Luke 12:13-21
Ideology was first used as a word in 1813. It's meaning is derived from the Greek ideo + logos meaning idea and word. We have come to a point where our ideologies have become our barns. The main meaning of the parable is in the heart of what makes us scratch our head. There is not a farmer, even back in Jesus time, who would store up all their harvest and lay it in a barn. People would know the tax from Rome on that would be required and hefty to help feed the soldiers in the occupying army. Also, the rest would go to market to be sold and provide for the families other needs. Laying it by in a bigger barn for himself and only him would make no sense. The my and I word is used so much here we can't miss it. It is to point out the loss of the whole. The loss of community and care for others.
This is where ideology comes in. How much of the present division we see today is from looking at our own set of beliefs and calling them beautiful and right and closing the barn door on anyone who thinks differently? We forget exactly how Christianity, and Judaism out of which it sprung, first were based on the community, care of others, and hearing out their story.
The first examples of the Way were based in communities of widows and people who were on the fringes of society. They would form a community compound open to caring for all who walked into their doors. They shared resources, it wasn't perfect, but they tried.
We forget that Peter and Paul never saw eye to eye. Most of Paul's writings are a response to Peter and the Jerusalem church coming right along after Paul's visits and saying you have to follow Jewish law, you have to be circumcised in order to be a Christian. Paul never shuts the door on them though because we get pleas for money for the Jerusalem church in his letters to those communities due to a famine that came.
Which brings us to today. We have built the barn and closed our listening ears to others. We don't even want to listen, we know we are right. Part of the kingdom of God is at least listening. Listening doesn't mean we agree with everything that is said, listening does mean we hear what is being said from another. It is like we are fighting over the inheritance of this world and we forget the basic principles of faith. Don't be afraid, reach out to others with whom you disagree, love your enemies, leave your offering at the altar and go, be reconciled with the one who offended you, take care of the least of these because when you do you have done it to Jesus.
We like to pick and choose our own way. Jesus asks us today to pick the way of God storing up for ourselves treasures of heaven. Because in the end it doesn't matter much if you agree, it matters that we recognize we have heard another child of God.
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