More Will Never Be Enough


“Quick, let’s go,” my wife said to me, “they just got a new shipment at Ames in Huntingdon.” This was exciting news. Stores everywhere were bombarded with requests. Somebody told us that it was selling for hundreds of dollars on the Internet, and this was for an item that was regularly $20. It was only a couple weeks until Christmas. Time was running out. We knew if we got this for Seth, then his Christmas would be perfect. We had to have Tickle Me Elmo.

I don’t know what happened to Tickle Me Elmo. We gave him away, I think. He still worked, still tickled. But Seth didn’t care anymore. Nobody cared. It’s very sad. But come to think of it, nobody cared about Elmo even weeks after the gift was given.

You may laugh at this behavior, but I bet there is a Tickle Elmo-like purchase in your past. Heck, there’s probably one in your past month. This is because most of us have problems controlling our desire for the Next Thing. The Next Thing might be a car, a promotion, or the love of a beautiful woman. It might be a cabbage patch doll, a flat screen, or an iphone. “We keep hoping that The Next Thing will be IT – the source of true satisfaction for our souls,” writes John Ortberg.

And maybe it is, for a few minutes, a few days. But then it wears off. It always wears off. And we have to go get something else.

I love my wife. What if she were to take a credit card and go to Boscov’s for a day of unlimited shopping, buying every outfit, every pair of shoes, every electronic gadget, every piece of jewelry her heart desired? Would it be enough?

We’ll never know.


King Solomon was a man who knew about this Itch. And he knew how to scratch it. In fact, he dedicated his life to this pursuit of more. He made his life a test of pleasure. He had the finest foods. He surrounded himself with art and beauty. He built the finest palace. It took a construction crew of 150,000 thirteen years to build. It was a really nice house. He had the finest musicians. He accumulated one thousand wives and concubines. He was supposed to be the smartest guy in the world, and yet he collected a thousand wives.

He indulged every appetite. “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.”

Where did it get him? Nothingness, he said. Vanity. A waste of time.


Now. You may say to that – “If only I had his problem.” You may say, “Give me unlimited wealth and I’ll find a way to be happy.” Many people think they’d like to try.

Of course, we are in the midst of economic recession and so King’s Solomon’s dilemma is problem not on the radar for any of us. I read that even the very rich of our country are cutting back. The corporate CEO”s are making the sacrifice of selling off their corporate jets. Some people in Beverly Hills are not making “obvious” extravagant purchases. They don’t want to be seen carrying Prada bags. O, the humanity!

I saw a cartoon recently that captured the spirit of the times quite well. Santa has gone to see a psycho therapist. Santa is depressed over the bad economy and how people seem to want as many toys.

The psychotherapist replies, “you just have to believe in yourself.”


There is good news. There is a vision of life in which are happiness and well-being are not dictated by our purchases, or even by the state of the economy. The Bible says that it’s possible to live on very little and live richly.


There was a man named John the Baptist who went one better. He lived on nothing. He seemed to test himself with how little pleasure he could live on. Call him the anti-Solomon. Here is how Matthew describes him:

“John wore a camel’s hair shirt and a leather belt. A typical meal for him was locusts and wild honey.” Matthew 3.4

But John had something that Solomon, by his own admission, never had. John had an assurance that he knew exactly what life was about. Life is about a Kingdom, the kingdom of God, and you are either a part of this kingdom or you are not. Better do what you can to become a kingdom member.

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

John the Baptist was an oddity even to the Jewish people back then who were not surprised by wild-eyed prophets in rough clothing. John was odd because he didn’t seem to want anything else besides proclaiming his message about the Kingdom and the Messiah. John had all the pleasure and satisfaction he needed. He couldn’t be bought. He couldn’t be seduced. He was not attracted to or intimidated by power. John was content.

The Apostle Paul lived a similar life to John’s. It was full of hardship and persecution. But Paul was absolutely sure of what he was doing and the One who called him.

“For I have learned to be content with whatever I have.. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4.11-13


There is an old Shaker hymn with which you may be familiar. It’s called ‘Tis the Gift to be Simple. Listen to the words of the first stanza:

Tis the gift to be simple. Tis the gift to be free.
Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be.

However, if we keep trying to scratch that Itch, more will never be enough. We keep thinking that a train called more will get us to a station called satisfaction.

What if, however, the train is called contentment? And what if the station is called heaven?

If this world is not our home, then why should we expect to be satisfied with the things of this world?

