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In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

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Amen. Grace and peace

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be to you from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Amen.

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Who is the fool

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of God?

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Does this word of God, found only in Luke's gospel place you on the

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outside looking in?

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Do you find yourself as a member of this seminary community

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poor in riches but rich in spirit. Saying, but I am not one of the rich

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men about whom Jesus is talking.

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I can't open multiple stock accounts and diversified

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portfolios

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in order to store up my wealth.

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I can't relate to Jesus condemnation of the frivolous pursuit of

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riches.

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Whoever the rich fool is, he isn't me.

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So, who is the rich fool?

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In the context of Luke's gospel and is clear that Jesus uses the

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title fool or in Greek moron in reference, not only to the financially

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rich but also to the spiritually rich.

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Including the Pharisees and Jesus opponents.

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The rich fool is anyone who stores up anything, created by God, the

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Father, claiming it as his own idolatrous possession.

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The rich fool is the one who finds his identity and security in the

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things he possesses and hordes

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as his undeniable right.

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For the Pharisees

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 their possession was the law and they're keeping of the law.

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They stored it up in credit accounts, every jot and tittle of the law,

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which they had kept.

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So who is the rich fool?

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Let me offer a parable. There

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once was a man who delighted in books.

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The man secured and scoured book, stores and catalogs for books to his

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liking. When his office ran out of shelf space, he decided to build

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more shelves to hold more books.

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Then he would not have to depart with the books that he owned and could

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acquire more books.

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But it was easy for the man, to forget that the books were not his.

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The books were entrusted to him by God.

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They were not his own.

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And he did not need them to survive.

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So, who is

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the rich fool? It is anyone

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gives in to the temptation to treasure, any possession above the giver

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of all things.

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It is the one who finds their identity in the things they possess

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money, books, cars, clothing, a many roomed house, honor, authority,

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humility even theology.

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Yes, even theological knowledge and aptitude can become something that

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we store in the barns of our minds and treasure above the source of

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that knowledge.

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What do you

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treasure above all else?

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Where do your riches

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reside?

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Now, I know you want to protest.

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There is nothing wrong in having possessions, true enough. To say that

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having possessions is wrong would be tantamount to denying the God is

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the Creator and that God is God.

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But notice in what way, Jesus accuses the man who once the inheritance

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from his brother. He accuses him of covetousness, he covets the

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brothers inheritance, what God has given his brother, but that's not

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even the heart of his sin.

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His covetousness, is a desiring of things that God has not given him.

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His covetousness is his 

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 his statement of displeasure with God. His complaint is

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against the Creator.

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He finds the center of his life, not in God himself but in God's

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created gifts.

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He thinks that his life consists in the abundance of his possessions.

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He seeks life in his things and thumbs his nose at God.

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He covets what belongs to the Creator

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and loses him in the process.

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Amazingly, that is what we consider wisdom.

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Given the scarcity of Earthly things in the fact that life can

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evaporate in, but a breath,

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We gather as much as we can thinking that we are fulfilled. And since

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God cannot be seen, we think that the beginning and end of life can be

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found and what is available for the taking.

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Remember the old slogan, he who has the most toys wins.

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But our possessions are as fleeting as we are.

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When we die, they become someone else's treasure.

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Or they become the trophy of some massive trash heap.

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So the rich fool is stripped of everything that had meaning to him.

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So lives

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and dies, the one whom God calls fool.

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But there is another fool of God.

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This is not one who lives by the foolishness of the world's wisdom,

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but who lives by the wisdom that the world considers foolish?

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The fool of God Lives to the beat of a different drummer.

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He does not count equality with God

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something to be grasped.

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Something to be seized. Something to possess.

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He counts, knowing God, in living in the way of the Lord, to be the

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treasure above all treasures.

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This fool of God, seeks

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the kingdom of God.

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And this fool of God, describes the heartbeat of this Kingdom.

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This rule and reign of God when he preaches in the synagogue in

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Nazareth.

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The favor of God at the center of the kingdom of God, is the favored,

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the grace, the forgiving kindness of the God of gods and Lord of

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lords.

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That is the treasure that this fool desires above all else.

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And which he gives to you this day.

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Come to this Feast of God's kingdom.

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Receive the treasure of the Lord.

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Receive the favor of God.

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Receive the riches of his rule and reign. Here

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God's fool, his son, Jesus, empties out to you all the treasures of

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his Father's Kingdom.

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His life, his mercy, his grace, his love, his forgiveness, his

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embrace, his body crucified, his blood poured out, for you.

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And the kingdom that is coming. Don't worry about what you are to eat,

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to drink.

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Do not be anxious about your very life.

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Don't store up

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Earthly

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treasures in barns.

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Your father knows

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what you need.

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Receive the treasures of his kingdom and all these things will be

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added to you. The new Heaven and the new Earth that he has gone on

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ahead to prepare for you.

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Are you a fool of God?

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Are you rich toward God? Clothed with Christ

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you have the treasure of God. You count, everything as loss because of

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the surpassing worth of knowing Christ

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Jesus your lord. You have everything,

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everything you need. The life of God in Christ.

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Jesus

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your Lord, the power of his resurrection.

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And so you can be rich toward God by being rich toward others freely,

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giving away what the Father has given you.

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Are you fool of God?

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God's fool

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Christ, the Lord has made you like him.

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A fool of God.

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In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

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Amen.