If I appear to be somewhat less than my usual talkative, peppy self this morning, it’s because I’ve had quite the busy week. Ginger was supposed to be home this week, but ended up filling a last minute vacancy on the counseling staff at Loch Leven, so she found herself spending the week there instead. I’m glad she went – I was the one who mentioned the vacancy to her – but because she was supposed to be here, I found myself trying to fulfill the commitments both of us had made this week.
Thus it was a week of both sermon writing and volunteering at cub scout day camp. It was a week of newsletter articles and youth swim lessons. There were plays and auditions and doctor appointments to get to, as well as staff meetings and pastoral calling. There were meals to prepare and laundry to take care of , of course, although the laundry chore was a little less flexible than it usually is because of the fact that the cub scout day camp t-shirts (one for the camper, one for the volunteer) had to be washed each night, not to mention the towels and shorts for swim lessons. Then our landlord mentioned that someone would be coming Tuesday morning to look at the termites I’d recently noticed, and was it possible for me to be home then? It was possible, and I ended up writing this sermon in my dining room, but the termite person never came.
It was one of those weeks in which I began to lose track of days. Fortunately, I did remember that Monday was Ethan’s birthday, and so we celebrated by going to Downtown Disney to eat at the Rainforest Café and watch the fireworks.
Back home, when I noticed that we were getting low on a few essential household items, I headed down the street to Target. I have a habit, whenever I go to Target, of walking by the clearance rack to see if there are any good deals. As it turned out, there were some t-shirts that I thought I probably needed, and I almost bought one; good deals are hard to resist.
Later that evening, as I was folding and putting away the laundry, I was surprised at how many t-shirts I already had: about twenty in all. Four of them were given to me just this summer, including the already mentioned cub scout day camp t-shirt. I also bought one t-shirt, which makes five new t-shirts acquired in just the past six weeks.
Curious, I began counting ALL my clothes. Well, I got to one hundred articles of clothing, and then I stopped counting. There were still some sweatshirts I hadn’t counted, and I didn’t even open the drawers of socks or underwear, and I didn’t even look at my shoes.
Good grief, I thought; what in the world was I doing looking for clothes in the clearance section? The dresser drawers were full, the clothes hanging in the closet were crammed together… Perhaps if I had a bigger dresser or a bigger closet…
Earlier this summer, I went with Tristan to an Angels game. They were giving away garden gnomes, and somehow – I’ll tell you the details later if you like – we ended up with not one but two gnomes each. Add that to the garden gnome we already had at home, and that means we have five garden gnomes.
Sometimes it’s just so ridiculously easy to acquire STUFF. Just how many garden gnomes do I need, anyway? How many t-shirts do I need?
Strangely, being given the extra gnomes and the t-shirts made me feel good. Each time I received one, I thought, “Ooooh! A new THING!” There is a certain satisfaction to getting something new, especially if it’s a good deal…. And, hey, you can’t beat FREE. This seems to be true even if it’s something we don’t need. However, the satisfaction doesn’t last, because it’s not long before we want another new THING. And another. We want to accumulate more and more. And it’s not long until we discover that one dresser isn’t big enough. One closet isn’t big enough. One garage isn’t big enough. One barn isn’t big enough.
Some people just pack it all in. They’re pack rats. They accumulate and accumulate but never get rid of anything. In extreme cases it becomes a mental illness. Their homes become hazardous death traps, filled with every newspaper, every TV dinner carton from many years, stacked to the ceiling. Sometimes we hear about cases like this in the news, and often, the news is tragic: firefighters being unable to rescue a person trapped in his or her own house by the stacks of burning newspapers and other accumulated junk.
We wonder how on earth a person could live like that. Then we grab some items off the clearance rack, bring them home, and try to figure out where to put them.
A man came to Jesus upset because his brother refused to split their inheritance with him. Jesus refused to intervene. Why? Wasn’t this a case of justice being denied? Didn’t Jesus care about justice?
