followers, and us, by saying “So is anyone who lays up treasure for themselves and is not rich toward God." Such a person is a FOOL!

Imagine Christ calling you a fool. That’s a scary thought, something none of us would ever want to be called when we come face to face with our Lord. And thus, He warns us anyone who lays up treasure for themselves and are not rich toward God are fools!

So, we want to reflect today on what does it mean to be rich toward God. It’s extremely interesting how Jesus isn’t afraid to talk bluntly to the people about their relationship with their possessions and wealth and to show how this relationship with our material goods reveals what type of relationship with have with God Himself.

Do our wealth and money, our possessions and material goods, control us or do we control them? Are we seeking to get more and more, adopting the American mentality of success from a consumeristic perspective – the richer we are, the more successful we are; the more we have, the happier we’ll be? Do we give to the greed of the world and fall prey to envy and jealousy when others have something we don’t?

Jesus calls this foolishness! Plain and simple! Foolishness to put our trust and hope in wealth and possessions. Foolishness to think this will make us happy and content. Foolishness to judge success by what we have! Foolishness to allow our wealth and possessions to feed our ego and make us self-centered people, simply looking for ways to become more comfortable and secure..

'What shall I do?” the rich man asked in today’s Gospel story? “ I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones… I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.”

This sounds like a resounding successful life! How many of us admire and even envy the millionaires and billionaires of the world - the Elon Musks, the Jeff Bezos, the Mark Zuckerbergs, the Bill Gates?

And yet, Christ highlights a radically different message again and again throughout the Gospels. Don’t be a fool! Be rich toward God. Don’t let your possessions possess you but understand that we are but caretakers, or stewards, of all we possess. We have these possessions so that we can use them to bless others. Remember, we are Christ’s ambassadors in this world. Thus, whatever we have, we use to glory His Name!

The Lord blesses us. He gives us our upbringing, our health, our intellect, our charisma, our work ethic, our opportunities to do well financially and to prosper, And then, He wants us to be rich toward God.

He doesn’t bless us so that we can accumulate more and more. He doesn’t bless us so that we can build bigger homes and acquire more toys to entertain ourselves with.

He reminds us to be rich toward God with all we have. To share generously. To give freely. To understand that all we have is a blessing we receive so that we can bless others. He wants us to discover the JOY OF GIVING!

Saint John Chrysostom reminds us that whatever money and possessions we have, they are ultimately the Lord’s. It’s not OUR hard earned money and possessions, but whatever finances we have accumulated are God’s. And we are His ambassador in the world. We are called to use whatever gifts we have to glorify His Name. And we do that by sharing, by giving, by helping others in need.

Chrysostom reminds us that “the rich man is not one who has much but one who gives much, for what he gives remains his forever.”

This is what it means to be rich toward God – to use our riches to bless others, to give to others, to help others.

These past weeks, we have heard different stories warning us of the dangers of greed and a self-centered life compared to Christ’s call for us to be rich toward God. We heard about the rich man who lived extravagantly while he didn’t even notice or help the poor man Lazarus right outside his doorstep. We heard about the Good Samaritan who went out of his way to help a stranger, a foreigner, even someone from the despised enemy tribe and freely gave whatever was needed to help the poor man half dead on his path.

Maybe Saint Paul helps us understand being rich toward God with his beautiful phrase in today’s Epistle Reading – “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” If Christ truly is inside me, ruling in my heart, my entire perspective and goal in life will be to love my neighbor, to help my neighbor, to share my blessings with others because that is what divine love does.

When we adopt this “mind of Christ,” we then will understand what it means to be rich toward God. We will realize it is a joy to share and to give of what we have.

The Lord gives us all we have. He gives us the freedom to do choose what to do with the blessings He gives us. We can choose to honor God and be rich toward Him with all we have, or we can choose to be foolish with our possessions and try to acquire more and more.

God doesn’t need our gifts. Yet, He wants us to discover the joy of loving others, the joy of freely sharing our blessings, the joy of giving freely.

This is the spirit of Stewardship Sunday, which we celebrate today. We remind everyone that it’s not simply a duty to give and become a member of our beloved Church Family. More so it’s a blessed opportunity we all have to give joyously and generously to support the work and ministries of our Church Family.

Giving of our time, our talents, and our treasure is a privilege and opportunity we have to be rich toward God. We can share our blessings by blessing others. We can discover the joy of giving.

This is why Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Many people don’t understand this because they don’t understand the heart and spirit of our Lord. He’s revealing to us a secret of life – to discover the blessedness and joy of sharing our gifts with others, starting with the Church, the Family of God, and then going beyond to the world at large.

Let us be rich toward God. Don’t be a fool who tries to accumulate more and more, keeping it for yourself. Discover the joy of giving and the delight in being rich toward God. Remember the words of Saint John Chrysostom, “The rich person is not one who has much but one who gives much, for what he gives remains his forever.”