Many years
ago, when I was just starting out and raising young children, I heard a retired
bishop give a talk about some of the tasks necessary to retire. Like many clergy back in the day, he spent
his entire career living in church-owned housing. For he and his wife, the first task of
retiring was finding a place to live.
The second task involved downsizing.
They had much more stuff than they could fit into their new home. Nowhere was this more evident than with the
things the bishop kept in his office – again, a church-provided space. Specifically, he had way more books than he
could ever hope to store in his home and truthfully most of them he no longer
needed. Apparently the local library had
little use for forty-year-old theology books.
Neither did his seminary.
Eventually he was able to box them up and ship them to a newly forming school
in Africa.
That talk
has stayed with me over the years because it reminds me everything I have one
day will have to be given away, disposed, or sold. Somewhere after I bought my current house and
outfitted all the rooms I crossed a threshold in life. I am no longer accumulating stuff, but I have
not yet begun the process of letting go.
I am just sitting on it. Kings
and queens are said to possess the throne by sitting on it. Sometimes I wonder if I am sitting on my
possessions or if they are sitting on me.
Do you know
there are nearly 12,000 Starbucks coffee shops in America, there are over
14,000 McDonalds, and almost 32,000 post offices? Care to guess how many self-storage facilities
we have in our country? Almost 53,000
and growing by 2,000-3,000 a year. There
is over 2.3 billion square feet of storage space – three times the size of
Manhattan and equal to seven square feet for every person within our
borders. Now, some of this space is used
to keep items while in transition, but 50% of what is stored simply won’t fit
into a person’s home, even though the average size of a typical house has grown
dramatically since the 1950’s. We
Americans have a lot of stuff, so much in fact, we have nowhere to put it.
Perhaps we
have no better biblical figure with which to identify than the person who
approaches Jesus in today’s gospel reading.
We never learn his name, but he is often referred to as “the rich young
ruler”, even though the text does not tell us he is rich or young or a
ruler. He asks Jesus what he must do to
inherit eternal life. This, it seems to
me, is another great obsession in our country, at least for some. Who here has not been “evangelized” by a
well-meaning person who asks “If you were to die tonight do you know where your
soul would go?” I wonder if the man who
approaches Jesus wants to have this ‘heavenly’ question answered so he can be
at peace as he gets back to the earthly business of collecting stuff.
Interestingly,
Jesus points him to the Ten Commandments dealing specifically with how one is to
treat a neighbor, but not to the ones describing our relationship with
God. The man says he has kept these laws
all his life. “There is one thing you
lack,” Jesus says to him, “Go and sell all you have, give the money to the poor,
store up for yourself treasures in heaven, and come follow me.” I wonder if I will ever get to the point
where I have done so many good deeds I will need a self-storage space in heaven
to keep all the spiritual treasures I have accumulated.
On hearing
this, the text tells us the man is shocked and goes away “grieving” for he has
“many possessions.” The Greek word
translated here as grieving literally
means ‘gloomy’, ‘overcast’ or ‘clouded over’.
The man’s possessions cloud his vision and he cannot see past them to
anything that lies beyond. They obscure
his sight to such a degree he cannot see the Kingdom of God Jesus offers to
him. He loves his possessions so much
that they prevent him from knowing the love of God.
If Jesus
invited you to follow him, would you be able?
What would hold you back? Some of
us – especially those with small children – understandably are not able to drop
everything on a whim and follow. But
many of us – far too many – are impaired by financial commitments and
obligations. Who will pay your mortgage,
your car payments, and your student loans?
Perhaps you have already maxed out a couple of credit cards and can’t
afford to take on any more debt. Maybe
you are saving for a boat or a vacation home.
The things we have and the things we want can inhibit us from being the
person God is calling us to be.
As I said, I
feel very blessed to be at a point in life where I no longer feel the need to
accumulate stuff. It probably has more
to do with my age and where I am in life than any kind of spiritual awakening,
so it is not something for which I take credit.
But it is something for which I am deeply grateful. I am better positioned to channel my
resources to things that matter and make a difference. Some time ago, without really trying, I
became a tither, giving away at least 10% of what I earn, which is the biblical
measure of generosity. This was hardly
possible when I had young children, but now is something I can do without
giving it a second thought.
In a couple
of weeks St. Paul’s will ask you to make a financial pledge to support the work
of our parish in 2019. Your Vestry and I
appreciate every dollar you give us and we do our best to make it count for
something good. I encourage you to examine
where you are in terms of your giving.
The average person gives away 2% of what they make. Often this is done without any kind of plan
or commitment. Many of us give when we
feel motivated to give. I want to
challenge you to stretch yourself. If
you are giving away 2% of your income, can you push it to 2.5%? If you give away $25 a week, can you make it
$40? Little by little and over time,
these sacrifices begin to add up and one day you will find yourself tithing, in
that place where God invites you to be in right relationship to your wealth and
possessions.
I don’t know
who said it first, but more than one person has said, “I have never met a
former tither.” This simple spiritual
discipline becomes a way to live which is consistent with our faith and open to
accepting God’s invitation. Getting
there is a part of our life’s journey and with each step you will sense
yourself not inheriting eternal life, but living with it here and now.
