What Is Enough To Live?

 As I sat with this scripture, 1 Timothy 6:6-12, I thought about the question, what is enough? How do you know when you have enough?

Then on Friday, I was on Route 30. I was coming back from York, and I was doing 75 in a 55 mph zone in the left lane. Don’t ever do that. I got past the on-ramp from Centerville Road and got over, and realized that I had a line behind me, and they went past me, going at least 85-90 and revving the engines. I thought I was already going over what is enough, what’s fast enough, what’s big enough, what’s shiny enough?

It seems that humanity was created with this longing, this hunger within us. But I think God gave us this hungering, hoping that we would hunger for God. I think that’s what that hunger was meant to be about. But God didn’t force us. But we are easily distracted, and we’ve been looking from the very beginning for something else that will fill that hunger. Something shiny or exciting or stimulating, like money, looks, the right body, the right clothes, the right car, or the right house. Do you get the point? We’re very good at trying to fill that hunger with other things. Besides a relationship with God.

So I leave you with the question today. At what point are you content? What does contentment look like for you?

Actually, the book of Genesis, where Genesis 11:1-9 came from, is a collection of origin stories. It’s trying to explain how things became as they are, how we got to where we are, and from the very beginning, we were discontent.

That’s the story of the Garden of Eden. They couldn’t be satisfied until they took from the tree of knowledge, the one that was off limits. The knowledge was too great a temptation.

And then we have Cain and Abel, the two brothers. And Cain couldn’t stand that Abel was favored by God because being favored was too great a temptation not to take.

In our scripture for today, although it seems to be about languages, it’s really about the fact that they weren’t satisfied. They were discontent. When they could make bricks and mortar, then they thought they could be gods, and they built a tower to the heavens. They weren’t looking for a relationship or to get closer to God. They just wanted to be gods to look down on all the other people. That was the problem. That was too tempting.

Yearning, which God placed within humanity, hoping that they would choose a relationship with God, instead became a yearning for power. The yearning for power is too great a temptation. We were created to be content. God wants us to be content with all God’s gifts. With that yearning, being satisfied in our relationship with God, then we can be at peace and it didn’t work.

God came to us in Jesus to show us what this looked like in a human being. And Jesus didn’t chase after money, shiny things, or anything at all. Jesus wanted to make relationships with people and help introduce them to God. Even when he sent out the 72, he said, Take nothing with you. Rely on the hospitality of strangers and as followers of Jesus, that is who we are to be those who extend hospitality to strangers. For we never know when we’re entertaining angels. We can be generous with what we have.

In our scriptures today, the writer said, “Be faithful, loving, dependable, and gentle” – Timothy 6:11.

This was the message that he wanted to get through to the church because obviously they were hung up on money. So he got a little bit more specific. The love of money causes all types of trouble.

Then we have this other sentence, which I think is so good to know, because there are all kinds of sayings that people attribute to the Bible that are not in the Bible. Like God helps those who help themselves. Not in the Bible. It’s Benjamin Franklin.

The other one is God won’t give you more than you can handle. Not in the Bible. It is not biblical. Actually, God shows you that God will be with you through all that life gives you. It does say “We didn’t bring anything into this world, and we won’t take anything with us when we leave” – Timothy 6:7. That is in the Bible, which I hear as a call to a simpler life. Our Amish brothers and sisters practice this. They also stay much more closely tied to the land. That’s a piece that I think we’re forgetting. We’ve got to get closer to the land right now.

We are living in incredible times, scary and yet filled with potential.

The breakage of our systems means we have an opportunity to create more just and caring systems than what we have now. Last Saturday, I caught a few parts of the FarmAid concert, and one of the pieces that I saw was an interview with Dave Matthews that I thought was profound. He essentially said life in this country won’t get better until we value people over profit. We need to see each person as our neighbor. Be willing to help and care for them.

We remember that Jesus gave us two commands. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your strength. That’s who we have to be. We haven’t done it well yet. We need to get better. That’s our challenge. But to do so, first we need to figure out, as a congregation, what is most important to us.

So, I have a challenge for you this week. I want you to think. About the world that you wish existed. What do you want to see in this world? I keep saying we are creating because it’s real. We are creating the world for these babies that we baptized today, and for all the little ones. We are creating the world that they’re gonna live in. What do we want that to look like?

Write it down because we need to start really getting clear on what we want, because if we’re clear on what we want, then we can come together and build it. We can organize and build those systems that we need.

If you tend to be nostalgic, to put on those rose colored glasses and say, “Well, if it just was the way it was when I grew up”, I have a caution for you. It wasn’t good for everyone then. It was good for some, but not for all. And I think our call is, it has to be good for all or it’s not good for any of us. Because what hurts you hurts me. And what hurts me hurts you. Whether you realize it or not.

We are a country with great diversity already. Maybe the best place to start is to write down your favorite Bible verses. What are the verses that that lead your life? What are your guiding verses?

One of mine is “And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” – Micah 6:8.

May it be so. Amen.

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