Sermon

Questions to Live By: What Do I Do With What I Have?

October 3, 2004

By Rev. Dr. G. Penny Nixon

Loving God, loving Goddess, we acknowledge as we come together that there’s a power far greater than ourselves. And we trust ourselves to your compassionate spirit tonight. Open us deeply. Enliven us and give us grace. In your many names. Amen.

I’ve been talking the last few weeks, since September actually, about questions to live by. So the first question was? (What is my story?) What is my story? The second question was? (What do you love?) What do you love? Wow. Excellent. (Laughter) Last week’s question was? (What role does sex play in my life?) Ah, everybody remembers that one. (Laughter) What role does sex play in my life? I mean your life. (More laughter) You can actually read those online if you haven’t been with us.

But before I ask the question tonight, I wanted to alert you actually to a problem that we’re having in society that I didn’t really realize until I read the paper this week. And it has to do with us, queer people. Tom DeLay said a few things this week and one of the things that he said, on the floor of the House in talking about the federal marriage amendment was, “This country will go down,” DeLay warned, as Canada has and Belgium, that without ideal unions of man and woman, “gangs” form (Huge laughter) and gangs become the substitute for families. Everyone knows that. (More laughter) Word for word in the Chronicle. So watch out for those marauding gangs of queer people that are everywhere supplanting the family. Be on the lookout. I don’t know about you but I kind of like this gang that we’re with tonight. (Laughter and applause)

So the question tonight is this: What do I do with what I have?

What do I do with what I have?

So let me read you a story from the Gospel of Luke about that. It says that the crowds learned about Jesus and the disciples going to Bethesda and they followed him. And he welcomed them and spoke to them about the realm of God and healed those who needed healing. And late in the afternoon, the twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so we can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging because we are in a remote place here.” And Jesus looked at them and said, “You give them something to eat.” And they answered, “We only have five loaves of bread and two fish unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” And it was said that there were about 5,000 men there not counting even women and children.

But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about 50 each.” And the disciples did so and everybody sat down. And taking the five loaves and two fish and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied and the disciples picked up twelve baskets full of broken pieces that were left over.

How many people have heard this story before? (Laughter) So I’m not gonna say, “The little boy with the five loaves and the two fishes shared what he had. What is it that you have to share?” It’s not the point of the story. That’s what I learned from this story growing up. I want to think about a very different way of thinking about this story.

You see here was a large crowd. If you were at the Castro Street Fair today, a crowd probably about that size. But there was no food. All right. And so the disciples said, “Would you send these people away. We haven’t eaten. They haven’t eaten.” And Jesus simply said, “You give them something to eat.” You’ve named the problem, now you be the solution. Don’t you hate that? (Laughter) You be the solution.

And so then ye said, “Have them sit down.” And that’s what they did because once these small communities are formed, the crowd actually goes away. There are just groups of people that actually are looking at each other face-to-face. And Jesus takes the food, looks up to heaven, shares what he has with his small group of people and there’s enough for them. And inspired by this act—I want you to think with me for a moment—inspired by this act of generosity, the crowd then begins in their small groups, their gatherings, to say, “Oh, I guess I could share what I have and bring it out.” And each group has enough food. In fact when everybody shared what they had, there were twelve baskets left over.

You see it wasn’t magic, I don’t believe. I believe in miracles; sure, they happen. But I don’t think this was about magic. After all remember one of the temptations, they said, “Turn that stone to bread.” And Jesus said, “I’m not into magic.” That’s what this isn’t about. It’s about empowering people.

We have everything that we need. And so when he took that bread and those fish and broke it and began to share it, people got the idea that could do the same things in their small communities. It was a foretaste of the reign of God that Jesus had been talking about. For a moment they believed that they could do together what none of them could do alone. No one alone can feed a crowd of 5,000+ but together they could do something.

The beauty of this is that when Jesus takes the food, he first gives thanks because he acknowledges that everything that we receive is a gift. And secondly, he expresses that he trusts in a power far greater than himself. And it frees him from the impossible burden of taking total responsibility for everything happening. So he models this and then people are following his example.

Now something else was going on. Something else amazing was going on as all this was happening. It wasn’t necessarily a miracle; it was quantum physics. Quantum physics was going on. You see in quantum physics there’s this thing called “fields of influence.” Are you familiar with that? Fields of influence or energy fields. And in quantum physics it says that all relationships are from this wellspring of the fields of energy that are created.

