We’ve been living in our house for 9 years this fall! Accumulate more stuff! Plastic storage boxes are wonderful because you can stack them very easily. With two children and more stuff than we need, it is up for debate on whether we will have a garage sale. You see, there are various things you can do with all this stuff we all accumulate in middle class
1. Give stuff away to the many groups that will pick it up at your door for you.
2. Garage sale – multi million dollar not taxable industry in the
3. Get a bigger house – lots of people do this
4. Put it in storage. The self storage industry in the USA, according to the Self Storage Association[1] is the fastest-growing sector of the United States commercial real estate industry over the period of the last 30 years and there are now 51,223 “primary” self storage facilities in the USA; 1 in 10 households rent self storage; over the past 20 years, there has been a 9% growth rate of new facilities and 740% growth in actual square footage, which is 2.2 billion square feet (as of Q1-2007) representing more than 78 square miles
Today, we have a problem with self storage because we have so much stuff and not enough barns. Jesus takes up the issue of self storage when he tells the parable of a rich man who is getting richer. The man isn’t a Bill Gates or a Donald Trump. He owns land or has a basic home in the suburbs and one summer, he has a bumper crop, his second quarter earnings are through the roof. As a farmer, he doesn’t have enough room to store the excess so he builds larger barns, self storage first century style. This man has a strong work ethic, but no ethics in his work.[2] Perhaps he doesn’t even consider himself rich, but his behavior is probably is culturally acceptable for then and now.
The problem in this parable isn’t that he rich or that he had a great harvest, but that he is focused on himself. In this parable, there are eleven personal pronouns, six are “I” and five are “me”[3] orientated pronouns. He does have this internal conversation, but he doesn’t talk with family; friends or his rabbi. I’m sure if someone had a great quarter or received a bonus, they wouldn’t come up to the pastor out of fear that I would say give it to the church. I’d say give it to God through the Hunger Appeal or one of the local social ministries we support. The problem is that he didn’t see that God was behind all that he has received in his life. But he doesn’t seem to trust that GOD will provide for him by storing up so much but not carrying for the poor now.
We all forget that we are given that we might give. We are loved so that we might love. Storing up treasures like this man wasn’t a bad thing and being rich isn’t a bad thing. But it stated, that he “was not rich toward God” as well. He died and didn’t get the message soon enough that God is the source of all of our lives. God will provide and God has provided and God is trustworthy.
Perhaps our self storage hearts are empty. Perhaps the cup is only half full. In the book, The Lord Is My Shepherd, Harold Kuschner (he wrote Why Bad Things Happen to Good People), wrote on Psalm 23. When he discussed the part of the Psalm that states, “My Cup Runneth Over”, he talked about how sometimes we will ask, “Do you see the cup half empty or half full”? Depending on how you answer, you will either think of yourself as being a pessimist if the cup is half empty or an optimist if the cup is half full. The reality is that the cup is running over, overflowing the brims of our lives with the many daily gifts and blessings that we forget about. Perhaps it’s our hearts that are empty and impoverished. Perhaps we need to come and confess that we try to fill it ourselves, self storage, with more stuff that leaves us empty. Perhaps we need to come and ask to be filled again… God fills it again today, and again and again, and our cups are running over…Amen! Let us pray…
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