“Scarcity and Abundance”
SCRIPTURE
That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’” The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. —Exodus 16:13-18
DEVOTIONAL
Old Testament Walter Brueggemann argues that people who live in a world of abundance have a worldview of scarcity. And people who live in a world of scarcity have a worldview of abundance. He writes,
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if liberal and conservative church people, who love to quarrel with each other, came to a common realization that the real issue confronting us is whether the news of God’s abundance can be trusted in the face of the story of scarcity? What we know in the secret recesses of our hearts is that the story of scarcity is a tale of death. And the people of God counter this tale by witnessing to the manna. There is a more excellent bread than crass materialism. It is the bread of life and you don’t have to bake it. As we walk into [the future], we must decide where our trust is placed.1
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- How can you trust God’s abundance in a world ruled by a sense of scarcity? What makes it so difficult?
- Nouwen writes, “When we are concerned that there isn’t enough, our first response is to start hoarding. We start hoarding the bread, the fish. Hoarding honor. Hoarding affection, hoarding knowledge. Hoarding ideas. If we start hoarding, we find ourselves with enemies.”2 In what ways do you feel the temptation to hoard? What possessions are the most difficult for you to resist hoarding? Why?
- How does the counter-intuitive logic of the Kingdom teach you that by giving we receive and by hoarding we lose? Why is it such a challenge for us to let go?
PRAYER
God, we are woven into the narrative of death. Forgive us for participating in the myth that you don’t, can’t, or won’t provide. Open our eyes to see what you are doing all around us so that we might live into your drama of abundance and life. In the name of that abundance made flesh, Amen.
1 Brueggemann, Walter. “The Liturgy of Abundance, The Myth of Scarcity.” The Christian Century, March 24-31, 1999.
2 Nouwen, Henri. Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety. (New York: Image, 2024), 39.
The daily devotionals for the season of Lent are written by Rev. Dr. Kirk Hall, Associate Pastor of Formation at First Presbyterian Church from 2010-2013. He is currently a founding partner at The Metis Project, LLC. and lives with his wife and two girls in Salisbury, Connecticut.