In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
I have received in my life many blessings from God, blessings of care and of love. I have received baptism and been regenerated from above, I have received the oil of chrism and been anointed with the Holy Spirit, God offers to me regularly and often the living Bread whereof eating I will not die. The Lord, indeed, has offered to me blessing upon blessing. “This is enough for me,” I state assuredly, “I do not need to do any more.”
I store up my blessings in the barn of my heart. I store them but I do not use them, “They are mine,” I say to myself. But a barn on a farm is not a place of permanent storage, it is a place to keep things temporarily until they are needed. My heart has been transformed, it is not a barn with the blessings ready to pour out on whoever would need my help, it has become a vault in which I may store that which I cherish, a treasure house for my wealth. But the Lord’s blessings do not cease in pouring out: “I shall build a larger store for my blessings.”
But I have misunderstood the Gospel. The Lord’s blessings He gives to us are not for us to store, they are for us to use. And before the Lord says to me, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” I must change, I must change my outlook, I must repent and turn again to the living God. I think the blessings are mine whereas they belong to Him and are only in my possession that I may distribute them into this world.
Yes, indeed, I must repent. I have been offered release from the hold of sin, so I must not bind my neighbour when he marginally offends me but forgive, forgive freely and forgive often. I no longer need fear death for it is defeated, and how many of our society are still ensnared in its clutches and would receive joyfully the news of their freedom. I have received Life, and as the darkness of this Age continues to hover over our society—afflicting us, oppressing us, turning us towards despair—this Light cannot be kept to myself, for He “shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome Him … the true Light who gives light to every man coming into the world.” (John 1:5, 9)
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God has poured out blessings in our lives, freely and often. What will our answer be when we stand before the Judge and He asks what did we do with them? That we stored them awaiting the right moment—which, in reality, never comes—or that we shared them with as many as would receive them? For if we share, if we use, if we send out the blessings, even if our barn contains a modest amount it will not fail, the blessings will continue and even grow in abundance. Let us not lay up our treasures in a vault but pass on that which we have received that we may be worthy of the Kingdom of God and be inheritors of eternal Life.
To our crucified and risen God and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who blesses us that we may bless others, be all glory, honour and worship, together with His unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, Christ is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
— Ephesians 2:14–22
The Lord said this parable: “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” As he said these things, he cried out: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
— Luke 12:16–21