I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
A Theology of Abundance
From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.
Luke 12:48 (NRSV)
Luke 12:48 (NRSV)
I can hear the least of these
Cryin' out so desperately
And I know we are the hands and feet
Of You, oh God
So if You say move
It's time for me to follow through
And do what I was made to do
And show them who You are
From "I Refuse" by Josh Wilson
Every day, for the last two months, I've been reading a passage from the daily lectionary.1 I can say that it has been an edifying practice for me, for it has given me exposure to numerous unfamiliar parts of Scripture and has made me think about many different topics. A few weeks ago, I came across the following passage from Psalm 65:
You visit the earth and water it,
You greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
You provide the people with grain,
for so You have prepared it.
You water its furrows abundantly,
settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
and blessing its growth.
You crown the year with your bounty;
Your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy,
the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together for joy.2
In this passage, I see abundance. The psalmist imagines God moving through the earth, leaving an abundance of blessings in God's path: abundant water, abundant rain, abundant livestock, and abundant grain.
The phrase that came to my mind after reading this passage was theology of abundance. I don't know how this term has been used in the past, but, when I refer to a theology of abundance, I am not referring to a theology of prosperity, the idea that God rewards faithful people with material success. Rather, I refer to abundance as opposed to scarcity. The theology of abundance I want to explore is the idea that God has so richly and abundantly blessed the earth that there is more than enough for every person on the planet to have what he or she needs.
When exploring a theology of abundance, is there any better Bible story to tell than the story of Jesus' feeding the multitude?
One day, a massive crowd of thousands of people follow Jesus and the Disciples to a secluded place. As always, Jesus has compassion on the crowd, teaches them about the Kingdom of God, and ministers to those in the crowd who are sick. As evening falls, Jesus and the Disciples become concerned that the people are getting hungry, especially since they are far from any marketplace. Jesus tells the Disciples to feed the crowd, but the Disciples can only scrounge up five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus begins to break up the bread and fish and distribute the pieces to the people, and, somehow everybody has enough to eat until they are full. The Disciples gather up the leftovers and somehow fill up five baskets.3
The story of this miracle can be found all four Gospels, and each Gospel writer brings a unique perspective to the event. St. John, in his version of the story, points out that it is a young boy who brings the loaves and the fish to the Disciples. If you think about it, this is something only a stupid kid would do. A responsible adult would have held on to the food, realizing that, in a situation of scarcity, one needs to provide for one's family and oneself before helping other people.4 I wonder if maybe, somewhere between Bible verses, the boy hears the Disciples talking with Jesus about how they are going to feed everybody and then yells out, to his parents' chagrin, "We have some food!"
This story shows the difference between a mindset of scarcity and a mindset of abundance. People often refer to this story as the "Feeding of the Five Thousand," but, according to three of the Gospel writers, there were five thousand men present. If every man present had a wife and if every couple had at least two children, then there would have been an excess of 20,000 people present - I imagine that this is a rather conservative estimate. According to St. Mark and St. John, the Disciples do the math and figure that it would require at least six month's wages to buy enough bread for everybody in the crowd to have a few bites.
Where others see scarcity, Jesus sees abundance. Somehow He turns the boy's sack lunch into a feast that nourishes and fills tens of thousands of people, and somehow He manages to leave twelve baskets of leftovers. A theology of abundance does not work very well if we are so stuck in a mindset of scarcity that we cannot see the abundant blessings of God all around us, nor does it work if we selfishly hoard or stockpile resources. A theology of abundance only works if people who have are willing to share with people who are without - just like the boy who shared his food.
Now I want you, the reader, to think about three numbers.
The first number is 21,000. According to studies by the United Nations, every day, 21,000 people in the world die because of hunger.5
The second number is 2700. According to a 1996 estimate by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, there is enough food produced in the world for every person on the planet to consume 2700 calories per day.6 The calculations on the nutrition information labels on the packages of food we buy are based on a diet of 2000 calories per day. Despite the death count, there is more than enough food to go around.
The third number is 40. According to studies by the Natural Resources Defense Council, 40% of the food produced in the United States is thrown away.7
Some people in the world do not have access to the food they need to survive. Other people in the world buy more food than they are able to eat. Something is wrong with this picture.
In our individualistic society we don't like to hear that we have a responsibility to anybody but ourselves and our families, but, whether we like it or not, we have a responsibility to the hungry people of the world. According to the creation stories at the beginning of the Bible, humanity was created to be the caretakers of God's good creation.8 As the stewards of the world and its resources, it is our responsibility to make sure that people have access to the food they need.
There are numerous organizations that are dedicated to fighting poverty, one of which is Stop Hunger Now. Stop Hunger Now combats world hunger through its meal packaging program. At packaging events, hundreds of volunteers gather to assemble non-perishable meal packages of rice, soy, dried vegetables, and nutrient packets. At a single packaging event, volunteers might package as many as one million meals. These meals are shipped out to impoverished areas in the world. Many of these meals are sent to schools, so that parents have an incentive to send their children to school. At these school, children get the nourishment they need, and they also gain the education they need to break the cycle of poverty.9
Of course, you do not need to travel halfway across the world to find areas of poverty. There are hungry people in your midst, even if you live in an industrialized nation. Local soup kitchens and food banks are always in need of your help. I hope that you, the reader, will consider how you can help to fight hunger and poverty, in your own neck of the woods and on the other side of the world. I pray that we always remember the abundance of blessings God has lavished upon the world, and I pray that we never forget about the people in the world who are in need.
Notes:
- The daily lectionary can be found in .pdf format here.
- Psalm 65:9-13 (NRSV)
- See Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, and John 6:1-14.
- I hope you realize I'm speaking tongue-in-cheek here.
- http://www.poverty.com/
- http://www.economist.com/node/18200702/
- http://www.nrdc.org/food/wasted-food.asp
- Genesis 1-2
- http://www.stophungernow.org/mission-history/
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