NOV. 12, 2006 PASTOR SCOTT FULLER
I KGS 17:8-16; PS 146; HEB 9:24-28; MK 12:38-44
Prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word. Silence in us any voice but your own that in hearing we believe and in believing we obey your will revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Enough is enough… Enough is enough? On the one hand that proverb is a pointless platitude, a trite truism: of course enough is enough…just like air is air and cold is cold… clichés never tell us much. On the other hand, we all know what it’s like to reach that point when enough really is enough.
From the negative side, what could be happening in our lives that would make us utter this phrase in frustration: enough is enough!!!
-parents with a child’s behavior -voters with a corrupt politician
-someone tired of a dead-end job -a cancer victim who’s done fighting
-drug/physical abuse by a loved one -a friend caught in lies
In all these settings and so many more, when we feel forsaken, forgotten, and forlorn, enough is enough means that we’re at the end of our rope, ready to give up, pack it in, call it a day…
On the other side, might there be some positive situations when this platitude is the best thing to say? Ah…enough is enough.
-Thanksgiving dinner -a strong financial position
-birthday greetings -a sense of blessedness
And there are those rare times when enough is not quite enough. Carolyn and I remember the day that our son Mark first seized this idea. The issue was ice cream.
I put some in a bowl and asked Carolyn how much she wanted. She said, That’s enough. Then I asked our three-year old how much he wanted. Mark’s eyes lit up and he eagerly replied…too much! Unfortunately, I think that mindset describes the bulk of our consuming culture – only too much is enough!
But today’s texts are not about selfishness or greed. Instead, they’re about what happens when we discover that enough really is enough. We see it on the down side when we’re forced to face the pain of death. And we see it on the up side when even, or especially, in those dark places, God’s Light shines upon us, God calls us by name, and God equips us to be lights to the world.
Enough is enough, in the negative sense, describes what’s going on with the widow in the O.T. lesson. Basically that’s what she says to the prophet Elijah when he asks her for some food. I have just enough, she replies, for my son and I to eat…and then we will die. Yet, the first part of her last supper she gives to God’s servant – even as she prepares for their deaths…
I imagine a similar scenario at work with the woman from our Gospel lesson. Jesus watches her drop two copper coins in the offering plate: nothing compared to the gifts of the wealthy, but everything this woman has in life. This first part of her last hope she gives to God’s service – even as she, too, prepares for death…
With very good reason, these women believe that life is over, that there is nothing more they can do to survive. It is the place of our deepest human fear: for truly God has written into every fiber of our being a thirst, a quest, a hunger for life. This deep-seated desire to live drives us from the first beat of our hearts to our very last breath. It’s not something that we’re able to do easily or casually - accept the fact that we will soon die.
This very struggle was featured in one of the episodes of Band of Brothers, a mini-series about WWII produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. In one story a soldier is having a terrible time with fear, huddling in a foxhole while the rest of his unit bravely tries to advance in the face of terrible enemy fire. One Lieutenant appears to be the bravest man on the field, leading, challenging, inspiring the troops.
When the shooting stops, these two men talk about why the soldier froze. The officer asserts that the young man is afraid…because he’s still hoping to go home alive, that it’s his fear of dying that is preventing him from doing his job. What you have to realize, says the Lt., is that you are already dead…Once you come to that conclusion, you’ll be fine.
In a later battle we see this same young man again alone in his foxhole fighting his fear. Then in a dramatic scene we watch as the officer’s words slowly sink in. The young man begins to accept the fact that he is already dead…and in a strange sort of reversal, that’s when he starts to live. Only when he dies to fear can he climb out of his grave and do his job.
I wonder…if the two women in today’s lessons are real life parables, people who, by their ordinary lives, act out the extraordinary truths of our faith. For in both stories, as well as that of the soldier, the same principle seems to be at work: only when we’re able to realize that we are already dead, will we ever be able to truly live.
The widow of Zarapheth offers the first of her last meal to the man of God… and is given food enough to last through the famine. The widow at the Temple who gives everything she has to the work of God, inspires the Christ as he prepares to do the same with his life. The soldier in the foxhole accepts that he is dead, and climbs out ready to serve.
If we burden ourselves with the fear of what we might lose, we will never leave the Valley of the Shadow of Death. We will never venture into the world trusting in God to provide for our needs, trusting in the Spirit to be our Guide, trusting in Christ to lead us in our work to serve God’s children in need. And that would be a tragedy for all concerned – both for our own fear-filled lives, but also for those whom God is hoping that we will serve.
In this sense, enough is not enough, not that we don’t have enough but that there is so much good work for us to do – both here in Gloria Dei’s neighborhood, across the city and throughout the Alaska Synod…to say nothing of the world beyond.
We have been wonderfully blessed with enough: enough of God’s Spirit, enough of God’s resources, and enough trust to believe that we are already dead to selfishness and sin. And that means we’re truly able to live and love, to teach and trust, to sing and serve, to be God’s lights in the shadow areas of life. With God, I guess enough is enough. Amen.