Sermons

Deut. 8:10-18; I Kings 10:1-10; 14-29

This is the second Sunday of our new sermon series on “the economy of God”. Given our current economic crisis I thought this would be a good time for us to reflect on money and stewardship and how we can organize our life to better reflect Jesus’ way of generosity.

Last Sunday I focused on “God’s abundance of enough”.

We looked at the biblical story of God feeding the Israelites Manna in the desert after they were liberated from slavery in Egypt.

By feeding them Manna in the desert and only giving them just enough for each day – God was retraining them, after years of slavery, to trust God as their provider and to learn to live with enough so that everyone had plenty.

I suggested God instituted a Sabbath day of rest to help them remember that God had delivered them from slavery and would provide for their needs.

By honoring the Sabbath day they were being formed in God’s economy of enough for everyone and that there is a rhythm to life of work and rest – work and rest.

Now, God’s intent in calling Israel out of slavery was to form them into a new people – living in God’s economy of enough. God wanted a people shaped – not by greed, violence, and abuse of power – but by compassion, justice, generosity, and care for one’s neighbors.

The Ten Commandments that God gave them on Mt. Sinai were meant to teach the people how to be human again after years in slavery. These laws were meant to form them into a new community of love and justice.

The Israelites were to be the anti-Egypt people – they were to live by different values and standards.

As a people freed by God’s mercy they were to be a light to the nations of God’s new way of living in the world.

So, to help the Israelites never forget how to live in God’s abundance of enough – God specifically warns them about the dangers of wealth after they enter the Promise Land.

In our scripture today from Deuteronomy 8:11 God says to them – “Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commandments, regulations and laws.”

And then in verse 16 it says, “He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. He did it so you would never think that it was your own strength and energy that made you wealthy. Always remember that it is the Lord your God who gives you power to become rich.”

God seems to know that when the Israelites settle down, possess land and property and become wealthy – that their possessions will have a tendency to make them greedy. They will forget that God delivered them and fed them Manna and they will begin to think they did it by their own brute strength and energy.

So God warns them ahead of time to never forget Exodus and the Manna.

Well, this morning I want to look at what happens to Israel when they forget the manna.

In just a few generations, the descendants of those wandering freed slaves did settle down and they even asked for a king like other nations. God is opposed to them having a king, but allows them to do so anyway.

Solomon, the third king of Israel, came to power with the blessing of God. What was particularly impressive about Solomon was that when he became king he only asked for one thing.

Solomon said – I don’t want riches or a long life or even the defeat of my enemies. The only thing I want is wisdom from God. (I Kings 3:11)

Since Solomon only asked for wisdom – God was pleased with him and he was known as the wisest man on the planet at that time. Listen to some of Solomon’s wisdom regarding money and riches.

Proverbs 11:28 says – “those who trust in their riches will fall.”

Proverbs 23:4-5 say – “Don’t weary yourself trying to get rich. Why waste your time? For riches can disappear as though they had the wings of a bird.”

Proverbs 22:7 says – “the rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.”

Or Proverbs 15: 27 says – “those who are greedy for unjust gain make trouble for their households, but those who hate bribes will live.”

Solomon was a very wise person and this was great advice but sometimes even the wisest people don’t follow their own wisdom. Solomon certainly didn’t follow his wisdom.

In First Kings 10 a picture emerges of Solomon and how he allowed his riches to change him.

In this passage from First Kings 10 a Queen from the land of Sheba has come to visit Solomon.

She comes from a different land, a different kind of people, and from a different religion. She comes wanting to know more about these Israelites, their king, and their God who had brought them out of slavery.

After hanging out with Solomon, eating with him, worshipping with him in the temple, and observing the Israelites she writes in verse 9 – “Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel. Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he has made you king to execute justice and righteousness.”

Notice here that she doesn’t say he is “executing justice and righteousness” – only that that is what he was suppose to do.

Godly kings in Israel were to use their power and wealth on behalf of the poor, the weak and those suffering injustice.

