Possessions are Punishment - Luke 12 - Proper 13C

Possessions are punishment?

Tony E Hansen

Reflection based upon Luke 12:13-21; Psalm 49; Ecclesiastes 1:12,2:18-23

Opening prayer

I am not entirely sure how I ended up at this point in my life. 

For years, I was scrapping pennies and nickels to pay bills or to eat.  When I was working part time, I often did not get enough hours to cover the basics, and I came close to being evicted from an apartment.

Little by little however I kept taking steps, even though some might think it folly. (For we all know that the system is rigged.) 

I would work out. I finished school and more. I volunteered with area organizations. I rose in martial arts. I found jobs. I moved to Des Moines from Iowa City.

Somehow, I can pay bills (I still don’t like it). I still have student loan debt, but I have a decent place, vehicle, a nice garden and stuff. I often like to share time and all of that with people in my life. Maybe, this is “vanity of vanities.” (Aka ego.)

More importantly, I have my cats, my mother, my son, my friends and my family. (Some I am more grateful to have than others, but nonetheless).  I still do plenty.

All along the way and even today, as I have mentioned, that all of where I am today could be taken away or be destroyed. When is the next shoe going to drop?

Yet all of what I said revolves around “I” and there is much more than just me.

That is part of why I continue to volunteer and to do ministry.  Especially with ministry, I realized that I may not have recognized Providence at work even when such was the case. It wasn’t just me and “luck.”

There have been ample opportunities for me to fail and there have been many times when I have - due to poor decisions (a few too many) or just plain bad luck.

Yet each time, I get back up and move to the next point - maybe with a couple bruises from falling down, but I get back up and keep going forward. There were lessons (perhaps divine inspiration?) Some I have yet to heed.

Now at almost a year after divorce, I explore more than I have before. It is interesting that I keep finding God around the corner, on the hill, in my office, and in the people around me. 

“Truly, no ransom avails for one’s life; there is no price one can give to God for it.”

For all that I have and all that might get, I cannot use any of that to bribe God for more life or more anything really.

Faith in our stuff is folly, and yet, we find places to store it. New storage units are built all the time. People accumulate stuff and more stuff.  Then, we don’t realize how that stuff actually owns us because we pay to keep it.

We are told throughout our lives to save and put away for the rainy day. When we live abundantly and have these gifts bestowed upon us, we ought to be grateful and thankful to have them.  

Yet, when the rainy day comes, some learn they haven’t prepared enough. 

If you think that rainy day won’t come, let me remind you that everyone of us will meet our Maker. 

The question for you is on what terms will you be meeting??

The parable about the egotistical and selfish man gathering and storing wealth (or stuff) in Luke 12 reminds us of this. 

This isn’t to admonish folks for gaining abundance, but where is our focus and what do we do with that abundance.

We can store up all of this worldly wealth and think “I succeeded and I can be proud of what I did.” I can stand in the middle of my place with my cats curled up around me and perhaps smile.

Yet, that misses the mark and we forget there is more than worldly goods. As one commentator says, we don’t have to be particular wealthy per se to be bound to our stuff. “Possessions are their own punishment.”

Even for the minimalist, stuff is stuff but that stuff represents something. It represents value. What value does it represent? What value have I attached?

If my focus is only upon me and my stuff, that is ego, vanity and I will never be truly happy because there is always more stuff I can get from Amazon or wherever. There is, however more to life than shopping carts, phones, devices, vehicles and such. 

None of that goes with us when we die. None of that can be offered to St Pete at the proverbial gates.

Besides in our society everything is disposable, experiences are fleeting and the next big thing is to be announced at the upcoming great marketing event. So whatever happiness you attribute to something today will diminish over time (guaranteed.)

What can be offered at the gates is something less physical than stuff but more rewarding than any of it - something more rewarding than our greed.

There is something sustainable and actually nurturing - that can be found in our Creator. Something we ought to value. To truly live is to live with people and to be in the community and to see God working in that community.

Do you really need that storage unit to store more ? Do we really need that extra shirt or new device? Perhaps, shut off your device for a moment.

