Scar(e)city and Security

“Scar(e)city and Security”

November 9, 2025 Cobleskill United Methodist Church, Pastor Anna Blinn Cole

1 Timothy 6:6-19

Twenty Second Sunday after Pentecost

Psalm 91

Assurance of God’s Protection

¹ You who live in the shelter of the Most High,    who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,^[a]2 will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress;    my God, in whom I trust.”³ For he will deliver you from the snare of the hunter    and from the deadly pestilence;⁴ he will cover you with his pinions,    and under his wings you will find refuge;    his faithfulness is a shield and defense.⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night    or the arrow that flies by day⁶ or the pestilence that stalks in darkness    or the destruction that wastes at noonday.

¹⁴ Those who love me, I will deliver;    I will protect those who know my name.¹⁵ When they call to me, I will answer them;    I will be with them in trouble;    I will rescue them and honor them.¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy them    and show them my salvation.

1 Timothy 6:6-19

⁶ Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment, ⁷ for we brought nothing into the world, so that^[a] we can take nothing out of it, ⁸ but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. ⁹ But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

The Good Fight of Faith

¹¹ But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. ¹² Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and for which you made^[b] the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³ In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you ¹⁴ to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ which he will bring about at the right time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. ¹⁶ It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

¹⁷ As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but rather on God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸ They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, ¹⁹ thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life._________________________________

I’ve gotten into the habit now of planning out our worship series about a month in advance.  For this minor miracle I thank Lenna and Betsy, our musicians, who gently nudge me in very kind ways to be an advanced planner so they can then get their pieces planned.  I am not typically a long-range planner and so this has taken some discipline and practice.  

It was about a month ago that I thought through what we would focus on during the middle Sundays of November, a season of gratitude and thanksgiving, also a season for thinking about stewardship.  I knew at that point that all of these concepts would be especially hard after a difficult year.  

But also, the concept that stuck with me as I sorted through all the feelings I was having was that this was a year, more than ever, that we needed to be grounded in our faithfulness to something greater than the difficulty of the circumstances that surround us.   I thought about how the narrative that seems pervasive around us at this point is a narrative of fear.  A message coming down from the powerful at the top that we should be afraid.  Be afraid because you are not safe enough.  Be afraid because your money is being taken from you and used for things that won’t help you.  Be afraid because the other side is out to get you.  Be afraid of the other.  Be afraid of the foreigner.  Be afraid of the people who don’t look like you.  

Fear is a powerful narrative.  And it’s often used by people in power to stay in power.  Cultivating a sense of fear in people keeps them on edge.  It makes them willing to support things like concentration camps dressed up as detention centers and battle-clad national guards called “peace-keepers.”  Fear is a powerful narrative.

But every powerful narrative has a counter narrative.  And the counter narrative of fear is the unwavering belief that there will be enough.  A faith in God’s provision to overcome every fear and every threat.  A belief that our security doesn’t come from armed guards or the detention of brown-skinned people.  A belief that our security comes from God’s provision.    

And that, I thought, was a pretty good place to start a worship series for the month of November.  Faithfulness in the midst of scar(e)city…. Faithfulness that stands in face of the narratives of fear meant to subdue us.  

Now, as I said, I planned this series about a month ago.  And about a month this seemed to me like a good plan.  

And then, this week happened.  And what happened this week is that narratives of fear and threats of not enough actually became a reality for millions of Americans.  Food, the core piece of basic human survival, was withheld from people for no justifiable reason except as a political weapon of the powerful.  Families actually stood in the line at the grocery store, got all the way to the cashier only to find that the SNAP card they depended on to fill the gaps in their budget didn’t have any money left.  There was not enough.  There was not enough.  

And so today this sermon is going to be coming from a place of desperation a little more than it might have otherwise.  This is not theory or philosophizing.  Enough is enough.  I’m tired of people in power telling me when and why to be scared.  I’ve had enough of rich men deciding how to make themselves richer while hungry babies cry in the halls of this church.  

Our bishop told us clergy this week in no uncertain terms that it’s okay to say what we need to say if what we need to say is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It doesn’t matter how you might label me or my politics because this isn’t about that.  This is about the Gospel of Jesus Christ that says there is enough.  And it’s about powerful people in this nation that want to argue with that claim… calling themselves Christians all the while.  I’m tired of hearing “There’s enough for some but not for everyone.”  That’s a lie rich men tell to make themselves richer. 

Today the scripture passage we read from Pauls’ first letter to Timothy says in no uncertain terms, these words:

“Those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.”  The Bible literally says that.  “Those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.”

