Lectionary Meditation: Too much is never enough

Lectionary for this week.

Luke 16:19-31
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Amos 6:1a, 4-7

If ever there were a set of lessons to make the wealthy squirm this would be it. So what are we to make of it, we aren't wealthy after all. I don't know about you but I don't lay around my house in silk robes eating and laughing and doing pretty much nothing all the time. But then again, I'm not exactly Lazarus am I? I wrote this on a rather nice little Apple MacBook, sitting on my comfy leather couch wearing warm cloths and with some snacks near to hand.

It gets me thinking about perspective. I doubt any of us would count ourselves as rich, but very few of us are truly poor, probably none of us taken by the real standards of the world. And yet we worry about money constantly it seems. That is exactly what we shouldn't be obsessed with. The letter to Timothy is timeless. Here, we have a group of Christians caught up in money concern. The author of this one could have been writing directly to Empty Church (and a great many other places I imagine).

Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.

Wouldn't that be nice? If we could be content with having our basic needs met?

But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

And yet far too often it is money that captures our hearts. Not just as individuals, though that is harmful enough, but as organizations. My sister tells a story she heard from her Irish history professor. It seemed Ireland came late to the concept of capitalism. For a long time in a small town (similar to where I live) there would be a pub every few blocks. They were little family affairs and they did something peculiar. They all got together and agreed on a fair price for a pint. What could their neighbors afford, and what would give them a decent living? The idea that they might compete with one another, or undercut prices to attract more customers was entirely foreign. Anyone who tried it, far from gaining new customers, found themselves a social outcast. Their customers would abandon them for attempting to hurt the other pubs. And so the little family pubs served their customers fair prices and made a comfortable (but certainly not extravagant) living.

Capitalism is changing the Irish neighborhoods. Big business has moved in and is slowly driving those little pubs out with its desire for more and more and more. Just enough to get by isn't enough anymore.

The church isn't immune, certainly. Money has been wielded as an almighty weapon in many a vestry meeting. All decisions for some of our vestry members come down to money. Will the action bring more in? How much will it cost? The activities that draw the most member support are fund raisers, the results of which are applauded loudly in service the next Sunday.

But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called...

The letter to Timothy is pretty clear. It isn't the fund raisers we are called to be about. We are told to pursue a number of things: righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness, but money or wealth isn't mentioned even once. Not even a hint. In fact we are told to shun the pursuit of wealth. So why then do our churches and our lives get so caught up in the capitalist pursuit of more?

We are inundated with the message that we need more. Bigger, better, faster, softer. From our vehicles to our homes to our waistlines we have bought into the corporate message. More is more, and we need more. We are rich, exceedingly rich. And there are a great many Lazaruses in the world, too many. They live in overcrowded refuge camps in Africa, they suffer in the slums of Rio, they fall beneath the dictatorial heel of military regimes around the world.

If we are brave enough to let go our need for more the story doesn't have to end as our gospel lesson. If we can accept enough as true bounty, we can begin to look beyond our own wants and see the needs of those at our very gates. If we can learn to trust that we truly have enough, even more than enough, then we can share with those who truly have nothing. We can begin to fill that hole that cries for more with God, with prayer and contemplation and companionship and blessing. And as we do it will become an overflowing font, creating more than we could ever need.

We are blessed with abundance, and we are called to share that abundance, to remake a world of not enough, and too much. It is our work, it is our call, the question is: are we willing?Lectionary Meditation: Too much is never enough