A man and women were in their 2^nd marriage after both of them had been widowed for a time. They were out to dinner at a very exclusive and expensive restaurant. During the meal the wife said to the husband, “You know if it wasn’t for my money we wouldn’t be able to afford to eat at a place like this.” After dinner they went out to get in the car to drive home. As they drove away from the restaurant, she turned to her husband again and said, “You know honey, if it was not for my money, we wouldn’t be able to afford a nice car like this.” They drove up the driveway toward the house and again the women said, “You know dear, if it was not for money, we wouldn’t be able to afford a house like this.”  

Where upon the man turned to the woman and said, “You know dear, if it wasn’t for your money, you probably wouldn’t have me either.” 

What constitutes abundance? How much do you trust God’s abundance? Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life abundantly.” (John 10:10) Jesus also said, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32) What a statement that is! 

Paul says, “My God can supply all of your needs and all of my need.” 

Someone else has written this:

“God has blessed us with an abundance of whatever we need to do what we are called to do. Let the people of God rest in the total sufficiency of God’s grace and peace, which are given to us in fullest measure.” 

Can you rest in the total sufficiency of God? Americans live in the greatest abundance in history. Yet we don’t necessarily feel abundantly blessed.  

Walter Brueggemann, Old Testament scholar and theologian writes:

[We have] a sense of scarcity, a deep fearful, anxious conviction that there is not enough to go around and that no more will be given. The proper response, given that anxiety, is to keep everything you have, to get good protection to keep what you have from others who want it, to take steps to secure still more at the expense of others, more that may belong to others, more than you need, more than you will ever need. The myth of scarcity that can drive an economy is not based on economic analysis, but on anxiety.[a] 

This is the energy that may be driving the highly volatile issue of immigration right now. We do not see illegal immigrants as people needing to try to sustain life for themselves and for their families. Rather we see them as those who want to take what we have. And we are afraid that there is not enough to go around. 

One writer says this:

“The United States is among the wealthiest countries in the world, and yet it is filled with people, rich and poor, who are anxious about their future and who feel that they don’t have enough.”[b] 

Or another author who says:

“If more is better, then there can never be a sense of enough, no matter how much one has, for there is always more needed to make life better.” 

Finally there is the off quoted statement from John Updike: “In America, it is difficult to achieve a sense of enough.” 

We tend to complain about real or imagined scarcity. A young man entered a monastery one time to become a monk. The rules of the monastery were that there would absolute silence. Every five years you were allowed to speak two words. After five years the Monk went into to see the Abbot. He sat down and said simply, “Food bad.” Then he got up and left. Five years later he came back again to see the Abbot. Again he sat down and said, “Bed hard.” Again he got up and left. Finally after another five year period he came in and said to the Abbot. “Want out.” To which the Abbot replied, “Well I am not at all surprised, all you have done since you came here is complain.” 

Brueggemann argues that we need a new “Lyric of Abundance.” And that lyric begins with reflecting on the nature of God. Perhaps that is the kind of lyric found in our text for today. “You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine, and breath to strengthen the human heart.”                                                   (Psalm 104:14-15) 

The Psalms are the hymnody of the Old Testament. So this could be a lyric for a hymn. What are some of the components of that lyric for this Thanksgiving season? 

REALIZE HOW BLESSED WE REALLY ARE 

For one thing we need to realize how blessed we really are. Sometimes it takes an “aha” moment to awaken this in us.  

Parker Palmer tells a story of boarding a long flight to Denver at midday. The plane moved away from the gate and taxied toward the runway. Then all of a sudden the plane stopped. Then the engines stopped. The passengers were curious as to what was happening.  

The pilot came on over the intercom and said this” I have bad news and then I have very bad news. The bad news is there is a storm in the west. Denver is socked in and shut down. We have looked for alternatives, but there are none. So we will be parked here for an hour or two.” 

Then he said, “The really bad news is this. There is no food on board and it is lunch time.” 

The passengers groaned. Some got angry. There was general unrest. Then a flight attendant did something amazing. She took the microphone and she said this, “We did not plan this, but there is not much we can do about it. Some of you are really hungry. Some of you have a medical condition that means you need food on a regular basis. Some of you may not care one way or the other. Some of you may need to skip lunch.” 

