LEANING FORWARD INTO A THEOLOGY OF ABUNDANCE

I love to go on trips. I like every kind of journey there is. Going on a trip means carefully selecting what to bring. It means thinking about the whole journey, and planning what I need for the things that lie ahead. Unfortunately, in an effort to be prepared for everything that may come, I tend to over-pack. For me, knowing what not to bring is as important, and sometimes more difficult, than knowing what I need to bring. In the past 17 or 18 years you seniors have assembled quite a life, and now you have to choose what you’ll carry into this next leg of the journey. There are some things we can’t live without—but we tend to make this list longer than we should.

Seniors, you’re standing at a major crossroads; you can’t take everything with you; you can’t take everyone with you. It can be a frightening place—but it can also be an exciting place of new beginnings. You are about to enter a land for which you have long been hoping and preparing. But for now, you are standing on a spot where trust and fear are mingled together. Which will you carry in greater portion?

Our text from Deuteronomy is a mixture of both. It is looking forward and looking backwards. It is like a pep-talk about entering into a new land, and trusting that God’s promise—which has carried the people this far, will keep on carrying them to a place of abundance, where the land itself will provide for all their needs. It describes a place with flowing streams, underground waters, pomegranates, and honey—and then hear these words that I love—“a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing.”

Trust in the abundance of the land where we are going encourages us to move forward, it is a word that can open up some space inside us that we didn’t know was there. It’s a message we all need—no matter where we are on our journey. But it’s not always an easy message to hear. Our world is consumed by fear. Out of fear, we seek frantically to control our lives—ordering every action, every extra-curricular activity to get us into the “right” school, the “right” job, the “right” relationship. Living well, it seems, carries a lot of pressure—and somewhere along the way it can turn into a competition. Take going to college, for example—each one of you is heading to college, and more than likely someone else wanted to be in your spot. Some of you may have experienced this firsthand. If everyone is aiming for the same goal, we might not all achieve it. Only the strongest survive. And we’ve got to compete to win.

This is a mindset called scarcity. It seems especially prolific among the wealthy cultures of our world. We who can afford it seek to purchase our security through gated communities, fenced yards, alarm systems, and neighborhood covenants—not to mention defense budgets. The more we have, the more we feel the need to protect, to preserve, to maintain. We become greedy for what we already own. Scarcity is everywhere—even where there looks to be abundance.
This was the problem for the rich landowner in the parable from Luke. Jesus tells this story as a warning against all kinds of greed—“for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” The man’s land produced abundantly—but it produced too much, and he couldn’t store it all. “And he thought to himself, what should I do? For I have no place to store my crops?. . . I will pull down my barns and build larger ones. . .” Poor little rich man. Too many cars, not enough garages.

At this point, it becomes really tempting for us to hurl accusations toward the super-rich in our world. But we can’t exempt ourselves from Jesus’ warning against greed. There will always be richer folk out there to make us feel better about our own excesses—we all tend to overpack. But comparing our excess to another’s is a defense mechanism that prevents us from facing ourselves and changing our ways. On the scale of our global economy, we have a lot more in common with Paris Hilton than we do with the refugees in Darfur. It’s time for us to realize that when Jesus talks about the wealthy, he’s talking about us. Each one of us is just like the man who wants to build bigger barns.

“I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. . . . Relax, eat, drink and be merry.’ ” This may sound like abundance, but it is a trap. There’s nothing wrong with the goal of rest—Sabbath is a vital spiritual practice. But this man thinks that it’s up to him to earn his rest—so he tries to work his way into the abundant life, as if it were a goal to achieve rather than a gift to receive. Greed masquerading as the good life.

Like him, we imagine that someday we will gather enough possessions to live in a restful abundance. We lead ourselves to believe that grow generous only after we have set aside enough for ourselves. And we defend our lifestyles with the rationalization that we can defer generosity until the times comes when we’ll have more to share. This sounds like spiritual “Reaganomics”—trickle down theory—but it’s a real trap. How can we expect to be generous after securing our millions if we haven’t practiced generous living along the way? The only way we can guard against greed is by practicing generosity.

Thich Nhat Hanh—a Vietnamese Buddhist writer and teacher has done much to build bridges between Buddhism and Christianity. In reading just one of his books, he has helped me to be a truer Christian. He says: “It is not because you make a statement that you are already practicing. You enter the path of transformation when you begin to practice the things you pronounce.”
I am seeking to pronounce a worldview of abundance, not scarcity, and I am hoping to produce it in my own life. I would like to speak it into being with you this morning. Practicing the transformative act of abundant living means we learn to trust that there is enough to go around. Abundant living brings us into a place where we can let go of our greed and our need to be in control.

