WANTING WHAT YOU HAVE

Scripture: I Timothy 6:6-20; Matthew 6:25, 33

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever wanted something so much, that you were willing to do almost anything to get it? That’s what happened to me during my second year at Princeton Seminary when a friend of mine from New Jersey called on the phone to say that his red 1967 MGB convertible was for sale.

I had seen the car several months before and it was a real beauty compared to the old Ford Fairlane I had, which was a real clunker. Moreover, I was working two jobs to pay for tuition and board, and I knew that I would have to find a third job to even come close to afford it. But the temptation was so great that I scraped together my resources, found another job, borrowed some money from my father and bought the sports car, which turned out to be a big mistake.

Within a year, the engine blew out and had to be replaced. The following fall, I sustained a knee injury on the rugby field and couldn’t drive a stick shift for five months. The MG sat idle through the winter and fell into disrepair, so that by the time Barbara and I moved to Philadelphia in the summer of 1972, we had to tow it behind a U-Haul truck. With a little help, I put the MG up on cinder blocks in the church parking lot, and one Sunday afternoon, a high school student offered me $500.00 and I took it on the spot.

All these years later, when I see an MGB convertible drive by, Barbara catches the look in my eye and says to me, “Don’t even think about it”!

Has it ever happened to you, that you wanted something so much that you were willing to do almost anything to get it? If that has been your experience, then I hope and pray this sermon about “Wanting What You Have” will speak to you today.

When Paul wrote to his young friend Timothy, saying that “there is great gain in Godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into this world and we can’t take anything out of this world,” I think the apostle was onto something important.

Reading between the lines of this letter, it appears that a number of people in the church where Timothy served as pastor were fussing with each other about financial matters. Perhaps the “haves” were lording their good fortune over the “have nots.” Maybe one or two well-to-do members were trying to take control of the decisions or pull the purse strings in their own direction. Or it might have been that they were allocating the budget and someone said, “Let’s give more away,” while someone else said, “We’d better save it for a rainy day.”

During my first trip to Scotland, I heard that had actually happened in a small church up in the Highlands which were known for it’s tightfisted frugality. During a severe thunderstorm, a lightning bolt struck a hole in the roof of the Kirk, and the pastor called an emergency meeting of the Session to solicit their support for the necessary repairs. He said to the elders, “We’ve got a crisis on our hands and I need your help. Who is going to take care of this problem?”

The room was silent, until old Sandy McTavish, the most frugal of them all, spoke up and replied, “Don’t worry pastor. If it rains on Sunday, I’ll be glad to go up and sit in the hole.”

Well we don’t know exactly what the financial challenges were in that first century church. But Paul wrote to Timothy and all of the members that there would be great gain in Godliness if they could learn to be content with what God had given to them.

That admonition, of course, still applies to us today. According to our theme for this Annual Giving Campaign, each of us has received “Gifts of Grace” from the Lord. Some have less, some have more, and instead of comparing where we fit in the pecking order or trying to compete with each other, we Christians are called to rejoice in all that we have been given and hold together in common.

II.

Now while that is both biblical and true, we know it is not easy to do because our human nature leans in the opposite direction. Some time ago, Rev. Craig Goodrich gave me a book entitled “How to Want What You Have,” and the thesis of the author, Dr. Timothy Miller, is that our human nature has an insatiable desire for more – more wealth, more status, more success.

Miller writes: “People spend their lives believing that they have almost enough of whatever they want. Just a little more will put them over the top, and then they will be contented forever. The trouble is, wanting just a little bit more is the opposite of wanting what you already have. People seek after more under the delusion that they will be happy when they get more. In fact, if and when they get more, they are not any happier than they were before, and they still want more.” (From “How To Want What You Have” by Dr. Timothy Miller, Ph.D., Avon Books, 1995, Page 10)

Dr. Miller’s antidote to our human desire for more comes incredibly close to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Miller says we need compassion for others, instead of competing or comparing ourselves with them; we need to pay attention to our souls, instead of the temptations of the world; and we need to express gratitude to God and to one another for all that we have received, far beyond anything we can measure.

