Abundance Part I

Abundance

One of the most interesting moments in the gospels occurs in Luke Chapter 12. Sometimes called the parable of the rich fool, this beautiful piece of scripture begins with Jesus telling the story of a man whose crops produced abundantly. As the parable unfolds, this man takes his bumper crop and fails to share it—he refuses to share it. As he hoards it all for himself, the voice of God calls him a fool, not because of his abundance, but because of his response (or lack thereof) to his abundance.

I wonder: how are we, as modern Christians, doing with our abundances?

This past Sunday I looked around White Memorial and I saw evidence of abundance everywhere.

· A trio sang a glorious anthem in worship at all three services.

· There were nurseries beginning to fill with children coming to church.

· I saw one of our pastors offering amazing pastoral care to a young man who is living through a very complex time in his life.

· We saw some faces we had not seen in awhile—faces more able to be present as summer draws to its close.

· We hosted organizational meetings for youth volunteers and youth advisors.

· We saw new staff moving through the day, helping our members find what they needed and learning more about who we are as a church.

· There was an organizational meeting for Presbyterian Women and their annual retreat next winter.

· Dozens of teachers had orientation and planning meetings with our church staff and with the other teachers in the classes—thinking about the year to come in our church school and ministry programs for children. We saw veteran teachers, first-time teachers, and folks who cannot believe they have been called to teach in the first place.

· Our Associate Director of Music for Alternate Worship search team met.

· I saw members of our Director of Middle School Ministry Search Committee mingling with our Associate Pastor for Youth and Their Families and our confirmation class leaders. 

In a word, it was abundant. And it was only one day. In our church, and in our church family, we enjoy many days like the one described above.

In the coming weeks we will talk about abundance with increasing regularity.  Nearly every day I am made aware of the “bumper crop” of talent, ability, resources and energy at White Memorial. We are truly a church that makes differences in the lives of our members, in the lives of people in our community and in the lives of people around the world. In thanksgiving we’ll talk about the abundances of our church family, and we’ll talk about how true wisdom is found when we share our resources with each other—our church, our community and the world.

In the parable of the rich fool, the fool is foolish because of his refusal to share. This is a good lesson to take to heart. As we look ahead and give thanks for our many abundances, in what new ways can we share with our church this year and in the year to come? With all that we have to share, surely there are ways each of us can contribute from the abundance in our midst