8/12/01 Crestwood United Church of Christ

Marcia Sietstra:  Pastor

Do you ever try to carry more than you ought to? You have four bags of groceries, a box of stuff, library books and the dry cleaning in the car, and you’re in a hurry. There’s enough for four trips into the house, but you think, "If I get a hold of each of these just right, I can manage it all in one trip." They make grocery sacks out of plastic now so we can carry 3 times as much. So you pile grocery sack handles over your arm, hold the box in both hands, stack books up under your chin and grab the dry cleaning. Now you have to kick the car door shut and turn the house door handle with your elbow. By the time you drop everything on the kitchen counter you've thrown your back out again. Sooo the next morning you can hardly get out of bed now you are going to be 10 times farther behind than if you had carried one load at a time into the house!

We are no wiser when it comes to our souls. Thomas Troeger writes in a devotional on this text, that there is something about us as human creatures that keeps us overloading ourselves. Our gospel lesson today is part of a series of lessons Jesus teaches about people who are trying to carry loads that will throw their lives out of joint. In today's lesson, he is talking to the disciples who are overburdened by anxieties for the material necessities of life. They traveled with little more than the clothes on their backs and he's telling them not to worry! Goodness knows what he would say to us!

In the children's message I talked about our human propensity for wanting more stuff, and showed them how an overstuffed purse can make it difficult to enjoy walking very far, because it makes my neck start to ache! It seems so obvious, that too much stuff can be a burden, and yet it is a lesson we must repeatedly learn. My husband and I, when we built our house 9 years ago, chose to have a huge back yard with a beautiful view, and we put in lovely flower beds in the front and back yards and along the front gate and one entire side of the house. Now we have to take care of all that! Puttering in the garden was fun when we had a little flower bed; it’s not fun when it consumes 2 or 3 evenings a week all summer long to keep up. We are ready to downsize, having learned our lesson, and when our 2nd child goes to college in 3 years, we will most likely build a smaller house with a smaller yard, and definitely smaller flower beds.

Like that huge purse, material possessions weigh us down. They need to be cared for and paid for. Consumer debt is at an all time high in America. Even for those who are not overburdened by debt, there is the burden of taking care of all our stuff. That 3rd car needs to be serviced and repaired; vacation homes need to be cared for; the second lawn needs to be mowed; investments need to be tracked. The more we can afford to own, the more we are at risk of our possessions owning us.

I read an architectural book last weekend entitled The Not So Big House. The architect-author, Sarah Susanka, talks about the loss of coziness in American homes, now much larger than ever before, often with high, vaulted ceilings, huge rooms, and a bathroom for each bedroom as well as one for guests. People often come to her after having built an immense house, and say it's not cozy…it’s so big with so little soul. So she designs not-so-big houses that value quality over quantity, centered around open areas where a family spends the most time, full of details that make it personal to that family's activities.

As I think about Jesus' advice to the disciples to sell their possessions and not let possessions define where his heart is, I am reminded of a primitive type of monkey trap. Monkeys can be caught simply by placing bait in a jar with a small opening that the monkey can just fit his hand through. Once he clasps the bait and forms his hand into a fist to hold it, he can't get his fist back out of the opening. If the monkey's desire for the bait is too great, he will not let go and his holding on to the bait will make him an easy catch for the hunter.

So too, with people. As long as we hold onto material possessions too tightly we are not free. True freedom comes in the ability to hold material possessions in balance, which takes some trust that God will provide. Without trust in God rather than self, most of us would never feel like we had enough saved for the future. Accumulating more can easily end up devouring our lives. When Jesus says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also," he is describing the way things are.

As I thought about that saying this week Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also I thought about another possession that we treasure. That possession is Time. Are any of you overburdened, carrying too many demands on your time? Is your purse stuffed too full of activities that weigh you down? Americans now work far more hours per week compared to two decades ago. The technology that was supposed to save us time, devours time in part because we are nearly always accessible by cell phones, answering machines, and email. Many of us spend 1-2 hours per day just answering messages.

