Living with 'enough' (proper 21)

 1 Timothy 6: 6-19  (also a harvest service & chapel anniversary!)

I don’t know if you caught the story in the news this week that it’s 70 years since the first advert was shown on ITV – it was for …Gibbs toothpaste. And watching it, it was really just trying to persuade us to use that toothpaste and not another sort of toothpaste.

 

Since that time, advertising has become a multi-billion pound industry, and we all might have our favourite ad – one that has intrigued us (the mysterious, adventurous figure in black delivering Milk Tray?) or made us sing a long (a million housewives every day pick up a can of beans and say…?) or one that has made us laugh (the Smash aliens?).

 

Adverts are there to make us aware of products, but more than that to make us want them, they make us buy more, eventually they can make us want everything, so that we are deeply dissatisfied with what we have.

 

In contrast to all that, Paul’s letter to Timothy has some sensible advice:

‘for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it’

‘the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil’.

 

But Paul has so much more to say – not just a couple of pithy statements to make us think differently, but a whole new way of viewing the world.

‘There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment’

Or as the Good News Bible puts it

‘Religion makes a person very rich, if they are satisfied with what they have.’

 

St Paul reminds Timothy that everything comes from God

‘who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.’

 

This isn’t a warning that Christians should live a miserable life, on the contrary, once we realise how blessed we are because of all that God has given us, we can live lives where we know we have enough and we can be grateful to God and generous to others as a result.

That’s what is at the heart of our harvest celebrations – our realisation of plenty, our gratitude to God and our generosity to others.

 

Of course you’ll never see an advert trying to convince you to be grateful for what you have, satisfied with enough instead of always wanting more, because there’s no money to be made in selling nothing.

But there is great contentment to be had when we realise we are loved, and warm and fed, and we even have material things to spare which we could share with others.

 

As a child I Ioved the poems of AA Milne in the book “When we were very young”. You might know this poem, which expresses very well the contentment of enjoying what you have instead of striving after more.

 

Market Square   by A. A. Milne

I had a penny,
A bright new penny,
I took my penny
To the market square.
I wanted a rabbit,
A little brown rabbit,
And I looked for a rabbit
'Most everywhere.

For I went to the stall where they sold sweet lavender
("Only a penny for a bunch of lavender!").
"Have you got a rabbit, 'cos I don't want lavender?"
But they hadn't got a rabbit, not anywhere there.

 

I had a penny,
And I had another penny,
I took my pennies
To the market square.
I did want a rabbit,
A little baby rabbit,
And I looked for rabbits
'Most everywhere.

And I went to the stall where they sold fresh mackerel
("Now then! Tuppence for a fresh-caught mackerel!").
"Have you got a rabbit, 'cos I don't like mackerel?"
But they hadn't got a rabbit, not anywhere there.

 

I found a sixpence,
A little white sixpence.
I took it in my hand
To the market square.
I was buying my rabbit
(I do like rabbits),
And I looked for my rabbit
'Most everywhere.

So I went to the stall where they sold fine saucepans
("Walk up, walk up, sixpence for a saucepan!").
"Could I have a rabbit, 'cos we've got two saucepans?"
But they hadn't got a rabbit, not anywhere there.

 

I had nuffin',
No, I hadn't got nuffin',
So I didn't go down
To the market square;
But I walked on the common,
The old-gold common...
And I saw little rabbits
'Most everywhere!

So I'm sorry for the people who sell fine saucepans,
I'm sorry for the people who sell fresh mackerel,
I'm sorry for the people who sell sweet lavender,
'Cos they haven't got a rabbit, not anywhere there!

 

A great celebration of enjoying what you have!

But you might wonder why St Paul feels the need to tell Timothy all these things about recognising we have enough. After all,  Paul is famously most concerned with telling people about Jesus.

 

But he wants Timothy, and anyone else trying to live a good life, to know that we need to be grateful for what God gives us, and realise that those things are to be enjoyed, but that the things we have can’t become the goal of our lives.

Living with love is the goal of our life – love for God, who gives us what we need and love for other people, who show us how to love and who need our love in return. But most of all, we see God’s love in a human form in Jesus – who lived a simple life, teaching and healing, and was prepared to give up his life to who how great God’s love is – a love that goes to the cross, but a love greater than death which rises from the tomb. Follow Jesus, says St Paul, and your life will be filled with gratitude and generosity and godliness, rather than selfishness and greed and dissatisfaction.

 

People have gathered here in Keyston to worship God and try to follow Jesus, and love God and their neighbours for 238 years now.

Celebrating the Chapel anniversary gives us a chance to look back into the history, where we find some really striking examples of what it means to follow Jesus.

One of these comes right from the very foundation of a chapel here.

One Sunday morning in 1787, Mr Stephen Lloyd, the minister of Brynberian Chapel, rose very early and walked from Brynberian to Keyston - around 18 miles. He preached here, on the road in the middle of the village. The appearance of a stranger bringing a remarkable message created excitement among the residents. A good congregation gathered and listened intently, but at the end they all turned and went their own way home, and no one offered the minister any food or drink. After everyone had left, he walked down to the bottom of the village and turned to knock on a door. The lady of the house came to the door, her name was Mrs Lewis. Mr Lloyd and Mrs Lewis had never met before, but when she opened the door, he asked "Do you love Jesus Christ, and would you want to go to heaven?" "I certainly hope so" she replied. "Well" he said "if you love Jesus Christ, you should respect his servant. Today I walked from Brynberian to spread his word in this place, and I am hungry."

The lady invited him in and he was given a meal and everything he needed to prepare himself to walk back to Brynberian.

Within a year the son of that house, Mr James Lewis, and many others from the village had become members of the church which began to worship together here.

 

What three great examples of generosity – Stephen Lloyd giving his time and energy; Mrs Lewis offering hospitality when it was most needed; and her son, James, clearly listening carefully to what the visitor had to say.

 

If you were to make an advert for what a church should be, you could tell the story of these three, who were

bold, daring, and energetic  - as any Milk Tray delivery

kind, caring and hospitable - as any parent making beans on toast for the family and

attentive, open-minded and responsive -  as any aliens observing life on earth.

 

So in the continuing life of this chapel, may God’s love be known and shared, so that all God's children may have more than enough.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.