Living in the Spirit
July 31, 2022
Scripture Reading: Luke 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’
I feel like a broken record as I say the same thing, in many ways, all the time. I wonder if Jesus experienced the same response. He told us that we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves. I finally realized that we probably are loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. The problem is we do not love ourselves as God loves us. That results in our need to flaunt outward signs of who we are–fancy clothing, better homes, flashier cars whatever—because we do not love the person God created us to be. We each possess some quality that is needed to realize, the organic beloved community that Jesus visualized as the Kingdom of God.
A man in my church, Lee Bacher, died recently at the age of 98. He embodied the fulfilled person who knew God’s love and knew how to share it with others. I did not know this until the funeral, but he was apparently very stingy when it came to buying anything for himself. The suit he had was perfectly good. I knew him as one of the most generous men in our congregation. Not just with money but with his time and energy. He was a youth sponsor as a young adult and many of the youth whose lives he touched attended his memorial service. He served in most roles as an active church member. After retirement, he volunteered at the food bank once a week, and up to just weeks, before he died, he arrived at the church each week to fold the bulletins for the Sunday service.
Take some time this week to ponder and realize how much God loves you. Let it seep through each of your pores until it has no choice but to flow through you to the rest of God’s children.
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for role models like Lee Bacher. Amen.
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.