Scarce living keeps us in a place of fear. In our silent meditation for today Walter Brueggeman joins fear with atheism. He writes, “Fear is our modern form of atheism, fear that there is no order but the one I invent . . . There is no one but me, and I must hustle.”

We are not called to create our own abundance by hustling and working. Rather we are called to lean out with all the faith we have, trusting that what we need will emerge. The kingdom of God is both present—in the leaning out, and it is future—yet to emerge.

“This very night your life is being demanded of you,” God says to the man in the parable—and to us as well. We are called to live fully every single day. Howard Thurman, a mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., said: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Abundance feels like coming alive to me—it makes enough space for me to remember who I am.

A few verses after this parable in Luke, Jesus delivers these words. “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, give alms.” We are called to be a generous people because we worship a generous God. What stands in our way is fear. We are too afraid to be generous. The mindset of scarcity gives rise to fear and greed, it is self-fulfilling, and it is like quicksand to those who seek to live a spiritual life.

But Jesus offers us some solid ground on which to stand. “Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out,” he says. Where can we find these purses that do not wear out? How do we invest in them? Who will teach us to make these purses? The good news is that there are teachers and purse-making centers all around our city—there will even be a few on your college campuses if you know where to look.

These purses are in stocked in places like the Urban Ministry Center, and the Samaritan House—where we can learn what it means to be with the poor. Many of you are investing in them through our 5 in 1 Mission Offering, or by giving to the Kingdom Quest campaign. We can learn how to make these purses in places like the Baptist Peace Fellowship Summer Conference in Atlanta this July, and at an interfaith Prayer Vigil for Peace that we’re hosting in our chapel on June 15. You can find these purses through ministries like Heifer International, and in opportunities like our Ecuador mission, Room in the Inn, and Friendship Trays. Get involved in Lakewood. Start a new mission action team—find a ministry through our church that makes you come alive. The Time and Talent form is one way to get started discovering that these purses are all over this city—but they’re not for sale at Neiman Marcus or Nordstrom.

Living in a mindset of abundance helps us to understand how to make purses that will last. Abundance allows us to “eat bread without scarcity.” We will know what it means to “lack nothing.” Where scarcity itself becomes scarce—the Spirit of God is present.

I feel like I’ve known this in my head for quite a while, but it didn’t really start to sink in for me until I heard a song say just what I needed to hear. The song is by a singer/songwriter named Glen Phillips. The lyrics are printed beneath the scripture readings in your worship orders. Allow me a brief word of personal interpretation, and then we’ll all listen to this song. At the end of the 3rd stanza he mentions a certain “she”—who operates as his center, his source. I have no doubt that this is actually a reference to Glen’s wife, but my heart hears this as a reference to God’s own self—known in the sacred feminine.

Don't Need Anything
-- by Glen Phillips

I've got gardens growing, got quiet days
clothes on my back, food on my plate
got friends to help me if I call for them
I don't need anything that I don't have

I've got eyes to see this beautiful land
feet to take me where I want to stand
if there's work to be done, I've got these two strong hands
I don't need anything I don't have
I don't need anything that I don't have

Some years the rains don't come
some years floods clear out the plains
but if those waters wash this town away
I would still have enough if she was with me

I've got a roof overhead, stars if I choose
but I've no itch to fly, I've got no need to move
got almost nothing, but I understand
that I don't need anything that I don't have

Like a flower becomes more beautiful when we feel it’s texture and breathe its sweetness, this song carries power in it’s hearing. So I have arranged for it to be my conclusion this morning. I hope that the words of this prayer will lead you closer to practicing abundance. Perhaps it will help you to let go of the things you’re carrying, but don’t really don’t need for the journey ahead.

“These seniors will be here for you to come and speak with after the benediction. Please come and share a word with these extraordinary young people following these words of blessing:
Seniors, may you pack wisely, and share your gifts generously, knowing that with God there is not scarcity, but abundance.

And let us all remember--we have nothing to fear. We don’t need anything that we don’t have.
Let us live generously, practicing what we pronounce, so that we may enter the path of transformation—for ourselves, and for the world God loves and lavishes.