Hot enough for you?

Despite its title, this is not a sermon about the weather, although I hope to use our shared experiences of the heat this summer to talk about what this sermon really is about. Nor again, despite its title, is this a sermon about judgment, as in, “Hot enough for you? You think this is hot? Wait 'til you see what's waiting for you, ... unless you repent!”

No, what this is, instead, is a sermon about “enoughness,” or security. Where do we find “enough”? Where--or in what--do we find safety and security? Where will we finally find--if we ever find--what we're looking for to make us feel good; to protect us; to make us feel content?
But let's start with the weather. Believe it or not, for the last several days a Lutheran couple, writers Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, have been helping people discover and experience the spirituality of hot weather.

Really! And until I started reading them, I never realized that swelteringly hot summer weather is, indeed, a spiritual issue! Are you at ease, satisfied, content in your surroundings? Are you at peace in the world? Can you rejoice and find blessing in whatever God has given you?

Hot weather is a spiritual issue! And so I share with you the following story. Early one morning, a traveler walking down a dusty and scorching road encounters a shepherd contentedly tending his sheep. Already sweating in the sweltering heat, the traveler asks the shepherd, “What kind of weather are we going to have today?”

With a look on his face of absolute joy on his face, the equally sweaty shepherd answers, “Just the kind of weather I like!”

What is he, nuts? The heat index that day is, like, off the charts! With disgust but also curiosity, the traveler asks the shepherd, “How can you say--how can you already say--that today’s weather will be the kind of weather you like?”

To which the wise and happy shepherd says this. “Having found out, sir, that I cannot always get what I like, I have learned always to like what I get. So ... I am quite sure that the weather we will have today will be exactly the kind of weather I like.”

Hot enough for you? Listen again to the wise words of the equally hot and sweaty shepherd.
“Having found out, sir, that I cannot always get what I like, I have learned always to like what I get. So ... I am quite sure that the weather we will have today will be exactly the kind of weather I like.”

In today’s gospel story, Jesus is not battling sweltering weather (or, if he is, he’s not talking about it!), but he is battling the same spiritual issues that hot weather has been raising for us.

Are people at ease, satisfied, content in their surroundings? Are they at peace in the world? Can they rejoice and find blessing in whatever God has given them?

Here’s how it begins. Someone in a crowd shouts, asking Jesus to settle a family dispute. “Teacher,” the person cries out, “order my brother to give me a fair share of the family inheritance.”

Wisely, Jesus refuses to enter the dispute. Instead, Jesus sternly warns the crowd. “Take care!” he says. “Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.” Then, he tells them a story.

“The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop. He talked to himself: ‘What can I do? My barn isn’t big enough for this harvest.’ Then he said, ‘Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll gather in all my grain and goods, and I’ll say to myself, Self, you’ve done well! You’ve got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!’

“Just then God showed up and said, ‘Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods—who gets it?’ Turning to the crowd, Jesus then says, “That’s what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God.”

Where do we find “enough”? Where do we find enough safety, enough security, enough peace to find contentment in this world? Most of us, like the man in the story, simply assume that, whatever you may be looking for, if you want “enough,” the best way to secure it is by having more! We assume that having less is worse than having more. If you’re searching for enough, the clearest, best path is to seek more.

And that’s what the man in Jesus’ story does. And it’s what virtually everyone I know does, too! Which is why it’s so shocking that the whole point of Jesus’ story says that that’s wrong.
I read something this week by an American Catholic nun. Reflecting on Scripture, she asks, “On what have I staked my life? On things? On power? Or on the fullness of life itself?

She adds (sounding very much like Jesus in today’s story), “If my life is all about things, ... --having things, getting more of them, storing them up or showing them off--then as the stock market ricochets and the downsizing starts, there is a part of myself that seeps away from me as well. I have become what I own, in other words. When it's gone, what do I have left?”

Wow. Even though we may think--actually, we may simply assume--that the way to be safe and secure in life is to ensure that we always have enough. And how do we ensure we always have enough? We assume, I believe, that the safest way to have enough is to have more.

And maybe--if you’re like me--you even take pride--pride!--in the fact that others have more than you. You consider that proof of your Christian humility! “I’m not greedy! I haven’t sought safety and security in possessions! Other people have done that, not me!”

But then come the words of Jesus. “‘Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods—who gets it?’

“That’s what happens,” Jesus says, “when you fill your barn with Self and not with God.”

Jesus may not come out and say it right here--but, then again, he lived it!--where is true safety and security found? It’s found in dynamic, moment-by-moment faith and trust in God! It’s found in surrendering the need to control one’s own life and destiny--the need to secure one’s own future and safety--and in giving that control over to God.

Now, let’s be sure that we don't make the mistake of thinking that filling one’s life with God instead of self (thinking of the language Jesus uses in the parable) means that our lives are easy and that health, wealth, and a life of ease is ours.

It isn’t. It means that--and now it’s time to draw this all together again--we become wise like that shepherd met by the traveler that day. “Having found out, sir, that I cannot always get what I like, I have learned always to like what I get. So ... I am quite sure that the weather we will have today will be exactly the kind of weather I like.”

Hot enough for you? In Jesus’ name. Amen.