And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."  Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly.  And he thought to himself, 'What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?'  Then 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; relax, eat, drink, be merry.'  But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'  So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

The rich man's first sin was in gratitude.  He gave no thought as to where his abundance came from - or from whom.  His riches simply appeared out of the ground for him.  Perhaps he even thought he was the source of all his material possessions.  If he had considered that they were blessing from God he may have viewed himself as an administrator or caretaker rather than rich.

The rich man's second sin was greed.  He was blessed so abundantly by God that he didn't even have the means to store his excessive harvest.  He gave no thoughts to his neighbor or to those in need.  We're not told that he had a Lazarus to trip over every day so perhaps he believed he was fine as long as he didn't see the poor at his gate.  In fact he should have sought them out.

His greed and a wealth then led to the sin of presumption.  He believed he had many years ahead of him with which to enjoy his wealth.  "None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master.  While we live we live for the Lord."  (Emphasis added)  In fact the rich man died that night and an accounting was required.

His next sin was that of dissolution and debauchery.  Because he could not possibly uses his many riches he set forth plans in his mind to be an excessive consumer of his own material goods.  This leads to the death of the soul, ill-health and further forgetfulness of life's true meaning and our responsibility toward it.

At the same time he fell into the error of laziness.  While man is on the earth he is intended to work (Genesis 3.19, 23).  If he is not required to labor to sustain himself or his family and possesses sufficient goods he should spend his life serving others or distributing his wealth.  Man's true work on earth is to have faith in God which, far from being an inactive, interior task, actually requires daily time and effort and blossoms forth in all manner of fruitfulness for the kingdom.

I think the vast majority of us in the super-rich, industrialized West can take away hard lessons from this parable.  No doubt many readers will lean toward excuses while meditating on it.

"Do not put your trust in riches, even when they increase."  (Psalms)