giving thanks in all things

Shalom Mennonite Church

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Worship Theme: “Rejoice in the Lord Always”

Texts: Philippians 4:4-9 and Luke 12:13-21

Eric Massanari

“giving thanks for all that is”

In my parents' home there is a framed

print of a famous Kathe Kollwitz drawing

of a mother holding a small child.

For eighteen years it hung on a wall

in my childhood home in Iowa City, Iowa.

For eighteen more years it hung on a wall

in my parents' home in Detroit, MI.

And now it hangs on a wall

in their house in Lynden, WA.

At some point my sister and I both

made it known that we love this piece of art.

We love it because it is beautiful

and because it reminds us both of home.

A running joke in our family centers around

which one of us will get this piece of art

when our parents die. Who will inherit it?

Will it go to their first-born 

(and no-doubt favorite) child?

Or, will it be given to their youngest child 

who probably doesn't fully appreciate the

fine quality of this piece of art.

One recent Christmas we all gathered

at my parents' home and I noticed 

that the Kollwitz print was no longer there on the wall.

My sister informed me that Mom and Dad
had decided to give it to her and her family
for the wall of their new house.
I suspected something was up and 
I soon found it hidden away under a bed.

It has all been in good fun.

I will be fine if that print winds up

in my sister's home (mostly fine, anyway).

That print—a print of a parent lovingly

holding a child—simply offers us a chance

to hold lightly and with humor

some things that are meaningful and important to us.

Through our joking we acknowledge

that our parents will not always be with us;

we remember that they will one day die, 

and so will we.

(And, I should add that my folks,

take part in this playful humor.)

Through our joking we acknowledge

that a very real risk of family life is that

we can learn to value the wrong things.

Many siblings and families really do

come to argue and battle bitterly over who

will get what portion of an inheritance

of land, money, stuff.

Through our joking we are reminding

one another that this is not what

we wish to value in our family.

We hope, as best we can, to value

all that is of most value: 

our relationships, and the love we share.

I share that story because

I believe that this is what Jesus points to

when the fellow comes to him

and asks him to help out in the dispute

he is having with his brother over an inheritance.

In those days, in that culture,

this would have been considered

a very normal request to bring

to one of the Jewish teachers.

The laws surrounding family inheritance

were religious laws for the Jews,

and they required a rabbi's help

for interpretation and enforcement.

However, it seems Jesus wants nothing to do

with such a mediating role in this situation.

He recognizes the greed motivating the man's request.

Jesus becomes the man's advocate,

just not in the way the fellow would like.

Jesus offers him a teaching story,

a parable about a wealthy

landowner who has earned

much through his prosperous farmland.

Just like the Onceler in Dr. Suess'

own parable, The Lorax, this

fellow just “keeps on biggering

and biggering, and biggering.”

He can't get enough.

The thought of sharing his surplus of grain

never seems to cross his mind.

He is thinking only of himself.

We might notice that there is no other

character in Jesus' parable.

The successful fellow is all alone

in the context of Jesus' story.

He is left alone with his own prosperity,

his own success, his own riches.

And then comes the punchline:

What a fool! What good is all of this wealth

if this successful man dies this very night?

Who's wealth is it then?

There is an echo here of Jesus' words

earlier in the gospel of Luke, in the ninth chapter:

        What good does it profit anyone

        if they gain the whole world

        but forfeit their lives? 9:25

Jesus puts the words here in God's own mouth:

       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 treasure for themselves

       but are not rich toward God. (v.21)

I wonder if this is the passage that

the sponsors of a billboard near Wichita

were citing. Maybe you've seen the sign:

       If you die tonight....

       Heaven? or Hell?

This parable is not about the afterlife.

Though the story strikes a more negative tone,

as some of the parables do,

this is a story about how we live here and now.

To use Jesus' own words,

this is about learning what it means

to be “rich towards God,” as we live,

and not just rich towards ourselves.

Jesus invites the man

to see that his greed has misled him.

It has distracted him from

all that is of greatest value in life.

And in order to understand what

is of greatest value, Jesus calls his attention

to a most basic fact of life:

he will die.

If not tonight, then one day.

And when that day comes

of what value will be all

the grain and all the wealth

that he has stored up?

There is deep wisdom in this parable

and it is not wisdom that pertains

to the afterlife, it is very much

about this life we are all living

here and now, today.

It is the wisdom we are being

taught in this autumn season

and in every autumn season

on the prairies as leaves fall,

and living things move into

dormancy while other beings die.

We are taught that life

is ever changing and that

one of the most profound

changes experienced in life is death.

You and I will one day die.

Perhaps this day.

Perhaps not for days to come.

One of the defining

characteristics of life

in all its forms is its impermanence.

And in its impermanence

we encounter life's supreme value and preciousness!

Life comes to us as gift.

We receive it as gift

and we pass it on as gift.

Much of what the world teaches

us to value and hold in esteem

is of little value at all

when measured against

the brief and precious measure

of a human life.

When we understand this,

and realize the immeasurable value of

the grace-filled gift we receive from God,

then we are able to turn

toward a life of deep

gratitude and generosity.

When we understand how

generous and rich

God's gifts are to us,

most especially the gift of

mercy and forgiveness

that have been embodied in Christ,

then we are able to be

generous and rich toward God.

We learn what it means to

rejoice in the Lord always,

and to again rejoice,

each day we are given.

The truth is that right now,

at this moment,

this is the one and only day that you have to live.

This gift is given to you,

it is not of your making.

What will you treasure this day?

What do you give thanks for this day?

What do you rejoice in this day?

What will you offer this day?

I invite you to carry these words

of Dag Hammarskjold into a time

of silent meditation:

  

       Each day the first day; each day a life.

       Each day we must hold out

       the chalice of our being to receive,

       to carry, and to give back.

       It must be held out empty...