Will I Have Enough? (Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost)
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While I was away on vacation, I finally got a chance to go back to Germany and visit friends there I hadn’t seen in a long time, as well as to visit some of our Posaunenchor band friends from Hamm!
I enjoy visiting friends and seeing sights in Germany, and often when I’ve been in Germany, I’ve visited many of the Luther sites – the places where Martin Luther lived and wrote and translated the Bible. And when you go to Luther sites, besides the history and the historic buildings, there’s also all kinds of Luther paraphernalia you can buy as a souvenir!
And I remember from a trip years ago, that these various Luther things you could buy included a series of postcards with famous Luther sayings. I know many of the famous Luther sayings, but one had a saying that I didn’t remember seeing before. It translates roughly to: “The Devil lurks behind the question, ‘Will I have enough’”.
Will I have enough? It’s actually an important question. And it’s one we ask all the time, right? Will I have enough:
- Money to pay the bills, or put my kids through school, or to last through retirement?
- Time to do all things that are on my to do list this week?
- Energy and stamina left at the end of the day to show love and care to my family and friends?
Will I have enough? It’s a good question. It’s an important question. And maybe that’s why Luther said that the Devil lurks behind it.
I think Luther understood that the questions which can become demonic in our lives – the questions which can consume us and take over our hearts and our minds and our actions – are not the bad, or silly or stupid questions. Those questions are easy to identify as problematic.
But the good and important questions can consume us. They can distract us from everything else, fill us with fear and anxiety, and tempt us to do all kinds of crazy, bizarre things.
And I think that’s what was happening with the tenants in today’s Gospel reading. When Jesus told this parable, he didn’t just tell it to accuse the chief priests and the Pharisees of unfaithfulness. Instead, I think he wanted his first hearers – and us – to think more deeply about this and to ask the question, “why would anyone behave like this?”
Now often, when we read these Bible stories, there can be things about the context or the culture that aren’t apparent to us. But in this case, the behavior of these tenants was as bizarre to Jesus’ first hearers as it seems to us. In no way, shape or form would beating up and killing people to avoid paying the rent work out well for these folks!
So what was going on? I suspect that these tenants, like many people both then and now, got too consumed by the question, “will I have enough?” “Will I have enough to pay the rent?” “Will I have enough left over for me?” “Will I have enough for the future?”
And because they got so consumed by otherwise good questions, the questions became demonic. The questions so consumed them that these tenants were:
- distracted from recognizing how the landowner was actually invested in them and what they were doing … (frequently, landowners just leased the land and you were on your own; but this landowner does so much more …)
- so filled with fear that they couldn’t appreciate the abundance they had … (they realize what a great vineyard this is, but they can’t celebrate what they have because they’re too afraid of losing what they’ve become accustomed to …)
- driven to do absolutely horrible and illogical things that paradoxically sabotaged the future that both they and the landowner wanted to have …
Now it’s easy to read this parable and simply say, “Wow! Those people were bad!” Or, “Wow! I know people sort of like that!”
But I think one of the reasons Jesus told this parable was to ask us to consider how often good and important questions like “will I have enough?” can become demonic in our own lives. How does the Devil lurk behind the good and important questions we ask each day? And how can we keep that in mind so that, even when asking good and important questions like, “will I have enough”, we don’t miss out on:
- the active investment of God in our lives – the first error of the tenants was to think that they were on their own, and sometimes that idea lurks in our minds as well… (and that God is actively invested in our everyday lives is really important, especially when living through difficult times and situations…)
- the abundance that God has already given us – it’s always easy to see how somebody else has more than I do, or how I might end with less… (but in moments like that, I can fail to recognize and deeply appreciate what I already have …)
- taking what we have and doing something good with it – most of us are probably pretty good at not doing something overtly evil. But sometimes, evil wins when we simply do nothing with what we have… (because often, “will I have enough” leads me to hoard what I have “just in case”, and then others really don’t have enough…
So will I have enough? Will you have enough? Jesus doesn’t tell us we shouldn’t ask those questions, but he doesn’t want us to be consumed by them.
Instead, Jesus wants us to always keep in mind the questions which God has already answered with a “yes.” Will God always be there, walking with me and invested in my life? The answer is yes. Will God always be blessing me with an abundance, even when I can’t see it or appreciate it? The answer is yes. Will God always be giving me an opportunity to act and to do something that makes a difference with what God has already given me? The answer is yes.
And when the answer is “yes” to all of those things, then we really do have enough.
Amen.