Suncook UMC
Sunday November 15, 2009
Luke 12:15-21
ESV Bible
“I Want It All!”
Reading from Luke 12:15-21
The Lord be with you
And also with you
Let us pray. . .
Creator, sustainer, Loving God, you who spoke to your children through your prophets of old and still speak to your children today through your Spirit and your Word. We pray for your spirit to be with us gathered here this morning. Speak to us Lord in ways that we will understand and see your message for us today. May we have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts that are open to your voice so that we may draw ever closer to you. Speak Lord. . . your friends are listening. . .
Have you ever thought to yourself “I’ m so glad that I have this or that; but it would be even nicer if I had this or that?” I mean it’s nice to have stuff. . . a place to live. . . food on the table. . . nice clothes. . . a car that works. . . a good job. . . but there are times we think how much nicer life would be if we had something a little better, a little more up to date, something that suits us better. Why do we tend to think that “the grass is greener on the other side?” I mean just the other day I was looking around at my office at the house and thought to myself “I really love this office. It has a nice fireplace, it is so warm and cozy, and it is beautiful. But. . . it would be so cool if it went out into the yard about another 6 feet and was about another 7 feet wider, maybe even a porch so that I could go out and sit on it and do my work.” Now. . . I had just said to myself that it was a beautiful office and it was nice and cozy. . . why did I think it would be even better if. . . ? I mean everyone who has seen it talks about how nice it is. Why did I think it needed to be improved upon? What was I not content with what it was. . . not what I thought it should be?
The rich man in Luke’s parable had the same type of problem. He was so happy about having so much, he didn’t have to worry about tomorrow, and he had all that he could want and then some. But he had another problem on top of it. . . he didn’t want to share what he had. God had provided him with and “over abundance” and all he could think about is how to keep a hold of that over abundance. Why should he give it away? He worked hard for what he had. . . he put in his time and now he deserved to reap in his reward! Let those other people around him work for their own stuff. If they worked as hard as him they could have the same abundance. Why should he have to share with those “slackers” around him? Let them get their own stuff!
This poor rich fool. . . he was not content with the barns that he had, well of course not. . . they weren’t big enough for all the stuff he had, so he felt that in order to keep all his stuff he needed to have bigger and better barns. And all of this was for nothing because the Lord came to him and told him that he was doing this all for nothing and that he was going to die that night and all that stuff. . . all that excess was going to be no good to him or anyone else. All his stressing about what to do with his stuff was all for not because he couldn’t take it with him. Does this story sound a little familiar? It seems to be the story of the society we live in. the Bigger the better. . . the more stuff the more successful we are. . . and don’t think about sharing, we have to accumulate as much stuff as possible in this life even though, like the rich man, we can’t take it with us. Why can’t we be content with what we have and share the abundance that God blesses us with? Why do we not see our brother, our sister, right next door who could use a helping hand?
Contentment. . . why is so hard for us? Jesus tells us that our lives are not what we have but it’s the relationship that we have with him and God that matters. But the world around us tells us that this is not true. It is what you have, what you can achieve, how much stuff you have is what matters most in life. I mean look at the ad’s that are on the TV. . . if you have this car you would have a chance with the beautiful girl in the ad. . . if you buy this product you could look like this instead of how you look now (which of course we are not content with). . . you will be happier than you are now if you have this or that (why are we unhappy to begin with. . . is it because you don’t have enough stuff in yours or societies eyes? It’s a vicious circle in which we live!)
Our hearts are restless within us. Even though we may believe what Jesus says, we still struggle with that “worldly” part of ourselves. . . we are still trying to get more stuff. We may say that it’s not our possessions that define us but we live as if it is. Oh what blessings we miss because of our restless heart within us! In the book by Adam Hamilton “Enough”, he calls this “Restless heart Syndrome” (or RHS) and it works in the same way as Restless Leg Syndrome but it is our hearts that is affected. We are never satisfied with what we have or are. Once we have something we are off to acquire the next thing. . . and he claims (and I agree) that this condition can destroy us.
Adam does go on to say that there is a discontent that God intends for us to have though. God has wired us to be discontent with things that cause us to seek the only thing that can satisfy us and that one thing is a relationship with Him and in having that relationship we want to do his will and not our own (now that’s a discontent that I can live with. . . to be discontent with my life in a way that makes me want to be closer to what God has envisioned it not what the world envisions. . . ) It is not what we have but who we are that really counts. When we decided to live as the world would have us our vision becomes distorted. . . we become distorted. Let me give you an example. . .
When I was a child, I always liked the tinsel on the Christmas tree. It was so shiny and pretty (although my mom thought, and still does, the more tinsel the better and that’s all that you could see was the tinsel). The tree just shined as the lights reflected off the silver color of it (kind of the light of Christ shining from each of us giving light, color and beauty to the world around us). Now. . . take a piece of the tinsel that my lovely assistant Vanna has given you and stretch it out. What happens to the tinsel? It becomes stretched out and loses it’s shine (kind of like what happens to us when we become discontent with what God supplies and get all stressed our because we are reaching for more stuff instead of reaching for the One who gives us peace). When we are content with what we have we are happy and our light shines like the noon day sun. . . this light refracts off us. . . kind of a kaleidoscope effect. . . so that others see our light and peace and want this in their own lives. When we are content with what we have, we are willing to share our abundance with others (kind of like what the first church did in sharing all they had). And our lives become much less complicated because we aren’t worrying about our stuff.
I would like to end my sermon with a Dr. Seuss story called “Yertle the Turtle”. . . I think it works well with what we are trying to understand about contentment this morning. . .
Read “Yertle the Turtle”. . .
I see the moral of this story being “If you’re not careful and be content with your supply. . . you just may end up with mud in your eye.”
Beloved we have a choice to make. . . which tent will you decide to live in. The tent of discon-tent-ment and be stretched out like that piece of tinsel of the tent of con-tent-ment and shine like the noon day sun. Which will you choose? By choosing contentment, we can reclaim the joy of contentment and simplicity.
AMEN!
November 15, 2009
Luke 12:15-21
and Psalm 16
and “The Prayer of St.
Francis”,
United Methodist Hymnal
#481;
and sermon, “I Want It All
. . .”,
by
Pastor Ruth Foss
sermon blog
meditation blog
“God’s
Whisper” blog
Suncook United Methodist
Church
Suncook, NH
November 15, 2009
Her sermon is the third of
a four-part series based in part on
Reverend Adam Hamilton (http://www.cor.org/about-resurrection/adam/)’s
book,
“Enough: Discovering Joy
Through Simplicity and Generosity” (http://www.cokesbury.com/forms/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=9781426702334)
All of my
poems are copyrighted by Raymond A. Foss, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. All rights
reserved. Contact me at Ray Foss for usage.
See all 37,740+ of my poems at www.raymondafoss.blogspot.com
Poetry Where You Live.
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