August 8, 2010 Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 Luke 12:32-40

“God’s Economics”
Dr. Ted H. Sandberg

In a meditation I read this week on this passage from Luke that suggests we sell our possessions,
Elizabeth Myer Boulton, a minister in Boston, she remembers her grandmother, Nellie; a tall, full-
figured and bold woman who loved a good hat, a pretty dress and fire-engine-red lipstick. Boulton
writes: “In the 1950s and ‘60s, with the threat of nuclear war looming, Nellie stockpiled her basement
with cans of tomatoes, tuna and bean salad. During the sugar shortage of the ‘70s, she filled her
cupboards with sugar: brown, refined and raw. When the energy crisis came, she became obsessed
with keeping the needle of her Buick’s gas gauge above three-quarters of a tank.
Every other day she would wait in long lines to fuel up. [Boulton’s] grandfather could never
understand this, and one day he’d had enough. ‘My goodness, Nellie,’ he said. ‘Do we really need to
wait in line for gas again? We’ve got three-quarters of a tank.’”
Boulton states: “Every member of [the] family can recite [grandmother’s] answer word for word:
‘Well, Jimmy, of course we have to wait in line. We’ve got to get that gas before the hoarders do!’”1
Boulton confesses that she remembered this incident as she was wrestling with a gigantic package of
toilet paper down the stairs and into her basement – only to discover two identical, unopened packages
already there. Minutes earlier she’d raced through Costco, hurriedly eating smoked almonds out of a
fluted paper cup, convinced that her family was about to run out of toilet paper, that there wasn’t
enough.2
I’d guess that we all live with a bit of this fear of “not enough.” This is especially true if we
understand that “not enough” means more than “not enough stuff.” Most of the time, I think in terms
of dollars and cents when I think of “not enough.” “I don’t have enough money to buy that new
hybrid car that might be nice to drive.” “I need to make sure I have enough money saved so that we
can pay our taxes each quarter.” “I want to have enough money in my M&M account, in Social
Security, and enough money saved so that Cheri and I can have a decent retirement.” “Not enough” is
often thought of as money.
“Not enough” can also be things, of course – though personally this isn’t a big concern for me simply
because I’ve got a lot of stuff. But for some, “not enough” is a serious problem. They don’t have
enough clothes to keep warm in the winter. They don’t have enough food to eat. They don’t have
enough to pay their heating bill. They don’t have enough to live in an apartment. (They may be
working, but they don’t have enough for a deposit and for the first and last month’s rent. They’re
essentially priced out of the market because they don’t make enough or because their credit history is
poor.) They don’t have enough to make it in life – for lots and lots of reasons. Maybe they’ve made
poor choices. Maybe they have a handicap. Maybe they haven’t had the ambition to fight against the
odds to succeed despite a difficult upbringing. Maybe they’ve been laid off and can’t find another job
in this difficult economy. The reality is that many are one pay check away from homelessness. But
again, this is “not enough” money.

1 1. Boulton, Elizabeth Myer, “Reflections on the lectionary,” The Christian Century,

July 27, 2010, p. 21.

2 2. Boulton, p. 21.
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Think of the world we live in and it doesn’t take much to think of other things that there aren’t enough
of. We’ve been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan for 8+ years. There isn’t enough peace. Politicians
and their followers yell back and forth at each other, rarely listening to one another. There isn’t
enough respect. I hear more concern about stray dogs and cats in our city than I do about the
homeless teens who roam our streets. There isn’t enough compassion. People seem to hold on to their
anger and hurts forever. There isn’t enough forgiveness. This list goes on and on. There isn’t enough
understanding, isn’t enough grace, isn’t enough love.
The world’s answer to “not enough” is for us to work harder, or cut corners, or take from others – to
get ours first. I read this past week that Harley Davidson is thinking of moving its factory out of
Milwaukee because its costs are too high. The report I read didn’t say that this motorcycle
manufacturer isn’t making money, or that it’s losing money. It’s just trying to make more money
which is the mantra of many of the corporations in the U.S. They move, often over seas, to cut costs.
Now I can understand cutting costs. We’ve cut the budget here at First Baptist. It’s a necessity for us
to live within our means. But I wonder why some of our major corporations must make the cuts they
do. If it’s move or close, I understand. But if it’s move so that the CEO can make a few extra million
dollars then the move isn’t valid to my way of thinking. Yes, investors are due a solid return on their
investments, but at what price to the workers in the companies in which they invested?
I’ve digressed. I was talking about the world’s answer to “not enough” and got side-tracked by how
the world often operates. The world says the dollar is more important that the worker. The world says
there’s never enough. The world says “do whatever it takes to get yours and don’t worry about any
one else.”
Contrast the world’s attitude to what Jesus teaches about God’s economics in this passage from Luke’s
Gospel. Beginning with verse 22 in Luke’s 12th chapter, we read these words from Jesus. “Therefore
I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear.
For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow
nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value
are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then
you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies,
how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed
like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is
thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you – you of little faith! And do not keep
striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the
nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them.”
If this isn’t difficult enough for us to follow, for who of us can avoid worrying at least some of the
time, Jesus goes on to say, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give
you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear
out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Jesus’ answer to our worrying about not having enough is for us to give. “You’re worrying about
what you’re going to wear. Give. You’re worrying about your retirement account. Give. You’re
worrying about how you’re going to survive these difficult economic times. Give.” “What can you do
about the anxieties and fears of life? Give!”
“In the early church, just before the holy meal that we know as the Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper,

