Bountiful Harvest
This scripture, Luke 12:13-21 reminds me of the story of the squirrel who comes upon a windfall of nuts and stores them away for himself. In the story, the squirrel does not share his abundance and boasts about how he has everything he needs to survive the winter. But when winter comes, he gets tired of eating the same ol’ nuts and he learns that he wasn’t prudent in storing the nuts in the first place because he’d worked in such haste to snatch all he could that some of the nuts have become rotten.
Another example I think of is when attending a banquet dinner where you serve yourself, the amount of food people pile up on their plates, trying to take all they can without any regard to the 100 or more people behind them that still need to make their plates. When planning these kinds of dinners for church or school functions, it was a serious discussion on what size plates to purchase, whether you put the meat at the beginning or the end of the banquet line, or if there should be someone dishing out rationed portions.
The lesson for the squirrel, the banquet attendees and for the rich man in the parable Jesus shared in the Gospel, is that when you have a bountiful harvest, it is right and just to give thanks to God and the conditions which contributed to it. However, it is equally right and just to share it with others, whether it is an abundance or not. It is easy to get carried away with the windfall of good things and wanting to take all you can, but this behavior is one of the seven deadly sins, it’s called greed.
Jesus is not saying you can’t reap what they sow, but that there are others in line at the banquet dinner who still need to fill their plates. It is a good reminder as there are people all over the world who are feeling the negative affects of the unprecedented heat. The repercussions are being felt by everyone in the world where there is not air conditioning, as well as those whose jobs require them to work outside. Just this week I heard that nine UPS drivers have died due to heat related illness.
I believe it is the job of each human being, not just to take care of themselves, but to take care of others as well. It begins and ends that way, why is it forgotten in the middle? At your birth and your death, you depend greatly upon others to provide you with what you need, why can’t this be the case throughout your life too?
I’m such a believer in this, that I don’t think it matters whether you practice a specific religion, who you pray to, where you were born, what language you speak, or any other factor people justify as a quality that divides people, everyone should give thanks for what they have, be grateful and share whether there is abundance or not. It is about seeing your fellow human and providing for their basic needs, which include, food, water, shelter, and education.
This past week there was a wildfire two miles from my home. My husband and I received an evacuation message because it was so close and if the wind had changed directions, I might be homeless right now. However, I don’t bring this up because I want to bring attention to what could have been a terrible thing, rather to share how much goodness I saw in the experience. There were neighbors on the various social media feeds sharing news and information about the fire including news updates and photos. Some people, who had previous experience with wildfires, gave advice as to what types of things to load into your cars and to take pictures of things in your home in case you needed to show that what was inside had monetary value.
After we were given the green light to go back into our homes, those messages continued but with a different focus. People began to say thank you to the men and women in who worked to put the fire out, giving praise for them being able to contain it so quickly and without anyone losing a home, nor anyone being injured. Further, there were shout outs to some of the local businesses who gave food to the workers and discussions about donations of bottled water and snacks being dropped off at local fire houses. It was heartwarming to see the sacrifice up close and personal of those whose job it is to keep our community safe, and even more so to see the outpouring of generosity of the community where I live.
The lesson here is to bring to the table whatever you have and like in the story of the loaves and the fish, there will be bushel baskets filled with remnants, leaving a bountiful harvest!
