There is Enough

Based on Luke 12:13-32
First delivered Aug. 4, 2019
Rev. Dr. Kevin Orr

            Who wouldn’t want to win the lottery?  When the Powerball gets to be in the tens of millions of dollars, I confess, we go buy a ticket. What’s two bucks, right? To win the lottery would definitely be a life-changer.

            A few weeks ago, our family went to Door County, Wisconsin. It is a peninsula that juts out into Lake Michigan to the south of Green Bay. It is absolutely gorgeous. It is not overdeveloped. There remains lots of farmland growing hay and fruit orchards. The small towns are quaint. You will find no Kroger or McDonalds. I’m not sure how wonderful it is up there in the winter. We giggled over the snowmobile hazard signs everywhere along the roads. But in the summer…you can’t beat it.

            So, Kim and I were fantasizing about buying a house up there to live in during the warmer months when we retire. Of course, to purchase a lot would be $1 million even before you consider the price of the home. For this fantasy of buying a vacation home in Door County, Wisconsin to happen, we knew we would first have to win the lottery.

            The lottery is sort of like receiving an inheritance, except getting an inheritance is much more likely than winning the lottery. Sure, the inheritance you receive will most likely not be as big a windfall as winning the lottery. But there’s a good chance that the inheritance you receive will give you a nice financial boost. You may be able to pay off some debts, have a nice amount to invest or save, it could be a fresh start for you.

            And that’s what the man wanted when he came to Jesus to ask him to tell his brother to give him his portion of the inheritance. Apparently, his brother was holding out on him. It was simple fairness for him to get what was his due.

            But Jesus not only refuses to arbitrate this matter, he also launches into a teaching about greed. Why? How was this man being greedy? All he wanted was what was due to him to receive. Or maybe Jesus was thinking about his brother who wasn’t giving over the inheritance. I guess you could say he was being greedy. But why did Jesus not want to get involved in the matter? Maybe he didn’t want to deal with the drama! Or he didn’t believe it was the best use of his time, that it was a distraction from his mission. It’s not clear what about this situation triggered Jesus to teach on greed but that’s what Jesus does. He uses the occasion of a man wanting his inheritance to talk about greed.

            What is so great about receiving an inheritance or winning the lottery is the financial freedom that comes with it. With all that money you have more freedom to do what you want, or not want to do. Don’t want to work for a living? Quit. Want to take that trip, buy that house, get a place along Lake Michigan? Go for it. Want to pay for your kid’s college education? Awesome. You want to start a foundation so you can support non-profits addressing issues you care about? God bless you. To have that windfall makes possible the ability to be self-supporting, to be independent, to not have to rely on anyone else. It is to have freedom. What’s wrong with that?

            Jesus tells a story about a man who was blessed with huge crops one growing season. He looks at all the grain that has been harvested. Whether he harvested it or he had workers that did it, we do not know. Whether he even planted the crops or it was done by sharecroppers, we don’t know. For all we know he may have just been the landowner and others did all the work. At any rate, he looks at the big mounds of grain and then looks at his barns and decides to tear down those barns and build bigger ones. I wonder if he is the one who will be building those barns or if others will do the work? He decides to store all the excess crops and live off it for the next several years. He has nothing to worry about. The next few years could be terrible growing seasons but what does he care? He is self-supporting now. He has the freedom to kick back, relax, and enjoy all this excess…for himself. What about the people who we assume work for him? It appears he is only thinking about himself. He doesn’t even offer up a word of thanks to God for providing such good weather and fertile soil. It is as if this man is in his own little world.

            What was it about this man that made him a fool? Doing the hard work of planting and reaping so that there can be a big crop is not foolish, assuming he was actually doing this work. Arranging for the crops to be stored rather than to go to waste is not foolish. Think of the time when Joseph instructed Pharaoh to store up the grain for seven consecutive years when the yield was plentiful so that when the seven years of drought came the nation would have enough surplus to survive. It’s not foolish to store up surplus for the lean years that are bound to come, especially when farming is concerned.

            I think Jesus points to the man’s foolishness with the question he places in God’s mouth. “This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” The man was foolish in that he presumed he would be alive for many years when we can’t presume that we will live past today. Each day is a gift. But he was also foolish because he claimed all those crops as his own. He never thought that others may have a claim on those crops. The abundance wasn’t meant only for him.