Instead ask, Where do you put your value? In stuff, in people, in vanities, in faith or in God?

For where your treasure is, that also is where your heart is. Have something meaningful to give to God when you meet. 

Maybe, it is time to let go of things and our stuff and let God. 

Thanks Be to God

Time for Caring - Luke 10 - 5th Sunday after Pentecost Year C

Time for Caring

Tony E Hansen

Sermon based upon Luke 10: 25-37, Psalm 25, Deuteronomy 30: 9-14

Opening prayer

There have been times when I am cycling on the trail and something happens. Tire goes out, chain derails, or a fall due to trying to avoid other people on the trail. (you know who you are). 

Yes people have run me off the trail because people taking up the trail coming towards me (without etiquette) causing me to veer off the trail, catch a hole in the ground, and flip over. The other people slowed, watched what happened, but just kept going.

I was left on the side with scapes, bruises, checking for broken equipment, and a bit upset. I composed myself and got back up and kept riding. 

I have also have been one whose tube blew out 15 miles from the city, and people, one after another, some would ride on without much. Some would offer “are you ok,” and luckily, one was from the Bicycle Collective, who not only offered help but was teaching me how to install a new tube. They even supplied me with one from his supply because I forgot to resupply mine.

That is one of the reasons I like the bicycling community because we have an etiquette and ethos to help each other. We know all too well we could be next, but also the general good will to make sure people are ok and can keep going is quite prevalent (at least in central Iowa.) 

Their reward for that “Samaritan” on the bike trail is that I give it forward. 

There are some parallels to this - one of the most recognizable parables from the scriptures. 

We, today, don’t fully recognize some of the nuance happening. 

Who is a Samaritan ? People from the northern kingdom rather than from Judea (Jews).  There is plenty of animosity between these two people. 

Seems like a pattern for today’s version of Israel and Palestine.  Yes the pattern has long been there, and for us to be amazed that they (people of the Mideast) cannot find peace, is negating so much history that can’t be simply unsaid. 

Let us pray that God help them find the compassion and empathy God teaches soon - else there will be more generations of tension to come from the violence of today.

We will come back to this in a moment..

Our lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures reminds us from where we receive our abundance: from the Lord our God - not just our hands and work ethic.

Thus we are commanded to love God. Jesus reminds us here that this is the most important commandment: “to love God with all your heart and soul …and your neighbor as yourself.”

How do we do that ? Who is my neighbor? 

Jesus offers us a parable with plenty to explore in that regard. A person is robbed of everything and left for dead. A priest and then a Levite pass by.  

Why ? What reason do they have?  What was so pressing in their lives that they could not stop even to offer a calming voice or “I will get help.”

They simply turn the other way, don’t look any further and keep walking away - like nothing was happening. There may even be a little disgust at this person lying on the ground somehow deserved what they got. 

What judgement to offer ?? This is their reward for some sin they have committed?  Who deserves to be robbed of all and left for nothing?

As someone who serves the homeless, I see this pattern plenty. I see people rolling up windows at the intersections. I see people looking away - not even acknowledging that a person is there.

These people certainly have received what they deserve.  These people have been riding the work and ethics of good people.

Just like the people in the unemployment line, the queers holding flags, the workers striking for fair treatment or those at the pantry looking for food, they got where they on their journey and they need to figure out how to get on the right path. Or it’s the mother working two jobs just to put food on the table for her kids and to send them to school. Or another “selfish” youth taking their own life “for no good reason.”

We presume plenty in the brief images and conjure stereotypes and stories that warn and prevent us from helping. How convenient that is.

Perhaps we think it was drugs and alcohol or violence, but we don’t even look at what we do, what we watch, what we consume, or even what we don’t do - but should.  How great it is to stand with privilege and honors.

We don’t ask them for history, we don’t take the time to learn. Or even if they are family and we have some knowledge of history, I submit we may not know the whole story. Why? Because that would take away from our so valuable time. Caring takes time.

