How Much Is Enough?

Luke 12:13-21

February 24, 2008 – ©Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes

Introduction

The Self Storage Association, which monitors information about storage, found that in the US in 2005 there was about 1.9 billion square feet of personal storage space outside of the home. One out of every 11 homeowners also has a self-storage space. In 10 years this has increased of 75%.

Also, as the amount of storage space required by home-owners has grown, so has the average size of American houses. In fact, the average American house grew from 1660 square feet in 1973 to 2,400 square feet in 2004 (that’s about half again as big).

So houses got bigger, average family sizes got smaller, and yet we still need almost two billion square feet of extra space to store our stuff? [PreachingToday.com, “Americans Running Out of Room for Possessions.” Gino Grunberg, Gig Harbor, Washington; source: Tom Vanderbilt, “Americans Are Storing More Stuff Than Ever,” Slate.com (7-18-05)].

This sounds like the rich man in Jesus’ parable in Luke 12. He needed more storage space for all his extra grain. Since he was rich he could afford to build new storage buildings.

Perhaps you’re thinking you don’t need to hear a sermon about how rich people misuse their riches, or how people who can afford lots of stuff have to find new places to store it. However, let’s look at Jesus’ parable and see where we fit in his story.

A Parable of Discontent

The people to whom Jesus was speaking that day were not the wealthy. These weren’t people who could afford to buy the newest cell phone, or computer gadget, or the latest clothes. They weren’t rich people who could afford to buy whatever they wanted.

Some had barely enough to live on. They depended on getting their wages daily so they could buy food for that day’s need. Most had only two sets of clothing. They did not have health insurance, or any money saved up, so a worker couldn’t afford to get sick or take a day off. [Tom Wright, Luke for Everyone (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004) 152].

What was Jesus trying to tell these poor people by using this parable about a rich man? Jesus began: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops’” [v.16-17].

Notice that it was the ground that yielded the harvest. The man planted the seed, but did nothing special to make it produce abundantly. The right combination of sun and rain made it possible for this “abundant harvest.”

The man had what he thought would be adequate storage for the harvest. But it wasn’t enough. He was surprised and unprepared for this gift, this blessing, of grain.

Then the man said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry’” [v.18-19].

Suddenly the man saw this huge harvest as his ticket to retirement. He saw it as a way to make life easy for himself. His barns were already large enough to store enough grain for this man and his family. Yet his only thought was to how he could store all of it, not just enough of it, for his own use.

His plans were self-serving. His focus was self-centered. This is why Jesus said at the beginning, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” [Lk12:15].

Greed Jesus called it. Greed is wanting more than one’s share or than necessary. It’s a need to possess things.

The Problem of Greed

It’s not only the rich who are greedy. It’s not just the rich who think they need lots of stuff. Many people think that if they have extra, they are wisely planning for the future. Yet, we’re never satisfied with what we have.

The rich man in the parable didn’t need all the extra grain that was produced. He had enough. Yet he never considered how he might use the excess grain to help others. He didn’t stop to think that this could be given to those who were hungry. He didn’t even give thanks to God for what he had received. He only thought of himself.

In the book Seismic Shifts, a story is told of a little boy in a church nursery with a rubber ball in each arm and three Nerf balls clenched on the floor between his little knees. He was trying to protect all five balls from the other children. It wasn’t easy. So whenever another child came near, he growled. He clearly wasn’t sharing his balls.

After about 5 minutes of watching this scene the author realized that the little boy wasn’t having any fun at all. There was no joy within ten yards of this kid. Not only was he unhappy, but all the other kids seemed sad as well. His selfishness created a black hole that sucked all of the joy out of that nursery [PreachingToday.com, “Hoarding Child Has No Fun (Kevin G. Harney, Seismic Shifts (Zondervan, 2005)].

Young children are often selfish. But many parents work at teaching their children to share.

However, parents today are also modeling a different attitude toward things. By their own compulsive buying, they are teaching their children that they can have whatever they want. American kids get an average of 70 new toys a year. What does that teach them?

Do kids really need all that? So, how much is enough? Is it possible that you have more than you really need?

Do you have extra clothing that you could give to those who don’t have enough warm clothing for the cold winter days? We collect clothing for the Friendship Center. Recently, Pervaiz Wasson took some of those clothes to his school for children and families who didn’t have enough. Bring your extra clothing to church.

Do you have extra food, dry or canned foods, that could be given to others in need? Bring it to church and we will give the food to others in need.

Jesus told the parable in response to a man who thought he wasn’t getting his fair share of the family inheritance. Do we think we aren’t getting our fair share? Do we cling tightly to the money we get?

How much of our money, food, clothing, and other things, is really enough. All we have is really a gift from God. Perhaps we too need to learn to share with others what God has given us.

Money is hard for us to give away – mainly because we see so many things in TV ads, stores or that others have that we want or think we should have. So we cling tightly to all our money and spend it on ourselves. However, we’re still not happy because we still don’t have every-thing we want.

As long as we think of money as something we deserve, something we have earned and is ours, we will resist sharing it. When we see money as a gift from God (God is the one who makes it possible for us to earn money) we relax our grip on “our” money. Then we begin to learn to share what we have with others.

At the beginning of the year I asked you to consider giving 10% more to the church than you did last year. That’s all it would take for us to make our budget. If you haven’t done that yet, try it & see what happens. It not only helps the church, but it helps you. Giving frees us from greed.

When we give away some of what we have been given, we find that we have enough. We are happier. We also find we are more content with what we have.

The Gift of Contentment

To be content is to be satisfied with what you have. As Paul said in 1 Timothy 6, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”

Hebrews 13:5 says, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’”

Giving is a spiritual matter because all we have is from God, and we can’t take it with us. So let’s enjoy what we’ve been given and share it with others.

· Contentment is knowing that one ball or toy is enough.

· Contentment is sharing what God has given us.

· Contentment is an attitude of the heart that loves God and others more than things or possessions.

· “Contentment comes not so much from great wealth as from few wants” [PreachingToday.com, “Wealth Irrelevant to Contentment” (Epictetus, circa AD 100)].

· Contentment is not found in great wealth, but in knowing a great God!

· Contentment comes from seeking what truly satisfies.

Isaiah says, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters. …Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? … Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near” [Is55:1a, 2a, 6].

Seek God, who alone can save you. Seek to honor God with your wealth while you still have time.

Conclusion

“Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions,” Jesus said. So seek to be rich in the things of God, in our relationship with Jesus Christ and one another. Honor God with all that God has given you.

When we trust God for what we need today, and learn to rely on his riches, we will always have enough.

Life isn’t a contest to see how much we can buy or possess. Life is a gift from God.

So how much is enough?

God gives each of us enough of what we need and enough of his grace and love so that we can store up enough treasures in heaven to last an eternity. Amen.

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This sermon is copyright ©2008 by Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes, Immanuel Evangelical Covenant Church, Chicago, Illinois.