Comments at FUMC Austin Celebration of Abundant Life
April 5, 2009

It’s spring in Austin, Texas. What could be a better illustration of abundant life? Have you ever done the traditional kid or pet or significant other photo in the bluebonnets? You know the seeds from which those little flowers sprout are so tough that if you want to plant them in your yard, the seed companies have to do a process they call scarifying. They scrape the surface and subject the seeds to a sulfuric acid bath. These little seeds are made so tough in order to survive Texas winters, poor soil, and drought, and hang out long enough to bloom when conditions are right. Life is abundant and life is tenacious.

Does it feel a little uncomfortable to talk about abundance when so many of us are losing jobs, homes, and life savings? Maybe that’s because we’ve confused abundance with affluence. Today we’re celebrating abundant life, the life we’re privileged to know and live because Jesus showed us how. We need to remind ourselves of that once in a while. We’re beginning Holy Week, a time of voluntary suffering when we remember what it was like for Jesus’ followers to go through his triumphal entry on Palm Sunday (today) his betrayal, his crucifixion, and his burial. But we know something they didn’t. We know the resurrection is coming. We know at the end of our time of trial, Jesus will triumph and give us the gift of everlasting abundant life. Knowing this, even as we go through the time of trial, we can live that abundant life every day, if we remember who we are.

The Bible tells us over and over if we put our hopes in things of the world we are doomed to disappointment. But the world is so seductive, its promises look so good. We need Holy Week and Easter to remind us about a few things. We need Palm Sunday to remind us that the worldview can be terribly flawed, no matter how real it seems. It’s great fun to reenact the triumphal entry of Jesus with the palm branches today. But most of the people in that crowd were expecting an earthly king in the mode of David. They were in for a very big disappointment. We have the crucifixion to remind us things can look pretty hopeless when our earthly expectations are crushed. And then, we have Easter, to remind us that God’s view gives us abundant grace, abundant life.

True story: A man I know who grew up in a different place, different faith, returned from a year-long spiritual retreat in his own faith and found himself attending services in a small Episcopal Church in the US. He heard the words of the hymn they were singing, listened to the scripture, and fresh from his retreat heard, really heard, what Jesus’ life was about. He said he wanted to run down the aisles shouting and dancing. But the people in the church sang listlessly, listened half-heartedly, and seemed eager for the service to be over. He wanted to grab them and shake them yelling listen, listen, you’ve got it right here, you’re the one’s who’ve got it. But, not wanting to be arrested, he was silent. It’s so easy for us to take this gift for granted when we have it. Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to see clearly. Sometimes it takes stripping away layers of old paint to reveal the beauty of the wood beneath. When the world’s institutions fail us, it’s a wake up call to remember what true abundant life is.

Every time I read Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, the writings of a survivor of the WWII concentration camps, I’m reminded that I do have a choice about how I view things, how I respond to the world view. I can choose an abundance mindset or I can choose a scarcity mindset. When I choose scarcity I retreat, I live in fear, I stop being generous because I’m afraid there isn’t enough. I look with suspicion at my neighbor and mistrust at the stranger. I build walls. Fear paralyzes my mind and prevents creative thought.

When I live with an abundance mindset I live with confidence and joy. I share what I have with faith that there will be enough. I welcome the stranger believing she has something to offer that will enrich my life. I honor a passion for love and truth and beauty. Freed from fear, I’m able to think creatively, act boldly, and live abundantly.

Jesus said it, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. What is God’s abundant life? Jesuit priest Anthony DeMello offers us an exercise to help answer that question. First, recall the kind of feeling you have when someone praises you for something you have done, when you are approved, accepted, applauded. Now contrast that with the kind of feeling you have when you look at the sunset or the sunrise or nature in general, or when you read a book or watch a movie that you thoroughly enjoy. The first, although not bad, is a worldview feeling. The second is a soul feeling.

Another exercise let your mind wander away from my talking for a minute, if you haven’t already, and think of some time when you stopped short at something so beautiful it fully captured all your senses and you forgot to think, you only experienced. Think of times when you felt real peace in your heart, and then remember what you were doing. My guess is, those moments didn’t depend on possessions or money or a job. Those were moments of experiencing God’s abundant life. No one here can be immune to the problems of the day, and none of us can afford to ignore them, but we do get to choose our attitude toward them.

So today we choose abundant life. We celebrate that we have the freedom to choose an abundance mindset, the example of the Christian faith to show us how, and the support of this community to help us follow through.

When I started working on this talk my mind went to the classic musical, Fiddle on the Roof. Remember the engagement dancing scene and the song - to life L'chai-im. Now I don’t have any alcoholic beverage here today, and I’m certainly not going to dance for you, but I do invite you to join me in this toast from Fiddler.

To us and our good fortune!
Be happy, be healthy, long life!
And if our good fortune never comes,
Here's to whatever comes,
Drink to L'chai-im, to life!