For we don’t see someone needing just a breath of empathy, we see something that is a problem, a pariah, a festering sore and our ever-so-healthy presence doesn’t want whatever they have. Irony in prohibiting public health (COVID) restrictions??

People do this all the time and call it preservation.

Really, these are callous judgements and oddly glazed ignorance because they don’t bother with details, reason or actual facts. 

Let me ask you this, what if that was you on the ground, robbed and left for whatever? Where is the compassion of those walking around you?

Nevertheless, there is a person. There is a true story, but that would take time. That would take time to care.

That is however what the Samaritan does. This person who, as we said a moment ago, were among hated tribes doing something very possibly dangerous to own health and living - unclean. There is no guarantee what this is but regardless, they offer time. They offer compassion, money, and then get others involved to help.

It is not just putting hand on the heart and saying ‘mercy’, but being the mercy - being the face of God to someone who needs it like me on the trail without a tire to pump.

They probably had things to do too or feelings about being clean. They were on the road going somewhere just like the priest and the Levite beforehand, but this outsider choose to acknowledge this person and to take time to care. 

They could have been busy looking at watches, social media, listening to podcasts and not have time for someone who is real and is now. They could give all the excuses, but they chose to give time.

This is what God does, though we may not notice.

While many are too busy for us and our needs, walking around us and perhaps casting doubts, God is there taking time for us and providing for us so that we might heal from our wounds and our pains.

This Samaritan does what God does and what Jesus wants us to do. Jesus doesn’t expect us to be perfect, but for us to be the face of God to someone who needs it today and now.

We need this now - more than ever. Instead of all the miserable violence and hate that is spread throughout social media and the many conspiracy theories, Jesus wants us to take time to care, to be with neighbors, to learn their stories, and to get others involved too.

That is a slice of Heaven on Earth brought to you not by the wishy washy company but by you. 

Pray the words of Psalm 25 “lead me in your truth and teach me.” You have been taught, now action is your task.

Take the time to care to be what God instructs us. Be humble in God’s way.

Thanks Be to God. 

Loss of Jacob - Commentary

When I learned about what happened to Jacob, I have to admit that it brought me to some tears. I looked around the airport and asked questions . What could have I done ? Why do things like this happen? 

I do not know what was going through Jacob’s mind, but what we do know is that there are plenty of questions. Also I know that I don’t have the answers. 

Jacob often wore his faith and spoke with big smiles when talking about doing youth ministry.  Yet, I submit that, in the most desperate hour, he may have forgot that faith is where he could have found hope and new strength. 

That is important for us now.

When we are having troubles - even in our most desperate hours, we can find possibilities and strength in the divine gifts of faith and hope. 

Much like another struggling Jacob who, in Genesis, wrestles with God through the night to find a blessing.

No doubt there are times when we question everything and anything. Go ahead and ask questions. Shake fists , argue with the Spirit, and even wrestle. 

I submit to you to lean into each other, to lean into faith and lean into the Spirit.

For whether we have personal relationships with the Spirit or yet to learn how to have one, we can recognize that we do not have to do things alone. 

We can overcome troubles and find possible when we reach out to people. Additionally when we reach into faith and when we reach into hope there we can find strength.

We remember that we are loved (yes you and I too) and that we extend love to others. Remind those around each of us that they are loved. That is strength one cannot deny. 

Yes, there, we can find strength because for all the things that happen to us and around us that we cannot control, it is in these core elements or divine gifts: our faith, our hope, our love ...

In these gifts, we can find new strength, even when all seems lost. That is because these divine gifts are there for us to find strength when we succeed and when we fall.  

Good thing to consider is that these gifts do not run out or leave us. These gifts keep renewing and remind us that the Spirit is speaking to us, teaching us and lifting us. They are always available to us like a continuous water well where we can arrive, talk with the Creator, and come away with sustenance.

Reach out to others to talk, reach out to the Spirit with your questions too - and then find strength, courage and paths open up before you.

In light of this tragedy, I am more committed to make the most of every breath that God blesses me, and I believe that will be the best tribute I can give in Jacob’s honor.

Peace be with you.