“But here is what we will do. I have a couple of bread baskets here. We are going to pass them out among all of the passengers. Anything that you can share put in the basket. Maybe you brought a snack on board for an occasion such as this. Maybe you have some peanut butter crackers. Maybe you have a candy bar. Maybe it is lifesavers or chewing gum.” 

Palmer reports that an amazing thing happened. Boxes of candy came out of suitcases. A huge salami came out of another. From a third came a bottle of wine. All sorts of things began to appear. People were talking and laughing and having a great time. Palmer writes, “She had transformed a group of people who were focused on need and deprivation into a community of sharing and celebration. She had transformed scarcity into a kind of abundance.”[c] 

Would that this could happen in America right now. And would that it could happen through America to the world. How infrequently we realize how blessed we really are. 

REMEMBER THE SOURCE OF OUR BLESSINGS 

Another thing we need to do is to remember the source of our blessings. That is the impact of the second Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy today. The context of the reading is this:

Hebrew people have completed 40 years in the desert. God has taken care of them. He has provided manna and He has provided water. Now God gives them a new land. The land is described as a land “flowing with milk and honey”. That means, it is a really good land, one in which you can prosper. 

Then the scripture says that God spoke these words to the people:

”Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God…When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, all that you have multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God…” (Deuteronomy 8) 

In other words, affluence can bring amnesia. Note that there is nothing here that suggests that affluence is wrong or that it is evil. Nowhere does the bible actually say that. Rather the Bible continuously reminds us that affluence can produce amnesia. It tends to make us forget.

Remember some of President Lincoln’s words in 1863. They still apply. “Intoxicated by unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.” 

Many of you are familiar with C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. These letters are an imaginary series of writings of a senior devil in hell to a junior devil on earth. The junior devil is trying to win over man to the devil’s kingdom. In one of the great segments of one of those letters, Screwtape writes this to his young nephew. “Prosperity knits a person to the world. The growing sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in a person a sense of being really at home on earth, which is just what we want.” 

Affluence is not itself wrong. But it can bring amnesia or forgetfulness. 

John Baillie has this wonderful prayer in one of his books. “For the power you have given me to lay hold of things unseen; for the strong sense I have that is not my final home; for my restless heart which nothing finite can satisfy; I give thee thanks, O God.” 

Trusting God’s abundance allows me to pray that prayer.  

Which also means this – leads to this: 

WORK ON TRUSTING GOD ABSOLUTELY 

I need to work on trusting God absolutely. I need to remember – really remember – to thank God. Such a reminder is not a cliché, but a constant act of obedience. I need to journal my Thanksgiving to God as often as I can. I need to thank God for the small things in life. 

A little boy was asked to say the prayer of thanks at the dinner table one night. He folded his hands and bowed his head and said, “Dear God thank you for this delicious steak dinner. Amen.”  

When he looked up his mother said to him, “Son you know this not steak, it is a casserole.”  

Replied the boy, “I know I just want to see if God was paying attention.” 

God IS paying attention. God wants to know how much you and I really trust. 

Early 2006 marked the 100^th Birthday of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer lost his life testifying to the Christian faith and fighting Nazism. He founded an illegal seminary for several years. From its worship life, he wrote these words:

“Only when we give thanks for the little things can we receive the big things. We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual benefits in store because we do not give thanks for daily gifts. We pray for big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not so small) gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from that same God the little things?”[d] 

I want to trust God’s abundance. I want to trust that abundance fully, absolutely and entirely. Yet the world wants me to trust stuff and things. 

I am told that there is a unique way in which monkeys are captured in order to send them zoos in various parts of the world. Those who try to capture the monkeys find a hollow log. They drill a hole in the log and place something that is very precious to the monkey on the inside. Something that will tempt the monkey fully. The monkey sticks his hand in the hole in the log and grabs hold of the substance inside. However, he can not remove it because his fist is too large to go through the hole. Nothing will make that monkey let go of his prize. Nothing - including the loss of his freedom. 

We say, “Silly monkey.” But we often do the same thing. We become possessed by what we are trying to possess. What must God think of us seeing us clinging to things and stuff? What must the One think who said,”A person’s wealth does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:15) 

Silly monkeys. Silly people. It can happen over so little – or so much. 

What is faith? In part: Faith is letting go of things I possess and letting God possess me. 

Faith is trusting God’s abundance. May it be so in you – starting today.