Will you say enough to your purchases this Christmas? Put a limit on how much you will buy. Give it to Heifer Project. Give it to the Rescue Mission. Give it to the Church. Be content.

“Someday, when we stand before God with nothing but the clothes on our backs, we will see Him face-to-face. Then our longing for truth, beauty, love, and purpose will be fully realized. Then the restless human race will finally cry out, “Enough!”

And God will say, “More!”

Do Something

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because though it was a very large mammal, its throat was very small.

The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale.

Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible. The little girl said, “When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah.”

The teacher asked, “What if Jonah went to hell?”

The little girl replied, “Then you ask him.”


The Bible is clear that God can do and does miraculous things, like rescuing Jonah from the belly of a whale. The Bible is also clear that someday the world as we know it will come to a conclusion at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. At that time all people will be judged.


“When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates sheep from goats.” Matthew 25.31-32

Who gets in one group and who goes in another is a matter of some interest to even marginally religious people. (Hint: you want to be a sheep) I had a discussion the other day in which someone was critical of Christians who say other people are going to go to hell. But almost every religion has a hell - Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism have a place of paradise and a place of punishment. These other religions just don’t advertise hell that much. You can see why.

But what does the Bible teach about this Last Judgment and those who go to Heaven?

Like the little school girl, we must believe that God can do the great things we read about in the Bible. But even belief in miracles is insufficient grounds for entry to Heaven.

Clearly, you must believe in God and the saving grace of Jesus Christ. In Hebrews it says that it is impossible to please God without faith. But for too many people “faith in God” has been a weak and tepid thing. Faith has meant a nominal belief that neither changes the believer or their world around them. That “faith” is dead.

Knowing a lot about the faith and the Bible, by itself, doesn’t make you Heaven ready either? Lots of churches equate Bible smarts with faithfulness. But smart people mess up too.

John Ortberg tells the story of three men in a plane: a pilot, a Boy Scout, and the world’s smartest man. The engine fails, the plane is going down, and there are only two parachutes. The smart man grabs one. “I’m sorry about this,” he says, “but I’m the smartest man in the world; I have a responsibility to the planet,” and he jumps out of the plane. The pilot turns to the Boy Scout and speaks of how he has lived a long, full life and how the Boy Scout has his whole life ahead of him. He tells the Boy Scout to take the last parachute and live. “Relax, Captain,” the Boy Scout says. “The world’s smartest man just jumped out of the plane with my backpack.”


I remember what Keith Green, the late Christian songwriter use to say about being a Christian: “Going to church don’t make you Christian anymore than going to McDonald’s makes a hamburger,” Green used to say. “A Christian is somebody who is bananas for Jesus.”

That’s not bad. We all ought to be bananas for Jesus. But I have been around enough believers to know that ‘bananas for Jesus” can devolve into looking like you love Jesus or being especially emotional for Jesus. The piety may be there but something’s missing.
Personal piety, by itself, will not get you to Heaven.

In fact the kind of belief that translates into a relationship with Jesus Christ is built on faith in his saving grace, which has a profound effect on your whole life. It is the faith that works itself out in obedience to the Word of God.

When Jesus divides the people he does so on what basis? According to what they did and didn’t do. The unrighteous knew as well as the righteous to call him Lord. It wasn’t a matter of talking the talk. It wasn’t only a matter of personal piety. The difference between the sheep and the goats is what they did with their beliefs. The sheep did much. The goats did little to nothing for others. They did only for themselves.

A faithful Christian feeds on the word of God like sheep feed in green pastures. The faithful Christian allows the Word of God to be applied to them.

Roy Clement in his outstanding commentary on Ezekiel notes that the prophet was speaking to a religious people who had gotten quite good at listening but not really listening. They came to hear preaching with blocks and walls up. They filtered everything they heard so if they didn’t like something, they concluded, “this doesn’t apply to me.” They heard the Word of God without practically responding to it.

These days we judge preachers and teachers of the word on whether they draw a crowd. If they draw a big crowd they are successful. But sometimes success comes at the price of never challenging people with the truth. It is easer to just tell people what they want to hear. Ezekiel said that this is like building a shaky wall and putting whitewash on it. The people doubted whether God would ever really do what He said he was going to do.

But God didn’t doubt it.

“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: None of my words will be delayed any longer; whatever I say will be fulfilled.” Ezekiel 12.28

Clement says, “If we do not apply God’s word to our lives, the day will come when it will be applied to us whether we like it or not.”