What is interesting to me here is that the Queen of Sheba, a woman from a different land and religion, seems to get what God wants to do with Israel more than Solomon does.

Solomon’s wealth and power has made him greedy and changed his values and lifestyle.

1. If you go back a few chapters to I Kings 6 we begin to learn something about Solomon’s heart.

Listen to what it says in verse 37 – “The foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid in midspring of the fourth year of Solomon’s reign. The entire building was completed in every detail by midautum of the eleventh year of his reign. So it took seven years to build the temple. Solomon also built a palace for himself, and it took him thirteen years to complete.”

What do you notice in these verses about Solomon’s priorities?

Solomon spent 7 years on the temple for God and 13 years on his own palace. The writer is conveying to us how Solomon has become more important than God. Solomon is full of himself. His own house is much bigger than the temple of God. Solomon’s heart is following his treasure.

1. And then in I Kings 9 it talks about how Solomon built the temple and his palace. Verse 15 says –

“This is the account of the forced labor that Solomon conscripted to build the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, the Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, and the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.”

It is easy to read these verses and miss what is going on here. Did you notice that Solomon now has slaves?

This is another major turning point in the biblical story because the God who set slaves free – is now having a temple built – by Solomon – with slaves.

The defining event in Israel’s history is the Exodus where God delivers them from slavery. And now, in just a few generations, the oppressed people have become the oppressors.

Solomon isn’t maintaining justice as God desires – he is carrying out the very injustice his ancestors once needed redemption from.

Solomon here is seen as the new Pharaoh and Israel is becoming the new Egypt. The Israelites who once cried out because of oppression are now causing others to cry out for freedom.

It also mentions here that he used slave labor to build the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer. Why are these cities important?

These cities are all military bases. Solomon is using his massive resources and wealth to build military bases to protect his massive resources and wealth.

Solomon turns to “homeland security” to protect all that he has accumulated and so more and more of his resources are going to preserve his wealth.

1. In First Kings 10:26 we also learn that Solomon has a huge military force of chariots and horses.

It says “he had 1400 chariots and 12,000 horses. He stationed many of them in the chariot cities and some near him in Jerusalem… Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s traders received them from Kue at a price. A chariot could be imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver, and a horse for 150 – so through the king’s traders they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.”

The very weapons that were used against his people in Egypt – Solomon is now accumulating in order to use them against others.

Horses and chariots were the tanks and fighter planes of Solomon’s day and so Solomon acquired them to protect all of his possessions.

But furthermore, it says here that Solomon also became an arms dealer. He not only imported these high tech weapons to protect his wealth, but it says he exported horses and chariots to other kings.

Solomon is now making money from violence. He has discovered that war is profitable.

By this time in his life Solomon has completely lost his way. In Deuteronomy 17:16 specific instructions were given on how a king is to act. This is what it says:

“The king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself, and he must never send his people to Egypt to buy horses there, for the Lord has told you – you must never return to Egypt. The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will lead him away from the Lord. And he must not accumulate vast amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself.”

Well, Solomon did all of the things he was told not to do. He built up large stables of horses and he returned to Egypt.

1. And then we also learn in First Kings 11:3 that “he had 700 wives and 300 concubines and they led his heart away from God.”

I don’t care how strong of libido someone has – this is over-the-topl. But more importantly – Solomon’s heart is turned away from God. Solomon breaks covenant with God through these relationships.

1. And then in First Kings 10:14 we see exactly how much wealth Solomon has accumulated.

It says each year “Solomon received about 25 tons of gold and this didn’t include revenue from other kings.”

Verse 18 goes on to say King Solomon made a huge ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold.

Now, generally ivory is something that is precious in its own right and people want it to be seen. But Solomon builds a throne of ivory and then he covers it up with gold.

Why would you cover ivory with gold?

My guess is – he covered ivory with gold simply because he could. He had become greedy.

It even says Solomon only drank from gold cups. There was no silver in his house – silver was too common.

