Luke 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
I was part of something pretty great this weekend … and I’m making no bones about that fact that this sermon is a shameless, thinly-veiled excuse to brag about my wife and some of her newest friends. (Based on the Gospel we just heard, I hope it also has something to say about the practice of faithful giving and generosity, too.)
Christa and I are just back from Chicago where she competed in her first, ever, dragon boat race with the club of paddlers she been a part of, recently. It’s a club of women who train three times a week up on Geist Reservoir and compete a few times a year at festivals and races in places like Chicago, Kentucky, Orlando, and sometimes, even, internationally.
Apparently, “dragon boat racing” originated in China a couple thousand years ago and the boats look like this:
They’re about 40 feet long and only four feet wide and, at least in this case, of 20 women, paired-up, side-by-side, paddle in tandem, while someone bangs a drum and barks orders from the bow and someone else stands on the stern and steers, or rather, keeps them on the straight and narrow, and in their lane, headed for the finish line.
But, more important than all of that, the group of women with whom Christa paddles are all breast cancer survivors – their club is call the Indy Survive-Oars – and they do their thing as much for the exercise and physical therapy that the motion of paddling provides their bodies, as they do for the sisterhood, camaraderie, friendship and encouragement they share as so many of them continue to fight and recover from their respective breast cancer battles. It’s one of those special things that is as practical as it is holy.
Anyway, with today’s Gospel on the brain, and with this reminder from Jesus about paying attention to and living differently because of what really matters, I noticed some common ground between these Survive-Oars and the way we’re all called to live where our giving and generosity are concerned as followers of Jesus.
For one thing, looks can be deceiving. I couldn’t believe some of the shapes and sizes of the many women who showed up to paddle yesterday. Their bodies have been utterly transformed by their cancer – and the surgeries and interventions it takes to treat it. You would expect some of them to complete the walk from their car to the staging area – but they were still going strong all the way to the finish. Others looked lean and mean, like they’d done this a million times before, but they were huffing and puffing their way through as much of it as any of them. Christa’s own, mostly rookie crew of Survive-Oars, with all of their battered and broken, mended and mending bodies, surprised, even their coach, by beating much more experienced paddlers.
And I’ve seen the same around here, over the years, where giving is concerned. There are individuals and families who simply don’t have the resources that others have. I know it because of what they do for work, because of where they live, because of a million circumstances that many would use – for very good reason – not to give as generously, or as much, or as often. But, like that poor widow from another Gospel story – the one who had nothing to give except everything she had, while the rich folks dropped in their leftovers – some people give selflessly, sacrificially, generously, gratefully, in ways that are surprising, inspiring, humbling, and uncommonly faithful.
Another thing I noticed this weekend is that, like with so many hard things that matter, temptations to stop – or never start in the first place – are everywhere. I’m impressed every time Christa leaves the house on a Monday, Wednesday and Saturday for regular paddling practice. After long days at work. With so many easier, more fun and relaxing things to do; never knowing when the side-effects from her meds will strike; there are lots of reasons to just NOT. And I know so many others from her team are very literally in the same boat, but they show up, practice after practice, nonetheless.
And, don’t we all know about temptations when it comes to what or whether we give to the Church or store up more treasures for ourselves? There’s always something better or easier or more fun to do than to give away our time and our talent and our money. We’re constantly tempted to just do what we’ve always done, or give less than we know we could, or to do nothing at all because “he” or “she” or “they” aren’t, or because someone else will surely take care of it – and who’s really going to notice, know, or care anyway? Temptation toward greed is everywhere, as Jesus reminds us, and so much of it has to do with how we use – or don’t use – our money in ways that are a blessing for others and pleasing to God.
Playing along with this will take you places you’ve never been before or ever thought you’d ever be. Christa had never thought about “dragon-boating” in her whole life. And new things are awkward and feel risky and can be downright scary when you’re her age. (She’s older than me, remember!) But strong, faithful people do brave, courageous things when their very life has actually been demanded of them.
And that’s nothing more or less than what Jesus’ parable asks of us as Capitalists, trained to want more, to save more, to have more. He’s always calling us to do a new thing; believe a new thing; try a new thing where our money is concerned by storing up less of it for ourselves; by giving it away more generously; by sharing it with the world around us; and by watching what God will do with it – and us – along the way.
It’s hard to stop once you’ve started. In a boat full of other paddlers, it seems to me it’s hard to quit. You have a coach encouraging you. You have teammates helping you along and to whom you are beholden. And once you’re moving, the current and the wind (on a good day) and your own momentum and adrenaline must help keep things moving forward.
I hope the same is true when it comes to being generous. Someone, somewhere said once that they had never met an ex-tither. And as far as I know, that’s been my experience, too. When it comes to stewardship in the Church, the reason ex-tithers are rare, is because the experience of giving proportionately is as rewarding and as life-changing as God promises it will be. Tithing – or giving away any significant portion of your income – can be like committing to something so practical and holy that it changes your perspective in a way you’re not willing to stop, or slow down, or go back on once you’ve seen the impact of it on your life and the places to which you give your money.
Commitment matters. When Christa signed up for this new hobby, it became pretty clear that the team was counting on her and on each other to show up. Again, for really practical reasons, they need to know who’s going to be there and when – especially for a competition – so they can balance the boats according to the size, shape, weight, experience and the ability of each paddler.
Too many of us, when it comes to making our financial commitments aren’t sure we want to be counted on; or beholden to; or committed to someone or something outside of ourselves or our own family’s needs. But faith calls us to trust not in our own willingness or ability to give, but in God’s willingness, power and desire to provide – not just dollars and cents, but to provide the generous hearts and open hands to share it. And in God’s Church, just like on a dragon boat, everyone’s commitment matters – no matter the size, shape, weight or experience – because it helps us plan and prepare for how to use what we have and because it reminds us that we’re all in this boat together, too.
And lastly, we’re called to do this because we GET TO, not because we HAVE TO. None of these Survive-oars are out there because they have to be. They’re not under contract. They’re not getting paid. There are no endorsements or expectations from anyone but themselves. It seems to me they do this because they’ve had to imagine more seriously than most of us that there was a time when they almost wouldn’t have had the option – their lives were very much being demanded of them, not so long ago.
In the same way, the commitments we offer are between us and Jesus. We are challenged by each other, by our Pastor, I hope, and by the needs we see around us in this place and in the world. But ultimately, our offerings are to be made with prayerful consideration for our own needs, God’s desire and only with thanksgiving and as much generosity as we can muster – because we CAN and because we have so much for which to be thankful.
I was so impressed and inspired by what those women were up to yesterday – surviving their illness, choosing the hard road toward healing and wholeness, loving, supporting, encouraging, and challenging each other to do more and better with what they’ve been given, and being grateful – above all else, it seems – for the simple, profound, second chance to do any of it.
Our lives and our discipleship could be transformed by following their example. And one of the most practical places to start paddling – and so much easier by comparison, if we’re honest – is by giving away – not storing up – more of what has first been given to us by the gracious hand of the God we know in Jesus.
Amen
