In the Lambeth Conference, they are using the First Epistle to Peter as their study book, and in that book they are looking at ways in which we respond to Jesus Christ.
The core of 1 Peter is to call us to hospitality and love for those we know and to those we don’t know. And the core of 1 Peter is a letter written to Christians who are far from the center of Christianity. And to those who are suffering one, Peter calls them to faithfulness to know that this will pass.
And that the great reward is Jesus Christ. Now, in the gospel passage for today, Jesus tells this parable of the foolish rich man related to the way that we on Earth deal with wealth. Deal with possessions. And the question can very well be asked what is enough? How much doI have to have for it to be. And as we have spoken of earlier in this month, we are talking about how it is that we can simplify our lives. To make sure that there is enough for us, but also for everybody else. “The world has enough for all of our needs, but not all our greeds”.
And in this parable we see today that Jesus is Speaking of this man who has too much. So much that he doesn’t say let me go out into the streets and give to people in need. Let me sell the grain and distribute it. Let me make sure that those around me also have enough. He says. “I have too much, so I’ll build a bigger barn. I’ll store more stuff. More stuff.
If we are working for money, we will never have enough. If we are striving to be wealthy, what is enough? If we are striving to have more? When will more be enough?
But if we focus on making sure that it’s not just about us, but about everybody around us. Then we will have enough because we will be fulfilling the commandment to love.
To have hospitality.
And to reach out to those around us.
This morning I’m in the suburb of Rosengård. It was built in the late 1960s here in the city of Malmö in Sweden. And this was a part of what Sweden had as the million home projects in the 1960s where they sought to build new homes. Throughout the country. And these flats which were put up in 1967, 1968 were the most sought after in Malmö for a time. You can see the environment around me. Green, it’s beautiful and it was built as such, and the name Rosengård means Rose Garden.
But when immigrant communities started moving in Swedes started moving out. And then this became a very mixed suburb and a suburb with many social problems.
The problem was that people were focusing on themselves and their discomfort. And moved out from anything that was different. This beautiful suburb is where I call home. This is where I live. And here I find people greet me and people engage with me in ways that are very different to the rest of Malmö.
And one of the things that people here hold in common is a sharing, and these green spaces that can be so empty as empty as they are now. But in the afternoons people come out of their flats. Children are playing. We have people on picnic tables sitting everywhere and it is a community feel and a community spirit.
Here is the sharing of all that people have. And the sharing of all that we have here and that is what builds our heavenly treasure because it’s building relationship with God and building our love muscle. Because it’s our love muscle that will bring us over that precipitous into heaven.
So today, question yourself as I question myself as what is enough and how will we be able to share with those around us, so all of us can celebrate in the abundance of God’s creation.
Amen.
