I've gotten a bit behind, but this is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Sunday, July 31. The text is Luke 12:13-2 1. Diseases are all around us—the latest forms of COVID, Monkeypox and others. Another that’s been around for quite a while is Affluenza. Young and old, rich and poor suffer from it. In societies like ours, it has reached epidemic proportions. Affluenza even rears its ugly head throughout scripture; in both testaments. In today’s gospel, we see a pointed parable concerning Affluenza. A disagreement over the division of an inheritance introduces the parable. This issue is all too familiar to many of us. We have seen families violently, irreparably divided over inheritance issues. Jesus tells a parable to address it and how we hear the parable is influenced by this introductory issue. A farmer was blessed with a bumper crop. It doesn’t say the man has done anything wrong toward his employees or anything else. The farmer wa...