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10th Sunday after Pentecost

The Good News Written

Colossians 3.10-11 (NAB)

You have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all.

Luke 12.13-21 (NRSV)

¹³Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” ¹⁴But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” ¹⁵And 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.” ¹⁶Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. ¹⁷And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ ¹⁸Then 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. ¹⁹And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ ²⁰But 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?’ ²¹So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

The Good News Proclaimed

Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, August 1, 2010.

Our gospel lesson today clearly lends itself to a warning against greed. But we know that greed doesn’t serve our spiritual interests. We all know that generosity is a virtue, in fact, being generous is one of the ways we worship and express gratitude for our blessings.

But greed isn’t the only reason we might find ourselves being less than generous. Sometimes we hoard our resources, our affection, our knowledge, our aspirations… because we have fallen prey to a scarcity mentality. We just don’t believe there is enough to go around. If I give my time, my heart, my skill, my money, if tell you what I know… I might lose it, I might lose the advantage, or the security, or the prestige I think I at least have a shot at; there might not be enough left for me. Of course, that isn’t true. That’s just scarcity thinking which is the result of fear. We are afraid there isn’t enough, but fear is focus, and what we focus on we tend to experience. So rather than focusing on the fear of scarcity, it really is in own interest to focus on abundance, on divine provision, on the truth that we live in an abundant, opulent universe and there is Good for each and every one of us, right here and right now.

Nature abhors a vacuum… once we give anything we’ve actually opened a space to be filled. Giving and receiving, planting and harvesting, sowing and reaping… that’s the law of life.

Luke isn’t condemning wealth or praising poverty. We all want and deserve to make a decent living, to have a comfortable home, to have access to good medical care, education, even recreation. Luke isn’t condemning the blessing of prosperity, but he is reminding us that knowing we have enough to share is actually part of divine prosperity. No matter how much we make, if we don’t know we have enough to share, we aren’t yet prosperous in a spiritual sense.

And still, there is more to our gospel lesson than a challenge to share and to trust God with our needs.

Be on your guard against all kinds of greed (hoarding, holding tightly to possessions); for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. (Luke 12.15)

We are more than what we own, aren’t we? We are more than what we try to cling to, aren’t we?

What do we try to hoard, stock up, hold on to?

What is that we just can’t let go of?

What are we carrying through life as if it is part of us, as if it defines us, as if we couldn’t bear to part with it?

Honest reflection might reveal some surprising answers.

Alice suffered a bitter divorce. Her husband betrayed her, left her in the most despicable of ways, and left her feeling a loss of dignity as well as financially disadvantaged. Now Alice had every right to be hurt, angry even, but she never learned to move through those feelings to a place of healing. Years after the unfortunate breakup, she was still bitter. Of course she could never condone her ex-husband’s reprehensible behavior, but she never stopped punishing herself with her hatred of him. He moved on, and she never quite did. She never allowed herself to trust another man. She grew ever more lonely, and suspicious, and cantankerous in life. She held onto her pain like a prize possession. She hoarded her heartache, refusing to let go her grip on it. And as a result she denied herself the joy of love, and even the joy of just living with an openness to possibilities all because she treasured her pain. She took a painful moment from the past, and tormented herself with it for years thereafter.

Martin suffered financial ruin. He invested everything he had, very honestly and in good faith in a business that failed. Martin was left destitute. Now, Martin had every reason to feel sad, depressed even, maybe scared…for a while.  But Martin had an education, a bright mind, a good work ethic. He could have rebuilt his career; no one doubted that (except maybe Martin). But he had become so pessimistic, so bitter, so ready to see failure and disaster lurking in every shadow, that he never enjoyed work again, never allowed others to enjoy working with him, and never fully recovered…not because he couldn’t, but because he let himself get in the habit of holding onto desperation and despair, and letting that become the lens through which he saw everything in life. His disappointment had become his treasure, and he simply would not let it go. He denied himself the joy and the thrill of hope, because once in the past, things didn’t go well.

William had maybe the most negative mother in the history of parenting. She spent every moment of every day trying to figure out who was trying to cheat her and who was going to betray her and who wasn’t giving her a fare shake. The world, she was convinced, was out to get her. She introduced herself to perfect strangers by complaining about how horrible everybody and everything in the world was. The weather was always terrible, the economy was always about to collapse, the government never did anything right, the neighbors were vile vermin from hell, even the checker at the Piggly Wiggly was always trying to cheat her out of some green stamps.

William picked up his mother’s habit. And throughout his life, he was never able to keep a job, or a relationship, or a friendship because he had developed the habit of being miserable, of seeking misery out and wallowing in it and he would not let that habit go. He stored it, hoarded it, relished it, protected it as if his life depended on it.

You know the stories. You can fill in the name and the issue. The name is yours or mine every once in a while. The issue might be a health challenge… if my family didn’t have at least one member in critical condition at all times they absolutely wouldn’t know what to talk about ever.

The issue might be gossip and half-truths or untruths. I’ve known people who would make stuff up when the truth actually sounded better. Dishonesty had just become a habit and they were somehow unwilling, maybe even afraid to let it go.

The issue could be selfishness, compulsive behaviors, hypochondria, jealousy, hatred of another religion, prejudice against another race, shame about one’s own body or sexuality… just useless stuff, garbage that we’ve gotten in the habit of hoarding and that we seem determined to take with us throughout our lives to the very end.

And the question today is, are you finally ready to give it up? Make room for something better? Are you ready to create a space that God can fill with hope or grace or peace or courage? Are we finally ready for a new experience?

We fear new experiences, don’t we? Like an only child fears the addition of a new baby sister or brother. I was an only child for five years, and then this new little person came home from the hospital one day. Who asked for that? Did somebody forget to consult me? This was new, different. I was sure I didn’t like it. Maybe now I wouldn’t get as much care, love, attention. Well, that’s a pretty normal 5 year old reaction, but do we ever really outgrow that? And if we don’t, then how can we intentionally address and heal those feelings in adulthood? How can we learn that something new doesn’t necessarily threaten us? How can we learn that change is growth and healing and can be very good for us? How can we learn to trust that if I give up this privilege or this attitude or this fear or this hurt that God is really big enough to replace it with something much, much better?

We are new creatures in Christ, St. Paul told the Corinthians. So why do we hold onto so much of the old dysfunctions and disappointments?

Christ is all and in all (the writer we once believed to be Paul wrote to the Colossians), and Christ is the Word, the divine Idea, the best of God right in our midst… God with us, revealed in us. Christ is our Truth, our hope of glory, and yet we cling to what drags us down rather than focusing on the Christ within that is always ready to heal and renew us.

You can’t take your baggage into the next life, and you don’t have to carry it around through this life. Maybe, at least for some of us, it’s time to stop hoarding the old habits and make room for new experiences of peace, joy, health, and fulfillment. We can, because after all, Christ is all and in all. This is the good news. Amen.

Audio readings and sermon (http://sunshinecathedral.org/sermons/audio/20100801_1.mp3)