May 25, 2008

A Song of Trust

By Julianne Stokstad

I have a question: Is there anybody here who doesn't have too much stuff? We're drowning in stuff. We can't find cupboard space for it all. The Scripture says that we can't serve two masters: God and wealth. We have to choose. I suspect that most of us are like my dad, who always said, "Trust in God but be sure to tie your camel." We trust in God, but take care of our families and ourselves too.

I want to make a case for trusting God. To that end, I have brought some visuals, five loaves of homemade bread. Let me take one loaf. Now imagine this loaf representing all your wealth. Jesus used the word Mammon referring to all of our possessions, all our investments and pretty much everything we have. So imagine, this loaf represents all that.

Cutting up the loaf, one slice is for our food. Another for our shelter, it's a little thicker. Then one for transportation, another for books, another for our new flat screen tv and so on. Depending on where you are in your life, the loaf will be cut differently. Our wealth isn't good or bad, it is a tool. The point is our attitude toward our wealth. Are we serving the wealth, or ourselves keeping it and making sure that we're not afraid we lose it? Are we serving ourselves and our wealth or God? That's the point.

Let me take another new loaf to represent our time. This is a bigger issue for those of us living in Marin County. We have 168 hours in a week. So, how do we cut this loaf up? The thickest two slices will be sleeping and working. How else do we use our time? Commuting. TV, entertainment, eating. And then what about spending time with your family? Well, you did that when you're eating or is that when you're watching TV together? Multitasking confuses us all. There's church when you come every week.

Scripture encourages us to pay attention to those things that are of greatest concern so here's yet another loaf to cut up. This is the loaf demonstrating how we walk our talk. What really matters to us? Does the loaf of our stuff show that? Does how we spend our time reflect that? What really matters to us? Is it being with people we love? I have to tell you I don't know how to cut this loaf. Should I keep it in one piece, should the piece representing our family be half of the loaf? Then would the rest of the loaf be divided between taking care of us? Our own health, serving others and serving God? What about nurturing our relationship with God? How important is that?

This loaf cutting metaphor doesn't work here, but there is good news. The key is Verse 33 in our scripture which says: "Seek the Kingdom of God and God's righteousness and then all those things will be given onto you." When the Bible says, "all those things," it's not talking about time and stuff, it's talking about the things that we really value. It's talking about love; it's talking about being nurtured; it's talking about finding a place to be safe. It's talking about many of the things that we want. And the great news about that is that all things of God are not a single loaf. It's not a zero sum game. We think that everything is like that because it seems to me that there is only so much money in the world. We get our little piece of it. There's only so much stuff in the world, right? In the universe, there's only so much stuff.

But the things of God, the things we really need are unlimited. They are completely different. That's why I have more loaves; things of God just keep multiplying. The more we participate in them, the more we get. Look at love. Love is not limited, the more you can open your heart to love, the more love you have. I learned that in a very odd way. When I was pregnant with our second child, I worried. I worried through the whole nine months I would only have half as much love to give that second child. Because I loved the first one with all my heart, and I couldn't imagine loving him more. And the miracle was, when that second child was born, you know what? I had twice as much love. Twice as much love was miraculously there. And so it is when we open our heart to love many people, it's miraculously there.

Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God meaning things of God's Spirit realized here in our human community: like peace, acceptance, love, compassion. One of the biggest things that keep us away from experiencing God's kingdom is worry. We get worried that we're not going to be ok. We get worried that we're not going to be taken care of. We get worried that we're not going to have enough money when we're old, worried that we're not going to be able to go here or there, worried that we're not going to be valued when we're old.

It is here for us. We just need to find ourselves in a place where we can give and receive and there it is. But a loaf of bread is not a good metaphor for this Kingdom of God. A better metaphor is yeast, because just keeps growing, and it can raise infinite loaves of bread. You keep a little pinch of your starter, and voila! You have more. Voila! You have more. It grows and it grows, and it grows, and so it is with the Kingdom of God. That's what I want to say.

I have a story to end with, and story is about a youth who came into my office this week, Alex. We haven't seen hide nor hair of him in church for a long time. He sent me an email asking me to write him a reference letter. I'm bummed, how can I write him a reference with integrity if I haven't seen him in years? I prayed on it and invited him in to talk with me. When he comes in I ask him, "Why do you want to be a camp counselor?" And his face lights up like he turned on a really bright light inside of him, and he said to me, "Because I want to give back so that all those kids who go there can have the experience I did." I asked, "What did you get there?" He answered, "When I go there, we're all community. We all care for each other. We all respect each other. There's so much love and understanding in that place, and we just, you know, we know we're ok there."

And I'm like, "Whoa!" And the more he talks, I said, "You know, Alex, the reason I'm a minister is exactly why you want to be a camp counselor. And that's what we try so hard to do right here." "You know, Alex I hear you and the other three high school graduates in our congregation are going to come and we're going to wish you well. How can we do that in a way that means something to you?" And he thought and he said, "I think that we should all go outside in the courtyard and stand in a circle and have the graduates in the middle, and each person could give a wish or a blessing or a piece of wisdom to each of them as we go around."

Does this guy know what church is about? Yeah, he's got it; he's got that kingdom. You know it doesn't have to be in church. It doesn't have to be. There are plenty of places where we can live that way and have that kind of experience.

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and God's righteousness and all these things will be given unto you. Alleluia.

Amen.

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