[Deut. 8:7-18; Ps. 126; ii Cor. 9:6 -15 Lk. 12:16-30]
Peace to you who are in Christ. Amen.
We’re in a period in the liturgical calendar when we read and hear a lot about bounty and abundance, not in the least in the Scriptures.
We might be celebrating harvest festivals (like next week here in Kortrijk), we might be organising extra food bank drives, sell jams or compotes or pickled vegetables after the service, etc. The abundance we read about is visibly present.
Just before we retreat into our cozy, warm, well-lit homes, when outside it’s dark and cold, before we go into our human version of hibernation, we have one last party, we splash out one more time.
That’s not entirely true, of course, in our consumer aimed society we’re constantly splashing out, constantly consuming, constantly waisting. We don’t follow the seasons any longer, at least not in our affluent western societies, we don’t have to any more.
We’ve bent nature to our will, so we can have whatever we want, whenever we want it.
Abundance and bounty have become to mean entitlement, and that’s not the bounty and abundance the Scriptures are telling us about.
Abundance from the Lord means interest and interaction, it means care and parenting, it means promise and fulfilment. In such an abundance, we should be anything but self-conceited and proud and ungrateful, denying God our thanks and others their share of the bounty.
Because with God it’s a case of first receive then ask. God gives when we don’t deserve it, God gives when we might not even realise we’re in need.
“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Lk. 12:6)
God’s bounteous grace at work.
After all, God liberated the Israelites before they were even well acquainted with this God. Pharaoh put it succinctly when he pointed out to Moses, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him..?” (Ex. 5:2a)
It’s likely that many of the Hebrew slaves were thinking the exact same thing, when they were being asked to put their trust in a God who was making all sorts of claims and who was referring to ancestors who had died more that four centuries earlier.
The same is true for our Gospel reading today, where Jesus is asking for trust in our heavenly Father, all the while referring to ravens and wild flowers and grass. “Do not worry...” he says ‘Trust in God’s grace and care and interest.’
Of course people are going to worry, it’s a very understandable and human thing to do. All life is concerned with its survival, it’s part of Creation.
However, Jesus points out that worrying doesn’t help, it’s futile. For all our concerns and the steps we undertake to ensure that all the possible outcomes in life are covered, we still can’t control everything, life will run its course.
“You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” God says to the rich man.
That somehow feels very unfair, doesn’t it, because we can’t blame someone for working hard for a living and then wanting to enjoy the fruits of that hard labour. In those days there was no pension scheme or health insurance; if you were rich you had to make sure you stayed rich; if you were pour then you hoped your children and your grandchildren would be able to support you in your old age.
And that’s not what Jesus is talking about, there’s nothing wrong with expecting honest wages for honest work.
But Jesus is reacting here to a request to intervene in a dispute about an inheritance: in the verses before our reading a man wants Jesus to order the man’s brother to hand over the man’s share.
Jesus didn’t come to judge financial differences or to mediate in family squabbles, he came to proclaim the Gospel, the Good News about forgiveness and life eternal.
Jesus is urging us to stay focused: What are our priorities? What defines us as human beings? How do we relate to the people and things around us? What does abundance, bounty mean to us? What satisfies us? What are our true needs? What is life to us?
Because very easily and very quickly, often without us realising it, material things and status take over and define our lives, who we are. We get trapped in a vicious circle, where human life is used up by things and situations that are no longer life-giving, no longer grace-full.
Life has been given us, but it doesn’t belong to us. Just look at the flowers in the fields and the birds in the sky.
That’s the scary part but also the exciting part of being human.
And of course this upsets most people, it’s very understandable, very human, it would be strange if it didn’t.
And of course we make decisions ourselves, we have choices and responsibilities, it’s our life.
But life, the essence of existence, and no-more-living, death which is part of that, they have been given us by the Source of all existence, the great I AM.
That’s why we shouldn’t worry, God has it all in hand, a Father’s hand.
We should also be very careful not to make this all about rules and regulations: the rules and decrees, the laws follow the promise, to ensure that the promise isn’t taken for granted, not to earn the promise. God had set his mind to liberate the Israelites before he made his Covenant with them, before he called Moses from the burning bush.
Making it about the decrees and laws would again mean we got our priorities wrong.
Abundant grace, bountiful grace, those are the gifts, the true gifts in life from our God, our Father in heaven.
We’re not asked to earn them, we’re not asked to produce them, we’re asked to be grateful for them and to be mindful of where they come from and how they daily affect our lives.
Remember the Lord, remember his bounty, your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of abundance, love, hope, and care.
The Lord bless and keep you. Amen.