A great irony is that everyone will someday know God. The question is will we know him by experiencing his mercy or will we know him by experiencing his judgment?

Are we allowing the Word of God to be applied in our lives? We know the answer to this. It is found in the fruit of our lives, in what we are actually doing. Are we doing more for others or more for ourselves? Are we doing for “the least of these”?

Not to put too fine a point on it, but that means, welcoming new people into our lives, caring for the sick, visiting people in prison, feeding and clothing the poor and those in need. True piety for God, true faith in Jesus, is displayed in works of justice. I can talk all day long about God, but if there is no doing for God, then I am just noise. Great men and women of the faith have always known this – from Paul to St. Francis to John Wesley – piety and social justice are inseparable.

Later on in the book of Ezekiel we hear God’s plans to care for the sheep who are poor and weak, who have been neglected by the fat and strong. The hungry he will feed with good things. For the fat and strong, he will feed them with justice.

Jesus account of the Last Day makes it clear that the ones who knew him were those who did what he commanded to be done. Remember, you can’t really love God if you don’t love your brother too.

This requires great commitment, in fact, a greater commitment than any other you will ever make. Living for heaven is incompatible with hedging your bets, playing it safe, remaining neutral. You’ve got to commit. You have to make choices. You have to act.
For God’s sake, do something!

This life is your one shot! You must give yourself completely and totally to this pursuit. You don’t have the luxury of holding something back for the second hundred years. Your life is the ballot you cast – for God or against him. Vote early. Vote often.

Throw No Stones

Video Clip of Nickel Mines.

I think back to the reaction I had to the Amish school shootings at Nickel Mines in Lancaster County – my reaction was not again, and why here? Why anywhere? But as the story was covered, it unfolded in a very different way than was expected. Like Columbine, in the midst of the senseless tragedy we listened for voices of faith and assurance. But the Amish are quiet. They spoke, as they usually do, with action more than words. The Amish community at Nickel Mines acted, but it wasn’t in outrage and disgust at the immoral and violent world outside their fellowship. No one would have been surprised by that. It was their due. They would justified in saying that this world was going hell. But they didn’t say that. Instead their community reached out to the family of the killer, the man who executed their little girls, and the Amish forgave.

And really, who understood that? Of all the people paying any sort of attention to the tragedy really understood this response. If you asked the Amish why they forgave, in so many words, they would tell you “Jesus.” But that answer is equally perplexing and unintelligible to a lot of the world these days. But it doesn’t have to be. In fact, Jesus says a lot about himself and the Kingdom. He tells us a lot about forgiveness. I want to briefly look at three episodes in the Gospels today that very much share a common theme – the generous forgiveness of God.

The first parable we have just read together – it is sometimes called “the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.” It begins really with a preface, and that preface is a question from Peter to Jesus –

“Lord, how many times do I have to forgive my brother?”

Peter’s question implies that there must be a reasonable limit to forgiveness. There must be boundaries for the immoral and wicked. There must even be boundaries for people we know, family members, people we go to church with, who nevertheless offend us one too many times. So what is it, Lord? Religious people want to know.

So Jesus answers the question with a number, seventy times seven, that means a lot more than the sum. Seven is a biblical number. Seven satisfies. It implies wholeness – justice. So when Jesus says, “Not seven, but seventy times seven, “ Jesus is really saying – infinity. You’re never done forgiving.

Peter’s reaction is probably pretty similar to the above mentioned reaction to the Amish at Nickel Mines – disbelief. Why would anyone forgive like that?

So Jesus tells a story about a king who begins to reckon the debts owed him. He finds one slave who cannot possibly repay him, but instead of the just punishment, the king has pity and forgives the debt. This is turn sets up the forgiven slave for an opportunity to pass on the forgiveness to another who owes him.

One thing this parable tells us is . . .everybody owes somebody. We are all in debt.

You know how the world operates. You wanna play you gotta pay. There is no free lunch. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have the money this month, the creditor is still going to call. This is the way things work. We understand this. How could it be any different?

Except that Jesus talks like it can be different – like it is different.


prod-i-gal/ 1. recklessly extravagant 2. having spent everything

“A man had two sons. The younger son asks his father for his share of the inheritance and so the father complies and divides the estate between the younger and older son. The younger son goes off to a far country and burns through his inheritance.” We call this the Parable of the Prodigal Son because we make it mostly about how the father forgives this younger son his sins. It is about that. But it is equally, if not more, about the older brother’s sins. There are two lost sons here, only the older one doesn’t know it. Each son represents a different way to be alienated from God.

