John 10:1-10
April 30, 2023
I have a confession to make. I used to watch the show, Hoarders,
on a regular basis. I would fold laundry and watch it at the same time, because
then I could believe I was being productive. I generally don’t like reality
shows, because I know that they are scripted and don’t reflect actual reality.
But if a show involves cleaning, organizing, or remodeling a home, I’m all in.
I don’t share this as a confession because Hoarders
was a reality show, nor because when I watched it I felt better about the
condition and cleanliness of my own house. I share this as a confession,
because watching the show began to make me feel like a voyeur. I understand
that’s the real intent behind most reality shows. They feed the public’s
need to be a fly on the wall in someone else’s life. But when I watched Hoarders,
I wasn’t just seeing real people’s lives on screen. I was witnessing their
sickness. I was witnessing their sadness. I was witnessing an illness, which is
what hoarding is, that would tear apart families and literally endanger the
lives of the hoarder. I felt guilty about it, so much so, that I would often
have to turn off the television. The sadness of these situations became too
much to bear.
I
will say that Hoarders did a good job of showing the complexity of
compulsive hoarding. Compulsive hoarding, also known as hoarding disorder, is
now listed as a mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders; better known as the DSM. It is a real
sickness.
Compulsive
hoarding, whether it is uncontrollable accumulation of stuff or even of
animals, is dangerous to say the least. Hoarding turns homes into
unsanitary and unlivable disaster zones. A person’s hoarding can be so
extreme that most of the rooms in a house become unusable. The hoarder is
relegated to one small living space, with only narrow pathways between
teetering piles of stuff to other rooms in the house. I learned from the show
that a crisis – the loss of a loved one or a string of problems – will often
trigger a person into compulsive hoarding. And it is often another crisis that
will finally push the hoarder into seeking help. Disaster may be looming. A
marriage or another significant relationship is about to collapse because of
the hoarding; children may be or have been removed from the home by a child
protection agency. The hoarder may be facing eviction. Other family
members are prepared to report the hoarder to social service agencies because
of the real danger that the hoarding creates.
What I found incredibly sad when I watched this show is
that the people who hoard know that their relationships are falling
apart. They know they’re on the verge of losing their home. They
understand that their families are going to be separated, and they realize that
their lives are literally in danger. But they can’t stop
hoarding. They are embarrassed and ashamed, but they can’t
stop. Hoarding takes the place of love. It takes the place of
intimacy. It takes the place of connection. Their stuff, most of
which you and I would consider junk to be thrown away, consumes them.
Their
abundance of stuff consumes them. I realize that hoarding is an extreme, but it
does make me wonder if there is a link between the growing prevalence of
hoarding disorder and our modern lives. This is just my speculation; it’s
not based on any significant scientific or sociological research, at least none
that I have found. But let’s face it: most of us have a lot of
stuff. That doesn’t make us hoarders, but we have a lot of
stuff. We have an abundance of things.
Before they died, my parents did their best to
downsize. They got rid of furniture, dishes, clothes, so many things that they
accumulated over almost 70 years of marriage. But my brother now has a whole
storage room in his house filled with the remainders of my mother’s stuff,
stuff that the three of us have to go through. Our family has moved twice over
the last four years – to Tennessee, then to our home in Columbia. And with each
move, and on a regular basis, I try to sort and downsize and donate, but we
still have so much stuff. I also know that as quickly as I get rid of stuff,
more stuff will come in to take the place of the old stuff. It’s
just a lot of stuff.
Why
do we have such a preponderance of stuff? Is it because we live in a
consumer driven society? Is it because we are bombarded with messages that
stuff will make us happy? Is it because we fear scarcity? One
concrete way of dealing with that fear is by having stuff. Perhaps that’s
one reason why hoarders hoard – they fear scarcity. With the multitude of
stuff that we accumulate in our daily lives, it is easy to become confused with
what abundance is and what it isn’t. Especially considering the words we
hear from Jesus in the last verse of our passage from John’s gospel.
“I
came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
I’m
sure that none of us hearing those words thinks that Jesus was talking about
material possessions. Although, let’s be honest, the prosperity gospel is
alive and well in our culture. There are plenty of preachers, big name
preachers, who offer the message of the prosperity gospel week after
week. If you just believe hard enough, if you just cling to your Bible
tightly enough, you will be blessed with plenty. Though that plenty isn’t
always specified out loud, the underlying message of the prosperity gospel is
that plenty is an abundance of the material. Nice houses, nice cars, nice
stuff equals nice lives.