So, what we see throughout this story of Solomon – is how in a few generations Israel forgot Exodus, forgot being fed Manna, forgot God’s abundance of enough and actually became the oppressor.

Israel became the new Egypt and Solomon the new Pharaoh.

The book of Ecclesiastes, which is associated with Solomon and this period of his life, is his attempt to understand his life. Listen to what Solomon says about himself. In Ecclesiastes 2:4-11 this is what he says:

“I tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. I made gardens and parks, filling them with all kinds of fruit trees. I built reservoirs to collect the water to irrigate my many flourishing groves. I bought slaves, both men and women, and others were born into my household. I also owned great herds and flocks, more than any of the kings who lived in Jerusalem before me. I collected great sums of silver and gold, the treasure of many kings and provinces. I hired wonderful singers, both men and women, and had many concubines. I had everything a man could desire.

So I became greater than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. Also, my wisdom remained with me. Anything I wanted, I took. I did not restrain myself from any joy. I even found great pleasure in hard work, and additional reward for all my labors. But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all meaningless. It was like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.”

As Solomon looked back on his life he concluded – that everything was meaningless!

Now, you might be thinking – how does this story apply to me? None of us here have the wealth of Solomon and so it is easy to think it doesn’t apply to us.

And yet, I want to suggest that the story of Solomon and the children of Israel is also our story.

Like them, we are torn apart by the conflict between our attraction to the good news of God’s abundance of enough and the power of our belief in scarcity – a belief that says there isn’t enough so we must take more and more and more for ourself.

We want to trust God to provide for us, but we all struggle with greed and this desire for more. Greed is the feeling that if I just have a little bit more, then I will be secure; then I will be happy; then I will be satisfied.

I want to suggest this morning that the big myth we have to confront is that “there is not enough to go around and that more is always better”.

Scarcity is this internal condition which is at the heart of our jealousies, our greed, and our prejudices. Scarcity drives us in this endless and unfulfilling chase for more.

Most of us swim in a culture of scarcity. We spend most of our waking hours worrying about what we don’t have.

• I didn’t get enough sleep.

• I don’t have enough time.

• I didn’t get enough exercise.

• I don’t have enough work.

• I don’t have enough power.

• I don’t have enough weekends.

• I am not thin enough.

• I am not smart enough.

• I am not educated enough.

• I don’t have enough money – and on an on it goes.

These messages of “not enough” shape us and then we begin to believe the cultural messages that suggest money can buy happiness and we begin to look outside of ourselves to be fulfilled.

Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, said the other day that his policies didn’t always work out because “he had forgotten to figure in human nature.” Human nature wants just a little bit more.

A couple of weeks ago I heard an economist trying to explain the crisis we are in. He said many things, but one thing that made sense to me was when he said – “our central problem is that too many of us live life like there is no tomorrow. People borrow too much because of their inability to delay gratification.”

Congress and the president are providing trillions of dollars of bailout money to fix some of our problems, but they can’t fix the ultimate problem – greed – this desire for a little bit more. We have to change our lifestyles.

In closing I want to suggest a couple of things we can begin doing to live in God’s abundance of enough, rather than being formed by the myth of scarcity.

1. First of all we need to reset our hearts desire. In Matthew 6:21 Jesus said – “where your treasure is, there will be your heart.”

As Christians, most of us talk about the Lordship of Christ over our lives but often the real message to our children and the world is:

• get your career in started.

• Get a good paying job.

• Get your upscale lifestyle started.

• Buy your house in an upscale neighborhood.

• And if you have anything else left over – come and follow Jesus.

Instead of seeking God’s kingdom first, the real message to our children and the world – by how we live – is that what really matters most are acquiring more and more things.

In order to reset our hearts desire, we will need to begin evaluating our spending habits in light of God’s overall concern for the poor and its impact on the world’s resources.

We will have to ask – not only what our budget will allow us to buy – but what do we really need and what is God most concerned about in the world?

