conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

sabbath 29: ownership

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
- Matthew 6:21

"Whatever we place at the center of our lives will get the bulk of our care and attention. This is not esoteric teaching but simple physics." Thus begins Wayne's chapter on "stuff." In a fit of serendipity, the Rev Ref+ preached on greed. There's a good bit of crossover between Ref's sermon and Wayne's chapter on ownership and what I would call distraction.

A paraphrase of the chapter is this: "Keep it simple." Simplicity and limiting our possessions go hand in hand. As Wayne says, it ain't that possessions are intrinsically bad. Sometimes it is simply a matter of reality; the more stuff we have, the more time it takes to care for that stuff.

A larger house takes more effort to maintain than a smaller house. More rooms, more dusting. As Trish and I have discovered in our four bedroom parsonage, more rooms can mean more space to litter. Heh.

A boat, though a potentially wondrous way to relax in good weather, is a great example of another opportunity to maintain something. Boats are notoriously high maintenance. My godfather, Ray, has been struggling with his 28' Boston Whaler for years. It's a simple boat with very few bells and whistles. But you have to winter it, tune it up, maintain it, tinker with it and all sorts of things just to keep this relaxation machine humming.

So, find ways to make do with less. Be realistic. Do you have time and energy to care for all the things that you think that you need? Do you really want to spend 70 hours a week at work to make enough money to maintain a home in which you sleep...only sleep? These are good questions to ask.

For the suggested exercises, Muller suggests having a potlatch. Have a party and give away nice things...not knock-offs and hand-me-downs. Be overly generous. Or, practice having things that one shares. Food is to be shared. What do you have that is worth sharing or giving away? Giving away things is not synonymous with throwing away things or getting rid of stuff you don't like. I think I will try to practice some of this...especially in the sharing department.

Nit Picking: Wayne talks about Jubilee in this chapter. Jubilee is the Israelite biblical practice of extending the Sabbath to the community or national level. Forgive debts. Give stuff away. Release prisoners. Do it all. It's a great notion, and Wayne states that Israel used to do this. Sadly, scholarship is unsure that they ever did this. It may have simply been an ideal expressed, a religious desire hoped for. But as far as anyone can tell, it was never practiced. I'm just sayin'.

I'll link to Cristopher and Megan when they have their posts up.

Posted by tripp at August 6, 2007 03:27 PM