Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Morning Worship, August 3, 2025
Sermon: When is Enough Enough?
Accompanying Scripture: Luke 12 : 13-21
When is Enough, Enough?
Luke12:13-21
Imagine a large pie with small slices of various sizes. Each person gets a slice of the pie, and some get more than others. In fact, the larger the slices for some, the more likely it is that
others will have nothing.
This is the economy of the Roman Empire in the first century. There was a finite amount of goods and money and the rich got richer on the backs of the poor.
A man calls out to Jesus, asking him to tell his brother to share the inheritance. We don’t know what the inheritance amounted to in terms of property and money. Anyone in the crowd, though, would have viewed this man as wealthy. In those days, the wealthy were equated with greed.
As usual, Jesus decides to tell a parable to make his point. A farmer has a bumper crop and decides to store it up, and he’ll never have to work again.
Those in the crowd listening that day would have imagined a large barn, bulging with potential food. And surrounding the barn? Hungry people.
The point of the parable was to demonstrate to those who had much that others had little to nothing. Their lives were made up of scrounging for food every day with never an opportunity of
making a life beyond that.
How does this speak to us today? Homelessness is on the rise. Food benefits are on the decline. Children go to school hungry. While we previously enjoyed government benefits, they have
been reduced by DOGE.
We give our money to medical research or to help hungry children; we donate our clothing to those in need. Our congregation helps Owasso Community Resources, which is only
able to provide grocery items once every two months instead of once a month. And the lines continue to grow.
Our congregation supports Presbyterian Disaster Assistance through individual donations, and we give to the Presbytery to support larger needs that require multiple churches to help out.
We give to the church; we drop cash in the Salvation Army buckets at Christmas. The list is endless. When is enough enough?
Then there are the guilt trips. I select a guilt trip almost monthly. Not giving enough, not grateful enough, overwhelmed by the massive need, and wondering what God thinks of me?
Does that resonate with you? We have been blessed with abundance. We’ve worked hard and we are benefiting from that hard work. We try to understand how the poor think, but it
confuses us.
How much is enough?
Meanwhile, what is God doing? I can’t help but think that God gets fed up with the greed of those who fail to share. Every time God sees a homeless person begging on the street, a tear is shed. When God sees the poor trying to provide food for their children, God wonders where those with much to share are.
We can’t do it all. That’s the hard part to understand. We can’t help everyone. Not to mention those of all economic levels who believe the world owes them a living.
It’s confusing. It’s overwhelming.
The image of the barn bursting with grain while hungry others look on is challenging to view. The farmer could have provided for others. Instead, he decided to keep it all. There would be no need to hire harvesters for the crops because he could quit planting. And there would be no opportunity for gleaning, for the same reason. His decision had far-reaching harm.
It wasn’t until my mother-in-law passed away that we realized she was a hoarder. She was such a clean freak, you could practically eat off her floors. But when we opened up the cupboards, stuff
fell out like Fibber McGee’s.
She was unable to donate her unused clothing to charity. She
had multiple sets of dishes. She had enough serving pieces for an army (literally). It took 6 weeks to clean out her two-bedroom apartment.
I felt sad. She was stuck holding on to “stuff.” She couldn’t let it go and that’s how she lived out her life. She couldn’t let anything go. She kept grudges for years. She couldn’t forget anything anyone ever did to her. Her hoarding of stuff blocked her sense of empathy for others.
Somewhere, somehow, she lost her way. Sadly, she needed those larger barns. I wish I knew why. I wonder if she asked herself the same question: why can’t I give this stuff up like other
people do?
One of the biggest obstacles in our way is the false sense of individualism. We believe that we got where we are without help from anyone else. Hard work got us where we are. But how
many people were there to help us achieve our dreams? Think about teachers, coaches, mentors, colleagues, and friends. We got where we are because others have been there to help us in
many ways.
God is calling us to use our abundance to pay it back or pay it forward. Not to give it all away, but to prayerfully consider. In prayer we learn what God wants us to be and to do.
When we feel uncomfortable about a decision we’ve made, it’s a good idea to pause and give it to God. Discomfort may be God saying, “Let’s talk.” Take your decisions to God. The answer may
surprise you.
All glory and honor be to God. Amen.