When Dreams Become Nightmares

Luke 8:4-15(8:14) Rev. Tyler Amundson October 2, 2011

Prayer

God as usual here we are wondering, “What is next?”

We try each day to ride this roller coaster of life

with a heart open to experiencing each moment,

Guide our hearts and minds this morning to feel your spirit,

and be lifted to reach for new dreams,

dreams of God's kin-dom.

Amen

This sermon is the beginning of a series that we will go through as a part of our stewardship learning and campaign this year. Over the next several weeks Marianne and I will be preaching on issues of finances, giving, and living Christian in a capitalist world. Along with this there will be groups studying the book Enough by Rev. Adam Hamilton. We are invited in the coming weeks to imagine new ways to understand our money and how it impacts the world around us: our church, city, world, friends, and neighbors. I encourage you to take this time to re-examine how financial wealth has power over your life and how you might change that relationship. It is an inevitable relationship we have in this era, so we must seek to find healthy ways to live with money.

Scripture

Luke 8:4-15

The Message (MSG)

The Story of the Seeds

4-8 As they went from town to town, a lot of people joined in and traveled along. He addressed them, using this story: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. Some of it fell on the road; it was tramped down and the birds ate it. Other seed fell in the gravel; it sprouted, but withered because it didn't have good roots. Other seed fell in the weeds; the weeds grew with it and strangled it. Other seed fell in rich earth and produced a bumper crop.

"Are you listening to this? Really listening?"

9 His disciples asked, "Why did you tell this story?"

10 He said, "You've been given insight into God's kingdom—you know how it works. There are others who need stories. But even with stories some of them aren't going to get it:

Their eyes are open but don't see a thing,

Their ears are open but don't hear a thing.

11-12 "This story is about some of those people. The seed is the Word of God. The seeds on the road are those who hear the Word, but no sooner do they hear it than the Devil snatches it from them so they won't believe and be saved.

13 "The seeds in the gravel are those who hear with enthusiasm, but the enthusiasm doesn't go very deep. It's only another fad, and the moment there's trouble it's gone.

14 "And the seed that fell in the weeds—well, these are the ones who hear, but then the seed is crowded out and nothing comes of it as they go about their lives worrying about tomorrow, making money, and having fun.

15 "But the seed in the good earth—these are the good-hearts who seize the Word and hold on no matter what, sticking with it until there's a harvest. [1]

Here he goes again. Jesus drops in one of those unexpected and confusing parables for his disciples and those around him to listen to. And as usual you can walk away from this one with a series of ideas about what Jesus was trying to tell us. I mean for all we know maybe he was just telling people about good farming practices. However, as any good preacher I can't leave it at that. We know all too well that there is a tradition in Jesus day of telling stories to convey a message. And so today we reach back to this story and try and discover what meaning it might have for us. The authors of multiple Gospels found it important tin interpret what Jesus was saying. Therefore we have a responsibility as Christian people to continue working to interpret this message for our lives today.

Today I want to focus on verse 14. Jesus talks about the seeds being sown among the thorns being those people who worry about making money and living the good life. The image is not a pretty one. Those that attempt to live in the world making money and living the good life are choked out by thorns. This sounds like a bad horror movie where thorns become mutated and come up and strangle you. You all know what I am talking about, those classic B movies that always have fake blood and gore. Movies that you have to watch as a teenager because it is cool to get those scary chills. Those movies that make you a little nervous to go in your basement at night. Movies that sometimes give you nightmares. Well this sermon might be comparable to one of those B movies. It may give us all some chills and I actually hope we all squirm a little at the ideas. So let's start as we always do in a great B movie. The ideal world is undisturbed, the chills have yet to come...we are living in the American Dream.

What is the American Dream today? Success...is the key word. The overwhelming push in our politics, media, social norms, and even our sense of justice is that success is achievable and we should all reach for it. In our economic dreams the ideal is to own a home with plenty of room, lots of toys, be able to provide for your family continually, be independent, have a car to get you all over town and be able to vacation. And while you maintain all of this you are also supposed to look like you are having fun. Now I don't make this up. I watch TV and I see the commercials telling me what I need to have in my life to make it a good life. This is the dream we are given everyday in all the places we are. On top of this we need to have it all now, not 10-15 years from now. We are told by commercials and media that you need things as soon as possible and to get as fast as possible. We need it now.

One of my favorite companies Apple is great at this. Last spring when the Ipad 2 came out I was waiting for it. I needed one and I wanted one. I think I wanted more than I needed it, but it was a Star Trek nerds dream come true. It was the data pad that all of the Star Trek characters carried around. Alright, that is showing my true colors. The night before it would go on sale at some un-Godly hour of the morning, I set my alarm. I woke up at something like 3am got all set on my perfectly good Apple Lap Top and I ordered my Ipad 2. Then I waited...and waited...and drove my family nearly crazy by waiting. The thing would not hurry fast enough on that little map on FedEx's website. Then the cover got there before the Ipad. Then my Ipad finally arrived. The truth is I am so guilty of this bloated American Dream of needing the next best thing now. It is fun and it is exciting to live into this vision where you have the cool toys and life happens now. No waiting for the American Dream.

