More Enough, Already

I preached on this out of Luke 12.32-34 this morning and with reference to my previous post here. I also quoted Randy Alcorn's excellent and challenging book, Money, Possessions and Eternity.

He writes of a PBS television special called "Affluenza," which addressed what it called the "modern-day plague of materialism" (p31). Also,

God created us to love people and use things, but materialists love things and use people. 33

Then there's this which addresses both last week's gospel warning against covetousness and today's warning about possessions,

Greed surfaces in possessiveness and covetousness. Possessiveness relates to what we have, covetousness to what we want. Possessiveness is being selfish to what we own, not quick to share. To covet is to long for and to be preoccupied with having what God hasn't given us. It' s the passion to possess what is not ours. (p34)

Should I mention (confess) that God doesn't seem to have given me a sleek, shiny white MacBook? Sigh.

My morning St James Devotional Guide gospel this morning was from Mark 14. These two verses came at me with a wee twist:

51 And a young man followed him, with nothing but a linen cloth about his body. And they seized him, 52 but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.

"Ran away naked" was the phrase that lit up. You know how they do. Now that linen cloth was a fairly important possession from which to run away, I'd say. Why is the fact that it was linen recorded?

Perhaps we should be doing a little more of that, running away from our stuff, linen and otherwise; not naked necessarily, but more lightly clothed perhaps?

And, by the way, one final off-the-topic (wierdish) thought...Run Away Naked would be a good name for a band, I thought. I suggested it to my son the musician, but he was strangely unexcited. You heard it first here.

More than enough, already.

5 comments:

rbenhase said...

Interesting thoughts.

Sun Aug 12, 10:09:00 AM MDT 

Ronda said...

Hi Gene

A book I would recommend on a similar theme, is Sister Mary Jo Leddy's "Radical Gratitude" which examines how consumerism taps into and co-ops our natural yearning for God, leading to perpetual dissatisfaction with not having enough, which then becomes internalized so that we are "not good enough" and lose sight of God's creative power in our lives and a sense of awe and wonder that helps sustain the soul. It's written for a specifically North-American audience. Mary Jo Leddy is a professor of Regis College, TST (Jesuit) and this simple but profound piece of work is wonderful for self study or use in a group where discussion and reflection can be employed with others. Interspersed with her thesis are several meditations. This is one I thought I would like to share:

It is the ingratitude that binds us.
Our failure to see what we have,
on the way to getting more.
Our disregard for what we may step over,
on the way to somewhere else.
Our lack of attention to the person by our side,
on the way to someone else.
Our dismissal of the good that we do,
on the way to something greater.

Al that we take for granted,
falls through our hands and dissapears from sight.
And we too fall away from ourselves and from You. (God)
We walk by ourselves,
by the wayside,
and do not recognize you,
on the way to something better.

Peace.

Sun Aug 12, 02:03:00 PM MDT 

Gene said...

...something better than God, we think. Lord, have mercy.

Sun Aug 12, 02:05:00 PM MDT 

Peter said...

Yup, I've read that book - very challenging, indeed. Something for all of us in the West to read, I think!

Mon Aug 13, 02:06:00 AM MDT 

100 Thing Challenge UpDate « GENEralities: said...

[...] 15th, 2007 by Gene Our downwardly mobile StuckinStuff friend to which I referred in More Enough, Already is getting down to some nitty-gritty and has gathered his 100 Thing Challenge eggs into a single [...]

Wed Aug 15, 10:27:00 AM MDT 

Enough already!

Some things have aligned in an interesting way this week. Last Sunday's Gospel was Luke 12.13-21. The section heading in my ESV is "The Parable of the Rich Fool." In it, Jesus says,

Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. (v15)

He then goes on to describe how the rich fool decides that he has accumulated enough stuff ("ample goods" v19) to last him for many years, so he can relax, eat, drink and be merry (retire?). Whereupon God himself calls the rich man a fool (v20) because his soul was to be required of him that very night. Jesus finishes the story with

So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. (v21)

Oof! That hits this post-modern, boomer-consumer where it hurts.

And guess what the Benedict's Way (see previous post here) chapter we looked at yesterday was? Possessions. Cyprian, third-century bishop of Carthage is quoted:

Their property held them in chains...which shackled their courage and choked their faith...and throttled their souls...They think of themselves as owners, whereas it is they rather who are owned; enslaved as they are to their own property. (p99)

Being rich toward God is shackled, choked and throttled by the things we allow to own us. Benedict's Way commentator, Lonni Collins Pratt points out that

We have lost a sense of enough. (p100)

...and,

...the unspoken statement of success we are taught all our lives: "I own; therefore I am." (p100)

...we shouldn't attach ourselves to things. That's not what things are for. (p101)

How then shall we overcome our disordered attachments? How do we get rich toward God? George MacDonald, also quoted in Benedict's Way, writes of the rich man who

held his things lightly and who did not let them nestle in his heart, who was a channel and not a cistern, who was ever and always forsaking his money. (p99)

What follows are some ways of not letting our stuff nestle in our hearts, of being channels for God's generosity rather than merely collectors. Lonni Collins Pratt in the "Going Inward" section of the chapter:

When you bring something new into your home, give something away. (p102)

Spend a day alone considering ways you can pare down the amount of stuff you possess. (p103)

Enough, already.

5 comments:

Dave Baker said...

Hmmmmm..... I have a lot of stuff too. I liked the past post, Living Small. Perhaps we live larger than we need to because we have so much stuff. I could certainly pare down - a lot. I'd need a big disposal bin to hold all the excess! But wait, that's what church rummage sales are for.

Dave

Fri Aug 10, 04:03:00 AM MDT 

Dave Baker said...

Hmmmmmmmmm..... I have a lot of stuff too. I was thinking pack to you post on Living Small. Maybe we all live so large because we have so much stuff. I coulds certainly use a good paring down - I'd need a huge garbage bin! But wait, that's what rummage sales are for.

Dave

Fri Aug 10, 04:06:00 AM MDT 

Gene said...

I have a friend who reduced stuff with three boxes: keep, give-away, trash. This same friend is wondering about he and his wife picking 100 things a day for 7 days of which to get rid...1,400 things!

Fri Aug 10, 04:34:00 AM MDT 

Garth said...

Gene,
Some excellent ponderings here! Well done! It reminds me of two or three things. First, a bumper sticker I encounter on several occasions while living in Calgary: "More is never enough." Sad, and makes a virtue out of the deadly sin of greed. (By the way, this summer I preached a series on the seven deadlies). Second, you can check out on the web Canadian singer Jane Siberry (not sure of spelling), who said she sold her comfie house, downsized radically, and has no fixed address--or last time I checked her site that was the case, although it's been some time now. Third, I'm reminded of our former Alberta Synod bishop, Bob Jacobson, who now is an RC. He lived for years in the Donelda area very frugally and simply as a prophetic witness against the materialistic sickness of our times.
The Lord bless you & yours (congrats by the way on the birth of your new grandson!)
Garth

Fri Aug 10, 12:31:00 PM MDT 

More Enough, Already « GENEralities: said...

[...] Gene I preached on this out of Luke 12.32-34 this morning and with reference to my previous post here. I also quoted Randy Alcorn’s excellent and challenging book, Money, Possessions and [...]

Sun Aug 12, 09:27:00 AM MDT