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THE PAIN OF PROGRESS

Luke 12:13-21

When I was in elementary school my favorite days were science film days. These weren't wimpy videos--no such thing then. This was legitimate, 16mm, turn the lights off film. Often the film would break halfway through, which was great because it took even more time off the clock and away from our regular studies.

One of my favorite science films was a piece narrated by Walter Cronkite, who was everyone's hero then. If Walter said it, it was the truth. The film was about what life would be like in the 21st century.

Just that concept seemed totally unreal to me. Mr. Cronkite walked us through what a home would look like in the 21st century. It was amazing. Computers ran almost everything. Now even then I knew a little about computers, because you see I was a faithful watcher of Lost in Space. So I had a pretty good idea.

He talked about a computer turning on the coffeepot in the morning and fixing the breakfast in just a few seconds, instead of minutes. He showed us telephones where we would not only talk but also be able to see the other person on a little screen.

He said the day would come when we could dial up whatever entertainment we wanted on a big screen that filled the family room wall. He predicted we could someday talk to each other on phones that weren't hooked up to anything.

Well, here we are. And when I reflect on the changes that have happened just during my lifetime, it truly is staggering. For those who are a bit "more mature" it has to be mind-boggling.

My brother and I used to get our mother's jewelry boxes and flip up the spring loaded lids pretending they were our Star Trek communicators. Now we reach to our side for a small box that fits in the palm of the hand, flip it open, and in a few seconds are connected to anywhere in the world we want to be.

Most of us send and receive messages from people all over the world every day with nothing more than the click of button. Yesterday I had breakfast in Florida and was home in time for lunch. In fact, as I was preparing this sermon, I wanted some research information. So on the very same computer on which I was writing this message, I logged onto the Internet, brought up a search engine, typed in the question, and in a matter of seconds had the answer.

What a world we live in! It is truly amazing. However, there is one thing Walter Cronkite said in that science film that did not come true. He said that the result of our progress would be that we would have more leisure time.

He said that families would be able to spend more time together because folks wouldn't have to work so hard to survive. He said life would be better in the new millennium because we would be able to fix so many of the problems that then plagued society.
Say it ain't so, Walter. Surely you didn't lie to us. You just didn't know. None of us really knew. We thought the end of progress would be utopia. Little did we realize just how much pain our progress would bring.

Progress has been the religion of civilized society on both sides of the Atlantic for more than 200 years. For a while it seemed that progress would lead us to the promised land. Every problem had a solution--it was just a matter of time. But almost suddenly, it unraveled. We began to discover the hidden costs of progress. We didn't have acid rain in our lakes or holes in our ozone layer until progress gave them to us.

We are not flourishing under the gifts of modernity as one might expect. If we are so prosperous, why are the therapists' offices so full? If we have 10 times more abundance than our ancestors, why are we not 10 times more content and fulfilled?

No, the awful reality that you and I now live with is that there is great pain in what we have called progress. Rather than making life easier, life has become impossibly complex. Most of us are keenly aware of how maxed out our lives are. We know that our lives are, as Henri Nouwen put it, like overpacked suitcases, ready to burst open any moment under the pressure.

A few years ago I was exposed to an idea put forth by a physician named Richard Swenson. He has a very simple but accurate way of picturing what our modern lives have become. It has to do with margin. Think of the pages of a book. All books are printed with margins. They are not printed right out to the edge of the pages. That would be a bit overwhelming and confusing.

People who know about graphic layout talk about the importance of "white space" on printed pieces. But the way we have learned to live our lives, it's as if are using up everything, including the margin.

Margin-less living is "being thirty minutes late to the doctor's office because you were twenty minutes late getting out of the hairdresser's because you were ten minutes late dropping off the children at school because the car ran out of gas two blocks from the gas station--and you forgot your purse" (Swenson, Margin, p. 13).

We have learned to live without margins, which means that when anything unexpected comes up, it creates chaos. The pain of our progress is that we have no space left in our lives, no room to breathe, no room to listen, no room to just be.

Most of us know that something has got to give. Something has to change. We are becoming increasingly aware that we cannot go on like this. If we continue as we are, the final reward will be all the unhappiness that money can buy.

But how do we change it? What realistically can be done? As followers of Jesus we know that God is not impressed with our wealth, our education, our power. But we have been willing laborers in the fields of progress.

Well, when Jesus tells this story that we've heard together this morning, I think He offers us in the midst of the judgment on selfishness a way out. This man in Jesus' parable experienced in a dramatic way the pain of progress. The story comes to us in the context of some very serious exhortations and warnings from Jesus.

It opens with the account of two brothers quarreling over an inheritance. Jesus is asked to referee the situation, as was custom for rabbis, but He soundly refuses. After all, who can judge whose greed is right? Jesus wisely has no part in it. But He does use the incident as another opportunity to revisit one of the central truths of Kingdom life. God and materialism will never occupy the throne of your life at the same time. It's one or the other.

Verse 15 is the heart of the passage. It's a proverb. If you were to take verse 15 and drop it into the middle of the Book of Proverbs it would fit right in. "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."* Listen to that! Isn't that the truth? We see it so clearly sometimes.
But Jesus goes on tell the story of a rich man who forgot that principle and it cost him everything. He experienced the pain of progress. The story actually starts out well. He has worked hard. He invested well and it paid off. There was a bumper crop. He had a great year. Progress.

