Publications 
Memorial United Methodist ChurchWhite Plains, New York 10605
Abundant Life For All or No Abundance at All
A Sermon by Joe Agne, PastorBased on Isaiah 55:1-9
March 7, 2010 (Not edited or proofread)
Three Stories of Abundance
I can’t get out of my mind the image of a person from Chile just after the recent terrible earth quake. His home was destroyed. All around him was devastation. Some of his neighbors were dead. He was weeping. A television reporter started an interview by saying, “You have lost everything.” The weeping man responded, “You must be crazy, I have my life.”
Perla Pascua told us recently of growing up in the Philippines. She describes a hospitality that I seldom experience in the parts of the world where I have lived. In her neighborhood the most important person was the stranger – the person who came to them from outside. She said all that they had – their home, their food, their time – was shared. Nothing was held back and preserved just for the family. She remembers meals shared with strangers as being filled with laughing and enjoyable conversation.
I visited Liberia in the middle 1970 with a group from a church of which I was the pastor in the south suburbs of Chicago. There were about 10 in our group. Some of us stayed in the homes of very poor people. Others were in middle class homes or even more well to do homes. We compared notes after we left a particular city and we all had similar experiences, an incredible hospitality. The home I stayed in belonged to a poor family of many children. We slept in the bedroom of the parents. I never knew where the parents slept while we were there. One night we had an incredible meal. In their vernacular, they had “killed a chicken” for us, something they never did for themselves – only for company, and then only a couple times a year. We had a joyous meal of conversation, good song and lots to eat. The leader of our group, who was in our congregation, but had formerly lived in this community, told us we had just experienced the greatest commitment and highest value of their community, sharing one’s home and food with a stranger.
I have a similar sense from each of these three stories – they are about abundance, but what is abundance?
Two affirmations of Abundance
Jesus says, “I came that you might have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) The mission statement of Memorial United Methodist Church says, “We invite and welcome all persons to the abundant Way of Jesus Christ through a balanced journey inward and journey outward.” The word “abundance” was the most controversial in the formation of this mission for our congregation. We were pretty sure we had some common understandings of “invite,” “welcome,” “all persons,” “balanced,” “journey inward,” “journey outward.” We even had some similar ways of talking about the “Way of Jesus Christ.” The word, “abundance” lured and repelled us. We knew Jesus spoke of having life abundantly and we knew of people who thought that material abundance was the result of faithfulness. We wondered whether the latter mitigated against the teachings of Jesus which we valued. We almost left out the word, but it seemed central to Jesus’ teachings and we had a sense of longing for its deepest meaning in our lives.
Abundance in Isaiah 55:1-9
In this passage, everyone who is thirsty gets a drink. Even if you have no money you get food. If you do have money you are warned not to spend it on things that do not satisfy. What’s at stake? Isaiah says,“Listen, so that you may live.” Isaiah says we are offered love and a covenant with all nations. It seems that abundance is defined here as being in relationship with God and all the peoples of the world. It is so easy to think of an abundance of things, which can be elusive for some and suffocating for others. Isaiah is talking about an abundance of love and gratitude, which is at the very core of life.
This is the abundance Jesus offered and that we longed for as we wrote out mission statement. This is the abundance experienced in our stories from Chile, Philippines and Liberia. This is the abundance for which all persons thirst. In the Grand Canyon there are signs placed all along the trails, “Stop! Drink water. You are thirsty, whether you realize it or not.” No matter how thirsty we are, there is water for us. No matter how hungry we are, there is wine, milk and bread for us. No matter how unloved we feel there is love for us. No matter how alone we feel there is a covenant of love for us. This is abundance.
Abundance in our lives
We all know somewhere in our beings about this kind of abundance – yet it can be so elusive. It is so easy to go after a kind of abundance that causes us to stumble over the things we gather. Many of us can commit ourselves to abundance for ourselves or for our families. Some of us can extend to our neighborhoods or municipalities. Some of us think about abundance within our faith communities. Some of us are committed to abundance for people who share our ethnicity, gender, sexuality and nation. Isaiah is talking about a way of living that provides abundance for the whole world. Jesus lived his life for others and offered us the chance to do the same and thus share in life’s abundance. Dr. King spoke of this as the “Beloved Community.” We have reached a point in our world where there will be abundance for all or no abundance at all.
This is the question we face this Lent. Will we seek the abundance that does not satisfy us or the abundance that brings life to us and all people and the creation itself? This Lent I have been considering what is for me the “Isaiah 55” question, “If everyone on earth lived the way I do, could the earth sustain all of us?” Of course it cannot. I use up too much of the earth’s resources. There is not enough for everyone to live the way I do. So I need help: to envision the abundant life that could be shared by all of the earth’s peoples and to repent, to turn around, and head for living in this way.
We just had communion, which is an abundant meal. It nourishes us as much as the grandest Thanksgiving Dinner on the fourth Thursday of November. How can a bit of bread and a dip of wine be a match for turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, seven-layered salad, beans with mushroom soup and dried onions, and pumpkin pie or mince meat pie with ice cream? Yet it is a match if we are committed to abundant living, the kind that offers abundance to everyone.
