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At our house we have two cats; an orange tabby named Tiggs and a grey and white something or other blob we call Peewee. They were just months old when we rescued them from the local shelter. At first Peewee was quite outgoing and affectionate and Tiggs was a bit shy. But after a month or so that all changed and we don’t know why. Tiggs became the outgoing, curious cat who likes your company. Peewee, well quite honestly, he’s become a disappointment. He’s skittish and rarely lets you touch him. He likes to demand his food with a very annoying bit of relentless meowing that starts 30-45 minutes before they get their food. We have to feed them at specific times because if we left food out for them, Peewee would just eat and eat and eat. He has his dish and Tiggs has his. Peewee is the faster eater so he finishes his food and moves on to Tiggs’ dish. So, Tiggs is always hungry and Peewee is fat. Peewee doesn’t seem to know how to stop when he’s had enough. He is just a fat, annoying, hairball barfing, litter box filling mistake that we obviously can’t euthanize and I know quite well he wouldn’t make it as a barn cat. So, we’re stuck with him, which means…we just have to love him, find out what makes him tick, and try to draw him out.
Well, that’s cats, what about people. It’s almost Christmas and of course I’m waxing nostalgic about the Christmas Eve dinners we used to have at Grandma and Grandaddy’s and what a joyous occasion it was. The food, the conversation, the gift giving, being a kid, and then growing up and watching the kids. Everybody was welcome and loved. Mawmaw always put out an abundant feast. There was more than enough for everybody. We ate and everybody was “fat, dumb, and happy.” There was joy. I can’t imagine what would have happened if there was one or more of us who acted like Peewee in the family. I’ll pretend it was me. What if I started an hour or so before dinner yelling “When’s dinner going to be ready?” and kept it up while everyone else was doing their part to get it ready. And then once dinner was on the table I claimed all the food for myself, even pushed everybody else away from their plates so as to eat their food too…and we won’t get into the dietary disturbances that come along with eating all that food to which I would so rudely subject everybody else. Then while I’m gorging myself I start to go on about “When can we open presents? I want to open my presents.” The time comes and I tear into mine and it’s, “Look what I got. Look what I got.” But apparently, it’s not enough so I start taking everybody else’s presents.
I can’t imagine if that happened at Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandaddy’s. There would have been absolutely no joy at all. What do you do with someone like that? You can’t just euthanize them or banish them to the barn. You don’t do that to human beings (but we do). But you know, welcome to Banquet Planet Earth…and you know what else? We are part of that small percentage of people who are ruining the banquet for most everybody else. I wish I could say this is the way humanity has been just since the Industrial Age and the advent of Capitalism, but no. If you look back, it’s the way humanity has been throughout recorded history. There have always been the human versions of Peewee and Tiggs but, oddly, the Tiggs’s have idolized the lifestyle of the Peewee’s and when given the chance have acted likewise. We want to have it all and turn a blind eye to those who have it all and how they got it and won’t admit the cost that comes from attaining it…the poverty, disease, hunger, pollution, violence. We simply refuse to make the bold claim that having too much is immoral, but rather it’s our common goal. There’s no wonder there’s a widespread lack of joy here at Banquet Planet Earth.
Unfortunately, we psychologize Joy, tying it to mental health and removing it from the context of economic lifestyle. We think material comforts contribute to joy and the more material comforts you have the happier you’re supposed be. Then, when somebody who has it all is so miserable they stay doped up all the time, we explain it away as mental illness, give them anti-depressants, and tell them to spend some time reading Joel Osteen or Deepak Chopra. “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die” is not the way to Joy. There are mental health consequences to living “the lifestyle of the rich and famous” and those consequences are worsened when we realize that that way of life is not the path to joy but rather leads to a profound lack of it.
Well, you might question why I would bring out an angry sermon by John the Baptist on a Sunday when we are supposed to be talking about Joy, but bear with me. People were flocking to the prophet of God in the wilderness because their lives were so bad that they had no hope in anything other than a mighty act of God to fix it. They were not happy people. The bulk of them were everyday people who were over-taxed and over-worked, scared not only about the future, but about what loss tomorrow may bring. Even tax collectors and soldiers (law-enforcement), the upper-middle class were coming to John for answers, for hope and what did he do? He called them a brood of vipers who thought they could flee from the cataclysmic change that’s going to affect everybody when God acts, the people of God too. Apparently, he didn’t go to the same preaching class I went to, but then again, how would my sermons be different if you weren’t paying me?
John actually gave this hope deprived, joy deprived people the way to joy. The brood of viper comment aside, John gave them a glimpse of the joy-filled life that will be at the heart of the coming Kingdom of God. It’s quite simple actually, something we learned in kindergarten probably. If we have more than enough, then we share what we have with those who don’t have. Don’t use our position of influence and privilege as a means to take more for ourselves which sounds a whole lot like don’t use your wealth to gain more wealth. Be satisfied with what we get for what we do rather than using extortion to get more. It’s quite simple…be satisfied with enough. Be generous with what we’ve earned so that everybody has enough. Don’t take more than we need.
It’s interesting that they are in the wilderness and if you remember Israel’s wilderness wandering after God delivered them from slavery in Egypt, then you recall that God fed them on manna. Every morning God provided them with this bread-like stuff that tasted like coriander. They were supposed to collect only enough for that day and no more. Any extra they collected would go rancid. So it is with life at Banquet Planet Earth. There is abundantly enough for everybody if everybody takes only enough for themselves to live on. If we take more, rancidness occurs and it is occurring – Climate change, pandemics, poverty, wars, etc. All this bad stuff is the consequence of our lifestyle of wanting to have more than enough.
To close, if we want to know more than fleeting glimpses of Joy like at Grandma and Grandaddy’s on Christmas Eve, then we have to accept the fact that true joy is tied to ‘economic justice, fairness, generosity and learning to live on enough. The downside of this is that if everybody lived this way, the economy would crash and those who have everything will lose everything…but, the feast of abundance and resulting Joy will be permanent rather than fleeting. That’s God’s promise for what’s coming and he will bring it about, so it’s best we start living for it now. Amen.
