Feasting on God's Abundance

by Michael Peat

I have recently been reading a book called God’s Companions, by Samuel Wells.

In it, the author claims that God’s gifts are so abundant that they are actually too much for us to comprehend: “the human imagination is simply not large enough to take in all that God is and has to give. We are overwhelmed.” On the face of it, this claim sounds comforting,but also rather out of touch in a world where it is shortage, rather than abundance, we more often experience as overwhelming.

The recent global financial crisis surged beyond the control of banks and governments, causing a widespread sense of shortage. News reports following the earthquake in Haiti pictured people overwhelmed by devastation on such a scale, that even the combined efforts of international relief agencies have not been enough to meet their needs. In January, the National Equality Panel published a report, detailing findings which suggest the gulf between the richest and poorest in Britain has grown bigger over the past 30 years. Abundance,it seems, is an experience more familiar to a privileged few.

Yet, Wells suggests, following Jesus is all about recognising and responding to God’s gifts as something we receive in abundance. How can we do this? I suggest the answer lies not in expecting improvements in God’s ways of giving, but in seeking a change to the way our imagination works. In a reflection entitled ‘the art of sharing,’ Kathy Galloway, a former leader of the Iona Community, points us in the right direction........

“My dictionary gives three definitions for the word ‘share’; first, “to distribute or apportion”, with its strong suggestion of power, of whom has the right to determine who shall get a share, and of what size. In my dictionary, this meaning is illustrated by the phrase, “to share out food and clothing to the poor”.

The second meaning for ‘sharing’ is “the dividing or cutting off part of what one has, and giving it to another or others”. It is to give away some, and to have less oneself. It is a diminishment.

The third, and last, meaning my dictionary gives is “to enjoy in common with others, to participate.” The first two definitions focus on the thing being shared, the third on the people it is being shared with. Between these two lines in a dictionary lies all the difference in the world.”

You could say that the first two definitions of ‘share’ reflect an imagination governed by a sense of shortage. Here, it is assumed that giving means one person losing something so that others can receive what they need. By contrast, sharing understood as ‘enjoying in common with others’ calls for an imagination governed by a sense of abundance. It assumes that in giving, a person can in fact stands to gain, for in giving he or she discovers the enriching experience of enjoying something together with others.

It is telling that Jesus uses the image of a banquet to describe the coming Kingdom of God. At a banquet, the enjoyment we receive derives not only from the quantity and quality of the food on offer, but in the fact that we are enjoying it in company: At a banquet we can receive welcome, companionship and storytelling, all which makes the feast so much more than just a means of nourishing our bodies. The abundance of a good banquet is found, above all else, in the experience of enjoying it with others. This is no less true of the ‘bring and share’ meals that we can have thanks to God’s abundant giving in the fruits of the earth!

That seems to me a good way to envisage what we are really doing when, for example, we give in response to appeals for money to help victims of natural disaster or to reduce social equality.

An imagination alert to the abundant possibilities of God’s gifts does not see responding to the need of others as a burdensome duty, an unfortunate necessity which requires us to sacrifice some of our financial power. Rather, it sees an opportunity for both the donor and the recipient to receive something more of God’s blessing than money alone can provide, namely the chance to feast on God’s abundance together.

In biblical terms, this is what is meant by a foretaste of the kingdom of God. It is an experience born of a state of mind, not a product to be bought.

The first week of February has been designated Poverty and Homelessness Action Week.  Inspired by the vision of Jesus’ disciples sharing everything they had in common “so there was not a needy person among them” (Acts 4v35), the coalition of charities supporting this week has devised this manifesto:

Enough! We have had enough greed and selfishness.
There is Enough for all!
Wealth is not just in material things.
We are wealthier together than we are on our own.
Let’s use what we have. Let’s share what we have.
We have wealth we do not know about yet.
Sometimes, we increase our wealth by
Giving stuff away and opening our homes.
Let’s not wait for the politicians.
We can do this ourselves!

Far from being out of touch, living out of faith in God’s abundance could hardly be more relevant than at times like this. Our own flourishing, no less than the flourishing of those whose pleas we answer, depends on it.