Letting Go

Scripture:

Acts 2:42-47

Preached 05/11/2014

 

How heavy is too heavy?  I don’t know about you, but I’ve been told that I’m not supposed to be lifting anything that’s too heavy right now.  I’m guessing I’m not alone in this restriction, and some of you have been told this too, at some point in your lives, or at this point.  But being told not to lift things that are too heavy isn’t really useful, is it?  So how heavy does something have to be to be too heavy?

Well, let’s start small.  How heavy do you think this mug of tea is?

Okay, so we have a range of answers here, and that’s fine.  However many ounces this glass of water weighs, is it heavy?  Is it too heavy?  Well, that depends, doesn’t it.  And it doesn’t really depend on the absolute weight of the mug of tea itself- sorry- that was kind of a trick question for you there.  Now, to be fair, there are several factors that matter, like my muscle tone and the amount of time I’m holding the mug. 

But what really matters, and what is really important for our purposes this morning, is how I hold the mug.  If I hold it loosely, down at my side in a relaxed manner, it feels pretty light and I don’t feel that much strain, and the glass is light.  But what if I hold this glass differently?  For example, if I hold it tightly?  If I clutch it like this with both hands and all my arm strength, well, then it feels pretty darn heavy, and my muscles get tired really quickly.  And if I try to keep holding it like that for a while, my arms will start to ache.  They’ll eventually start to lose feeling, and even get somewhat paralyzed. 

When I grip it tightly, it’s a really heavy mug of tea.  But, if I put this same glass down, it’s as light as can be.  It doesn’t weigh a thing, at least as far as I’m concerned.  So how heavy this water is doesn’t actually have much to do with the absolute weight.  The absolute weight of the water never changes.  But how I hold it makes all the difference in the world.

It’s not just the mug of tea, either.  This principle of heaviness relative to holding applies to a whole lot. To everything, really.  How we hold on to things makes all the difference in the world.  Remember the scripture reading from a few minutes ago?  I really hope so!  Those early Christians, that early community of people attempting to live out what Jesus taught them, they had a very distinctive way of holding on to things.

Do you remember what it was? That early Christian community we find in Acts didn’t hold things themselves.  They held them as a community.  Verses 44 and 45 of our passage this morning “⁴⁴All who believed were together and had all things in common; ⁴⁵they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.” 

One person didn’t hold things.  Everyone shared in holding them.  It’s a different way of holding things!  Especially in the world and culture we live in today.  We are taught to hold on, by ourselves, very tightly to all the money and things we are able to amass.  Because, of course, they are ours and ours alone.  And of course, our culture lies to us when it comes to things and money, because we know that they are, in fact, not ours at all.  They come solely from God, and they belong solely to God.  They are gifts, they are loans, really, and once God has released them to us, it’s up to us to decide how to hold them. 

And we have two, very different options.  We can do what our culture tells us to do and hold, very tightly.  But, just like the mug, the more tightly we hold, the heavier our money and our possessions get. And just like that mug of tea, when those possessions start to get heavy because of our grasping, they hurt us.  They tire us, not necessarily our muscles, but our spirits.  They wear us down, they break us down, because our energy is devoted to them instead of the important stuff- like our families, our friends, and of course, most importantly our God as we know God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.  We can even become immobilized and paralyzed from holding too tightly to money and possessions.

Hoarding, or grasping tightly to what we have been given by God isolates us.  If we grasp our time too tightly, maybe only being willing to show up at church or work on church projects and fellowship for this hour on Sunday, our grasping keeps certainly keeps us away from the joyful, shared community based life our scripture describes for us this morning.  Grasping too tightly to what God has given us also keeps us from the joy described in our scripture- we miss on the fullness of the glad and joyful hearts that only come from sharing, from releasing back to God what was never ours in the first place.

And, as one of my seminary professors was very fond of saying, this isn’t just about you.  Yes, releasing those gifts of God is incredibly good for us.  It frees us from those spiritual aches, numbness, and even paralysis.  It breaks isolation, it frees us for the fullness of gladness and joy.  But releasing what God has given us benefits the community too.  Remember back to that scripture reading.  The early Christian community didn’t just release what they had been given for fun.  As we heard “⁴⁵they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.”

We know there are still many, many people in need. In St. Louis city and county alone, it’s estimated that more than 1.3 million people live below the poverty line, meaning they are unable to afford the basics, like safe housing, reliable transportation, and adequate food.  Almost 1 in 4 children in Missouri are food insecure, meaning they don’t know where their next meal will come from, and often don’t have regular meals.  More than 10,000 people are homeless in Missouri.  And then there’s human trafficking, and mass incarceration, and people trapped in substance abuse and addiction, and teen parents, and the list goes on and on and on.  We are surrounded by those in need.   

And remember, this does apply our money too, and not just time and possessions.  For example, these dollar bills.  How heavy do it have to be to be too heavy? Well, it depends how I hold them.  Do I grasp this money tightly?  Do I hold on to it with all my might?  Or do I hold it loosely, do I share it and let it go as needed?  I’ll admit; I’ve been guilty of holding on too tightly to money in the past.  So, this morning, I’m letting go.  And I’m giving this to all of you. 

Take one, and do something with it.  Remember, just like any other money you might have, this is not yours.  So let it go, too.  Give it to a charity, give it back to this church in the offering plate, give it to a person in need.  Just give.  Let go of what’s not even yours in the first place.  And feel the joy, and liberation, and God-connectedness that comes from giving.  May this dollar be only the very beginning.  Amen.