When we seek God first and set our heart on what God desires- our personal needs often change and our life priorities begin to shift.

So we need to reset our hearts desire on doing God’s will and trusting God to provide for us.

1. A second thing to help us live in God’s abundance of enough is to “begin living beneath our means.”

It is so tempting to live up to or above our means. Those “by now, pay later” schemes are so tempting.

I read recently that when McDonalds started allowing credit cards to be used in their restaurants– people, on average, increased their spending from $4 to $7.

One of the reasons we are in our current economic crisis is because of easy credit. Many people took advantage of easy credit and then they were not able to pay.

In Proverbs 25:28 Solomon wrote – “like a city breached, without walls, is one who lacks self-control.”

In those days, a city was surrounded by a wall to protect it. If an enemy broke through the wall – the city was in trouble.

Solomon is saying that self-control is like a wall protecting us. If we lose self-control, Solomon says – we become just as vulnerable as any city whose wall has been breached.

Without self-control we become slaves to greed, food, money, sex and many other things.

So, exercising self-control – living beneath our means is an important habit if we want to live in God’s abundance of enough.

1. And then lastly this morning I want to suggest that we can live in God’s abundance of enough by learning to share our resources with others.

The biblical understanding of wealth is that it is meant to be shared. The responsibility is on those of us who have -to share with those who don’t have enough.

Obama got it right when he told Joe the Plumber that he wants to “spread the wealth around”. Wealth is meant to enrich the whole community.

I am well aware this morning that many people in our world don’t have enough food or shelter or clothing. Many people are working 2 or 3 jobs just to get by and they still don’t have enough sometimes.

But that is not what God desires. God desires that we learn to share so that there is enough for everyone. God desires that we be communities of sharing. God’s economy is based on sharing and generosity.

The practice of sharing and giving things away can also help us break our addiction to greed. To de-accumulate – in a culture that worships accumulation – is an act of praise to God our maker and provider and sustainer.

So, if we want to live in God’s abundance of enough

• Let’s reset our hearts desire to doing God’s will.

• Let’s begin living beneath our means.

• And let’s learn to share our resources with others.

I know we swim in a culture that says there isn’t enough to go around, but we also worship a God who says there is enough for everyone when we share generously.

May we walk gracefully with one another as we learn together what it means to live in God’s abundance of enough. Amen.

January 11, 2009

Psalm 104:1-2;10-18; Ex. 16:1-36

I don’t need to tell you this morning that our country and really – the whole world – is going through an economic crisis.

For the last three months – all we have heard in the news is how this is the worst economic crisis since the great depression and how it is going to get worse before it gets better.

I am not aware that any of you have lost your job or your home because of this economic crisis but maybe a family member or friend or neighbor has. I am guessing, though, that most of you have lost a big chunk of your retirement money. I know I have.

All of us have been affected by this current economic crisis in some way and the longer it goes on the more all of us and our communities will be affected by it.

Now, there are many people who wish our new president could pull out a magic wand to stimulate the economy enough so that we could go back to the good old days of the booming economy of the 90’s.

And yet, as Christians, we need to ask if we really want to return to an economy where over the last few decades the gap between the rich and the poor has just grown wider and wider and wider?

In 1965 the average U.S. worker made $7.52 an hour while the person running the company made $330.38 per hour. Today the average U.S. worker makes $7.39 per hour and the average CEO makes $1, 566 per hour.

What we have seen over the past number of decades is a steady “trickle up” transfer of wealth from the increasingly poor to the very rich.

As Christians, I think one of our biggest challenges in the world today is the increasingly unequal distribution of wealth and power into the hands of fewer and fewer people.

So, as Christians, we need to ask ourselves – do we really want to return to an economy where half of the world’s population – about 3 billion people – lives on less than two dollars a day while the average American teenager spends nearly $150 a week?

The old economy made many people in the U.S. rich, but it has also made most of the world poor.