And never has that been more obvious than in two pieces of news that dropped this week.  At a meeting of the Tesla shareholders, the shareholders voted at a rate of 75% to approve a new pay package for their CEO, Elon Musk.  The record-breaking pay-package is worth 1 Trillion dollars.  The largest in the history of the world.  That’s one million, one millions. The BBC reported, “The scale of the potential payout has drawn criticism, but the Tesla board argued that Musk might leave the company if it was not approved - and that it could not afford to lose him. Following the announcement, Musk took to the stage in Austin, Texas and danced to chants of his name.”

The other piece of news that dropped this week is that Brooke Nichols, a Boston University epidemiologist and mathematical modeler, has maintained a tracking system to record the impact of United States aid that has been lost around the world since January of this year.  Experts say the model is conservative.  But this week, as of November 5^th, the tracking system estimated that since the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was dissolved early this year, 600,000 people around the world have died as a result of preventable diseases and basic malnutrition.  Two-thirds of this number are estimated to be children.  The cuts to USAID were spearheaded by none-other than Elon Musk.  The man who makes enough that taxes on his salary alone could replace the funding lost by USAID single-handedly.  

The scripture continues, “…the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.”

It doesn’t end with Musk, obviously.  The dichotomy of wealth inequality and the shocking and blatant ability of the rich to make decisions at the top that hurt those at the bottom has been on full display as we see SNAP benefits used like a playing chip in a game of politics.  

It’s staggering to think this is happening in our own country, but it’s simply an escalation of patterns that have always been present.  The rich and powerful will always find ways to justify their actions of becoming more rich and more powerful and the most common tactic ever used in the history of human kind is the tactic of fear.  Spreading the narrative that there won’t be enough for some (you) if we give to everyone else.  Creating the scenario where your dignity and security and safety and “enoughness” is impossible if these people over here also have dignity, security, safety and enoughness.  It’s a sense of your own security that is predicated on your fear.  I won’t have enough if I share.  

The scripture says otherwise.  “As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but rather on God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸ They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, ¹⁹ thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.”

On Friday our food pantry opened as it usually does.  9:30-12:00.  The line formed early down the sidewalk as it often does, but this Friday was different.  There was fear.  Fear in the faces of those who came here because there was nowhere else to turn.  There was also fear in the faces of our food pantry workers who watched the shelves of our pantry empty faster than they could be refilled.  We are living through a hunger crisis in our community.  

In the faces of this actual and real fear, what could possibly be hopeful? 

It started with a mother who came in with a child in one hand and a paper bag of unopened formula cans she no longer needed in the other hand.  “Can you use these?  They’re still good.”  Next it was a stranger who walked in and wrote a check for $500.  And then it was Dave who works in our nursery and volunteers on Friday smiling and bringing joy into the simple act of pushing a cart of food to the car for someone.  And then it was a phone call from the Schoharie County Community Foundation that, out of the blue, was donating $3000—enough to cover two weeks of our food pantry.  And then, the more I paid attention, there was actually a steady stream of hope.  Person after person walked in and either said, how can I help or they had their checkbook in hand.  And at the end of the day, this man right here who sits quietly in the back row of church every Sunday told me we’d served 47 families when our average is 30.  He was tired and he told me these numbers were scary.  And he also told me that we can’t stop.  Loren has, for 12 years, dedicated, I would say, most of his free time to making sure our pantry doesn’t stop.  And you know what, this man right here turned 89 on his last birthday.  He gave me permission to share that and I thought you should know.  

Loren is an inspiration to me.  An example to all of us who wonder am I enough?  Will there be enough? How’s this gonna work?  Everyday Loren comes into the church, and that’s a lot of the days of the week, I say, “Loren, how are you doing?!” and he says, “Upright and standing!”  Standing, every single day that he can in the pantry that he makes sure won’t ever close its doors. A servant of God showing up to make sure that his presence, his commitment is unwavering. 

I’m pretty sure there aren’t any trillionaires or even billionaires in the room today (if I’m wrong, let me know) but what I do know is that we are a room full of people who may not own the wealth of the world, but we do know that we have been blessed with God‘s provision. And while I don’t know what asinine thing the rich people who run our government are going to do next to increase their wealth by hurting their own people, what I do know is that ordinary people like you and like me and like Loren and like that mom with five cans of leftover formula, ordinary people like that have the capacity to see their own flourishing tied up intrinsically to the flourishing all people.  That we will see the wealth and the privilege that we do have, small and humble as it may be, as a precious gift to be shared not hoarded.  My survival is contingent on your survival and your survival is contingent on my survival and what that means is: there will always be enough.  Don’t be convinced otherwise because we need you in this fight.

O God, hold us accountable to the faith you inspire in us this day.  In the face of real and present hunger and death and destruction around us, don’t let us lose sight of the belief that there can be enough for all.  Protect our hearts from the insidious and poisonous belief that we can only have enough if others have less.  With Jesus Christ as our salvation and hope, give us night-vision in these dark times.  Amen and amen. 

 Grace and Peace,

Pastor Anna