How We Think About Abundance – Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost (Philippians 1:3-6, 9-11)
Spiritual teacher Meister Eckhart wrote, “If the only prayer you ever say in your life is ‘thank you’ that would be sufficient.” Perhaps you find this to be true. Maybe you frequently pray to God to give thanks. The Apostle Paul did a lot of praying in his life. He offered a lot of prayers for the communities, the churches, that he started. Many of these prayers found their way into the letters he wrote. Prayers of thanksgiving were a frequent and important part of Paul’s prayer life, especially in his letters to churches. The letters Paul wrote all included consistent introductions. The letters would start with words of greeting, usually with Paul identifying himself, then who the letter was addressed to and then some sort of salutation. Then, he usually moved into words of thanksgiving. Often, this was for God and the work God was doing in and among the people. This reading comes from the thanksgiving portion of Paul’s letter. So, these words from Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi are not different.
Some scholars have noted that his letter is one of Pual’s warmer correspondences. He perhaps shows even more gratitude than in other similar letters. Part of why Paul is feeling so grateful is because the Philippians seem to have been very supportive of Paul, by sharing gifts with him. It is likely that he is writing this letter to them from jail in Rome, and even so, the letter is filled with positive energy from Paul. Some of that may be because during his time in prison he had received many gifts from this particular church. So, the occasion of this letter is that he has sent one of his followers, Epaphroditus, back to them with words of thanks. So, Pual writes to emphasize his joy and his gratitude, and to encourage the community to have joy and gratitude themselves in the things that really matter. That is, the things they have learned about Christ, and the ways they have committed to live their life because of what they learned and now believe. Paul prays that they will grow and mature in love – this love that is the root of abundance, as well as one of the fruits of the spirit. Paul also thanks God for the Philippians faithfulness to the Gospel.
Today is the beginning of a sermon series on the theme of “Harvesting God’s Gifts.” After all, it is that time of year, when the planters and the growers and the farmers begin to turn their attention to harvesting the crop, what has been planted. Previous churches that I have served as minister were located quite literally in the middle of cornfields or soy bean fields in rural Illinois. In that part of Illinois everything is surrounded by farm land. The cities I grew up in and lived in, no matter how big they were, were surrounded by corn and soy bean fields. So, I often had several farmers in the pews on Sundays, and because of that I often felt self-conscious about using planting and harvesting metaphors. I worried about speaking on something I knew not-so-much-about. Even metaphorically, what could I tell them about harvesting? As a city boy all I knew about soy beans was what they made the air smell like after they went to the factory and were chemically processed.
What I did know, and still know, is something that I think Paul also knew, and that is that a church, a community of faith is also a place of harvest. Which is something to be grateful for, because I don’t necessarily have to know how the process of planting and harvesting works. I just know that it is ongoing. That it started when we were loved and formed by the God who made the universe, and it continued as we grew and learned and were loved by others. The church provides fertile ground for this growing process. It can also help us to identify the gifts that are ready to be harvested. Even if we, as individuals cannot see them ourselves. I may not have always liked that smell that the corn and the soy beans in factories created, but I also knew that locally, this smell was referred to as the “smell of money.” It was a reminder that even something that one might not consider a gift could still be a sign of the possibility of something more, something good and helpful. (I say that also being aware of the problems created by factories like that and the industrialization of agriculture.)
Seeds have been planted in all of us, by God, by our friends and families, and communities. As the church, we find our harvest in Christ, in his teachings, and in our belief in him and in those teachings. If this is true and we have this deep belief, then we are called to focus on abundance rather than scarcity. Seeing that abundance and using those gifts are a sign of faithfulness to God. The kind of faithfulness that Paul is giving thanks for in his letter.
Keeping our focus on abundance can be an issue, though, can’t it? Especially in our society, where so much value is placed on our ability to be consumers of goods and services. It can almost seem as if we are being programmed to think in terms of scarcity. Of what I don’t have and what I might need. We become afraid of the idea of scarcity and what it can lead to – poverty, starvation, death. So, we try to avoid it and fall deeper into that thought distortion. Unfortunately, the church has not been immune form this thought distortion, of looking at things through the lens of scarcity rather than the lens of abundance. When this is our view of the world decisions can often get made to address a fear of scarcity, rather than embracing the blessings of God’s abundance. And while dwindling membership rolls, empty church buildings, and shrinking budgets are all issues to be considered and grappled with, are those concerns the best use of our mental, physical, or spiritual energy? Do they come from a place of faith in God? Or should our efforts be placed on harvesting the gifts that we do have at our disposal? The gifts that have been planted among us and within us and grown over the years.
