January 19, 2003
By Jack Price

Series: Asset Management and the Search for Self

‘Tis the night before vacation and packing begins in earnest at the Price household. Suitcases are located and clothing and other supplies loaded in. Soon the sound of voices, “What will the weather be like? Hot, cold?” “Better take clothes for both.” “Can I bring my…?” “If there’s room.” “I don’t know which shoes to bring.” “Bring at least two pair, and some dress ones!” And the next day we take off, only a few hours late, with a minivan full of everything we will possibly need, until of course we discover what we forgot – pondering the existential question “How much is enough?”

In times of anxiety or crisis, it is better not to take a chance. Pack enough stuff for every eventuality and you’ll always have what you need. But will you really? And will it be enough?

In times of crisis for ancient Israel, God called special leaders to rally the Israelites, fight whatever enemy was threatening, and restore the peace. This was such a time. Gideon was the man of the hour.

Gideon was an unlikely hero. When Israel was threatened, and he felt the tug of God’s call to lead them, Gideon was not sure he wanted to answer that call. In fact, he kept asking God for proof – for reassurance – that he was hearing correctly, that God really was calling him and would be on Gideon’s side and give him victory. First, he puts a fleece of wool on the ground and asks God to make the dew fall only on the fleece, keep the ground dry. This would prove Gideon was indeed hearing God correctly! Then he asks for the reverse – dry fleece and wet ground. In both cases, God comes through and Gideon is reassured.

Convinced, Gideon puts out the call and 32,000 men from Israel join him to form an army to defend their land. The armies of the Midianites encamped in a valley near the hill Moreh and those of Israel a little to the south near a spring. Gideon must have been feeling pretty confident with his fighting force when he hears THE VOICE.

“Gideon, it’s too many.”

“What?”

“Too many men, too many soldiers.”

“What do you mean? How many is too many? Don’t we want to win this battle? How much is too much?”

“You have too many. When they win, they’ll think they did it all on their own. Send at least half of them home.”

“Excuse me, half?”

“Tell you what, let anybody who’s afraid to fight go home. Tell them it’s okay.”

So Gideon offers an immediate and no-questions-asked release from military service to whomever preferred not to fight in what was a most extraordinary strategic plan! So Gideon is thinking--

“Okay, we’re down from 32,000 to 10, 000, but we light and mobile. I think we can still pull this off.”

“Gideon.”

“What!”

“Still too many.”

“You must be kidding! I have released two-thirds of my army and that’s still too many? Tell me something -- do you have a specific number in mind, if you don’t mind my asking? Where are we going with this? How few is enough?”

“I’ll let you know, Gideon. Listen, tell all the men to go drink from the stream. Those that scoop up water with their hands to drink, send them home. Keep the ones who stick the faces in the water and lap it up.”

There are 300 men who are lapping water like dogs.

“Those are my guys! Gideon, now I can answer your question. 300 is enough.”

For the longest time, I thought it was the degree of trust shown by those guys who just got down and put their whole face in the water -- somehow they must have been more fit to be in God’s army – that authentic discipleship really was something of a “lapping matter.” So Gideon responds.

“Let me get this straight. You want me to face the enemy with 300 lappers?”

“Trust me, Gideon.”

Gideon’s army had to get sufficiently small and weak so they could understand where their true strength lay. In this instance, an army of 300 was enough and more was too much.

“How much is enough?” is a question that faces us now, particularly in a society that consumes so much of the world’s resources. How much information is enough? How much power is enough? How much security is enough? How many layers of protection will guard us from life’s dangers? How much comfort do we need? How much is enough?

When we know how much enough is for ourselves, then we are free to give anything over that to those who do not have enough, and there is a fair balance. When we do not know how much enough is for us, we keep grasping for a little bit more always hoping to feel satisfied, yet never quite making it. Not knowing how much is enough for us, we will always feel in want and will have nothing to share. Then, when we do share, it feels like giving away what we need for our well being. That leads to resentful for giving out of guilt or pride for being so generous, or both; but not to joy. We are joyful in giving when we know what we have is enough for us. What we possess beyond what we need becomes a reservoir of abundance, to give to those in need.