It could be asked what the American dream has to do with Christian living. The answer is that we all live in the United States and we are Christian people. We are subject to both the Christian vision, as faithful Christians, and the American Dream. We live in both worlds and being aware of both worlds is a valuable reality check. It allows us to make decisions about how we live the values of both worlds. So...our B movie continues. The American Dream is starting to look a little scary. The thorns begin to close in.

In the last few years we have been experiencing an economic nightmare. Huge banks had to be bailed out by the government, we saw greed explode. People were wondering about job security in a way we hadn't in a long time. The biggest piece was that many people had been counseled to buy homes with mortgages they could not afford. Homes that were well beyond people's means. We became obsessed with bigger and better. The popular term for this obsession is a disease coined as Affluenza. I have a 5 minute clip about this disease to show you all. Remember this aired in the late 90s well before we started to suffer from a bad economy. This perhaps may have been a good predictor of our ability to overbuy our limits. [2]

(Clip Shown from Affluenza 0:16-5:55)

-U.S. Americans spent 5.5 billion on Halloween Candy Last Year $66 per person.

-Over 16 billion is spent annually on Dog Food in the US

-It is estimated that we could feed the hungry in our world for 6 billion

-The amount of money gambled away rose 2,800% from 1974-1994, that went from 17-482 Billion

-U.S. Americans spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers or new cars.[3]

And the thorns have closed in and begin to choke us. However, I think in the U.S. this is something that has haunted us for most of our history. “Alexis de Toqueville, a political philosopher who came to America in the nineteenth century, made this observation:

"[Americans] are extremely eager in the pursuit of immediate material pleasures and are always discontented with the position they occupy...They think about nothing but ways of changing their lot and bettering it. For people in this frame of mind every new way of getting wealth more quickly, every machine which lessens work, every means of diminishing the cost of production, every invention which makes pleasures easier or greater, seems the most magnificent accomplishment of the human mind...One usually find that the love of money is either the chief or a secondary motive at the bottom of everything the Americans do.. This gives a family likeness to all their passions and makes them wearisome to contemplate.”[4]

This is the plight of our capitalist economy and our American culture. Good or bad this is it's nature.

I don't know about you, but I feel helpless when I start to think of how to escape this economy of more. To be honest when the economy suffers we are told we need to go out and spend more to prop it up and help sustain it. This is how capitalism works. It only works if we continue to have needs and continue the free flow of goods. We as citizens of this country and as Christians have demands to live in both worlds, Christian and American. Finding ways to do this will hopefully help us to understand why Affluenza has begun to choke us and make us feel empty.

Part of the American Dream used to be finding joy in the company of good friends, not a sit-com. Part of the American Dream used to be finding peace in the beauty of nature, not High Definition TV with 3D. Part of the American Dream used to be just providing for your family, not trying to be a Jones, trying to be someone your not. The funny part is the three things I just mentioned are huge values in Christianity. Being in good company, finding beauty in the world around us, and knowing you are made in the image of God, as you are. And despite the American nightmare of independently supporting your family without assistance of any kind. Historically the church has been a place to support people through the hard times in a multitude of ways.

Amy Jill Levine said something last weekend we should all remember. She said she stands in front of the mirror each day and reminds herself, “She is made in the image of God.” We are all made in the image of God and that is Enough.

I think in this storm of affluenza, or a bad B movie, with thorns choking us that Christ provides us with a beautiful image that allows us to imagine our escape. Of all the seeds thrown out in the parable: on the road, the gravel, the thorny ground, and the good ground. The only type of ground the farmer can really change easily is the thorny ground. All he farmer has to do is clear the thorns enough to be sure the plant gets air and water it needs. We begin to clear away the thorns of Affluenza by living within our means. We simplify our lives by buying less things and asking do I really need this. We budget our lives to provide money not just for our pleasure, but for the sustaining of others. We buy what we need and splurge less often. Because spoiling ourselves is a ways of taking care of ourselves, but if we do it too often it leads to waste.

Finally, to clear away the thorns we realize how much abundance we have in our world. We celebrate it and we celebrate ourselves as abundant. We live in a society of plenty; we need to continue to celebrate the things we have access to. This is done by recognizing where we have abundance and knowing when this is. We have access to more foods, technology, medicine, products, and opportunities than we can imagine. Each day we need to take time to recognize what gifts we have.

Finally, we will need to learn how to give back to our community. This will be the best cure to affluenza, because it will not leave us feeling empty. We will begin to see changes and know we were a part of them.

Christ very clearly tells us to beware of being a seed that falls on thorny ground. We should heed the caution and recognize money and products as things that will never increase our self worth, because we are made in the image of God. Our human body should be our most important material possession and balance in life should be our goal.

[1] Peterson, Eugene H. The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado

Springs: NavPress, 2002, 1 Oct. 2011 <http://www.biblegateway.com/>

[2] Graaf, J. D. (Producer). (1997). Affluenza. [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7_w3w9VLIw

[3] Statistics from a Presentation by Rev. Gary Shockley, Director Path 1, GBOD, June 2011

[4] Hamilton, A. (2009). Enough. Abingdon. pg 14.