Abundant Living

Isaiah 55: 1-3 & Philippians 4: 6-13

Roger Lynn

November 6, 2016

Stewardship Emphasis - Part 1

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

In the interest of full-disclosure, I need to warn you that this is a stewardship sermon. In fact, it is the first of two stewardship sermons. I tell you this now because otherwise you might not notice, since there will not be any references to giving. I’ll make up for it next week, but for now you’ll just have to take my word for it – this really is a stewardship sermon.

“I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly!” (John 10:10) That’s what Jesus says in John’s Gospel. Abundant life sounds pretty good. But what does it mean? If we listen to the many and various messages which come to us in our culture today we are likely to understand abundance in terms of stuff. Abundance has to do with owning a big house, fancy cars, the latest technology, the coolest toys. Abundance and opulence have become synonymous. And, to make matters worse, it often plays out as a game of comparison. It isn’t just how much I have, but how much I have compared to someone else. All of this is summed up pretty well in the response which billionaire J. Paul Getty is supposed to have made to the question,  “How much is enough?” His reply, “Just a little bit more!” 

If this is how we understand abundance, then we are forever doomed to a life of disappointment – always reaching for what we can never quite achieve. But what if Jesus had something else in mind? What if abundance isn’t about acquisition, but about attitude? What if Jesus is pointing us to a different way of understanding life – leading us into God’s future with an awareness that there is always enough and more than enough? The prophet Isaiah certainly seems to be offering us a glimpse into this sort of reality. “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!” (Isaiah 55:1) There is so much fear generated out of our insecurities around not having enough. We’ve always got to do more, get more, be more. How much does such an attitude get in the way of actually living full, rich, abundant lives? How often does the fear keep us from living the life God invites us to live? 

The apostle Paul found a way to live his life with this kind of understanding of abundance. He went where he felt called to go. He did what he felt called to do. Even when it put him at odds with the powers-that-be. Even when it cost him his security, his dignity, his life. And he could live that way because he knew that abundance wasn’t defined by the external vagaries of the world around him. It is defined by the ongoing, loving, generous presence of God in each and every moment, in each and every circumstance. To the church at Philippi he writes, “I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through the One who strengthens me.” (Philippians 3:11-13) What might we be able to accomplish if we could find a way to set aside our scarcity thinking and be in touch with this kind of abundance?

I regularly find myself confused by all of this, not because I don’t really believe it, but because I have had powerful experiences of it in my own life and still I forget. Why do we seem to have so much trouble staying in touch with this reality? Why do we have so much trouble paying attention to the abundance which surrounds us?

A number of years ago singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg wrote a song which he entitled “Magic Every Moment.” In it he reflects on the variety of opportunities we have in life to catch glimpses of the presence of the sacred. It is there all the time – in the fragile miracle of a small bird, in the comforting love of a life-partner, in the quiet beauty of sunlight dancing on the ocean. All we have to do is notice. What he’s really singing about is the reality of abundance. 

There’s so much we take for granted

There’s so much we never say

we get caught up in the motion 

of just living day to day

We are fettered to the future, 

we are prisoners of the past

And we never seem to notice ’til our lives

have finally slipped right through our grasp

You can see forever in a single drop of dew

You can see that same forever 

if you look down deep inside of you

There’s a spark of the creator in every living thing

God respects me when I work 

but God so loves me when I sing

There’s magic every moment

There’s miracles each day

There’s magic every moment

Oh won’t you let the music play?

Soon after my late wife Veronica and I were married we had just that kind of insight into God’s abundant universe. It all came together. We were “in the flow.” The abundance of life just kept landing on our doorstep. We had been planning a trip to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island for our honeymoon (part 2). And at every step of the way things worked out. Unexpected accommodations. Kayak excursions that weren’t really available yet, but happened anyway. Last minute campsite reservations in the “perfect” spot. A baby who was born early, thus allowing midwife Veronica to actually travel. Orca whales that swam by our camp three days in a row. Weather that was spectacular. Sunsets that were outrageous. And then, just to make sure we didn’t miss the point, a simple act of generosity. It was our second night camping at the county park. We had been out kayaking all day and the discussion centered around what was for dinner. The only thing missing was something green. A salad would be nice, but neither of us really wanted to drive back into town. So we decided to do without. And then (you really can’t make this stuff up), not ten minutes later, up walks a woman from the next campsite, with a giant bowl filled with (yes, it’s true) a beautiful tossed green salad. “Have you eaten yet? We made too much salad. Would you like some?”

And then, just a few years ago, in an experience that helps me more fully understand and appreciate Paul’s words to the Philippians (I have learned to be content with whatever I have), came Veronica’s death. It was a painful loss. And in the midst of it (not in spite of it, but in the midst of it), I continued to experience abundance – from the overwhelming love and support of family and friends, to the kindness of strangers, to the new understandings about what is really important, to the renewed sense of God’s presence in the midst of even the shadows of life, to the experience of new love on the other side of the shadows. I stand before you bearing witness that God’s abundance is all around us all of the time. We have only to open our eyes and our hearts and let it in.

Abundant living is not about stuff. It is about awareness. May we follow Christ into God’s abundant future with open hearts and minds and arms. And may that experience fill us to overflowing both now and for the rest of our days.