I recently watched a news show segment about the 35 hour work week in many European countries, particularly France where the 35-hour work week is mandated by law as a way to provide more jobs and consequently lower unemployment. The reporter was interviewing a group of French women who worked outside the home but actually had time for a social lunch, not a working lunch. They talked about how much their lives had improved since decreasing their hours on the job. Their families are happier; co-workers are easier to get along with; studies show productivity is up, probably because employees are not forced to try to take care of home and family responsibilities on company time and they are more rested. One woman said, "We hear the Americans talking all the time about family values. But with the kind of schedules they keep, how does that show that they value their families?"

Is your purse stuffed too full of activities? Do you spend any time listening to your own spirit? Do you have any time left in which to listen for God? One of the most important things I relearned this summer is that God is made known to me or you could say, "speaks" to me in the times when I study. Study is one of the ways I meditate and glimpse God. I need to remember that "stuffing my purse", even with worthwhile work and activities, if it means there is no time left to study and meditate, actually hinders my spiritual relationship with God. How about you is your bag so stuffed with so many activities that you have no time to just BE, to nurture your spirit?

I love the line from Jesus where he says, "Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven" (Lk. 12:33). The image of purses that don't wear out is a powerful one. What is involved in this kind of purse-making?

Activities that feed your soul maybe that's being alone in quiet or being out in nature; maybe it’s by reading a devotional book instead of watching a mind-dulling television sit-com; maybe it's spending time nurturing your most treasured relationships. Time to BE, to think, even if it means a drop in income and economic security in the world's eyes. Time to take care of body, heart and mind. Albert Einstein said, "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted"

"Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven." What do you put into this kind of purse? You put trust in the God who created you for something more than getting and spending.

Marjie Brewton, a pastor at Prairie Retreat Center near Bryant, S.D. tells a wonderful story about her father. Of course most men nowadays don't carry a leather pouch, or purse, like Jesus referred to, because they have pockets. Marjie's father was in the habit of stopping in the kitchen every night before he went to bed, and emptying all the contents of his pockets onto the kitchen table. She didn't like cleaning up the things he left behind the next morning, so one night she asked him why he never left all that junk in his pockets when he would need most of it the next day.

"I'll tell you," he said, "before I go to bed, I HAVE TO empty all of these things. As I take them out of my pockets, I give them to God to worry about until morning. Here is my billfold It has my ID in it so God never has to guess who I am. It also has pictures of you and Mom and your brothers all the people I love the most. It has a little money in it, but not nearly enough to meet the bills we have…but then God knows that too. Here's a bill from the Farmers Union and a part of a bolt off the combine. I don't know how I'm going to fix the combine, but maybe God can figure it out overnight. Here are my pliers which I use every day for nearly everything, a receipt from the elevator for the flax and all of the other things that have cluttered up my day."

"When I put all this out here on the table, it's in God's plain sight. God takes care of it all night and I can get a good night's sleep without worrying about any of it. Tomorrow morning I will pick up what I need for the day to fix the combine, pay the bills and be happy, because God has blessed it for me while I rest."

You may find his theology simplistic, and we could discuss all day just how involved God is in our daily activities. But I have seen the value of placing trust in the Great Spirit—the Energy of the Universe, the Father—whatever you call God. It is a Spirit force that generations of people have found we can trust. And trusting God, we can trust life and not be afraid.

Many of you are facing difficulties, some related to health or family situations. And it is hard to trust and be hopeful.  The scripture says, "Do not be afraid little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Little flock—what an endearing term. God loves you like a shepherd loves his lambs, Jesus says. What if, each day, you and I made a conscious choice to try to trust God more and plan our day with that in mind? Imagine a purse or a pocket, in which you daily place trust and hope. I invite you to try it this week. Next Sunday I will continue this theme and talk about the difference between worry and watchfulness, which is more what you get when you are able to trust. Let us pray:

God, help us to empty the pockets of our minds, the purses in which we stuff too many things that don't count. Help us to put it all out before you, and then make us to know what we can let go of, so that we can make room in our lives for what really counts. Help us to daily, consciously, make purses for ourselves that do not wear out, filled with trust in you and hope for tomorrow. Amen.