I’ll give you an example. Can you give me an example of a field of energy? (Vortex) One that’s at work right now. (Gravity) Gravity, exactly, it’s a non-material region that actually happens all the time. Gravity is at work right now. Gravity, it’s at work. Gravity is keeping you in your seats despite the fact that you are absolutely spellbound by this story that I’m telling. (Laughter)

Quantum theory says that fields of influence, fields of energy can be understood as horizons of belonging. They create a relational matrix where creative possibilities happen all the time. You know we don’t think about gravity, do we? But it’s a field all around us, just like there are electro-magnetic fields. And I believe that spiritual communities create fields of energy. You can’t see it, just like you can’t see gravity until something happens but it is there nevertheless. And I believe that somehow what happened in this situation and can happen today is this: Jesus created an energy field of abundance. And when people actually began to be influenced by that field, there actually was not just enough but more than enough for everybody.

What do you do with what you have? You say, “Well, I don’t really have that much.” You know what? I don’t care who you are tonight, where you have come from. Every one of us in this room, compared to the rest of the world, is wealthy. Every one of us compared to the rest of the world is wealthy.

I’ll never forget the first time I went to India in 1983 and I was there for a month and lived with Indian families. If there was ever a time in my life that I nearly lost my faith, it was when I returned from India. I saw poverty there that I couldn’t have imagined existed. And of course I was young, inexperienced in many ways and I went to the slums of Calcutta, visited Mother Teresa’s places of work, and was absolutely shattered by how I saw people living. And yet I also experienced some of the greatest joy I had ever known being with people who had nothing. I mean nothing and no access, very few social services in India, very few welfare programs or general assistant programs or social security programs in India at least at that time.

And so after being there a month and living with folks and meeting people and seeing all these things, when I returned I was as poor as I had ever been. I was in my third year of seminary; I didn’t have anything. Literally I had nothing and I walked back into my little room when I returned and opened the closet door and just started crying. The first time I got back and walked into a grocery store, into a Safeway, I burst into tears. I was overwhelmed at the wealth and at the abundance, the fifty-three brands of cereal, the sixty-three kinds of bread. I couldn’t even walk into a department store; I embarrassed my girlfriend left and right. Her friends took us out to a really ritzy restaurant and right in the middle of the meal, I just busted out sobbing and I couldn’t even explain why I was crying.

What do I do with what I have? You know it’s kind of all relative in this world. It really is. I don’t say anything like this to produce any guilt. Guilt gets us nowhere. What I’m saying is that when we create an energy field of abundance, we can put away the scarcity mentality. And that’s exactly what Jesus was penetrating through is this illusion of scarcity, that we don’t have enough. We can create scarcity or we can create abundance.

And here’s a rule of the universe, there are few but here’s one of them. The rule of the universe is that when we act out of scarcity, we create more scarcity. All right? So if we think, “I must hang on to this because this is all I have.” That actually creates less. We think sometimes it creates more; it doesn’t. If we act out of abundance, we create more abundance. I know this to be true in my own life, the more I share, the more I have. This is a fundamental truth.

You know, as Americans we are 6% of the world’s population and we consume over a third of the world’s resources. Is that amazing? We’re 6% of the population worldwide and we consume one third, 33.3% of the world’s resources. What are we creating by our hoarding? We’re creating scarcity for others. Do you see how it works?

In fact, sometimes we think we don’t have much cash or much money. You know that the gross domestic product is $37,000 per capita in this country. Do you know what it is in North Korea? $1,000. And Afghanistan? $700. In the Gaza Strip, $600. That’s annualized. Is that amazing?

What do we do with what we have? We’re kicking off a pledge campaign tonight and this is the only message that we have to say. We’re talking about abundance. That cycle of receiving and giving. And when we create an energy field of abundance, we have enough. And not only do we have enough for ourselves, but we actually have so much left over that we can give it away. Do you believe that? Do you believe it when it comes to your own life? And do you believe it when it comes to spiritual community?

What do I do with what I have? So I want to do a little experiment tonight. (taking out a purse) This is not a purse; this is a satchel. In case somebody got the wrong idea that I was carrying a purse. I’m going to share something I have tonight and for those of you that are visiting, this is not our normal routine (Laughter and applause) but I invite you to participate wholly. Here’s another thing about fields of energy, there are no neutral observers. Do you know that? In quantum theory there is no such thing as a neutral observer. So if you’re sending me positive energy right now, something really great’s going to happen. So if you are sending me negative energy—I know none of you ever do that—but if you have, that’s not neutral. There’s no such thing as we all participate in creating the reality that we’re experiencing right now. And don’t tell me this is weird stuff because it’s a science. I make a lot of things up but I didn’t make that up. (Laughter)

So here’s what I want to do, Joe and Paul and I are going to pass these things out (passing around $1 and $5 bills) and as it comes your way, you simply take the top one, one each please. (Laughter) Whatever comes to you on the top, hang on to it. Everybody done? What kind of energy field are you creating at this moment? I have to say that my partner did remark that this was an expensive illustration for us. (Laughter) ok? Some left over?

