risk abundance
“ As they were listening to this, he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. So he said, “A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return. He summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, ‘Do business with these until I come back.’ But the citizens of his country hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’ When he returned, having received royal power, he ordered these slaves, to whom he had given the money, to be summoned so that he might find out what they had gained by trading. The first came forward and said, ‘Lord, your pound has made ten more pounds.’ He said to him, ‘Well done, good slave! Because you have been trustworthy in a very small thing, take charge of ten cities.’ Then the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your pound has made five pounds.’ He said to him, ‘And you, rule over five cities.’ Then the other came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your pound. I wrapped it up in a piece of cloth, for I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man; you take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’ He said to him, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked slave! You knew, did you, that I was a harsh man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow? Why then did you not put my money into the bank? Then when I returned, I could have collected it with interest.’ He said to the bystanders, ‘Take the pound from him and give it to the one who has ten pounds.’ (And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten pounds!’) ‘I tell you, to all those who have, more will be given; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and slaughter them in my presence.’”
After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. ”
As I was working out this week’s sermon, I wrote out 4 words on my paper:
- stewardship (because this is the first week of stewardship)
- All Saints’ Day (because it’s All Saints Sunday)
- Communion (because it’s the first Sunday of the month and the table is set)
and lastly,
- crazy parable (because this parable is crazy)
And the question is… what do all these things have in common?
One of my gifts is synthesis and finding connection between random things but even for me, this one was a challenge. I’ll let you judge for yourself how it goes.
Let’s start with All Saints Day.
A palliative care nurse in Australia, Bronnie Ware, who has been with hundreds of people as they were dying, wrote about the top 5 regrets that she heard from people on their death bed:
- I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
- I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
- I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings
- I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
- I wish that I had let myself be happier.
What do these say to us? That a life worth living is not about achievement for achievement’s sake. It’s not about how many toys we collect. It’s not about putting on a brave face or wearing a mask.
It’s about courage to be yourself. It’s about relationship. It’s about risking abundance.
And now, the crazy parable.
It is not anyone’s death bed wish to live in the world of this parable. Jesus tells the story of a corrupt and tyrannical nobleman who used his power to create a culture of fear and scarcity. He went to grab more power and his people sent word ahead of him that they did not want to be ruled by him. Jesus’ telling is likely based on the historical reality of how Herod’s family had been crowned king by the Roman Empire. So, in a very real sense, this was the world that the Jewish people were living in at the time.
The nobleman-turned-king gave a pound to ten of his slaves and asked them to invest it. We only learn what happened to three of them. The first one got 10 times the return on his investment. The second one got 5 times a return. And the last one hid his pound and kept it safe out of fear of losing it.
The king was angry. He gave away the pound to the first guy, had him slaughtered and then proceeded to slaughter all the rest of the people who spoke out against him. End of story.
I told you… it’s a crazy parable.
It’s a story of a crazy ancient wold of demand, scarcity, injustice, performance anxiety and tyranny. Well, maybe it’s not so ancient after all.
This actually is a reality for millions of people in our world today. Their lives are so threatened in their home countries that they have been forced to leave. 22.5 million people are refugees today. That’s one person in every 113 people in our world. It is hard for us to get our minds around it, isn’t it? This world of tyranny and fear and the threat of death is a contemporary reality for millions of people.
While I do not want to lessen the physical reality of so many in our world, I think this parable can hit home when we consider the more subtle ways we experience tyranny in our lives.
Our work can put us on a cycle of performance and production that keeps us in an constant cycle of anxiety and hurry.
Our personal histories have entrenched patterns of fear and scarcity in our emotional landscape that keep us trapped.
While we may be unfamiliar with the actual violence of the text, many of us know the emotional and relational violence of this text.
I wonder where you experience this? Where do you struggle with the tyranny of scarcity? If you look closely at what blocks courage, love and belonging in your life, where you feel paralyzed, you’ll find it there.
Back to the crazy parable.
I think there are about 10 sermons in it. You may have heard the one about wise investment and that’s definitely there. However, I think the context of its placement is what connected with me this week.
The writer of Luke places this story right after the story of Zacchaeus and right before Jesus goes into Jerusalem to set up the Palm Sunday parade. Remember Zaccheaus? He was the short rich tax collector who climbed in a tree to get a glimpse of Jesus and ended up hosting Jesus for dinner. He proclaimed to Jesus that he would give half of what he earned to the poor and he would make reparations four times over to anyone he had cheated. He was a guy who had experienced the freedom of abundance.
And Jesus? His experience of abundance looked very different. He was free even from the fear of death and so was about to set foot in Jerusalem where his death was imminent.
In this parable, we are told a story of tyranny and fear to help us understand that living in abundance is free but costly. Living in abundance requires us to do truth-telling in places of tyranny. Living in abundance may not be happily ever after but there will be joy. Jesus is naming the fear of tyranny for those who think abundance will be a cakewalk. He is exposing the lies of scarcity that threaten our lives, physically and emotionally. There is a cost to abundance and yet the freedom on the other side of the cost is the most precious currency in the world.
So, here’s the stewardship part of the sermon.
This church must be a place of abundance. I’m not talking financially, although the stewardship team and I would like you to feel free to consider that.
Abundance is being welcomed, held, loved into wholeness. Abundance is knowing that everything, everything, is God’s and so we are free to risk abundance in our actions in the world, in our own healing, in our love.
Church should be this way always. But it isn’t and so it’s important for us to be explicit and adamant about abundance because this world needs places of abundance. I’m here because I believe the DNA of this church shares this core conviction with me. And I get up and go to work here because I know we can go deeper together. Abundance breeds abundance. So, let’s risk together, beginning at this table that proclaims a deeper reality of enough for all.
“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention.
So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you. ”