23rd Sunday after Pentecost – November 13, 2022

Luke 21:5-19

 

Yvon Chouinard (Evon Shwee-naard) is an outdoors guy…

  • Surfing…fly-fishing…rock climbing. The riskier the better.

 

To finance his hardscrabble lifestyle…he taught himself blacksmithing to design and make climbing tools for friends.

  • Before he knew it… Shwee-naard was a leading manufacturer of climbing equipment in North America.
  • Soon…the kid from Maine who dreamed of being a fur trapper like his French-Canadian forebears…
  • Had become what he did not want to be: a successful businessman.

 

On a trip to England with his future wife…Malinda…they discovered a small factory that made clothing from vintage corduroy.

  • Shwee-naard began fashioning heavy-duty shorts and shirts suitable for climbing.
  • Adding a clothing line to their climbing equipment.
  • Their company…Patagonia…was born.

 

Since they began Patagonia in 1973…the Shwee-naards have always run their company with a deep concern for the environment in which their products would be worn and used.

  • They designate one percent of their annual sales to grassroots organizations working to protect the environment and combat climate change.
  • They were among the first companies to use sustainable materials…
  • And insist on fair labor practices and just wages from their suppliers.
  • Patagonia’s marketing campaigns focus on asking people to buy only what they need.
  • The company famously ran an ad on Black Friday in The New York Times with the headline:
  • “Don’t Buy This Jacket.”
  • Today…Patagonia is valued at $3 billion.

 

Now 83 years of age…Yvon Shwee-naard is looking to the future.

  • He wants the values of Patagonia to continue.
  • So…he gave away the company.

 

The reluctant billionaire who would rather go mountain climbing or fly fishing than manage his business…

  • With the full support of his wife and family.
  • Has transferred ownership of Patagonia to an irrevocable trust and nonprofit organization to ensure that Patagonia’s profits…
  • Some $100 million a year…will be used to combat climate change…
  • And protect undeveloped land around the globe.
  • Patagonia will continue to operate as a private…for-profit company…
  • Selling more than $1 billion worth of jackets…hats and ski pants each year.
  • But the Shwee-naards no longer own it.
  • The trust is irrevocable…the Shwee-naards cannot take the company back.

 

And that’s how Yvon Shwee-naard wants it.

  • “I didn’t know what to do with the company because I didn’t ever want a company” Shwee-naard explains.
  • “I didn’t want to be a businessman.
  • Now I could die tomorrow and the company is going to continue doing the right thing for the next 50 years…and I don’t have to be around.”
  • “Despite its immensity” Yvon Shwee-naard says “the Earth’s resources are not infinite…and it’s clear we’ve exceeded its limits.” 1

 

While our lifestyles change and adapt because of the development of new technologies and advances in science and medicine…

  • The values of our lives remain constant.
  • The good people at Patagonia realize that and have taken extraordinary steps to make sure their company is more than a profitable company.
  • But a socially responsible one contributing to the care of the environment.

 

Jesus asks us to do the same:

  • To embrace the Gospel spirit of gratitude and generosity.
  • The spirit that continues to grace the world long after our temples of materialism and consumerism crumble.
  • Luke writes: “When some were speaking about the temple…how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God…
  • Jesus said:“As for these things that you see…the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another…all will be thrown down.”

 

You see…our assets of compassion and justice will hold their value.

  • They will hold their value far beyond the time when far lesser things…for which we have leveraged our lives…prove empty and valueless.

 

Jesus desires us to seek much more precious and lasting gifts than this world is capable of offering.

  • Treasures like compassion…reconciliation…justice…peace.
  • Today…Jesus is asking us to give up the extreme greed for wealth and material gain that make possessing the things of God impossible.

 

Jesus is asking us not to be obsessed with the stones that will one day collapse and become dust.

  • Jesus is asking us to seek…instead…the lasting things of the soul.
  • The things of God.
  • Jesus said: “By your endurance you will gain your souls.”
  • The English word “souls” in that sentence is a rendering of the Greek word psyche…
  • Which means yourself…your very being.
  • By our endurance we will gain our very being…our souls.

 

This is our prayer today:

  • May love that never ends.
  • Compassion that never fades.
  • Forgiveness that never falters.
  • Be the focus of our journey to the eternal dwelling place of God.

 

1.The New York Times, September 15, 2022; The New Yorker, September 12, 2016; CNBC, September 14, 2022.