He even asked the right question, "What shall I do?" Anytime we find ourselves the beneficiaries of blessing and progress, that's a right question to ask, if we ask it of God. What should I do, Lord, with what You have given me?

Unfortunately, the farmer was focused on self. In fact, it's kind of interesting how often the pronoun "I" arises in this narrative. He asked the right question, but he came with the wrong answer. His answer basically was, "I need to make the most of the progress. I need to embrace it, save it, hoard it, hold on to it."

Actually, this man doesn't do anything that is not highly valued and honored in our society. This is the way we live. We suffer no crisis of conscience, not even a second thought about using the system to better our lives or about consuming goods or experiences solely for our pleasure.

But where are we? Since 1970 Americans have experienced a 47 percent increase in per capita consumption, but at the same time we report a 50 percent decrease in quality of life. (as measured by Fordham University's index of social health).

The pain of progress. We hear what Jesus says about God's response to the man's plan, and it's not good. "You fool." That's not what you want to hear from God about your life. "This very night your life will is being demanded of you" (v. 20). I guess we don't believe that. I mean, none of us really imagines that if we live our lives right out to the margins it will cost us our lives.

But if you are truthful about it, are you running your life or is life running you? Is that not a part of what Jesus means? What good is progress if all it gets us is more stress?
In 1930 at the start of the Great Depression, W. K. Kellogg (as in the cereal company) did something radical. At his mill, he replaced the three daily eight-hour shifts with four six-hour shifts. He reasoned that in so doing he could add 30 percent more jobs, which were desperately needed in Battle Creek, Michigan. The six-hour workday was an instant success.

People loved it because they had more time at home with their families. And for Kellogg it was no economic loss. In fact, within two years he had raised the pay for a six-hour day back to the previous level of the eight-hour day.

During World War II, the plant went back to eight-hour days in compliance with President Roosevelt's executive order. But when the war was over, in spite of management's generous incentives to continue the eight-hour day, workers voted three to one in favor of the six-hour day.

They explained, "I need the extra money, but I need the time at home more." Margin. However, as the tide of consumerism began to rise in the 1960s a new generation of workers talked very differently. They believed that in light of all that they wanted to buy, money was now the primary job benefit and the more the better. They could never get enough unless they worked full-time.

Finally in the late 1960s and 1970s television began to dominate their leisure time. Time for family and community activities was no longer perceived as being as valuable as what one could buy with money. So on December 11, 1984, workers at Kellogg's voted to return to the longer, eight-hour shift, and W. K. Kellogg's bold experiment had come to an end.

That's the mind-set of our culture. That's why we have no margin left. The only way we know to respond to unprecedented progress is to keep piling it on. We acquire more and more, we do more and more, we spend more and more until we find ourselves really in the very same position as the man in Jesus' parable. All the joy and pleasure we thought our barns full of goods would bring continues to be elusive.

So what's the answer? What is the alternative to progress? Regress? Shudder at the thought. Maybe a better word is redirection. The answer begins in verse 21 and continues into the next section. It involves embracing a whole new perspective on life, one that includes simplicity, generosity, and margin.

The answers are not difficult. There are simple, God-given ways to resist the pain of progress and find the margin, the space in life that leaves room for the most important things of all.

I can list them. I can talk about these things. But somewhere inside of you there has to come a decision to embrace them. There is no sensational experience that will bring these things to your life.

There isn't some great conference you can attend or some awesome book you can read that will make it all happen and bring the sanity into your life that you need. These are simple, God-given solutions that can only be embraced in faith, which is when you take God at His word and trust your life to His way of doing things.

One, you need to resist the schedule of daily life as it is accepted today by spending time alone with God. If you can't take time each day to quiet yourself in God's presence and pray and hear His word, there is no margin.

Two, you need to keep the Sabbath. I remind us that God has commanded that a day, a whole day, be set aside for worship and rest. If you can't resist productivity and activity for one day, there is no margin.

Three, you need to give money away. Part of creating margin in our lives is not living at or above our level of income. The best way I know of to do that is to be generous with resources.

Four, you need to reduce your stuff. Most of us have so much accumulated stuff that it's part of what robs our margin. Reduce. If you haven't used something in the past year, or even the past six months, you probably don't need it.

Five, nurture relationships. Be intentional about spending time with people. Turn off the television, stay away from the mall, park the car, linger with a family member or a friend far longer than you would normally do.

Simple things, aren't they? But these are the kinds of things God has provided to help us avoid the pain of progress. These are acts that are done in time and resist the preoccupation of this world with money and busyness.

Jesus said, "Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." Obviously, He's right. But can you take an honest look at your life this morning? Does the activity of this world consume your life? Are you exhausted most of the time trying to keep up? Are your pages all filled up to the edges so there is no margin?

Are you experiencing the pain of progress? What are you working for? What are you spending all that time trying to achieve? Is it really "a life"?

Jesus wants to bring order, margin, peace to your life. Why not take Him at His word, embrace the lifestyle of the Kingdom, and find the real rest that He promised?
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*Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.