Eccles. 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23;
Ps. 49:1-11; Col. 3:1-11; Luke 2:13-21
“Problem or Opportunity? Created to Share”
That guy in the gospel reading today reminds me of the restaurant our daughters took us to when we were in Carlsbad last month: the No Whiner Diner. It’s a small place with a big attitude. No substitutions, please – take it as we dish it out. Sort of the counterpoint to Burger King’s “have it your way.” They dish out a bit of attitude and some really good food, no whining allowed. That guy who is fighting his brother over the family inheritance should check it out. Maybe he’d stop whining long enough to see that there is far more to life than inheritance, or bigger barns, or newer cell phones….
In the 12th chapter of Luke’s gospel Jesus has just finished teaching his disciples how to pray, and taking on the hard questions of the religious scholars. All the while a crowd is gathering. And someone in that crowd clamors for attention. Jesus replies, Wait a minute! I’m not called to be your mediator. But while I have your attention, hear this: “Take care! Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even if it is a lot. “ [Eugene Peterson, THE MESSAGE, p.1883] Then to illustrate his point Jesus tells them about the successful farmer whose greed, just like that whiner in the crowd, causes him to see only problem in the midst of God-given opportunity. What should I do with all my stuff?
What do we do with our overflowing abundance? Sometimes we can’t see what we have because of it. So we build three car garages, and basements in the desert; we rent storage units and stash stuff in the camper stored on our driveway. And that’s just the stuff we may never even use again, the stuff that’s just too hard to let go. Like the prosperous and greedy farmer we operate on the assumption that all we have is OURS alone and we hang on to it for dear life. It seems our older daughter has been wrestling with the question of “stuff” already in her young marriage. She told us last week she thinks we hang on to our stuff, boxing it up and moving it from place to place over the past 25 years, because at a deep level we’re afraid we won’t have enough, or that somehow all this stuff validates our lives. I look at the boxes of Actuarial papers and commendations from the days of my first career, the files from seminary and college, and know she’s probably right. Somehow all this stuff proves that at least at some point in my life I was somebody, and I’m afraid to let it go.
And Jesus speaks to me in that place before I even ask the question: Be on guard against all sorts of greed. It is not the papers and the titles that make you somebody. God has already claimed you and that is what matters.
In his book WHEN ALL YOU HAVE ISN’T ENOUGH, Rabbi Harold Kushner tells the story of an American who was in India during the time of a sacred mountain pilgrimage. Thousands of people were climbing the steep path to the mountaintop. The tourist, an avid jogger, considered himself to be in very good physical shape and decided to share in the experience. After twenty minutes he was out of breath and had to step aside while women carrying babies, and frail old men with canes, moved easily past him. “I don’t understand it,” he said to his Indian companion. “How can these people do it when I can’t?” The friend answered, “It is because you have the typical American habit of seeing everything as a test. You see the mountain as your enemy and you set out to defeat it. So, naturally, the mountain fights back and it is stronger than you are. We do not see the mountain as an enemy to be conquered. The purpose of our climb is to become one with the mountain and so it lifts us up and carries us along.”
What relationship do you have with the “stuff” of your life? It is enemy to be conquered, or controlled, or is your relationship with it life giving? Yesterday as I visited with Wyatt’s parents and sponsors, they shared how much his sister Macy loves visiting her cousins in ABQ. On the way home from a visit earlier this year Macy announced that she likes cousin “LoLo’s” house better than her own. Wisely helping her sort that one out, her parents asked what it is she likes so much about the cousins’ house. “The people in it.” Indeed. The meaning of life does not consist in the abundance of possessions, Jesus warns -- it’s not about the stuff, but about the relationships that give meaning to that stuff, a meaning often obscured by too much stuff.
Two of our St. Paul youth have been involved in musical productions this summer. Justin, our assisting minister this morning, wraps up his role as Judas/John the Baptist this afternoon in the Work in Progress production of GODSPELL at the Lobo Theater. One of the powerful messages of that story is indeed about our relationship to the stuff of our lives. One by one, as Jesus shares his teachings, the followers are transformed by the message and offer up the trappings of their lives – a hat from one, a hairpiece from another, a graduation gown from a third – giving up what isn’t needed to focus on the one thing needful: to focus more clearly on their relationship with Jesus. In a wholly different place and time at ABQ Little Theater, Caitlin Reardon is part of the cast of Disney’s HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL. It is an inspiring and energetic production that the youngsters sitting around me last night (and I) thoroughly enjoyed. The message? Something new can happen as people break free from the lies we live, break free from trying to be something by worldly standards and open ourselves to who we truly are. Meaningful relationships are founded not on status quo but on friendship, forgiveness, and trust.
Jesus called it being rich toward God: seeing the horizon that is resurrection life, and living differently now guided by that vision. Seeing in life’s challenges not problems but first OPPORTUNITIES. In the waters of baptism we are washed into that vision, into the power to live lives of great hope right now.
When Chet Atkins died in 2001, radio personality Garrison Keillor offered the eulogy. He listed Atkins’ the many accomplishments of Atkins’ long life, then stated that when he was 50 years old Chet Atkins had a stroke of good luck: he got colon cancer and thought he was going to die. Atkins’ didn’t die from that disease, and instead he found a whole new life: he walked away from the corporate music scene and fell in love with his guitar all over again. He traveled widely choosing when he wanted to perform and taking time to sit and talk with people, to pick music with them, and to have more fun. [Cyrus Copeland, FAREWELL, GODSPEED, p.200]
Some people see just the sickness in cancer, and some people are blessed to see the grace of God.
What should I do for I have so much? The farmer’s question started out faithfully enough; he just failed to see he had the option of choosing life. The lens of faith turns us from death to life, and helps us focus not on the problem HOW TO STORE but first on the opportunity HOW SHALL WE SHARE. Not on the “me” but first on the WE (and I don’t mean “wii”). In all things, that is a good place to start.
Amen