Growing In God’s Abundance

Genesis 1:29  – 2:3 & Psalm 126

Roger Lynn

October 22, 2017

Stewardship Emphasis - Part 1

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

(click here for the video of the whole worship service - the sermon starts at 17:00)

In the interest of full disclosure, I want to begin by letting you know that this is a stewardship sermon. Actually, this is the first of two stewardship sermons. And by the time I’m finished preaching next Sunday, I hope you will be convinced that making a generous financial commitment to the church is a really good idea. But before we go any further down that road, I want to make you a promise. You will never hear me say (or even imply) that you “should” give anything. I believe there are any number of really good reasons why you might actually enjoy making the choice to contribute to the work of the church. But guilt and obligation are not on the list. In fact, they are specifically and intentionally excluded from the list. The church is not Costco or a health club. You do not have to pay a fee to participate. Indeed, if someone is giving simply because they think they have to, then most of the value of the gift has been drained away, because stewardship is really about so much more than just raising money. It is about participating in the flow of God’s abundance.

Too often we begin our consideration of giving from a perspective of scarcity rather than abundance. “There isn’t enough to go around.” “I wish I could do more, but I just don’t have enough.” “Enough” is, of course, always subjective and open to interpretation, and can be applied to whatever particular resource is being discussed at the moment -- money, time, people, whatever. So what if we begin in a completely different way? What if, instead of starting with how much we can give, or even how much is needed, we begin with how much we have? Pretend for a moment that this isn’t a stewardship sermon. Or pretend that you don’t already know that stewardship is about giving. Instead just open yourself up to an awareness of being completely immersed in a universe of abundance. The creation story in the first chapter of Genesis ends with the affirmation that there is enough of everything for everyone, and God’s assessment of the whole affair is one of complete satisfaction. We lose sight of this reality when our vision becomes too narrow. We forget that we are a part of community. We forget that we are a part of God. We forget that we aren’t in this life alone and we don’t have to do it all by ourselves. Whenever we try to fly solo, of course we experience scarcity. None of us on our own is completely self-sufficient. None of us on our own has everything we need to survive – to say nothing of what the world needs to survive. But together, in community, in partnership with God, everything anyone could ever need is present and available, from necessary resources like food and shelter to more esoteric needs such as compassion and friendship. We live in a world of abundance. We are participants in that abundance. And everything falls into place in a more helpful and satisfying way when we begin with that awareness.

Once upon a time there was a village. The people of this village weren’t bad people. But they had lost sight of how blessed their lives really were. They had fallen into the habit of believing that there wasn’t enough. One day, three strangers arrived in the village. They were travel-weary and they were hungry. They made their way to the front door of the first house at the edge of the village and asked the woman who answered the door if she could spare something to eat. No, she replied. I’m sorry, but I barely have enough food to feed my children, and certainly not enough to feed three extra mouths. I wish I could help, but I can’t. And so it was that they made their way to the next house, and the next, and the next, with each encounter playing out in almost exactly the same way. It soon became apparent to the travelers that they had come upon a village that didn’t have enough – not enough food, not enough heart, not enough hope. Everyone was locked away behind their closed doors, afraid to risk sharing what they had because then they might be left with nothing at all. Fortunately, these three travelers refused to believe in “not enough.” For them, that simply was not how the world worked. So, at the next house they went to, instead of asking for food, they asked if they could borrow a large pot. The larger, the better, they said. For, you see, they were going to make stone soup. They had a stone, but were in need of a pot. Well, the villager was intrigued. He couldn’t quite imagine how you could make soup from just a stone. And he did have a very large pot. Yes, they could borrow it. The travelers expressed their gratitude, took the pot to the center of village, right next to the well, and there they built a fire. They filled the pot with water, added their stone, and waited for it to simmer.

Now, it was not a large village, and it didn’t take long before they had attracted the attention of nearly everyone. “What are you doing?” “We’re making stone soup! It’s nearly ready!” “Stone soup? I’ve never heard of such a thing.” “Oh, yes, it’s really quite delicious.” Soon, the water was boiling, and they dipped their ladle into the pot and took a sip. “Mmmmmmm! That really is good. It is almost ready. I just wish we had a few carrots. That would really do the trick.” “Well, I have some carrots. I think I could spare a few.” And so the carrots were added and the tasting repeated. “Mmmmmm! That made a huge difference. It really is almost ready now. If only we had an onion to enhance the flavor of the stone.” Lo and behold, someone offered an onion, which was quickly added to the pot. The tasting proceeded, with additional “enhancements” requested and offered, from potatoes, to herbs, to salt. In the end, there was no one left in the village who had not contributed something to the cause, even if it was just a little advice on how long a stone needs to simmer to bring out the full flavor of the soup. And when it was finally ready, there was so much stone soup that everyone gathered together there in the center of the village and ate their fill, with more than a few comments on how surprised they were that stone soup could be so tasty and so filling. The travelers eventually left town smiling quietly to themselves, while the party around the soup pot lasted late into the night.

There is enough! There is always enough! But sometimes we forget, and then we lose sight of our abundance. We can’t enjoy it, and we can’t share it, because we think we have to guard it, and protect it, and ration it instead. Nobody wins. Everyone loses. We are surrounded by more than enough of everything we need, and the whole world is slowly starving to death, both figuratively and literally. On our own we are each like the people in the village who hid in their houses, afraid to come out and afraid to share. Our scarcity thinking prevents us from even seeing our abundance, because our vision becomes so narrow. Maybe your abundance right now isn’t in the form of money. But maybe you have time and a passion to help people. Maybe your abundance right now is in the form of a need to receive the gifts that someone else has to give. It is only when we are all in this life together that the abundance begins to shine forth.  When we begin to open ourselves to God’s abundance, then there really are no limits to what is possible. When our giving emerges out of a sense of our place in the grand and glorious scheme of things, rather than out of some sense of obligation or guilt, then we will discover that we are all rich beyond our wildest imaginings and money is the very least of our riches. Together let us truly begin to grow in God’s abundance.