Living in Scarcity or Abundance
In our public lives we are programmed to live as if “there is not enough to go around, there’s no free lunch in this world, you have to grab what you can before they run out.” We’ve all heard these statements being made around us and sometimes we’ve made them ourselves. They represent a way of looking at the world with a mind-set of scarcity. There’s never enough. There’s a general disappointment with many aspects of life and the way things are that don’t match up to our expectations.
I said “public lives” above to distinguish this way of living from our “private lives” where, for example, when we give a dinner party there’s plenty of everything and we encourage our guests to have another drink, take second helpings, and so forth.
How can we bring our private lives and bring them into congruence with our life in public. How can we disengage from a worldview of scarcity and begin to live publicly and privately in abundance? The only way to do this, I think, is with our faith in God.
The Israelites in exile were suffering greatly and there was a scarcity of everything. At the time of King David, 500 years earlier, they had lived with abundance, things were good and God’s favor was with them. But now, after years of exile in Babylon, they questioned everything and couldn’t have everything they desired. Or could they? The prophet Isaiah, who lived with them through it all, had the task of changing their view of their situation:
Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy. . . Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.
As human beings we are a bundle of constant desires that for the most part (99%) generated by the desires of others around us (or advertisements on TV). Well, the above quote from Isaiah shows that God can advertise too! If human beings are a bundle of desires, then one way to think about God is as a “pattern of desires.” How can we align our desiring for so many unconnected things that we can never get enough of due to scarcity, with God’s desire that enables us to live in abundance?
I have come that they might have life and have it in abundance.
The first step in living abundantly, right here and right now, is to listen to God. Prayer helps us align with God’s desires and gives us less time to worry about scarcity and “keeping up with the Joneses.” Prayer helps us count our blessings rather than lament the things we don’t have. Prayer helps us realize in faith that God has our best interests at heart which is not always the case when we follow the desires of those around us. God is the One who creates something out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo), a notion that is hard for us to believe. God is committed to life, not death, and creates abundance to be shared by all.
Today’s Gospel, the Feeding of the 5000, is the best illustration of this life movement from scarcity to abundance. Jesus has been off alone in prayer, away from the crowd. (Praying to his Father, aligning his desires with His) Sure enough, the crowd with all their needs and hunger come and find where Jesus is. Jesus tells his disciples his intention to feed the crowd. The disciples, living with a world view of scarcity and limited resources, want to send the crowd away. Jesus challenges them to feed the crowd. Jesus’ disciples inventory what they have and place it before him. Jesus has the crowd recline on the grass, takes the loaves and fishes, blesses them,breaks the bread and dried fish into pieces, and gives them to the crowd. After everyone eats and is satisfied, the fragments are gathered up and fill 12 baskets. Abundance!
The same four actions of Jesus with the crowd happen with us each Sunday at Eucharist. Jesus takes what we offer, blesses it, breaks it into pieces, and gives it out. These are the four actions of Jesus in the feeding stories and the Last Supper in the Gospels and the four actions at every Eucharist we celebrate. We slowly, but surely, with God’s help, move from the world economy of scarcity which breeds rivalry and all that flows from rivalry, to a world economy of abundance and sharing. There is enough for everyone and plenty left over when we allow our desires to pattern God’s desires rather than other people’s desires. Freedom, Joy, Peace can be ours! Remember the title of the famous book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napolean Hill, our title becomes “Pray and Grow Rich” by Jesus Christ!
Amen!
John+
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| St. Alban |
Saint Alban Episcopal Mission (English, Anglican Communion) meets for mass every Sunday at 10:00 A.M. (see welcome letter at sidebar) at Casa Convento Concepcion, 4a Calle Oriente No. 41, Antigua, Guatemala.
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| The Reverend John Smith, Vicar 5235-6674 cell telephone (502 country code) |
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