Which is exactly what Jesus told us when He said, Do not be anxious about your life, about what you shall eat or drink or the clothes you wear…your Heavenly Father knows that you need all of these things…Instead, seek first His kingdom, and all of those other things will be yours as well. (Paraphrase from Matthew 6:25, 33)

Can you imagine what would happen if we, each of us and all of us, actually lived that way – celebrating the dawn of every new day with an attitude of gratitude, receiving the gifts of grace which God has showered upon us, treasuring the relationships with those whom we love, and then doing our best and leaving in the Lord’s hands all the rest.

It happened to Clarence Powell many years ago. In one of his books, he tells about his early days as a pastor of a small rural congregation. He was just out of seminary and the church could barely pay his salary.

The Powells had four small children and one autumn, just before school began, the washing machine broke down. In order to buy another, they had to use the money they had saved for their children’s shoes, which were worn out. So they scanned the newspapers for a second hand washing machine, found one in the advertisement section and Dr. Powell went to the address which was listed.

The house was large and pretentious, so much so that Powell was intimidated to ring the bell. But he did, and a kind looking man answered. Powell told him he had come to see the washing machine and was invited inside. They walked through the beautifully decorated rooms and hallways toward the laundry. When the man and his wife offered to sell the washing machine for a mere fraction of what they had advertised, Powell, in an effort to express his gratitude, poured out his heart about his financial troubles and mentioned that his four children had worn out their shoes.

As he was speaking, the woman left the room and he thought he heard her crying as she went out. “Did I say something wrong?” asked the pastor. “No,” answered the husband, “You didn’t say anything wrong. It’s just that you were talking about children’s shoes being worn out. We had only one child, a little girl, and she was never able to walk a step in her brief life. A pair of worn out shoes would have made us very happy.”

When Powell got home, he went up into his bedroom, closed the door, got down on his knees and thanked God for all the blessings he and his family had received, including four pairs of worn out shoes.” (Illustration from Robert Cleveland Holland, former pastor of Shadyside Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania).

CONCLUSION

My friends, many of us have been blessed with an abundance of this world’s material wealth, but that is no guarantee to happiness or perfect health. Others of us, who may have less, are still much better off than the rest of the people on this planet who have no shoes to wear and nothing to eat. But as we compare ourselves with them, it won’t bring us to the place where we are content.

Why is that so? It’s because the things that we own and our comparisons with others cannot and will not satisfy our souls. Only God and God alone can help us want what we have and make us whole. That is what the apostle Paul was trying to tell us a long time ago – that There is great gain in Godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into this world and we can’t take anything out of this world.

But while we are here on this planet, while we are here on God’s good earth, we can thank Him for all that we have received and with open hands and outstretched arms, we can share with others those gifts of grace that we have received.

So I close with a story from this wonderful book, which I commend to you, “How To Want What You Have.” It is an old Hasidic teaching from the Jewish tradition about a rabbi who asked the Lord about Heaven and Hell:

“‘I will show you Hell,’ said the Lord, and he led the rabbi to a round table. The people sitting there were desperately hungry, which was odd, because in middle of the table there was a very large pot of stew. The smell of the stew was delicious and made the rabbi’s mouth water. The people around the table held spoons with very long handles. The people knew that it was just possible to reach the pot and take a spoonful of stew, but because the spoon handles were longer than a person’s arm, the people could not get the food to their mouths. The rabbi saw that their suffering was terrible. The Lord said, ‘Now you may see Heaven.’ They went into another room, much like the first. They saw a similar big, round table, a similar pot of stew, and, as before, the people held similar long-handled spoons. But in heaven they were well nourished. Their laughter and smiles clearly indicated they were happy. Seeing the rabbi’s perplexity, the Lord said, ‘It is simple, but it requires a certain skill. They have learned to feed each other.’

There was another rabbi named Jesus who said, Do not be anxious about food or clothing or what you shall drink. Your Heavenly Father knows that you need all of those things. But you seek first the kingdom of God and then all the rest of those things will be yours as well. And He concluded: Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.