Today our theme for worship centered on the simplicity of possessions-- thinking again about what our stuff says about our priorities and how we might be depriving the abundance of God from going forth in the world.
I gave the following challenge at the end of the sermon. Might you be up to this (in what community you find yourself in)?
. . . . I don’t always ask for directed response, but this week, I am going to challenge you to two ways to live out this sermon and the simplicity of possessions.
First, go home this week and clean out your food pantry if you have one. Though a simple task, you might be amazed what you find. Many of us shop for can goods and products that we already have. Go home and take out all the food items that you haven’t used in a couple weeks and you don’t plan to eat in the next week. What you will find, like we did, that you have much to offer others. Bring what you find to church next Sunday and donate your non-perishable food items to our food drive for Reston Interfaith. I already can’t wait to see those baskets outside overflowing!
Second, go home this week and sort through some of your possessions. Start in your closet. What I imagine you’ll find is one miserable load. Stuff filling your space that you do not use nor you really want. As you do this, I want you to take at least one thing (and hopefully a lot more) to donate to another one of our ministry partners like the Closet in Herndon. If you can’t make it the trip, bring it to church next Sunday and we’ll make sure it get finds it way there. I can’t wait to get a call this week from Aaron Sawyer telling me that Washington Plaza folks have been bringing it to the Closet this week!
I am asking you to do these two things because I want all of us to live even more fully into the joy that can be ours through the simplicity of possessions.
Let us not be weighed down any more in misery. Let us instead rise up and use what we have so that the abundant blessings of God in our hands can be used to bring forth life in our community.
Let us share and stop hoarding, trusting that as we God our abundant God will supply all our needs.
Let us experience again the joy out of the abundance of sharing!