But
I don’t think that’s what Jesus is referring to when he speaks of
abundance. To really get to the heart of abundance as Jesus preached it,
we have to look back to chapter 9 of John’s gospel, to the story that precedes
this one; the story of the man born blind. We read this story during Lent.
A man is born blind. Jesus heals him then leaves the scene. While
Jesus is gone, the man is repeatedly interrogated by the religious
authorities. His parents are questioned. And the man is interviewed one
last time. You would think that when someone is healed of his life-long
blindness, there would be rejoicing and celebration. Yet instead of joy, the
people only feel fear. So the result of this miraculous healing, this giving of
sight, is that the man is cast out of the synagogue. He is cast out of the
community.
Jesus
tells the religious authorities that just because they can physically see
doesn’t meant that they can see the holy in their midst. They may have
sight, but they are still blind. He follows those words with the words we
read in this passage. In verse 7 Jesus says,
“Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the
sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did
not listen to them. I am the gate.”
I
am the gate. This Sunday in Eastertide is commonly known as Good Shepherd
Sunday, but in these verses, Jesus doesn’t talk about being the
shepherd. Jesus talks about being the gate. The gate is the way to
green pastures. The gate is the way the sheep who hear the voice of the
shepherd enter those pastures. The gate is the way to abundant
life. Jesus is the gate. So, if we want abundant life, if we want
salvation, we must go through the gate.
None
of this is surprising. I doubt that the idea that salvation comes through
Jesus is news to any of us. But I think the question that is begged from
this passage is what does this abundant life look like? What does
salvation look like? When Jesus said that he came so that we might have
life and have it abundantly, to what and when was he referring?
Let’s
go back to the story of the man born blind. Do we think his salvation came
only after he died? Do we think that he finally experienced abundance when
he left this life and went to the next? Or did salvation come to him in
the form of sight? Think about it. He went from a life of darkness, a life
of begging just to survive, to a life of sight! Would there be anything
more abundant, more salvific for a person born blind at that time than to
receive sight? With sight came the ability to provide for himself, to
envision – no pun intended – a new way of living and being. With the
giving of sight, that man was given a life he hadn’t had before. He was
given an abundance of new life! He was given sight. That was his
salvation.
It
seems to me that this abundant life, and even salvation, isn’t something that
is reserved for a future existence. Jesus came to give abundant life right
now. This isn’t a promise of prosperity. It’s not about
stuff. It’s about abundance. It’s about salvation in the here and the
now. If Jesus meets us where we are, then maybe salvation does as well. If
we are lost, then salvation comes in being found. If we are hopeless, then
salvation comes when we realize that reasons to be hopeful abound. Jesus
came so that we might have abundant lives, saved lives right now.
But
do we live those abundant lives? Do we believe that salvation is ours at
this moment? Are we living lives that are filled with an abundance of
love, joy, and hope? Or are we living small lives? Do we live more out of a fear of scarcity, a fear
of being without rather than living in trust that we will have enough? Trust is
the key. Trust is at the heart of living an abundant life. If we don’t trust
that we’ll have enough to live, to survive, then it’s downright hard to be
abundantly generous. If we don’t trust that we are loveable, then loving
others abundantly is practically impossible. Without trust we cannot
hope. Without trust we cannot fully love. Without trust we cannot
fully live. Living expansive, hopeful, loving, joyful abundant lives requires trust. It
requires trust as individuals and families. It requires trust as a
congregation.
Do we trust that we’ll be okay as a church? Do we
trust that we will be provided for so that we can provide for others? Do
we come together in trust or out of fear? These are tough questions, I
know. But I believe they must be asked, even though I don’t really have
any answers. Jesus came so that we could have life – abundant, plentiful,
large life. Let us trust, with everything we are, heart, mind, and soul,
that we are loved abundantly. Let us trust that an abundance of love will
be with us always. Let us trust in the abundance of God’s love, so that we
may love abundantly in return. May we live the abundant lives that Jesus
gives us.
Let all God’s children say, “Alleluia!”
Amen.
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