Who and Whose

Proper 13 C
August 3, 2025

The Reverend Will Berry

Beloved in Christ, I speak to you today in the name of the God from whom all good, holy, and life-giving things come: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Please be seated.

Today is the 8th Sunday after Pentecost and we are slowly making our way through that long stretch of liturgical season known as Ordinary Time. As Adam reminded us a couple of weeks ago, Ordinary Time is that long green season that represents growth and abundance as we explore the teachings of Jesus and learn more about his life and his ministry. In this particular cycle of the Lectionary, we are spending time in the gospel of Luke and will be doing so all the way into Advent at the end of November. So I hope you like the gospel of Luke—because you’re going to be hearing from it for the next seventeen Sundays.

Today we hear a fairly well-known parable about a man who decides, as Jesus says, to store up his treasures on earth instead of in heaven. There’s one thing that Jesus likes to talk about throughout the gospels is wealth, or at least our attachment to it. Jesus never says that wealth is bad, at least in and of itself, but he constantly cautions his disciples not to chase it, to put stock in the Gospel rather than in the bank account.

These are always interesting teachings to talk about in the Episcopal Church, since we do tend to be one of the wealthier denominations in our country. It’s especially interesting to talk about here in Charleston where closets with a window and half a bathroom cost three-quarters of a million dollars. But even if we’re not particularly well off ourselves, it’s pretty hard not to be influenced by the wider culture of affluence that exists in our city. It’s always prudent, especially for people like me who are from “off”, to remember that what helped build this amazing, beautiful city that so many people are coming to was the enslavement of human beings.

Perhaps that’s why Jesus continually cautions his disciples about greed because Jesus known all too well where greed can lead us as human beings. Yes, there are certainly those who build wealth for themselves by making an honest living and who have integrity and compassion, but, as we know, throughout history, there are those who have literally built their wealth on the backs of other people. This is why Jesus challenges his followers to be mindful of how they grow and store their resources. He always encourages them to do so in a way that really builds up the community as a whole and not just themselves.

This is exactly what I think Jesus is trying to convey in today’s parable. Like so many of its counterparts, Jesus offers today’s parable, which is known as the “Parable of the rich fool”, as a response to a person that he encountered in his ministry. In today’s case, he encounters a man in the crowd that he’s been preaching to throughout chapter 12 of Luke’s gospel. This man shouts out to Jesus, “Jesus, tell my brother to divide his inheritance with me.” I don’t know about you, but that’s a pretty random and personal thing to just shout out at somebody. But Jesus doesn’t mince his words when he responds. He says, “Friend, who sent me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” Then he turns to the crowd and he says, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed for one’s life does not consist of the abundance of possessions.”

Now Jesus didn’t stop there. Like he so often does, Jesus turns to the crowd and he says, “Let me tell you a story. There once was a rich man who had some pretty abundant crops and he wondered to himself what exactly he was going to do with them. He said, ‘Self, here’s what I’ll do. I will tear down the barns that I have, I will build even bigger ones, I can store more stuff, and then I can kick back and relax and enjoy the good life.’” Not a bad situation, is it? Unfortunately, unbeknownst to the man with the abundant crops in today’s story, he’s about to die. That very night, in fact. And as it turns out, he can’t take any of his crops or any of his stuff or any of his money with him. Here he was thinking about his luxurious retirement plan, but apparently life had other plans for him. As the saying goes, you never know when it’s your time.

I want to reiterate that the problem Jesus seems to have with the man in the story isn’t that he’s doing well for himself. The problem is that’s all that the man seems to care about. Never once does the man take time to thank God for what he has. Never once does he say, “How can I use what I have to help others or even to share with the people I love.” Instead he just thinks about building more barns and amassing more stuff. So for us, friends, perhaps this is a cautionary tale about what we are putting our stock in as people of faith.

And it’s a reminder that, as one of my favorite blessings goes, “Life is short, and we have little time to gladden the hearts of those who make this way with us” (Amiel). Sure, we can use the gifts that God has given us only for ourselves. We might even be able to live nice, comfortable lives. But if we are willing to acknowledge that everything we have is, in fact, a gift from our creator. Gifts are meant to be shared. Y’all, we can live into that kind of human economy that Jesus so often calls us to live into, which is an economy of abundance and gratitude.

A couple of years ago when we started discerning the need for a capital campaign here at St Stephen’s, some of our folks asked some really good questions. I wasn’t here yet but I know that these questions were asked and I know they have been really important as we thought about the future of our campus here in Ansonborough. One of those questions that was asked is, “How are we going to use our new facility for the sake of the wider community, and not just for ourselves?”

As we’ve been wrapping up this project, that’s exactly what we’ve been thinking about. One of the things that we were made aware of a few months ago, about the time we first started our capital campaign, was that, in the wake of the current administration’s targeting of DEI, a lot of diversity-related groups at the College of Charleston have now been dismantled and have been forced to move off campus. So part of what we’ve been framing and talking to is how St Stephen’s can be a kind of community hub, not only for the College of Charleston but also for all people in the Charleston area who are trying to work in the area of inclusion and justice. Part of what we realized is we’re going to have this incredible downtown apartment on the third floor of 54 Society Street. The way we’ve decided to use that is to actually house a young adult who is already connected with College of Charleston, who can help us create and build that community hub in partnership with the Diocese and with our friends over at St Mark’s. Even with all of that in progress, I think we should be asking ourselves how we can use this amazing campus and how we can use it to build up God’s beloved kingdom here in Charleston. As you think about that question, I want to invite you to share them with each other and especially with the staff and clergy because in my mind this is really going to be a collaborative effort.

Something you may not be aware of is that, in the Episcopal Church, we are in the top ten percent of congregations in the country in terms of our average Sunday attendance, in terms of our yearly budget. There was a time not too long ago in our history, some of you might remember, when we weren’t even sure if we could afford a priest and now y’all are stuck with three of us. [laughter] We also have a Deacon, a Parish Administrator, a Choirmaster-Organist, a Finance Manager, a host of volunteers who, let’s be honest, probably should be paid. If we actually paid them what their time is worth, we would have no money left in our bank account. Something that Adam jokes about with us frequently, although not too unseriously, is that our campus is so relatively small that, at some point, if we keep growing, we’re going to have to start a second campus. Personally, my vote is for “St Stephen’s Folly Beach”. [laughter] It has a really nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

The truth is that we are so incredibly fortunate here at St Stephen’s and, in my experience with y’all in the past two years, we have a natural spirit of generosity. So, as we enter in this new season together, my hope and my prayer is that we will continue to discern ways that, as Jesus says, we can “store up our treasures in heaven” and bless the community around us, giving thanks to God for all the amazing gifts we have been given and showing what God’s generosity can look like. Friends, it is no secret that we live in a world that is so often dominated by an economy of scarcity. If there is anything in abundance, perhaps it’s free. Far too often, wealth is built on the backs of others. But true wealth, as we are reminded today, is the knowledge of who and whose we are and who we are called to be today. In a world that often rewards avarice, where important things like health care and public broadcasting are cut, and we are funding multimillion-dollar ballrooms, private planes, and excessive displays of massive opulence, people of faith have the opportunity to show a better and more holy way. To use the blessings that we have to bless others is how we build up God’s beloved community. Not to put what we have on display for consumption but to share what we have for the sake of the gospel. Friends, may we practice generosity now and always as we continue to live into our mission of being “a house of prayer for all people.”

© 2025 Will Berry

Photo by Buddha Elemental 3D on Unsplash