The word “prodigal” doesn’t mean wayward, Timothy Keller points out. Prodigal means “recklessly spendthrift.” It means to spend until you have nothing left.

Timothy Keller points out that two groups of people have come out to hear Jesus: the first is the tax collectors and sinners; the second is the Pharisees and religious teachers. The first group is represented by the prodigal younger son in the parable. The second group, the religious leaders, are represented by the older son. These leaders are truly perplexed because these sinners keep coming out to hear Jesus preach. “These people never come to our services! He must be telling them what they want to hear!” That’s how the Pharisees rationalize the situation.

The sinners hear this story of forgiveness and their eyes well up with tears. Jesus is talking their language. He understands. But they are not only ones Jesus is talking to. Jesus is talking, pleading with the religious leaders to see the bankruptcy of their religion. He wants them to understand they too, have spent everything recklessly. They too are in debt.

Stone woman

Another time the Pharisees bring a woman who was caught in adultery. If they had newspapers then the headlines would have screamed, “Village Temptress Caught On Tape!” What nobody said was that the woman was “caught” only because she was so well known. She was so well known because so many men of the village went to visit her after dark. But for the Pharisees, she is an easy target. No reason to divide blame when it can all be piled at her door.

Doesn’t it seem like there is a relationship between the loose moral standards of a culture and the judgmental nature of its religion. It is not a cause/effect relationship. It’s more like a symbiotic one – the more loosey goosey people are with morality, the more judgmental these same people can be. It doesn’t make much sense really. We are like children who think they can make the bad deed go away by hiding it or burying it in the ground.

In this case, the people said, “Let’s stone her. That will solve the problem.”

Jesus said, “Only perfect people are qualified to throw stones. Who’s first?”

And the children went away in bewilderment, even in shock and awe.


It seems that God’s relationship to us and our sin works somewhat differently. The more reckless we become, the more forgiving God is. When it comes to grace and forgiveness, we have a prodigal God.

He spends himself in forgiveness, recklessly forgiving, sparing nothing of himself. God spares not pain, spares no blood, spares not His own Son, so that our sins are not “reckoned against us sinners.

“God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses” 2 Corinthians 5.19

I’m wondering maybe if a lot of us don’t see ourselves in the older brother of the Parable of Two Sons. Have you been blind to your alienation from God because you have spent most of your time seeing oh so clearly the reckless sins of others? Have you ever kept someone away from God by your harsh words of judgment and condemnation?

Judgment kills. It kills the one to whom it is directed, and it kills anyone not perfectly qualified, not perfectly just, to meet it out. We’re not qualified to throw stones.

What we are qualified to give, because we ourselves have received it, is forgiveness.

Forgiveness heals. I know this not just in theory. I know it in my life. Forgiveness dances in a thousand places.

Put down your stones and forgiveness will dance in your life. Forgiveness will dance in our community. Those prodigal people out there, they’ll come to our services if they really hear and see the forgiveness of Jesus in this place.

Give Them A Choice

When I was a kid I first noticed statues in front yards. We didn’t have a statue in my front yard – we didn’t have much of a front yard. I took note of statues and recognized Jesus, and the Virgin Mary, and even St. Francis of Assisi. I used to think, “O, those Catholics!” But now I think those Catholics are on to something. Putting a statue of your God in the front yard let’s people know what you worship and where you stand. Everybody ought to be so clear with their gods.

Remember, you can make a god ought of anything. Once definition of idolatry is . . .

Making a good thing an ultimate thing.

So your god could be food. It could be sex. It could be most anything. And people could represent their gods, their idols, just like people used to do in more ancient times. You could have a statue of a hamburger. You could have a statue of a beautiful woman. You could have a statue of Joe Paterno. . . O, they already have those.

Regardless of your god, the public sign would clarify where your allegiance lies. I think this would help us all realize that in fact, everyone is religious, everyone has things they value and give themselves to. Unfortunately much of what people give their lives to is unworthy of their devotion. People often wonder where Christians get the idea that they can be so public with their God. This is why – because smaller, meaner, less truthful gods are having their way with the people.

The God of the Bible wants to change that. The God of the Bible is always looking to make himself known. Look at what He did with Joshua and the Israelites. Joshua was the successor to Moses. Joshua was appointed to continue the work of infiltration and invasion of the Promised Land that Moses had really only started. Joshua was given this mandate for taking Canaan, found in Deuteronomy and repeated elsewhere:

When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you. . .nations mightier and more numerous than you – and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, you must utterly destroy them.

Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. . .for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. . .but this is how you must deal with them: break down their altars, smash their pillars, hew down their sacred poles, and burn their idols with fire.


Israel is stay separate from the other people. Is this simply racism? I would suggest no, something else is going on here. Joshua and the people are instructed to stay separate and to tear down the religious altars of the Canaanites so the Israelites will not become like them. Tear down the statues. Hew the sacred poles. A very popular deity in Canaan at that time was the goddess Asherah. She was a sex god. Her image cast in bronze and gold was set upon high poles on high places for people to venerate. The God of Israel said, “Cut them down.”

Biblical scholars used to think this invasion happened in one fell swoop. What is now known is this invasion was much more gradual. Historian Paul Johnson notes that Joshua “did not storm a city if he could avoid it. He preferred to negotiate a surrender or an alliance and peaceful settlement.” The invasion was more like an infiltration.

I would use that word to describe the Kingdom of God for us today. The Kingdom of God is an infiltration into a world currently subjected to demonic powers. The Kingdom of God is, in Dallas Willard’s words, a divine conspiracy to overthrow the powers that be and turn the world right side up again, the way God means for things to be.

You might say, well, in the Old Testament that was warfare. Should we make war on our unchurched neighbors along Third Ave, in Penn Farms, in Ivyside? No, but we can kindly and intelligently point out the insufficiency of their idols.

We demonstrate with our actions that there is another way to live. Actions speak louder than statues. Paul once went to Athens and strolled along the city streets. He saw idols everywhere. The Athenians weren’t shy about diplaying their gods. It is important to note that Paul didn’t take a sledge hammer to those altars. Rather he spoke with the Athenians and said, “I have another God. Let me tell you about this God.” Paul accomplished what Joshua set out to accomplish. He infiltrated a culture with the truth of God. He did this simply by giving the people a choice they never knew they had.

We can give people a choice. You give people a choice by inviting them to church with you. Remember, 80-90 percent of people that come to church for the first time come because someone they know invited them. Give them a choice they didn’t know they had.

When I was a kid I used to like sleeping over at my grandparents, especially on a Saturday night. Truman and Marian would get up early and make breakfast for me before we got ready for Sunday School and church. Grandma Marian used to throw a fat in the frying pan and then eat it. She taught me a little fat is good for you. Anyway, one Sunday Pappy skipped his breakfast and went to the neighbors and picked up their kids. This boy and girl, whom I didn’t know, where washed clean and dressed nice and ready to go. I didn’t understand at the time why their mom or dad didn’t bring them. I just know that Sunday and many Sundays after that, my pappy did.

This is giving a choice.

The plan God had for Israel was that they were chosen to be special; to be God’s treasured possession. By living in relationship with the true God they could then be a blessing to all peoples just as God had promised their forefather, Abraham.

Joshua is nearing the end of his life and he takes stock. He gathers the people at the city of Shechem. By this time Shechem, like Jericho, is already an old city. But until that time Shechem was not a good city. It was named after the young man who raped Dinah. That was its claim to fame. But Joshua and Israel came there and made it their religious center. They transformed a pagan place accustomed to idols and made it a place where they communed with God.

Joshua recounts Israel’s history with them, how God called Abraham forth from the valley of the Euphrates, how God delivered them from slavery in Egypt. And then Joshua said, now here we are.

Therefore revere the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. Joshua 24.14

See, Joshua knew that Israel herself still needed to keep the idols at bay, clean out the closets, circumcise their hearts once again. If they would have any meaning as a people and any value to the rest of their world, they must remain first and last, God’s people.

So Joshua brought them to not only a choice but a decision.

Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are now living;

The people had a choice- the God of Israel or the gods of the culture in which they were living, gods that went by many names. Joshua made it clear what he had decided:

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.


People come to crisis moments, just like Joshua and Israel, all the time. It’s in those moments that people have to make a choice about who they are and what they believe.


Give people a choice. We are not battling to have someone’s statues broken or their rights taken away. The stakes are higher than this. We are battling for hearts and minds captivated by the gods of the culture in which we all live. Many people don’t know any other way. Give them a choice and call them, just as we are called , to make a decision.

Our faith in God through Jesus Christ requires a decision. We are here to encourage others to say yes to Jesus, the living God.