For the next four weeks I want us to reflect on the “economy of God” and look at what God might desire for the world.

I think many of us, myself included, are held captive to the current economic structures and we find it hard to imagine anything different. The current set up is all we know and we feel powerless to change things.

So, for most of us, all we can dream about is a return to the old economy and some stability in the markets, instead of restructuring a new economy that is fairer for all people of the world and more sustainable.

However, my hope and prayer for this sermon series is that we begin to imagine a new future centered in God’s abundance of enough.

I hope our current economic downturn can be a time in which we will be able to hear the gospel message in a new way. I hope we can begin to imagine another way to organize our life in the world so that it better reflects Jesus’ way of abundant generosity.

I want to begin this series today by looking at God’s abundance of enough.

Throughout the biblical story God is revealed to us as a God of abundant generosity.

Genesis one is a song of praise for God’s generosity. It keeps saying of creation – “it is good, it is good, it is very good.” God blesses the plants and animals and the fish and birds and humankind. All of creation is full of life and vitality.

Psalm 104, the passage that was read earlier, is really a commentary on Genesis one. In Psalm 104 we have a wonderful picture of God’s abundance in creation and God’s over-the-top provisions for all creatures.

In this passage the psalmist gushes in his praise of God.
He says – “O Lord my God, you are very great.”
You make springs gush forth in the valleys . . .
you give drink to every wild animal . . .
You water the mountains . . .
You cause grass to grow for the cattle,
and plants for people to use . . .
to bring forth food and wine and oil and bread . . .
O Lord, how manifold are your works! . . .
the earth is running over with your creatures . . .
things innumerable . . .
These all look to you

to give them their food in due season;
when you give to them . . . they are filled with good things . . .
When you take away their breath, they die . . .
[but] when you send forth your spirit, they are created.”

This Psalm, along with many other scriptures, gives praise to God for being the source of all life. God here is not seen as stingy or self-protective with his blessings.

God is a big risk-taker who is generous with everyone. God often gives more than is needed for life. God even gives to those who don’t fully appreciate all of God’s good gifts.

So, the biblical story proclaims over and over that when we are formed by a God of abundance – we live free of anxiety, full of joy and gratitude, and we respond to others with generosity.

But the biblical story also narrates that when we are held captive by the myth of scarcity – the belief that there really isn’t enough to go around in the world – we begin to hoard and store up things even if others must do without.

The story of the Israelites as slaves in Egypt is really a story about scarcity.

I think most of us are familiar with this story but I want to briefly retell it.

Pharaoh, as you may remember, dreams that there will be a famine in the land – so he gets organized to administer and control the food supply.

The first thing Pharaoh does is he hires Joseph to manage the whole operation. In those days Egypt was the dominant empire and so Joseph sets up huge storage facilities all over the empire to collect all the grain.

The plan is that when the crops fail and the people run out of food they will have to come to Joseph for grain and supplies. Since Egypt controls everything the people will have no other options for attaining food.

Genesis 47 describes what happens next. In the first year of the famine people come from all over to buy grain.

In the second year, they have no money left, so they give Joseph their livestock in exchange for food.

By the third year, all they have left to get food is their bodies and their land. So they sell their land and their bodies for food.

Verse 20 of Genesis 47 says it like this – “So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. As for the people, he made slaves of them from one end of Egypt to the other.”

Pharaoh now owns all the people and all the land – except one small portion of land. Interestingly, the one piece of land that he does not buy is the land that belongs to the priests.

Now, my suspicion is that Pharaoh does not touch the priest’s land because he needs someone to bless him.

He pays the priests an allowance so they will speak well of him and promote his policies.

This whole story of the children of Israel becoming slaves in Egypt is based on the notion of scarcity – that there is not enough for everyone.

Based on the threat of scarcity and a slick operation, Pharaoh is able to gain control over all the land and the people. And then he uses fear to keep them in line and subject to him.

Finally, though, after being slaves for 430 years, God hears the Israelites cry of desperation and calls Moses to lead them out of Egypt.