The conversion to abundance thinking can be rooted in the faithfulness of gratitude. Paul models gratitude frequently in the introductions of his letters. So, this gratitude and thanksgiving seem to be a part of the spiritual DNA of Christianity. One of the first teachers of the faith, in many of the earliest writings of the faith, returns again and again to the idea of thanksgiving. It shapes how he relates to the churches he helped create. Giving thanks for what we have and who we are, who God created us to be, is an act of faithfulness. We have faith that the love of God, and the teachings of Christ and the fruits of the spirit will be all we need to live the life we have, and to respond to the life God calls us to. And it doesn’t have to stop there; this faithfulness can spread and grow. The good fruit comes from doing what is right and so as we act faithfully with our abundance, we will further harvest abundance in places we may not have considered before.
Which is what this sermon series about harvesting our gifts is intended to help with. To take our faith in the God who can do and give so much more than we can ask or even imagine, and from that place of faith look inwards. To find the gifts within us, within our church building, within our community, within our denomination; there are many possibilities. By doing this we remind ourselves that the story of a church, this church but also others, is not a scarcity story. It is not a story about a struggle for survival. A church story is a story of beloved community, coming together to find hope and meaning in each other and in the story of Christ. A church story is a story of people coming together to share generously, extravagantly, in the abundance of God.
Part of that extravagant generosity means sharing in the joy of a vision of ministry centered on the gifts God bestows on the people. This is also part of the focus of this sermon series. Part of the process involved asset mapping. Asset mapping is a process that helps organizations and communities look at what skills, knowledge, and other resources they have at their disposal, and urges them to think about how those things fit together or connect to the mission of the group. In this case a church. Asset mapping helps us concentrate deeply on the assets already available in our congregation and community. For a church it can be a show of faith and belief in a God that provides abundantly what is needed for the well-being of creation. Responding thankfully and gratefully to what we have can help us know what to do with it and how to use it to help bring about that well-being. So, I thank those of you who took part in that asset mapping exercise. I will leave some of the forms out in the narthex in the event that over the course of the next month anyone else feels inspired to fill one out. My hope is that whether you fill out a form or not, whether you are a famer or not, that you begin to gain awareness of what gifts have been planted within yourself or in this church and might be awaiting harvest this season.
In the letter, Paul prays that the Phillipians will have abundant love that is revealed through their understanding and experience of those things that Christ values, so that someday they can stand before Christ “having produced the harvest of righteousness.” This is the harvest that brings us into good relationship with Christ and with one another. The harvest that comes from the abundant gifts of God, which enables us to carry out and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, and through the movement of the Holy Spirit, inspires us to seek deeper relationship with God, with one another, and with the world outside our doors.
As I close now, hear this reading from Paul’s letter to the Central Woodward Christian Church.
“Greetings to you, Central Woodward Church of Troy, MI. Perhaps I should call this my letter to the Trojans? Although I have heard more of you identify as Spartans. Whatever the case, grace and peace to you from God our creator, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I pray for you often, and they are prayers of joy and thanksgiving. I give thanks for the faithful visionaries that established your community nearly 100 years ago, and I give thanks for the dedicated servants who have shared their time, talent, treasure, and many other gifts over those decades. You have all served God’s people well. Since the day of the Second Coming of Jesus did not come quite as soon as expected, I am heartened to know that there are communities such as yours that are living in the way of Jesus, teaching the faith, and holding the needs of God’s children until that hour finally arrives. Perhaps we will see each other then.
Until such a time continue to grow in knowledge and in faith, so that you may continue to follow in the way of Christ, not perfectly, but as best as you can (having died unexpectedly -to me- before the Second Coming, I now know we can be less concerned about the pure and blameless part). But wen you stand before Christ you will present the bounty of a righteous harvest, and hear “Well done, good and faithful servant.” For this harvest will be a blessing to many. Thanks be to God. Amen.”