So how much is enough? I don’t know. Honestly, I do not know the answer for you. I struggle to know it for myself. I do know that such knowledge holds the key to fulfillment. In last Sunday’s sermon, I acknowledged being indebted to Gordon Cosby of the Church of the Savior for the title and the foundational thinking of last Sunday’s sermon. I owe him that same debt this week. His sermon, also titled How Much Is Enough?, inspired the inner-dialogue of my sermon today. He suggests that what enables us to seek a fair balance between abundance and need is connectedness first with God, then with other people, and finally with the earth itself.

Get connected to God. That sounds easy!?! Public and private worship, prayer, bible study, meditation, and devotional reading coupled with efforts to live and give lovingly are all tried-and-true pathways to help us get and stay connected with God, but they are only pathways. You and I have to do the walking, the working, and the living. And be careful not to substitute the process for the connecting – the things you do and say for the relationship you seek. And do not expect others to make the connection happen for you. Each one of us, with the support and encouragement of a community of faith, has the work to do of spiritual growth, of becoming and living as disciples. Whatever our image of God – traditional, new age, or eastern, our faith rests in the belief that the Ultimate who lies behind our creation seeks to know us, to love us, and to be loved by us. The first step to discover how much is enough for you is to connect to God.

The second step is to get connected to other people. When you know another person, really connect with them, then you will want for them what you want for yourself. What a gift when you really listen to me, hear my fear and hope, and are attuned to my needs. You know me as a person.

We need to get connected to other people. German theologian Martin Buber called knowing about someone an “I-It” relationship, being aware of and knowing information about someone. He called knowing someone relationally an “I-Thou” relationship. “I-Thou” means knowing another, hearing their fears, their desires, and their hopes. Being connected to other people helps you know what they really need. Being connected to other people also helps you know what you really need and discover how much is enough for you.

Finally, we need to get connected to the world that is our home. Listen to the earth. She is crying with pain. Species once were lost to extinction once in 2,000 years. Today, a species is lost on average every twenty-five minutes. Oceans are dying from pollution. Oil spills killed water life by the millions. Global warming threatens the ecology. Matthew Fox and many others cry a warning, “Our mother, the Earth, is dying.” We need to connect to the Earth, to listen to her cries for health. Her future, her fate, is indeed our own.

There is a story from the New Testament book of Acts that illustrates the question, “How much is enough?” – helping us sort out needs from abundance.

Acts 3: 1-7, 16

One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon. And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.

[Peter said to the people, Jesus’] name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

There is a man who is crippled with all that implied in terms of his sin and God’s punishment. He sits outside the temple, the place of worship from which he is banned because of his infirmity, and begs people for money. Along come two men with no money. “Please, good sirs, some money?” The two stop and they “looked intently at him.” Both Peter and John stop and look at this man. They see this invisible man and he “fixes his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them.” And he does, but not what he expects. He has long since stopped asking for healing. Now he just asks for money.

United States currency carries the slogan, “In God we trust.” The truth proclaimed by our government’s policies, as well as most of our community and individual decisions, belies that slogan. We may truly ask ourselves, “Where do we place our trust?” Is it in God or is it in money, security, might, safety, and popularity?

The Church is called to be alternative community within our culture. So, “how much is enough within the church? How much to give? How much to want? How much is enough in our culture? How much is enough for us as persons?

Peter looks at the beggar and says, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you.” I do not have what you are asking for, but I believe I have what you are hoping for. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” My life has been saved and redeemed by Jesus and I share that with you. Then, Peter took the beggar “by the right hand and raised him up.” The right hand was the divine hand, the hand of wholeness. Peter was saying to the beggar, “You are whole and accepted. I hear you and the need you do not even dare to dream anymore. There is good news for you. You are redeemed.” And the beggar stood up and was whole.

Peter, with all his checkered history, knew what he himself needed. Forgiveness and connection with God through Jesus was enough. Out of the abundance of his own connectedness, knowing his own need, Peter shares freely, joyfully, and in abundance with one in need.

Gordon Cosby concludes, “I have said that I don’t know what I should have, and you probably don’t know what you should have. But I think one of the most powerful things we can do for one another is to tell our stories. If we start telling these stories to one another, and if we listen to the stories.”

How much is enough? As we know our need, that need loses power over us. When we come to accept ourselves the way God knows us, we discover that what we really need, we already have.