The Stories We Tell Ourselves

Colossians 3:1-11, Luke 12: 13-21

As a child, July fourth usually meant a picnic with my Mom’s side of the family. It was hot in Southeast Nashville, but it wasn’t too hot for tables to be gathered   under the trees in our back yard. Aunts and Uncles and cousins showed up with dishes to share and their lawn chairs. My dad’s electric ice cream freezer would be churning away in the background noise. But the role of the ice cream was to be a la mode to the blackberry cobbler that had the whole house smelling like sweet summertime. These were not store-bought blackberries. These had shown up in gallon tupperware buckets early that day. Picked by someone who put on their long sleeves, despite the warm July morning, to compensate for the briars on the blackberry bushes that surrounded the acre where our grandparents gardened. They were a gift of the season – enjoyed by Robins, and bluejays, and morning doves, and us. Ripening in the summer sunshine, they were in varying stages of tart and sweet. Our family shared the bounty with the birds and anyone else who showed up to pick. The land was borrowed for the garden. The bushes were wild. No one cultivated them. The fat berries just appeared in the brambles and waited to be eaten. We carried them away in our buckets. The birds carried them away in their bellies.[1] This is what RWK would call a gift economy. The wild blackberries don’t belong to anyone… no one did anything  to earn them. No one was more entitled to them. They were there for the picking year after year, by the humans and the birds.

This kind of thinking, this kind of sharing is rare these days. One of the stories we’ve told ourselves about any gift of the natural world is “We better get all we want now because there won’t be anymore the next time I want them.” And another story we tell ourselves is “These berries (or peaches, or tomatoes) are too good to let the birds or the squirrels have them!” We tell ourselves stories to justify our hoarding tendencies, our greed; to explain why it makes the most sense to put ourselves, our plans and futures above everyone else.

A person comes to Jesus to settle a dispute between him and his brother over their inheritance. It seems he believes Jesus to be a fair judge, qualified to settle this kind of thing. But Jesus refuses to be pulled into this argument, not because it should be a family matter, and not because he refuses to talk about money or possessions. In fact, the topic comes up again and again in the gospel of Luke. Jesus is not reluctant to discuss the “seductive and difficult subject of possessions.”[2] However, Jesus opted not to do what he was asked to do, but he re-directed the conversation to bring a deeper issue to light.

In his usual way he shares a parable about a rich man who already owns a good portion of land. His land produces a bunker crop – far more than the man needs for himself. It’s more than will store up properly in his current barns. Shoooweee! What will he do?
Did he go to his neighbors to see if they had room in their barns? No.
Did he consider offering a U-Pick day on the farm for people to come pick whatever they could carry away? No.
Did he donate the surplus to the local food pantry?
Call the community food bank to see if they could take it? Nope.
His BIG idea was to tear down his barns that were too small and build BIGGER barns.

Because the story he is telling himself is all these crops belong to him! It makes more sense to tear down the barns he has and build bigger ones than to only keep what he can store. The story he is telling himself is that this will be enough to last several years. He will finally have enough so that he can relax! Live off what he has saved! The story he is telling himself is that he EARNED all this land and all his surplus crops.

The rich man’s internal monologue confirms that in his vast wealth, his plan is to eat, drink, and be merry. “Shoooooweeee, Self! You deserve this! Self, you earned this!”

One of the most dangerous stories we tell ourselves is that our own value is tied to how much we possess and have put away; that we are only as lovable as we are wealthy; that our financial success is a sign of God’s favor.  Notice when God shows up in the story.  We haven’t heard one negative word about this man until God appears and calls him a fool. Jennifer Wyant (NT Prof at Candler) said, “the man’s mistake isn’t how he made his money, it’s what he believed it could do for him. He put his trust in his possessions,” his savings, “and not in God.”[3]

This parable is bound to bother us just a little bit. Because many of us have our retirement accounts, our 401(k)s (or we wish we did!). Responsibly saving so that one’s future is secure is something to aim for, isn’t it? Maybe the question is, Who does your future include besides you? The rich man seems overly focused on himself. The truth is, Luke wants us to hear in this story, that wealth is a barrier - a distraction - to following God. God wants us to put our trust in him, to desire most of all to be “rich toward God.”  And when we are doing that, then we plan for a future that includes more than ourselves.  We won’t need bigger barns, we’ll need bigger hearts and bigger imaginations – to see how God wants to use us and our surplus.

The parable reminds me of this story Robin Wall Kimmerer shares in her book, The Serviceberry, about a researcher’s observations of a hunter in the Brazilian rainforest. The hunter brought home a sizable kill, far too much to be eaten by his family. The researcher asked how he would store the excess. Smoking and drying practices for meat were well known, so storing was possible. The hunter was puzzled by the question – store the meat? Why would he do that? Instead, he sent out an invitation to a feast, and soon the neighboring families were gathered around his fire, until every last morsel was consumed. The researcher didn’t understand, given the uncertainty of meat in the forest, why the hunter didn’t store the meat for himself. Store the meat? I store the meat in the belly of my brother, explained the hunter. You can store meat in your own pantry or in the belly of your brother. Both have the result of keeping hunger at bay but with very different consequences.[4]

In our world today, 1 in 4 people go hungry. And the problem isn’t that we can’t grow enough food to feed the world. The problem is getting the food we have into the bellies that need it most. We have a bigger barn problem.

The question for us is: Will we as individuals, as the church, insist on building bigger barns? Or could we learn from the natural world, how abundance and reciprocity work when we aren’t hoarding too much for ourselves?

So, what stories should we be telling ourselves after hearing the parable of the rich man and the story of the hunter; or in just thinking about the way  blackberries grow in the wild?

Self, Jesus invites you to trust, not in what you can build or save, but in the God who provides enough.

Self, in your plan for the future, (who else needs to be included) —consider the needs of others as much as your own. And Self, remember, wealth and possessions will never save us, only God can do that.

It seems most fitting that we gather around this shared table today. Is this what a gift economy looks like? Sharing a meal around this Lord’s table reminds us that we haven’t done anything to earn our place here. We haven’t done anything to earn the right to eat here. The bread and the cup are pure gift offered up by Jesus, our host. No one receives more than any other. No one is kept from the table. We practice an open table where anyone is welcome, no matter your religious background, or where you are in your journey of faith. We meet each other here all equally in need of grace. All hungry for God’s mercy and love. We share in a meal that has been prepared for us by Christ himself, who loved us and gave himself for us. There is abundance in this bite. It is enough to fill our souls.  This table has been set for you. Won’t you come?

[1] Kimmerer, Robin Wall, The Serviceberry

[2] Craddock, Fred Interpretation Commentary Series, Luke

[3] Wyant, Jennifer S. Working Preacher commentary Luke 12:13-21, 2025

[4] Kimmerer, Robin Wall, The Serviceberry