Jesus didn’t intervene, because he sensed that this man’s problem was much deeper than not getting his share of the inheritance. It just so happened that Jesus had been talking about fear and anxiety – those things that keep you awake at night – when this man came to Jesus. Somehow, a discussion on fears and anxiety made him think of the inheritance money that was due to him. If only he had that money, then he could relax and rest easy. If only he had that money, he would feel secure, and be free from any and all anxiety.
Is that why it’s difficult to pass by the clearance rack at Target? Am I In fact looking for a markdown on peace and security?... Is that why I found myself salivating this week over the new and improved Amazon Kindle, even though I already have a Kindle? Is it because I believe these things will bring calm my fears and anxiety, or at least drown them for awhile?
I suspect that this is the case. I’ve watched enough TV to get the message that unless I keep buying new things, my life won’t be worth much. And I don’t want to be like THAT GUY who doesn’t have the cool lifestyle as evidenced by all of his new THINGS. I’ve heard the advertisers’ message too many times to ignore it, the message that I’m worthless unless I fill my house with all these things; and if my house isn’t big enough, then it’s time to get a bigger house, or one of those storage units, where the first month’s rent is always free.
Well, I’m not knowledgeable enough about medicine or psychology to know whether or not this can be considered a mental illness. I did hear this week that scientists, according to an article about to be published in SCIENCE magazine, have found that people who buy things impulsively have excess dopamine in their brain. Excess dopamine has been shown to increase one’s risk for drug abuse and mental illness. Well, all I know is that when the fear and anxiety keeps me awake in the middle of the night, my t-shirts and my older version of the Kindle do little to comfort me. Not even the gnomes (believe it or not) can give me the peace and security I long for.
I’m also not very knowledgeable when it comes to economics. On NPR I do hear that growth is good, expansion is good, that consumer spending is good; but I also hear that a reckless pursuit of growth is what lies behind the Gulf Coast oil disaster, not to mention many other environmental and social problems.
I do try to be knowledgeable about the teachings of Jesus, although I must admit that being knowledgeable about his teachings doesn’t always make them easy to follow. I’ve been told that Jesus’ top two topics are 1. The kingdom of God, and 2. Money and possessions, and my own reading of scripture seems to confirm this.
I’ve been told that one out of ten verses in the gospels deals with money and possessions, and that seems about right to me. I also know that the parable of the foolish man who built a 2nd barn seems to contract the theory that growth and expansion is good. This man’s business was growing. He wanted to maximize his growth. And Jesus calls him foolish. Which means we have to choose: do we follow the advice of modern economists, or do we follow the teachings of Jesus?
The man in the parable isn’t foolish just because he built that 2nd barn, however. He’s foolish because he expects everything in that barn to provide him the peace and security he longs for. Remember, Jesus had been talking about freeing ourselves from fear and anxiety.
In fact, Jesus’ teachings show that wealth can be either a great blessing, or a great curse. Which of those two it ends up being depends largely on our attitude toward wealth. If we treat money and possessions as our savior – if we make them more important than our commitment to God’s kingdom – then yes, wealth can be a curse, and those who pursue it at all costs are indeed foolish. But if we use our money and wealth and possessions to benefit God’s kingdom, that’s not so foolish.
The foolish man – he’s not concerned so much with God’s kingdom. He’s not concerned with much at all, other than himself. To quote Barbara Brown Taylor: “He asked himself questions, answered them himself, then congratulated himself on his good sense.” Worse yet, “he had fallen for the cultural myth that accumulating stuff was a big enough purpose for human life on earth. He had watched too much television. He had actually believed that his soul was made to thrive on the things that he saw there.” Maybe it was the dopamine high, but dopamine levels fluctuate wildly, and after the new thing has been sitting in your barn for a day or two, the dopamine high begins to wear off, and then it’s time for another hit. So you go out and get another new thing, and it makes you feel good, but once again, the good feeling doesn’t last.
But being rich toward God … seeking a different kind of richness … finding a purpose that will truly satisfy one’s soul, a purpose that the soul knows is worthy enough and heroic enough for a human life … that is what brings lasting peace and security. That peace and security will come to you, if you seek first the kingdom of God.
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