If you watch televangelists or listen to the prevalent feelings about what it means to be a Christian, you will hear lots of ways to NOT be a Christian. Some people will say if you think abortion should be legal; then you cannot be a Christian. Some would say if you are divorced; then you can’t be a Christian. Others may say if you condone homosexuality then you aren’t a Christian. And still others would tell you that unless you tithe, then you definitely are NOT a Christian. But I think we need to have a different standard. I think we hold dearly to the concept of scarcity, then we really shouldn’t call ourselves Christian.
If we look in the Bible, one of the words we don’t often find is the word “scarce.” The words we find much more frequently are words like “abundance,” “lavish,” “riches,” and “generosity.” God is described as lavishing gifts upon the people and providing for them abundantly. And this ultimate act of love and generosity was the gift of Jesus and the gift of forgiveness we receive through his life, death, and resurrection. Nowhere do we hear about God rationing out love or holding back when God bestows gifts. When God gives a gift, God gives these gifts in abundance.
So, if God gives us gifts in abundance, where is my new wardrobe? Where is my new iPod? Where is my HUGE house? And if I am going to have a huge house, WHERE IS MY MAID! Where are all of these things? How can we believe in the generous abundance of God when all we hear about is lack and want. No job. No new cars. No iPhones! If God is the God of abundance, then where is all the stuff!?
Well, I hope you can tell that I am having some fun with you here. But still, isn’t this the way we tend to look at things? We tend to buy into our society’s belief that we need to possess more and more. We are told that unless we possess the most or the best, then we are not acceptable. This is the vision of life that is continuously placed before us through TV and advertising. We are only as good as our possessions. And our possessions must be better than anyone else’s. This is the way of the world, but it is not the way of God. God’s way is not to just sit there and amass the most; in God’s way, amassing the most does not make sense. God’s way is that of sharing all that we have because we know that there will always be enough.
In my opinion, it is our fear of scarcity that holds us back. It is our fear of scarcity, not only of our money and things, but of our time, that prevents us from being the people that God intended. If we look at the epistle reading for this morning, the one thing that should jump out at you is the total description of abundance that we hear. “…freely bestowed.” “…richness of his grace.” “…lavished upon us.” When Paul speaks of the gifts of God to the people of Emphasis, there is nothing skimping about it. When God bestows gifts upon us, God gives big time!
If we are not seeing the abundance of gifts in our lives, one of two things is happening. The first possibility is that God has chosen to not bestow any gifts upon us. But really, you should know by now that I am not going to endorse this option. I truly believe that we are all richly blessed in more ways than we can ever imagine. So if God is not leaving us high and dry but we still do not see the abundance that is in our lives, then there is the second possibility, and that possibility would be that we are just not looking in the right place.
One of the fun things about gifts is that they are often a surprise. If a gift wasn’t meant to be a surprise, why would we spend so much time wrapping and disguising the identity of the gift? Why would we hide the gift away until the time it is to be given? Part of the fun of the gift is the opening of the gift and the surprise that we find. In the same way, gifts from God can also be surprising. Gifts from God may also be packaged in a way that is not always readily apparent. But it is in finding the gifts in our lives and opening them that we find the surprise and the joy!
When we look at our lives and see scarcity, what we are not doing is seeing the gifts of God. What we are doing is buying into the lies of our world. We are believing that all of our lives have to do with the stuff we have. And so often, we get caught up in the tales of the “stuff” that we miss the great blessings and gifts that we truly have! The God who would bless us with the abundant blessing of forgiveness found in Jesus, wouldn’t want us to live a life of need and want. But what we may think we need and what we truly need are often two different things.
One of the more interesting images of Hell is found in C.S. Lewis’ book The Great Divorce. In this book, Hell is a very small place, and it is populated with people who have everything that they could ever want. They have lavish homes, wonderful cars, everything! The only problem is that they are entirely alone. Their search in life for all the things to make them feel fulfilled didn’t do anything for them except separate them from the very things that could help them to be blessed; each other. So they are left in death trying to find fulfillment in all the stuff they so earnestly sought for in life.
In a similar way, our belief in scarcity and the search for things of the world to fill in that scarcity often drives us away for those very things that can give us the abundant, enriching life that God desires for all of His children. We may not be blessed with things, but if we search, we find that we are blessed with an abundance of gifts that are beyond price. We have friends, family, and people who care about us. We have talents and skills. We have all kinds of surprises and events that bring joy to our lives. When we think about our lives, do we say, “When I got my new car, then my life changed”? Probably not. More likely, we may say something like, “When I met my husband or wife, then my life changed.” Or “When we had children, then we knew we were truly gifted.” Or possibly, “When I learned a new skill or talent, then my life opened to so many new possibilities!”
If we look, we can see that the things that make our lives abundant are not things at all! They are the wealth of people, places, and experiences that we have. And even more so, it is not keeping these abundances to ourselves; the more we share them, the richer we become. If we, as Christians, truly believe in the abundance of God, then we know that we can reach out with the gifts that we have been given, knowing that our God of abundance will not leave us high and dry. We have been given an abundance so that we can share that abundance among others.
Our God is not a God of scarcity. Our God is a God of Abundance! We, as followers of Christ, have been given many gifts, but we are not to keep these gifts to ourselves. As Christ’s followers, we are called to share as our Savior shared. To love as Christ loves. To spread our abundance to the world. We may think this is impossible, but that is the world speaking. In God, we have gifts beyond counting. It is just up to us to find these gifts and share them with the world.
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