Acts 2:42-47; John 10:1-10
Abundance
James Sledge May 15, 2011
About ten years ago, a little book called The Prayer of Jabez came out, offering to teach you the secrets of “breaking through to the blessed life.” It quickly became a best seller, and as often happens when something “religious” becomes extremely popular, many churches started offering classes and seminars based on the book, and the ministry founded by the author made available a DVD set and workbook, not to mention Prayer of Jabez greeting cards, a Prayer of Jabez journal, and so on.
Now if you had never heard of Jabez before this book came out, there is good reason. Even serious students of the Bible easily could have missed Jabez’s solitary appearance in 1 Chronicles. That’s obscure enough, but Jabez’s brief moment is embedded in a long genealogy of the descendants of Judah, one of Jacob’s sons. Sandwiched between the listings of Ahuzzam, Hepher, Temeni, and Zobebah; Chelub, Shuhah, Kenaz, and Hathath – every one of which my computer’s spellcheck flagged in red – we meet Jabez.
It turns out that the name Jabez is related to the Hebrew word for pain, and he has received this rather troublesome name because his mother experienced a great deal of pain in childbirth. But she had more than gotten back at her son. In the thinking of ancient Israelites, names had real power, and to name her son Jabez was to curse him in a way.
To call someone “Pain” or “Hurt” was to fate him to a life of pain and hurt.
But Jabez called out to God asking to be blessed instead, and God granted his prayer.
It’s difficult to know exactly what to make of these two brief verses in the Bible. It seems likely they are fragments of a larger story, but still it seems reasonable to conclude that they means to say something about the saving power of God. Even though Jabez is cursed by his name and fate, God’s power to save and bless is greater.
Based on my admittedly cursory reading of the book, The Prayer of Jabez, I’m not certain its author fully appreciates this. Rather, he seems to have appropriated Jabez’s prayer as a kind of magic formula. Say this prayer every morning and great things will happen to you. A look at The Prayer of Jabez website seems to confirm this. There you can download studies on scripturally based financial freedom, spiritual principles for obtaining God’s blessings, for profitable personal godliness, and more. Learn the secrets that will allow you to tap into God’s power to make you wealthy and happy and whatever else you are seeking.
In our gospel today, Jesus says, “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture… I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Images of sheep and shepherds are foreign to many of us, but even we recognize that finding pasture is about provision, about preparing a table for us, and this abundantly. We will have all we need and more. God’s blessings will rain down on us. We’ll achieve financial freedom. Our cups will overflow.
Food and drink are often associated with abundance: $600 an ounce caviar, a $500 bottle of Dom Perignon champagne (more than $1000 if you want a really good year), and a $300 Kobe beef steak. Ah, the good life, the abundant life.
Interestingly, food is mentioned several times in today’s reading from Acts, although there’s no caviar or Dom Perignon. In the span of five short verses we hear twice about breaking bread, and of how they ate their food with glad and generous hearts. But this joyful fellowship and dining doesn’t have the feel of Bon Appétit or Wine Enthusiast magazines. After all, we are told that they had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. That hardly fits with the typical understanding of abundance, which usually means, “I have more than you do. I can afford better stuff than you can.”
I’m not sure when I first learned that Jesus promises us abundant life. It seems to me that I’ve always “known” this. Jesus came that we might have life, and have it abundantly. So you can imagine my surprise when I did a little digging and discovered that the phrase “abundant life” appears nowhere in the Bible. And the word Jesus uses when he speaks of our having life “abundantly” is quite rare. Only here is it translated “abundantly.” Elsewhere it is translated “more” or “unnecessary,” but a quick trip to the Greek dictionary showed that the first definition is “extraordinary” or “remarkable.”
I thought about that and heard Jesus saying, “I came that they may have life, and have it remarkably, extraordinarily.” And it occurred to me that the life of the community described in our reading from Acts was pretty remarkable and extraordinary, a Spirit filled community marked by fellowship and worship, by radical sharing where everyone had enough, a community filled with gladness and generosity. No wonder they had the goodwill of all the people, Jew and Gentile alike. It was such a remarkable, extraordinary community how could people not notice, not admire it, not want something similar for themselves?
This extraordinary community in Acts is not something they created by trying hard. It was a gift. As the people gave themselves over to God’s presence, the Spirit began to transform their community so that it started to look more like God’s coming Kingdom than it did the world. Too often, people think of faith as a way to get God on our side and bless us with all the things the world says we need. But this remarkable community in Acts is something altogether different. It has become a preview of God’s new day, God’s dream for a better world, a world of joy and generosity.
I shared during our Lenten study that Shawn and I used to be big fans of the TV show ER. The show ran from 1994 to 2009, and for the first eight seasons Anthony Edwards starred as Dr. Mark Green. One of the real tearjerker episodes on ER was when Mark Green dies. He had been diagnosed with a brain tumor that did not respond to treatments. Finally, with only a short time left to live, he journeyed to Hawaii, where he had lived as a child, to die. In his last moments, he has some time alone with his daughter. Lying in his bed he tells her that he has been trying to think of something important to say to her, “something every father should impart to his daughter. Generosity,” he says. “Be generous— with your time, with your love, with your life.”
We Christians are often very good at charity, at doing things for people who need help, bringing food for those less fortunate than us. But I’m not sure charity is quite the same thing that Mark Green was recommending to his daughter. I think maybe Mark Green had discovered something akin to what that remarkable community in Acts had discovered, something I think that a lot of people would be overjoyed to discover.
Regulars in worship here know that I am not one to use poetry in my sermons. But as I was finishing work on this one, I stumbled onto a poem by Walter Brueggemann, scholar, theologian, Old Testament professor, and wonderful writer. It is called “On Generosity,” and since this poem is also a prayer, I think I will pray it. Let us pray.
On our own, we conclude:
that there is not enough to go around
we are going to run short
of money
of love
of grades
of publications
of sex
of beer
of members
of years
of life
we should seize the day
seize the goods
seize our neighbor’s goods
because there is not enough to go around.
And in the midst of our perceived deficit:
You come
You come giving bread in the wilderness
You come giving children at the 11th hour
You come giving homes to exiles
You come giving futures to the shut-down
You come giving Easter joy to the dead
You come—fleshed in Jesus.
And we watch while
the blind receive their sight
the lame walk
the lepers are cleansed
the deaf hear
the dead are raised
the poor dance and sing.
We watch
and we take food we did not grow and
life we did not invent and
future that is gift and gift and gift and
families and neighbors who sustain us
when we did not deserve it.
It dawns on us—late rather than soon—
that “you give food in due season
you open your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing.”
By your giving, break our cycles of imagined scarcity
override our presumed deficits
quiet our anxieties of lack
transform our perceptual field to see
the abundance… mercy upon mercy
blessing upon blessing.
Sink your generosity deep into our lives
that your muchness may expose our false lack
that endlessly receiving, we may endlessly give,
so that the world may be made Easter new,
without greedy lack, but only wonder
without coercive need, but only love
without destructive greed, but only praise
without aggression and invasiveness…
all things Easter new…
all around us, toward us and
by us
all things Easter new.
Finish your creation… in wonder, love, and praise. Amen.
Amen.
