Everyone owns some personal property, and we use our property in the course of our daily lives. Everyone has rights in the personal property that they own including the right to possess and use the property, the right to derive income from it, the right to dispose of it, and also the right to control the property by excluding others from using it. According to the Pew Research Center 88% of American households own cars.[1] For the vast majority of Americans a car is the most expensive piece of personal property owned by the household. You have the right to own a car and to drive it but it is not an absolute right as car use is highly regulated. In order to drive you are required to have a license. When driving you are expected to follow the rules of the road which includes abiding by the traffic laws and the speed limits. You are also required to register the car, have liability insurance, and renew your license plates. You have the right to derive income from your car which you can do by making money driving for Lyft or Uber. The right to derive income however is not an absolute right because any money that you earn is taxable income that must be reported to the tax authorities and when you are driving passengers for hire you are responsible for the safety of your passengers and you are subject to legal liability. The right to dispose of the car is a pretty broad right but even it is not absolute. If you sell a car in Minnesota you are required to file a report of sale online and you are required to assign the title to the buyer. You also may need to make an odometer disclosure and a damage disclosure to the buyer depending on the age of the vehicle. Despite these regulations there is one right that you have in the car that is absolute and that is the right to exclude anyone from using the car. You can go out and spend $1 million on a Ferrari and nobody can force you to drive the car, nobody can force you to let someone else drive the car, nobody can force you to sell the car. You have the absolute right to let that Ferrari sit in a garage until you die or until it rusts out and falls apart.
The hypothetical that I just presented is a bit ridiculous as no person in their right mind would spend money for a car that they never intend to drive, however as I just outlined our laws regarding personal property do not require anyone to use their property wisely or productively. It is interesting that Jesus does not condemn this man because he has great wealth. In other situations, Jesus says that it will be difficult for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of God but he does not do that here. Jesus criticizes the man because he is going to let his property sit in storage and potentially go to waste. Jesus knows that the man can do anything with his property and Jesus teaches us in this parable that the use of our personal property reflects our personal values. We have the opportunity to use our property to meet the needs of our community and our neighbors rather than hoarding our property while people continue to suffer. God does not require us to relinquish all of our possessions but by asking us to give up our lives God invites us to build blessed community through the wise use of our property. Growing up there was a man that I knew that built a couple of barns and accumulated some property, however unlike the man in this parable he dedicated his life to God and served his community and used his property to improve the lives of his neighbors. This man who built barns filled with goods while being rich toward God was my great grandfather Leslie Newton Baldwin.
We can accumulate wealth through our career or vocation and Jesus is not criticizing the man for his prosperity. My great grandfather earned a living as a dairy farmer who built barns for his farm machinery and a milking parlor for his cows. He grew up on the farm but nobody alive today knows why he stayed on the farm. I believe that he went into dairy farming because he found meaning and purpose in his work. My great grandfather was able to meet a community need while making a living. In 1941 the average person in the United States drank 744 glasses of milk which is about two glasses per day for every man, woman, and child in America.[2] During World War II two glasses per day per person meant that the nation needed a steady and reliable supply of milk and my great grandfather was a part of that. As the United States became involved in the war, I am sure that there was a sense of dread as lives were disrupted as young men went off to war and the quality of life suffered as certain items were rationed. Drinking a glass of milk not only provided nutrition but comfort during a turbulent time. I am sure that he felt that his work on the dairy farm made a positive impact on the quality of life in his community.
Vocations can be ways in which we devote our lives to Christ. Some of you may love your work and others may be yearning to change careers. The low unemployment rate may provide you with the chance to transition into a new career that might be more meaningful to you and bring significant value to the community. You may want to stay in your current field and this may be the time to find another company that may better align with your ethics and values. I know that many of you cannot switch jobs because your current job may be the only way to support your family, but you can still give your customers the best possible service as you provide them with a product that enhances their lives. Through our vocations we meet community needs and generate wealth.
In the course of making a living some of us do accumulate property much like this man who wants to build bigger barns. Returning to the automobile hypothetical my great grandfather definitely did not have a Ferrari rusting away in the garage. In the 1980s I remember him driving a Chevy Celebrity which was a car that was not fancy but it was comfortable and reliable. The Celebrity was his way to stay connected to his neighbors and his community as he used the car wisely and productively. Even in his eighties he was still actively engaged in community life. He was still very active in Rotary, the county museum board, and his church. He had already given so much to his neighbors but he continued to give his time even in his old age. Without the Celebrity he would have been isolated out on the farm and not involved in the life of the town.
It is not always easy to see how our property can be used help others. Many volunteer opportunities are seen solely as opportunities to donate time but property does play a role. Most opportunities to serve are going to require driving or biking to a location. In Puerto Rico we did a significant amount of driving to reach the work sites. I know that in my neighborhood there is a community organization that is looking for people to deliver fresh produce to low-income individuals as part of a food justice initiative. Yes, volunteering is more often seen as an investment of time but it can also include the use of property to help build community. Sometimes we have to get the Celebrity out of the garage and interact with our neighbors and meet the needs of the community.
Finally, the topic of money just cannot be avoided when talking about stewardship of resources. Luke writes about money frequently in his Gospel and in Luke we often read that Jesus favors the poor and the oppressed and that Jesus is willing to condemn those who are stingy with their wealth. My great grandfather gave away a significant amount of money. In fact, he gave away so much that he was actually audited by the IRS because the amount that he was giving to charity was higher than what they were expecting. He made it through the audit without owing any additional tax because the IRS discovered that he was actually giving away as much as he was claiming for a charitable deduction. Despite all that he gave to charity my great grandfather did not give up everything that he had. He did not die broke or destitute. Jesus lived in an era where there was no social security, no social safety net, and someone engaged in the hard labor of farming without machines knew that some savings would be useful when they would no longer be able to work in the field. We are not called to give everything away but we are called to put our wealth to work to help meet the needs of the community. By having trust in God and giving what we can our financial gifts can make our world a better place for all of us. We can use our charitable giving to support the causes that are most important to us.
Our ability to make a living and everything that we have are blessings from God. God favors us in so many ways. We offer our treasures to God and to our neighbor and God uses them to create a beloved community. The most precious of God’s gifts is eternal life. Yes, eternal life includes heaven but just as importantly eternal life is lived by each and every one of us here on earth. When we share ourselves and our property in the course of our humble lives God works through us in ways that we cannot fathom. By simply making a living, being connected to your community, and being generous with your wealth God is working through you and your property to make the world a better place for everyone. It is fine to build a barn and have possessions but remember that everything that we have ultimately belongs to God who loves all of us and who invites us to make wise use of God’s gifts.
- Vicar Kyle Anderson
[1]Jacob Poushter, “Car, Bike, or Motorcycle? Depends on Where You Live,” Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/16/car-bike-or-motorcycle-depends-on-where-you-live (accessed July 26, 2022).
[2]“Drink Up!” Smithsonian Natural Museum of American History Behring Center, https://americanhistory.si.edu/object-project/refrigerators/milk-bottles (accessed July 26, 2022).