            Jesus goes on to say that we ought to be rich toward God. What does that mean? I wonder if it has something to do with where we put our energies. Do we focus on getting rich with material wealth or do we focus on having a rich relationship with God?

            Jesus gets at that by talking about how God provides for us so that we have no need to be anxious about what we will eat or wear. Ravens don’t plant or reap, they don’t have barns, but God feeds them. Lilies don’t toil or spin, yet God clothes them. If God provides for birds and flowers, how much more will God provide for us? Of course, this doesn’t mean our food and clothes drop from the sky or magically appear. We obviously have to work and earn money so we can buy our food and clothes. But, if all else fails and you are in need, you get your food at the food pantry at Parkview and your clothes from the free store at Westgate. Our needs will be provided for, one way or another. God will make sure of it. Because people who have more than they need share their food and clothing for those who lack. That’s how God makes sure that we all have what we need, through the generous sharing of abundance.

            So, we are not to pursue these things, what we will eat or what we will wear. This will all be provided for. Instead, let’s pursue the kingdom of God. Let that be our focus. Let’s spend our energies on this pursuit. But the good news is that it is God’s pleasure to give us the kingdom. We are pursuing something that God is happy to give us. What does this mean? How does God give us the kingdom?

            In the book of Acts, we read of how the believers pooled all their resources into a common fund that everyone had access to if they had any need. There was enough for everyone. This is a manifestation of the kingdom of God.

            In the story of the prodigal son, when the older son is complaining to his father that he never gave him even a young goat so that he could celebrate with his friends, his father said, “Son, all I have is yours.” He could have helped himself to a goat any time he wanted to. There was enough. This is a manifestation of the kingdom of God.

            How are these two examples a manifestation of the kingdom of God? Because when resources are shared, what is created is an interdependent community. People depend on each other to have the needs of all met. It is not a collection of individuals struggling to meet their own individual needs on their own. By working together and sharing resources, depending on each other, then there is more than enough. Working together and sharing reflects the character of God. The kingdom of God is a community that reflects the character of God.

            God is love. God is creative. God is relational. So, wherever there is created a community of loving relationships, the character of God is being manifest, and thus the reign of God is being manifest. When a community uses their combined resources for the benefit of the whole, this manifests a community of interdependent relationships. The sharing of resources manifests the reign of God that we are to pursue and to receive.

            This past week was band camp for many high schools across central Ohio. My youngest son participates in the Westerville North marching band. From 9 am to 9 pm every day this past week, he and his mates were at the school learning the music and the drill. For band camp to work, it required a lot of parent volunteers to be around and take care of things. It required the donations of food. Every evening there were group building activities that required the donation of various items. Band camp was a great success because so many people gave of their resources. A community of interdependent relationships was formed. On Friday the kids demonstrated to us all they had accomplished so far as a group. It was beautiful. This is a manifestation of the reign of God.

            Think about the way Westgate and Parkview share resources for the good of the whole. Tithes and offerings are given so that bills can be paid. The two churches together provide my salary and benefits. Both buildings are open and used by the community for all kinds of meetings and ministries. In fact, the very presence of our buildings is a visible reminder that God is present in this community. In all the ways that we share the resources we have we are creating a community of interdependent relationships. And that is a manifestation of the reign of God.

            This is what God has given us. God has given us our community as brothers and sisters in Christ. We have each other. We are committed to each other. There is a bond of love for each other. We are not a collection of individuals. We are the body of Christ, bound together by the Holy Spirit. Our life together is the kingdom that God has given us.

            We can be rich toward God then by nurturing our relationship with God, with each other, and with the wider community. As we live into our interdependent relationships, our lives are enriched, our community is enriched, our relationship with God is enriched. And this is something worth striving for, not food and clothes that are provided for us one way or another. They seem so trivial in comparison to the pursuit of a life enriched by God, one another, and the community that we find ourselves in.

            Here is the good news: if we are mindful of the resources available in our community, there is more than enough to meet our needs. Not one person can meet the needs of all of us. But if we make our resources available, and not just our resources, don’t forget the resources of others who live in this community…there is an abundance.

            So, let’s not be anxious about how we will pay the bills. You may have to remind me sometimes that I just said that! As we experience a fresh start with me coming alongside you for a while, hopefully a long while, let us all recommit ourselves to pursue the reign of God by pursuing the creative building up of community. With creativity, with love for God and for one another, let us all enrich our lives together as beloved children of God. And all these things will be given to us as well.