Abundance Happens

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
January 17, 2016

2 Epiphany C

A few thousand pounds of food were delivered to Christ Church last Wednesday as we prepare for Food Pantry this coming Wednesday.  Now, our offices look like a food storage facility, with cases of food stacked along every available downstairs wall. There are packages of toilet paper stacked almost to the ceiling, thanks to your generosity.  We had our largest turn out ever of folks to help unload the trucks and unwrap the cases of food, and that was on a 2 degree morning!  Next Tuesday, a crew will come in to take the brown paper sacks and double bag them so they don't tear when filled.  When Kelly and I come in on Wednesday morning, what was left of floor space downstairs and an entire room upstairs will be filled with open paper bags, waiting for food. Then another few thousand pounds of food will appear, along with, over the course of the day, some 25 or 30 more people to help serve the 150+ people who will stand in line to receive food for the families.

This is what abundance looks like at Christ Church.  Abundance does not mean too much food or too many people.  Abundance means more than we could possibly expect or deserve on our own.  We see such an abundance in the story of the wedding at Cana this morning.  Jesus takes 6 stone water jars, each holding 20 or 30 gallons of water, and transforms the water into the equivalent of 200 or so cases of the best wine of the wedding feast.  We are told that the miracle at Cana is the first of Jesus' signs,  revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

There is a sense in which the whole of John's gospel, in which we find the story of the wedding at Cana, is about abundance*.  In the opening paragraphs of John's gospel, we hear these words "And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth...From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.  The law indeed was given through Moses.  Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."  The introduction to John's gospel sets a stage on which the abundance of grace will be played out for all of us to watch.  And the very first action of Jesus in this gospel is to change an enormous amount of water into a great abundance of wine.  Inaugural actions have meaning, and this inaugural action is about abundance.  Later in the gospel, Jesus will say "I have come that you may have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).  In the story of the wedding at Cana, Jesus' glory is revealed, not because he saved the week-long wedding party from the shame of running out of wine, or just because he was able to transform some water into wine.  Jesus' glory was revealed through abundance.

But what is abundance?  We humans can easily fall into the trap of "I have a lot.  I want more."  On our bad days, abundance can look a lot like greed.  Martin Luther King, Jr., whose life the nation celebrates this weekend, preached this about abundance in one of his sermons (Quote) "When we look at modern man, we have to face the fact...that modern man suffers from a kind of poverty of the spirit, which stands in glaring contrast to his scientific and technological abundance; We've learned to fly the air like birds, we've learned to swim the seas like fish, and yet we haven't learned to walk the Earth as brothers and sisters..."  Martin Luther King points to the sad reality that abundance often divides rather than unites.  Abundance that divides is greed, not abundance.  Real abundance is meant to be given away and brings us together to walk the earth together as brothers and sisters.

Paul's words to the Corinthians this morning are similar to King's words about abundance.  The church in Corinth is divided because the Christians there are arguing over who has the greater spiritual gifts.  The abundance of spiritual gifts the church has been given has become the cause of division rather than unity, and is tearing apart the Body of Christ rather than building up the Body.  Into that situation, Paul writes "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone."  No one gift is better than another because they all come from and are activated by the same God.  No one gift is complete in and of itself.  The church needs all of the gifts working together to experience the true abundance that is the Body of Christ.  Paul also writes "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good."  The gifts of the Spirit are given, not for our own private use and enjoyment, but for the common good.  When those gifts are used together for the common good, real abundance happens.

The prophetic call join arms with all of our brothers and sisters and use all of our gifts for the common good, regardless of race, religion, resources, or sexual orientation, is not always well received and often has a cost. Certainly Martin Luther King paid the ultimate cost for his prophetic witness.  You many have seen or heard in the news this week that the Episcopal Church is paying a cost in the Anglican Communion for our witness to practicing full inclusion and walking hand in hand with all of our brothers and sisters regardless of sexual orientation.  That cost, while deeply painful to many, is not ultimate, nor is it unexpected.  Much has been written about the events and the outcome of the Primates' meeting in Canterbury, some of which is accurate and some is not, and I commend to your reading the actual document which is on the ushers' tables along with a couple of helpful responses.

Abundance that divides is actually fear of scarcity, whether a fear of a lack of material resources, or a lack of good will, or anything else of which there could be scarcity.  This sort of abundance is otherwise known as hoarding.  In Luke's gospel, Jesus says "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, bu the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." In the same gospel Jesus says to his disciples as he is sending them out "Take nothing for the journey. No staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt."  Jesus is clearly not interested in hoarding.  Jesus turns an enormous amount of water into an abundance of excellent wine so that the wine can be given away.  Paul calls us to use our gifts together to work for the common good.  God's abundance brings people together to make the world, or some part of it, a better place. When we walk together as brothers and sisters, and work for the common good, God's abundance happens and Jesus' glory is revealed.

Amen.

*Thank you to Karoline Lewis at www.workingpreacher.org for this insight into the role abundance plays in John's gospel.