When Jesus saw that his teaching was drawing crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were followers, apprentices of a sort, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his companions. This is what he said:
“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are - no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought. You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God, who is food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat. You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for. You’re blessed when you get your inside world - your mind and heart - put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.
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He went up a hillside to teach......
Maybe one like this - in La Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia. A friend of mine, who lives in Minca, Colombia travels to Nabusimake, in the Arhuaco Valley, to learn from the Arhuaco elders. John Lundin has a PhD in Pastoral Counselling, and has co-authored a book with the Dalai Lama. He is currently writing a book about the Arhuaco people and their life and spirituality. This is where the teachings are given.
Two weeks ago Sonya and the children told us the story of Stone Soup - a story of what happens when we cooperate and give thanks for what we DO have. Last week we heard a story called T
Give Thanks for Rocks - another story of giving thanks for what we DO have, even if at first glance it looks like not much. Today we are observing World Food Day; a time of recognition that other parts of the world do not have such fortune. In many places, this lack is due to circumstances beyond the control of the people who are most affected - war, drought, poor harvest, dirty water, flood.
Last week, Canadian Churches celebrated Thanksgiving, and World Communion Sunday. It is a time when we give thanks for gifts, and for life. Thanksgiving has been a time of celebrating the abundance of harvest. In the Jewish tradition, last Sunday was the last day of Sukkoth, the Feast of Tabernacles - a celebration of harvest in the first year of freedom after years of slavery and wandering in the wilderness - a celebration of those things which God provided: manna and quail, and water from a rock. Celebrations of the earth and our place in it.
And yet......
Today’s story from Mark is a typical story of human-ness and greed. James and John, who apparently have finally got the point that Jesus is going to die, and eventually both of them, ask Jesus to set it up so that they will be greater than the others. Even after they are gone, they want more - and never mind their friends and companions - they want Jesus to give them places of honour...they’re looking at what they don’t have, instead of celebrating what they do have. And Jesus tells them they might want to re-think that a little.
In a sense, these two remind me of the congregations I’ve served, including here at Humber. In the post-war era, here in North America, the churches went through a great period of growth - but only for about twenty or twenty-five years, and then they started to decline again. That’s the part we’ve tried not to notice - since the ‘70s, both the United Church in particular, and the church around the world in general, has been in decline.
I’ve heard that the church of my childhood, Wesley United in Prince Albert, had over 600 kids in the Sunday School. I’ve heard that the church of my youth ad teen years, Deer Lodge United in Winnipeg, had over 400 in Sunday School, and about 100 in the youth group. I am here to attest to the fact that those figures are greatly inflated by nostalgia for something that in reality never existed. Wesley United might have had 150 in the Sunday School, but there surely wasn’t room for more than that. Deer Lodge United had maybe 30 in the youth group.
So as time goes on, numbers appear to slip, costs rise to the point where we have deficit instead of plenty, we fall into what theologians are naming as a Theology of Scarcity. We spend all our time looking backward and trying to dream of a time when the pews will be full and we have lots of money. We have to get more people out to church, is the comment - we have to be able to pay our bills, we don’t have enough. Is that what we are supposed to be about? Is that what God wants for the church??? Or is it maybe that God wants us to look more closely at what we do have, compared to those who are destitute, and right the balance? Is it maybe that God wants us to function as a community of the whole, not worrying for the future, but cooperating and collaborating for the benefit of the whole.
In every congregation I’ve served, I struggle to find a way to get people to change their mental and spiritual attitude of focusing on what they *don’t* have, and instead focusing on what we *do* have. We need to move from a theology of scarcity to a theology of abundance...
...and Jesus, sitting on the terraced hillside, says
“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are - no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought. You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God, who is food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat. You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for. You’re blessed when you get your inside world - your mind and heart - put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.”
One of the alternate readings for today was an earlier story in Mark, about the very wealthy young man who came to Jesus and asked what he needed to do to enter the realm - and Jesus responded “Sell all your stuff, give it to the poor, and then come back.” Mark reports that the young man left in tears. - and we, in our rather simplistic way of thinking, assume that the young man is unable to let go of all his things, and is in tears because giving up those things is beyond his capacity.
My friend, Rev. David Shearman, comments "You could also interpret the story as the man grieving because he *had* decided to get rid of his stuff and follow Jesus. His tears were not of sorrow but of acceptance because he knew he had taken the very first step into a new future. He realized that joining Jesus in kingdom values was excruciatingly painful.” The young man had just been confronted by Jesus in a very difficult way, with the difference between need and want.
We are confronted with that in the church. What we want, indeed what we think we need, may not be what we really need. One thing I do know - is that a theology of scarcity becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more we focus on what we don’t have, the less we will have. We need a theology of abundance - a theology which says we have everything we need, right here. We don’t need any more.
I want to show you some photos of the Arhuaco people and their homes in Colombia - because I believe this is precisely what Jesus was talking about, and what God would wish for us.
John and I had a conversation this week about the Arhuaco people. It seemed to me, from the pictures and from his words, that they have everything they need. It seemed, in looking at the pictures, that this is a people completely at home in the world. They have no sense of poverty or of scarcity. When I asked John, here is what he replied:
“Not only do they have a different understanding of 'abundance' versus 'scarcity' or even 'poverty,' the truth is they don't have an understanding of that concept or tension at all. They have everything they need and don't ever think of 'want.' They have no interest in accumulating 'things,' and they go about their business of caring for the planet and each other 24 hours a day - including cultivating their crops and caring for their livestock. Everyone participates, and there is never a sense that they are "working." For them there is no difference between work and pleasure - when one is involved in the work one is called to do, the joy is in that harmony of purpose.”
May it be so.
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