When I hear the word "abundance," particularly as it relates to material possessions, I am often reminded of one of my moments of academic shining. I have so few such moments that I remember each one vividly. This particular one occurred in college in a history class. The professor was known on campus as a tough grader. In fact, he started the first day of class by telling us what I’m sure he told each class on the first day. "In my class," he said, "a ‘C’ denotes average work." He went on to say, "I know that a ‘B’ has become the grade for average work. Not in my class. A ‘B,’" he said, "is the grade for above average work. An "A" is for truly superior work." Then, peering over his reading glasses, he said, "Most of you will get a ‘C’ in this class. That is not a bad grade. That is the grade for average work. Some of you will earn a ‘B’ in this class." Then peering even more ominously over his reading glasses, he finished his introduction by saying, "I doubt any of you will get an ‘A’ in this class." Now, I know what you’re thinking. My moment of academic shining was getting an "A" in that class. No. I got a "B." The proudest "B" of my life! But, the grade is not the moment that comes to mind. What comes to mind is a homework assignment we were given—to read two essays in our textbook. I don’t remember now the exact titles of the essays, but one had the word "abundance" in the title and the other the word "superabundance." Both were addressing the same topic, the lifestyle and economic climate in America. As I read the essays, the thought occurred to me, Are the authors talking about the same time period in America history? Is one author’s "abundance" another author’s "superabundance," or are they addressing different time periods? Nothing in the articles indicated any time reference, so, I looked at the end of the essays at the small print footnote at the bottom of each one which gave the date and periodical in which the essays originally appeared. As it turned out, the "abundance" essay was written in the mid-1950’s, the "superabundance" essay was written in the late 60’s (keep in mind my college class took place in the early 70’s!). That’s interesting, I thought. Perhaps the point is how things have moved to "superabundance" in American lifestyles and economics. I then proceeded to read the articles from that perspective.

In class the next day, the professor started the discussion on the essays by asking, "Anyone know where these essays originally appeared?" No one raised their hand or said anything. After five seconds of silence, I blurted out from the back of the room where my seat was the names of the periodicals for each essay. The professor looked at me for a moment, nodded his head, started to walk away, then turned, looked at me over his reading glasses and said, "Do you know the dates they were written?" And I gave the dates, month and year! The rest of the class turned and looked at me like I was from another planet! I felt the need to explain myself (I didn’t want my classmates to think I was a book geek in need of a life!). So I explained that I thought the dates were significant to understanding in what time period the authors were writing and their use, respectively, of the words "abundance," and "superabundance." The professor gave another nod of affirmation, pointed out I was correct regarding the dates and proceeded on with the discussion around that context.

Such is the poverty of my academic shining moments that I remember that moment so vividly! But, I think about that moment when I hear the word "abundance" used in reference to possessions and lifestyles. And I often wonder, what word would an author use today if writing from the same perspective of those two essays? Hyper-superabundance? Mega-superabundance? Mega-mega-superabundance? After all, it’s been forty years since the "superabundance" article was written! I think today’s author would need to use some word like "mega-superabundance" because surely the evolution has continued. Much has been written and many statistics cited indicating our culture today is the most materialistic in our history. Some of these I’ve mentioned before: percentage of income giving to charities is less now than it was during the Depression; use of storage space is up phenomenally—twice as many self-storage businesses in Atlanta alone, for example, than existed just 10 years ago; all of which has led to a new profession, the Professional Organizer, who charges as much as $100 an hour to help us organize all our "stuff." Surely it must be said that in America we generally lead a life of mega-superabundance. That cannot be said for everyone, of course, but, in comparison to the lifestyles of our parents and our parent’s parents—or even our lifestyles 20, 30 years ago—it is rightly said of our culture today that we live in mega-superabundance.

Yet, there is a problem in all this abundance, this superabundance, this mega-superabundance. There is a great temptation to get caught up in the race for possessions. In fact, that is exactly why we are in this era of mega-superabundance. "Keeping up with the Joneses" runs rampant everywhere. But, like the exercise wheel in a hamster cage, the abundant lifestyle doesn’t satisfy. So we pursue superabundance, which also doesn’t satisfy, then on to the pursuit of mega-superabundance. And when that doesn’t satisfy, what’s next? Mega-mega-superabundance? All the way back in the first century the Romans had a proverb about this phenomenon:

In a lifestyle of abundance, the temptation is to pursue it even more. And it distracts us and pulls us away from a lifestyle of being "rich toward God." Alexander Pope, the 18^th century English poet, had an insightful little couplet on this temptation:

Lord knows we struggle with this temptation. Of the 38 parables Jesus tells, 16 have to do with how to handle money and possessions—including the one read today in response to a man’s request for arbitration over the family’s inheritance. Wisely, Jesus passes on such service! What a minefield that task is! 16 of 38 parables deal with how to handle money and possessions. Others have further researched the Biblical perspective on this topic and, while I haven’t done my own accounting to check their work, I have no reason to doubt this:

-In the Gospels, one out of 10 verses address the subject of money

-In the Bible, there are 500 verses on prayer, less than 500 verses on faith, and over 2,000

verses on money and possessions

I believe it. The Lord knows we struggle with this temptation.

We are left with a choice of two pathways. One pathway is guided by the words of Jesus, "Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions." The other pathway might be said to be guided by this famous scene from the movie Wall Street. (Play "Greed is Good" scene)

With which philosophy would you agree? More importantly, upon close and honest evaluation, which philosophy does your life reflect? Jesus wants to save us of an empty life spent in zealous pursuit of an abundance of hollow, ultimately meaningless possessions, spare us from the escalating madness of pursuing superabundance, mega-superabundance in hollow, ultimately meaningless possessions, and bring to us instead the fullness of a life that is rich toward God.

One quick word of caution here. In all the teachings in the Bible, it is not wealth that is condemned. It is the misuse of wealth, the misguided focus of wealth, the submission to the temptation of greed toward possessions that is condemned. The classic verse from the Bible, money is the root of all evil, is classically misquoted. The verse from 1 Timothy 6:10 actually says, "The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." It is not wealth that is condemned it is the love of wealth that is condemned. It is the decision to serve Mammon as our master rather than serving God that is denounced (cf. Matthew 6:24). It is pursuing with passion a life of abundance of possessions that is rebuked rather than pursuing with passion a life that is rich toward God. Jesus said, "I have come that [my disciples] might have life, and have it abundantly," (John 10:10). That abundant life is found, not in possessions, but in Jesus Christ.

For our silent reflection this morning, I want to encourage you to reflect on these words of encouragement that Paul writes to Timothy—just a few verses further on from his admonishment that "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil."

(For silent reflection)

"Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life." (1 Timothy 6:17-19)