One of the staples of conversation between people must be what we watch on the TV. I’m sure if we think about the conversations we have with people, we’d probably all agree that subject crops up regularly in them. In that respect then, I’m probably something of a disappointment when people speak to me because I don’t watch TV very often. I never watch soaps, I’m not really interested in football, I really don’t see the attraction in reality TV shows, or celebrity TV shows such as Strictly Come Dancing or I’m a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here, and I must be one of the very few people who’ve never, ever seen, nor has any interest in seeing, a single episode of Game of Thrones.
Having said that, I do sometimes watch the TV. I have music channels on although in that case I tend to be listening to them rather than watching them, I watch films and I watch documentaries. And amongst the documentaries I do like to watch is one that seems to be known by various names but is actually called Autopsy, subtitled The Last Hours of… and completed by the name of the person whose death, and usually premature and often controversial death, is being investigated.
I don’t know how many of you have ever watched this programme but if you have then, perhaps like me, you’ve been struck by a remarkable similarity between many of the people who’ve been the subject of the programme. They’re all famous people, celebrities. They’ve all been very successful in their chosen field, and they’ve gained the fame and wealth that success brings. And yet they’ve also usually been deeply flawed and unhappy people. Sometimes they’ve been people who’ve led very hedonistic lives and who’ve died prematurely because their lifestyle has eventually caught up with them. Sometimes they’ve been people who, despite their success and wealth, were wracked by self-doubt, by anxieties and insecurities and who’ve turned to substance abuse of one kind or another, and often multiple kinds of substance abuse, to help them through the bad times and who, in the end, have died prematurely because of the toll their abuse of tobacco, alcohol, various drugs, and even food, has taken on their bodies.
It’s a programme, a documentary series, that I find very interesting but at the same time, I think it’s also quite sad and quite worrying too. It’s sad to see how so many people who, on the surface at least, had everything they ever dreamed of can be so troubled and unhappy. And it’s worrying because it shows that celebrity, success and the fame and wealth that go with it, far from being the stuff of dreams it’s usually portrayed to be by the media, can actually be the stuff of nightmares.
It’s worrying to know that the celebrity lifestyle so many people aspire to and are encouraged to aspire to can actually be the cause of deep unhappiness and the tragedy of substance abuse, addictions and premature death.
For a long time now, tobacco, has come with health warnings on the packaging because it’s known just how hazardous to health smoking can be. Alcohol usually comes with a warning not to drink more than a certain amount. Some drugs are illegal and those that are legal, whether they have to be prescribed by a medical professional or can be bought over the counter, come with warnings not to exceed a safe dosage. Even food comes with health warnings now in the form of advice on how much fat, salt, sugar and additives it contains. And yet, if the evidence of the TV programme Autopsy is to be taken seriously, one of the most hazardous things to our health and well-being is celebrity. And yet people are encouraged to want celebrity, or at least to aspire to a celebrity lifestyle, and this comes with no warning whatsoever about the potential dangers of such a lifestyle. Perhaps then, it would be a good idea to follow up any TV programme about celebrities, or any TV programme that encourages people to want a celebrity lifestyle, with an episode of Autopsy, just as a warning of what celebrity can do to people. Or perhaps people could just be pointed in the direction of this morning’s Gospel and the parable of the Rich Fool.
What is this morning’s Gospel, the parable of the Rich Fool, other than a warning that success and wealth, at least in the earthly way we usually measure these things, don’t guarantee a happy life? What is it but a warning that earthly success and wealth don’t guarantee a long life? What is it but a warning that if we really do want to be happy and really do want long life, not necessarily a long earthly life which nothing can guarantee, but the long life of eternity with God, then we have to stop our striving after earthly success and wealth and make ourselves rich in other ways? What is it but a warning that if we do want happiness and long life, we have to make ourselves rich not in our own eyes or in the world’s eyes, but in God’s eyes?
There’s no sense in this parable that Jesus condemns wealth in itself. What’s condemned here is the complacent, selfish and self-satisfied attitude that wealth can lead to. The Rich Fool is satisfied because he has enough for his own needs, more than enough in fact, and so he becomes so self-satisfied and complacent that he’s blinded to the needs of others. He thinks all he has to do is take care of himself and his own wealth and possessions. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say he thought that if he took care of his wealth and possessions, if he kept them to himself, they’d take care of him. But that’s not only to be blind to the needs of others, to be blind to what God asks of us in loving our neighbour, ultimately, it’s also to be blind to our own needs too.
It’s being blind to our own needs because only being rich in God’s eyes can bring us the happiness and long life that we all want so much.
But as well as being a health warning to today’s celebrity obsessed society, this parable is also a very timely warning to a Church that itself is becoming increasingly concerned about wealth and status. How often, for example, when we hear from leading figures in the Church today, are they talking about politics rather than faith? How often do we hear them making pronouncements on general issues, jumping on the latest ‘woke’ bandwagon, for example, rather than proclaiming the Gospel? Of course the Church should have an opinion and a voice on all aspects of life, but its opinion should be how well any particular aspect of life and society conforms to the Gospel and the Church should leave it at that. The Church’s ministry is a prophetic ministry, it’s not called to jump on the bandwagon of popular opinion in an attempt to make itself ‘relevant’ or ‘acceptable’ to the world, but to call society and the world back to God through obedience to Christ. And it has no business and no mandate to do anything else other than that.
And how often do we see parishes that are wealthy in worldly terms enjoying what amounts to preferential treatment over parishes that are poor in worldly terms? The Church may not want to accept that this goes on, but it does. I’ve mentioned before a parish church in a world-famous medieval market town which had 11 clergy attached to it. 1 parish; 11 clergy, and yet how many parishes are being told these days they have to share 1 priest between 2, 3 or more churches? Or a parish in an area regarded as nice and well-off that went into interregnum owing over £100,000 in Parish Share which, by their own admission they had no intention whatsoever of paying. And yet, there was never any question that they wouldn’t get a new parish priest, which they did within just a few months. And this at a time when the Church is telling parishes that they can’t have a parish priest unless they pay Parish Share in full. And sometimes, not even then.
Whatever the Church may say, these things do go on because the Church very often does give preferential treatment to parishes and people who are rich and successful and famous in worldly terms. So the Church too, it seems, perhaps in its attempts to be relevant and acceptable to today’s society, regards celebrity and the trappings of celebrity as something to be aspired to and rewarded. But this is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is not the meaning of the parable of the Rich Fool.
There are so many examples in the Gospel of what it means to make ourselves rich in God’s eyes, but perhaps this from the Sermon on the Mount in St Matthew’s Gospel is as good an any.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
The Church though seems to be very anxious these days about the kind of worldly things Jesus tells us not to worry about. Could the reason why the Church is lacking these things today possibly be because it’s stopped seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and has turned its attention to more worldly things?
In the parable of the Rich Fool, Jesus tells us that the way to happiness and long life, eternal life, is to make ourselves rich in God’s eyes, and what better way is there to do that than to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. I’ll leave the last words though to someone who has been the subject of the TV programme, Autopsy: The Last Hours of Muhammad Ali. Ali said a lot during his life, and a lot was said about him, but perhaps among the best words are those written on his grave.
Service to others is the rent you pay for your room in heaven.
Amen.
The Propers for the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time can be viewed here.
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 