Our other scripture for today from Exodus 16 picks up the story of the children of Israel just after they have been liberated from Egyptian bondage.

We don’t know for sure how long they have been liberated, but in verse two we learn that shortly after they are freed the people begin complaining about their situation.

Verse two says – “The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them – if only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt…for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Can you imagine this? The children of Israel have just been delivered from over 400 years of slavery and within a couple of weeks of freedom they already want to go back to Egypt and their old way of life.

For years they have had to work seven days a week with no rest.

They have been beaten and tortured to work harder and longer and to produce more bricks for Pharaoh. They had nothing in Egypt except a regular meal and some shelter – yet they want to go back.

The children of Israel have not only been slaves bodily but they have also developed a slave mentality. They were in slavery so long that they can no longer imagine a life different than the way they have always lived.

They would rather live in bondage to Pharaoh and eat familiar food, than live this risky life of faith following God.

God, however, does not abandon them or let them die. God promises to rain down bread from heaven to feed them.

When the children of Israel went out in the morning to collect food for the day they saw something they had never seen before.

There was this flaky substance on the ground and when they saw it they said – “What is it?”

And since they had no name for this stuff they continued to call it – “what is it?” The Hebrew word for “what is it” is Manna. So they just called this flaky substance – manna.

Now, God also told them that they can only collect enough manna for one day.

Manna only has a shelf life of 24 hours. If you collect more than you need for the day it will spoil.

Of course there were some who didn’t believe this and who were anxious about having enough.

Some folks were not sure they could trust God to provide food for them each day, so they got some big Tupperware containers – filled them to the top and hid them for a rainy day.

They were feeling pretty smart about there little scheme – until they found maggots crawling all over the carpet the next day.

The hard thing Israel had to learn is that God’s generosity can’t be stored up. Every time they tried to bank it or invest it – it turned sour and rotted.

You see, the reason the children of Israel found it hard to trust that God would provide enough food for each day is because for years and years they had been taught that there isn’t enough for everyone.

They had been schooled in the ideology of scarcity that said you needed to store up extra in order to survive.

After years in slavery, God uses this time in the wilderness to re-train the children of Israel in God’s economy of abundance. Gathering just enough for the day is a reminder that God will provide – that there will be enough for everyone.

By allowing them to collect just enough for one day – God is teaching them that they can live in an economy of grace – not anxiety and fear.

And then to make sure they never forget that God provides for them – God tells them to take a day off and rest.

In all of their years as slaves in Egypt they were never given a day off. They had to work 24/7. They had no life outside of their work.

Now God tells them – be like me and after six days of work take a day off to rest. So right there in the desert, in a place of much insecurity, God institutes a Sabbath day of rest.

For the Israelites, the Sabbath was a constant reminder that they weren’t in Egypt anymore and they didn’t have to play by Pharaoh’s rules. Since God was now their provider they didn’t need to get as much as they could while others had less.

The Sabbath was a reminder that their value didn’t come from how many bricks they produced. It was a reminder that their significance and value came from God their creator who liberated them from slavery.

The Sabbath day is really a communal discipline. It is a way of living in the world that says I am going to trust God to provide for all my needs. It is a communal discipline that says – there is enough of God’s abundance for everyone when we take only what we need.

And since God knows how forgetful we are – God instructs Moses to put some Manna in a jar and place it before the covenant as a constant reminder that God is our Provider and that there is enough for everyone.

Every week at worship when the people saw the Manna in the jar they remembered – God provides enough for everyone and we don’t need to hoard anything for ourselves.

And then what is really interesting is how this Sabbath cycle of work and rest gets extended in other areas.

1. In Exodus 23:10 it says – “For six years you shall sow the land and gather in its yield; but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat.”

Here the Sabbath day becomes a Sabbath year. The Sabbath year is meant to give the land a rest and to make sure that those who have become marginalized and disenfranchised have enough again.