So here’s what I want you to do, all right? I was brief tonight, briefer than usual, it’s all relative, remember? And I want you to take a few minutes and I want you to form groups of five or six, and I want you to see what you have as a group. And I want you to talk with some creative possibilities about how you are going to create abundance with what you have. All right? Now there are two guidelines. One is this, you cannot put it in the offering plate tonight. All right? Agreed? And you cannot go down to Bazouzi’s and buy a lottery ticket. (Laughter) I have few restrictions about my money but that’s one of them, all right? A few guidelines, I’m sharing, this is my money, and this is not the church’s money, all right? So I want you to get when I say in groups of five or six. People in the choir can come out and join. I’ll give you a few minutes and I want you to come up with creative possibilities of what you can do if you put that together.

A sample or two, perhaps there’s someone in your group who hasn’t had a hot meal for a couple days, very possible. You know what? Maybe that person might be brave enough to say it. Maybe out of the abundance of what you have received, we give a creative possibility for a hot meal or a hot cup of coffee. Maybe you say let’s go out and multiply this next week and bring it back and for a jubilee offering. Maybe you say let’s go out and see what we can do with it, bring it back; maybe we’ll get every person in our office to match it. Dollar for dollar or five dollars for five dollars. And we’ll give it to Simply Supper Program; we’ll create abundance. There are many creative ways and this is the most creative bunch of people that there are. Groups of five or six and come up with creative solutions about what you’re going to do to create abundance. Ok, go.

(Activity)

Just another minute or two, start wrapping up. All right if you’ve wrapped up, then return to your seats. So let’s hear some ways that you created abundance in your group. What are some ideas? I call on you please stand and speak loudly so that we can hear. All right. Some people that created abundance.

(We’re going to go back to our places of employment and ask for donations to match the money you’ve given us as well asking for t-shirts, socks, underwear, towels, for your Shower Project.) (Applause) Great!

Ok, this side, Phil? (We were thinking about what you said about people in this country having a lot of abundance relative to other parts of the world and I actually have a sponsored child in South America and Manuel is from South America, so the six of us are going to sponsor a child for next year). Oh. (Applause)

Ok, others? John? (Well we wanted immediate gratification [Laughter] so what we did is we put the money that you gave us, Penny, in our pockets ‘cause you said we couldn’t put it back in the plate, and we reached in other pockets and pulled out whatever we could give and we raised $96 and somebody in our group is going to make that $200 and so that’ll be $200 and we’re giving it to the Foundation.) Wow! (Applause) Fabulous! Great!

Ken? (We’re going to contribute the money that we got towards the new church that Terri’s gonna start on the Peninsula and we committed to matching that each month for the next year.) Wow! (Applause) Incredible!

Back section, anybody in this back section? Devin? (Hi. I live in a neighborhood where there’s a lot of homeless people and I do say hello to them and it’s really beautiful to see how they respond to that contact to the outside world and I decided to buy food) Great! Great! (Applause) Ok. Just a couple more. If we hold our applause, I know it’s hard then we, we can applaud at the end and we want to hear.

A couple more. Yes, in the balcony. (We're gonna ask three friends to match a dollar and then $5 will become $15) Beautiful, beautiful! Thank you. Just one or two more.

Kim? (A couple of us in our group came up with the idea of actually putting a jar in our offices if it’s appropriate and putting a little thing on there about the programs that are run here but also about the nature of abundance and about how giving brings more back to you and, and like a little blessing jar if you will. So they bless the jar and we bless the other people whether it’s the Shower Program or the Simply Supper Program and it all creates a good field of energy around.) It does, beautiful! Beautiful!

Last one, here? (Our group came up with the idea of Halloween—we’re gonna do a movie night here, so we’ll bring old cans, new cans of food for the homeless children.) Beautiful! Beautiful!

This is what we call praying with our feet here. This is what we call living the word; not hearing the word but living the word. And tonight I hope that you have been touched as I have by these stories and I know that there are so many more about abundance that is created. We are so blessed in this place called Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco. We come here week after week; it’s not always perfect but you know what, it’s here, that something greater than ourselves is here. And there’s a home for queer people and every person who wants to enter is welcome. And do you know what people would give worldwide for that? There are people in Saudi Arabia, in Tibet, in China, whatever spiritual community they belong to, there are gay people hiding in closets that don’t have a place. There are teenagers who still don’t know that they don’t need to have shame for their sexual desires and we exist as a place of hope and a place of abundance.

Do you see what was created from a simple act and people coming together? Believe with me will you that if we create abundance, we will have more than enough. We will all be satisfied and we will create more abundance in the world.