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"Be Content, For the Giver has Given You Life!"
Since you had so much fun with Pastor Abel’s true and false
quiz a couple of weeks ago, I thought it would be only fitting
to continue with a multiple choice quiz today. The quiz is
made up of one question. And the question is: What is the
number 1.9 billion? What is 1.9 Billion? Is it:
| A) |
the number of hamburgers that McDonald’s sold last year, |
| B) |
the number of pieces of pizza consumed during the National Lutheran Youth Gathering here in Orlando last week, |
| C) |
the total number of square feet of public storage space that is being used in America today? |
You have probably already guessed that 1.9 billion is, in
fact, the number of square feet of public storage available
in the US today. In fact, we have 1.9 billion square feet
of public storage that is found in some 40,000 facilities
that are being operated by some 2000 entrepreneurs. These
facilities must be pretty good investments as they are
reported to enjoy an average occupancy of 90%.
The same study reported that 1 out of ever 11 American
families maintains a storage unit outside of their home
and that the average rental length is 15 months or more.
Our use of self-storage units has increased 75 percent
since the late 1970’s. The bottom line is that American
homes are getting bigger while American families are getting
smaller. Yet it still takes us another nearly two billion
square feet of extra space to store all our stuff! Shouldn’t
that be telling us all something?
That’s what Jesus said. In our Gospel lesson today there is
a message that we just can’t duck. Sometimes Bible passages
seem hard to understand but this is not one of those times.
Jesus says simply, unyieldingly: “be on guard against all
kinds of greed! A man’s life does not consist in the abundance
of his possessions.”
“Be on guard about all kinds of greed!” Now that is a sermon
you can sink your teeth into. I’ll bet some of you are already
thinking to yourself: “get ’em preach!” “That’s it, tell ’em
about having too much stuff!”
In fact, I am sure that if I were to continue this message
the way that you are probably thinking I will, if I were
to continue this message by telling you it is time to buy
less stuff, throw away some stuff, give some stuff to a
worthy cause, and frankly quit wanting so much stuff you
would grudgingly admit that this was a good sermon, that
is if you are not in retail or some kind of manufacturing
concern.
If I continued in this way, most of your would hang your
heads for a moment or two, and then vow to clean out your
closets and garage at long last. If I were to continue in
this way, it would be a pretty good sermon, but you see,
it would miss the real problem here in Luke 12. For the
real problem here is not about how much we have, but
rather that fact that we are never quite satisfied with
what we do have.
The real problem here is contentment, or rather the lack
of the same. I do really have to tell you about this.
The problem of the lack of contentment is one that we
all share. Even those of you who believe you have all
that you need, still want for something, maybe it is a
desire for a few less aches and pains. Maybe it is a
yearning for the kids and grandkids to call more often.
Maybe is a simple wish for things to be as they were
back in the good old days, whenever they were.
None of us are strangers to lacked contentedness, so
I guess the real question is: what is it that really
robs us of our contentment? Is it simply advertising?
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could blame all our wants on
the slick campaigns of Madison Avenue?
But in truth is it goes a bit deeper than that, doesn’t
it. We lack contentedness when we try to keep up with
the Jones’. We lack contentedness when there is someone
in our lives for whom we are never good enough. Sometimes
that someone is ourselves. We lack contentedness when
we are not recognized enough, appreciated enough,
consulted enough, trusted enough, attractive enough,
clever enough, popular enough, rewarded enough, loved
enough, and the list goes on and on.
But the real lack of contentedness in our lives is the
one that Jesus takes the time to tell us about this
morning. It seems there was once a man who was given
an incredible crop. Now forgetting whom it was who
gave him the crop in the first place - after all, he
certainly did - the man’s primary concern was enough
square footage to store all of his stuff.
So, he took control. He tore down the old, and build
new. He provided for himself the way to store what
he had provided for himself. And now that he feels
he has provided for himself enough he boldly gives
himself permission to relax, to eat, drink, and be
merry because he has the secured the future for
himself.
The story makes us want to join Jesus in saying: you
fool! You cannot seize control over God. You cannot
control the future, and you sure shouldn’t forget the
one who does! We laugh to ourselves about the sheer
folly of the man thinking that he could outsmart God.
We laugh, but then we try to do the same thing. How
much of our lives do we spend trying to seize and remain
in control of our own lives, and the lives of those
around us in the bargain?
How long is it before we realize that in trying to do that,
in trying to seize control, we are simply repeating sins as
old as the Garden of Eden? How long is it before we realize
that it is the relying on our flawed selves to fix what is
wrong with our flawed selves that is in itself the flaw in
the plan?
Attempting to be in control simply, frankly, shuts God out.
And if God is out there will forever be a whole in us that
no amount of possessions or appreciation will ever fill.
It leaves a God sized whole that only God can fill.
The good news is that He does. For you see it was really
God who was left discontented after the fall in the Garden
of Eden. It is God who longed for the people who were
missing in his life. It is God who sent His son to fill
the cross shaped whole in heart.
It is God who sent Jesus Christ to live the perfect life,
to die a horrific death and to be raised to glorious new
life in order that he could fix what was wrong, fill what
was missing in our lives. And of utmost importance, it is
God the Father who was, is, and ever will be well-pleased,
contented, with His son.
Jesus fills what is missing in us. But strangely, He does
not fill it by putting something in our lives, but rather,
by taking something away. Jesus takes away our sin and
the penalty that goes with it.
By removing our sins, He removes that which separates us
from our God and Father and we are whole again. In this
wholeness, it is He who gives us all that we need for this
life. It is He who gives us not only what we have, but the
ability and the peace to enjoy it.
In this wholeness it is God who calls us again and again
to find our peace, our security, our hope, yes even our
identity in Him rather than in the things that he has
created or those who let us down.
In this wholeness it is God who promises us an eternity in
a place where nothing is missing, nothing is wrong, nothing
is wanting. Imagine that for a moment …a place of total and
complete contentedness … then imagine being in that place
forever!
What is 1.9 billion? Well, actually it is only the tiniest
fraction of the mere beginning of the years that we will
spend in the presence of God. And that is a reason to eat,
drink, and be merry!
To God be the Glory, forever and ever! Amen!
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