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people brought forth food, mainly bread and wine, for a meal. They brought the everyday labors of
their hands, what they had at home, and they put it up on the Lord’s table in the great offertory
procession. You can see these ordinary people, coming forward at the invitation of their pastor,
putting what they had on the table. In offering their food, in giving the stuff of their daily life back to
God, for the use by God’s people, they were participating in religious giving. This giving, this
oblation, is one of the great movements of our faith. We’re not created simply to be receivers, takers,
but are also created to be givers.
You and I live with the deep ambiguity in regard to the material stuff of life. Some of us are paying
too high a price for our accumulation of things. Some of us are neglecting our health, neglecting our
families and friends, because we’re working ourselves to death. We’re spending too much time at the
office, giving too much to our labor, thinking that we’re going to get a worthwhile return. What are
we to do about this over-striving, and over-work, and over-accumulation?
The church says that we can put it all on the altar. We can take this deeply ambiguous money – the
root of so much evil, and the source of much good – and put it on the altar. In so doing, our daily
work is redeemed. What we’re doing, in offering, is transformed from the mere making of a living, to
the living of a life. Whatever we do for a living, we now do to the glory of God and for the giving to
others. We can put it on the altar.3
We forget this aspect of worship, I think, at least I do. Too often people today want to know what a
church can do for them. “What programs do you offer for me and my family? What can I get out of
the worship service?” People are looking for what the church can do for them, and by implication,
what God will do for them.
This passage from Luke reminds us that this isn’t what we as Christians are to be all about. We’re to
be about the business of giving. Worship isn’t to be about receiving, but about giving. And I’m not
talking only about giving our tithes and offerings. I’m not only talking about money – though money
is certainly a part of it. If I’m unwilling to give money to God, then I think we haven’t given our self
to God. Our check book, or our credit card bill, probably tells us more about our priorities than
anything else. If we give only a small portion of what we receive, if we drop $5 in the offering plate
and think we’ve given what God asks us to give, then we’re mistaken – unless we’re only receiving
$50. [I always hesitate to mention specific dollar amounts, because whatever amount I say is going to
be too much for some and way too small of an amount for others. As I’ve said before, 10% of $500,
$50, leaves not much to live on. 10% of $5 million still leaves $4.5 million to live on. For some, 10%
– a tithe, is meant only to be a starting point.] So our financial giving is important.
But even more, we’re to give ourselves in worship. We give our time by being here. We give our
voices in song. Even if we don’t sing well, we can sing out. Even if we can’t sing at all, we can listen
to the words and feel the emotion of the music. We give our prayers to God, both as individuals and
as this body of Christians. We give our attention to the reading of the Bible and my preaching. I do
my best to preach good sermons, but I know that I don’t always succeed. But it’s been my experience
that God uses the words we ministers proclaim to God’s purposes if we are open to God, if we give
ourselves to God in worship.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” We live in a “me first, greed is good”
world. We live in a world that teaches us to get all we can for ourselves and not worry about the
3 3. Willimon, William H., “Giving,” Pulpit Resource, Vol. 38, No. 3; July, August,
September 2010, p. 27.
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workers, or the boss, or the poor, or those in need. We overcome this “me first” attitude when tragedy
strikes. When there’s a hurricane, or tornado, or famine, we give, often generously. But when the
tragedy leaves the front page, many of us forget and go back to our worry about “not enough.”
Jesus teaches us that the answer to this fear of “not enough” is to give. That’s not logical by the
world’s standards. But then the world’s standards haven’t really proved their worth, have they?
Maybe it’s time to live instead by the standards of Jesus Christ, who gave his life for each of us.
Amen.