Beyond the Bare Minimum

Proper 14C; Luke 12:32-40; St. Paul’s Smithfield, NC 8/7/2016

Jim Melnyk: “Beyond the Bare Minimum”

The story is told about a young family that was in the process of church shopping.  Their son was eight years old and the parents had decided it was time to find the right faith community in which to raise their youngster.  Each Sunday the family would get dressed up in their Sunday best and head out to a different church in their community.  And each Sunday they found the particular church they were visiting lacking in one way or another.

“I thought the sermon was a bit dry,” mom would say on one Sunday.  “I thought the organ was a bit too loud,” dad would say after a different visit.  “The lighting was bad.”  “The prayer books were worn out.”  “The bathrooms were a bit shabby.” 

One day as they headed to the car the dad was saying, once again, “You know, it just didn’t feel right for me.”  The son, who had been listening to his parents’ ongoing critiques for several weeks now tugged on his dad’s sports coat.  “Gee, Dad, what did you expect for a dollar?”

“Holy Pledge card, Batman,” it’s not even September and the man’s preaching about stewardship already!”  Well, as the old saying goes, “If the scripture fits…”  But then again today’s lessons, and stewardship for that matter, are about so much more than just money.

Concerning today’s gospel lesson, theologian Walter Wink reflects on what it means to serve God, and then he ties serving God to serving God’s people – much as Jesus ties loving God to loving our neighbor.  Considering the mission of Jesus, and the prophets before him, Wink reflects on what it means to let go of our own anxieties of not having enough.  “Nothing,” he writes, “nothing sends terror through the bones of the American middle class more quickly than the injunction, ‘Sell all your possessions.’ We equivocate. We rationalize. We explain. [We ignore it or] we do nothing but heap on guilt. [But,]” suggests Wink, “Jesus is not trying to make us feel bad, [rather, Jesus] reminds us that it is all divine gift, not effort on our part: ‘Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.’"

Wink asks, “If we stopped trying to figure out what is the bare minimum of discipleship required of us, and thought of [discipleship] as a present God wants to give us, how might we respond in terms of our possessions?”

Now, I get it.  No one wants to be challenged with the words, “Sell your possessions, and give alms…. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  That’s all just a bit too counter-cultural for us these days – it was fine for the early church.  They didn’t have second mortgages to pay, or vacations to finance, or college tuition, and the like.  Discipleship and servanthood run counter to the cultural norms as well.  We’re trained by the world around us to be climbers rather than disciples, and masters rather than servants. 

But when we’re talking about our possessions, we’re not just talking about our money – although Jesus certainly talked a lot about money and its grasp on our minds – and its grasp on our hearts and on our souls.  And Jesus is pretty clear on what it is – or rather who it is – we’re called to love with all our heart, and soul, and mind and strength!  And I think if we were to push Jesus a bit and ask if there might be a bit of a metaphor lurking in his teaching for today, we might find out that we’re talking about more than money or the “stuff” we surround ourselves with as well.  Though I certainly get enamored with the “stuff” I’ve collected over the years.

The real question might have to do with the things that in the end possess us as much as we possess them.  Money can do that.  Money – or a lack thereof – has a way of possessing us – a way of captivating our minds – a way of draining our energy – a way feeding our anxieties – especially if someone starts to talk about it with us. 

Stuff can do that as well: the need for stuff – the desire for stuff – the things we just have to have in order to make our lives complete!  Jesus asks, “What is it that possesses us?”

Walter Wink goes on to call the second part of today’s Gospel lesson “a sleeper” – perhaps because of how much that first part grabs us – we get so caught up in the “sell your possessions stuff that we miss what comes next.  It begins like so many other apocalyptic sayings in the Gospel calling the listener to be ready for the coming Day of the Lord – reminiscent of how the Hebrew slaves were called to be ready for their deliverance from Egypt on the night of Passover.  But, says Wink, “We are totally unprepared for what the master [in the story] does upon his arrival: He makes the servants recline [at the dinner table], as at a formal banquet, girds himself, and serves them a meal himself. Jesus is overturning the whole edifice of social stratification and ranking. No master ever acted thus!” (Walter Wink)  

It turns out that Jesus is talking about himself in the parable.  Later in this very same gospel Jesus will say to his followers, “I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:27) and in other places he says, “I have come not to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10:45).  Not only does Jesus propose going beyond the bare minimum, Jesus totally blows away expectations of what the Kingdom – or the Communion – of Heaven is meant to be: a place where compassion, mercy, love and service hold the places of highest honor – and he takes the lead in acting out this new community – in giving up his life for the life of the world – in feeding us with his body and blood at our Holy Table.

If there is anything at all that should possess us – or that we should seek to somehow possess in any real way – it is the coming kingdom of God, and the Spirit of God who dwells within us.  And even then, the only way we possess such wonder is God’s doing. 

Jesus reminds us that it is God’s good pleasure to dwell within us, and to give us the kingdom.

As I’ve said before, except for where it appears in the Eucharistic prayers of Rite I, I’m afraid we have lost the phrase, “here we present unto thee ourselves, our souls and bodies, to a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee….”  We need to remember that we don’t just bring the bread and wine to the Holy Table.  We don’t just bring our ready cash or our pledges and tithes.  We bring ourselves – body and soul.  We, ourselves – our souls and bodies, are gifts we give to God because first and foremost God gave Godself to us in the unfolding of Creation; in the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; through the words and deeds of the prophets; and in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps a good act of spiritual discipline we can each practice would be to regularly ask ourselves, “What is it that possesses me?  What do I need to give away or sell? 

What do I need to let go of in order to move beyond the bare minimum in how I love and serve my neighbor and my God?” 

It can be tough to let go of control, and trust ourselves to hear and respond to the Spirit’s call in our lives.  It’s hard to let go of the things that possess us and trust the workings of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives – trust the Holy Spirit to possess us.

In the end, figuring it all out – how to be faithful followers of Christ and participants in the kingdom of God – costs more than the dollar the Mom and Dad from our story dropped in the offering plate as they moved from Church to Church.  Today’s lessons show us that following Jesus – that loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength – and loving our neighbor – costs more than our gifts and tithes.  Following Jesus costs more than all the stuff with which we surround ourselves.

Like Jesus, who gave so much more than the bare minimum, it costs us our lives.  But in the midst of it all – as Jesus is quick to remind us – in the midst of it all, it is God’s good pleasure to give to us the kingdom.