1. Also, in Deuteronomy 15, the Sabbath year includes debt relief for those who have gone into debt. Verse one says – “Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts.”

The human tendency in every society is to concentrate power and wealth in the hands of a few. God encourages the practice of debt relief so that people have another opportunity to start over.

1. And then God also institutes what is called “Sabbath’s Sabbath” or the year of Jubilee. Leviticus 25 describes how the year of Jubilee – every 50 years – was meant to dismantle structures of social- economic inequality.

Three things were to take place every 50 years:

1. Release community members from all debt.

2. Return land to its original owners.

3. And free any slaves.

The whole purpose for the year of Jubilee was to remind Israel that the land belonged to God (v.23) and that they are an Exodus people who must never return to a system of slavery like they had in Egypt (v.42).

The year of jubilee was instituted because God cares deeply about justice and about the poor and about the unequal distribution of resources in the world. The year of jubilee was meant to bring some balance back into the system so that the gap never gets too large.

So, all of these different Sabbath practices that developed are meant to instill in the children of Israel a new way of living in the world free from the anxiety and fear they had experienced in Egypt.

They were learning to live in God’s economy of enough.

This morning I invite us to let this biblical story of Sabbath begin to form us in God’s abundance of enough.

Honoring the Sabbath is really a form of witness in the world because it says to the world – “there is enough for everyone.”

Honoring the Sabbath says – there is a rhythm to life of work and rest.

Honoring the Sabbath says – we can trust God to be our provider.

Honoring the Sabbath says – we don’t have to hoard up things to survive.

You see, God’s economy is based on the understanding that there is more than enough for everyone. Exodus says – “those who gathered more had no surplus and those who gathered less had no shortage.”

I invite us this morning to lay down our worries, our self-protective behavior, and our tendency to hoard.

In spite of our shrinking 401K’s, in defiance of the latest drop in the stock market, in rebellion against the media messages of doom and gloom, I invite us to be formed by God’s abundance of enough into people of radical joy, gratitude, and generosity.

God created this world beautifully and abundantly.
It is full and overflowing with life. And God continues to sustain and reproduce this life.

There is enough for all. There is plenty, if we share.

Jesus, in the story of the feeding of the 5000, gives us an example of God’s abundance of enough when we share.

After a long day of teaching Jesus wanted to feed the 5000 men, plus women and children who had gathered to hear him.

When his disciples brought him only five loaves and two fishes – Jesus took it and after he blessed it – he broke the bread and there was enough to feed all the people.

In fact, there was so much bread that they had 12 baskets left over – one basket for every tribe of Israel. Jesus was teaching his disciples the lesson of the Exodus all over again – that there is enough for all of God’s people when we share.

Jesus demonstrated to his disciples that the world is filled with abundance and infused with generosity and he invited them to enter into this new economy of God’s grace.

May God’s Spirit empower us to trust in God’s generosity so that there is enough bread for everyone.

Let us pray.

“Generous Savior, who daily feeds us bread from heaven, You have given us bread to eat not of our own making – Your own self and Your own creation.

What is it that You so richly provide for us and ask nothing in return but that we share Your bread with others?

Yet, we grab Your bounty for ourselves alone. We lay hold of silver and gold, amassing riches beyond our need. We buy lands and mark them off as if our own. We hide away Your provision for a day that may never come.

Like children, we become angry when You ask us to share. We fear that we may find ourselves without. We complain when we cannot have more and more. Generous Spirit, change our hearts so that we not let Your bounty rot in our hands.

Cause us to remember your holy promises. In the OT and the New, You have taught us that You can spread a table in the wilderness – manna from heaven and water from a rock, food for thousands from a few broken loaves and fishes.

You provide our daily bread in abundance. All can eat and be satisfied if we do not take too much. Give us the spirit of “sabbath economics” and cause us to remember that Your bread is ours for sharing. Generous God, let the many, not just the few, celebrate your abundant goodness. Amen. (prayer by B.J. Morton)