Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Greed

"Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."   Luke 12: 15


Kathryn Cook


Let us not split hairs about greed. We are all wealthy by the world's standards. Greed is a different animal. It is an attitude.   

Jesus is speaking of the pernicious infection of greed upon the human soul. Its vorcious appetite can never be satisfied because greed is insatiable. The Roman poet Horace said, “He who is greedy is always in want.”  Greed is never quenched; never satisfied. It consumes our energy and blocks goodness and mercy from entering our hearts.

Jesus offers us the vaccine that inoculates against this infection. It is none other than the two Great Commandments: to love God and to love our neighbor.  As we live in the shelter of those two commandments, greed can never enter in.
   
     
"The highest wealth is the absence of greed."  – Seneca                                                                                   

"There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed."      – Ghandi                                

"Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction."  – Erich Fromm

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Our Father

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say: Our Father, hallowed be your name.                      Luke 11:1-2


                           Painting 45E                           K. Robinson

In this land of rugged individualism where evangelical preachers beseech us to develop a “personal relationship with Jesus,” I am struck by the fact that our Lord, when he taught his disciples to pray, instructed them to say, “Our Father.”  It is as though Jesus was reminding them that God is not property – and entity held in the hands of the most pious, but a mystery to be held corporately, to be worshiped corporately, to be praised corporately.

“Our Father,” suggests that we are not beseeching God alone, due to our own merits or piety, but as a unifying act on behalf of humanity. It recalls the church “catholic” – small “c” – wherein we are all a part of something must larger than ourselves. When I pray with others, I feel the kinship and love of God as it links us together in a unifying mystery that makes relationships stronger, compassion more visible, and faith more visceral.

For this I give thanks.   

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Fussing

The Master said, “Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it……” 

Luke 10:42    from Eugene Peterson’s The Message



Martha and Mary               JesusMafa - Cameroon


On Sunday, another of Luke’s perennial favorites, the story of Martha and Mary. Many of us have self-effacingly called ourselves “Martha” from time to time – and many preachers have extolled the virtues of aspiring to be like Mary – but the essential message of this charming tale is in how it speaks to perspective.

Most of us have responded as both Martha and Mary in different situations. There are times when we are busy and fussing and overwhelmed – and there are times when we are calm and intentional and focused. Each of us can exhibit both.  Jesus reminds us that focus and calm is the better way to attend to life.  

Frazzled nerves, hypertension, and nervous activity only exhaust and distract us, but if we bring God into  our daily tasks, the journey will be easier and more life affirming. How might we attend to mowing the lawn, preparing the meals, and preparing spreadsheets in ways that might honor Christ’s presence with us?  

We have choices. 

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Semantics

But the lawyer, wanting to justify himself asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?"  Luke 10:29


Beth Shemesh, Israel                    August, 2014

On Sunday, we will listen, again, to the parable of the Good Samaritan. Most of us have heard it many times before, and most of us understand that the “good” Samaritan did what was right for a bleeding and wounded man lying by the side of the road.  There’s the moral: be like the Samaritan.

But as I think about the story, I am struck by the lawyer’s initial question to Jesus: “Who is my neighbor?” The lawyer did not want an answer. He sought to quibble. He sought to spar with rhetorical questions; to argue for the sport of it. 

Jesus is not interested in semantics. Jesus seeks to give us sight so that we, too, might see the world through the eyes of God and respond as God would have us respond. Quibbling about how much or how many serves no purpose; it only delays delivering assistance to those who need it. 


Let us not be quibblers.