Oh No!! The seat of my good summer weight suit is getting discolored and thin, and a few of the seams look a bit wobbly. But I’ve had it for only six years, my Egyptian-made, Italian-named gray suit! I thought it would be the last I’d ever need, and now it’s wearing out! I’m not really surprised: LOTS of my stuff over the years has worn out. My favorite car, a 1968 Malibu 8 cylinder hardtop. Several cats & dogs. Cardigans & loafers. “Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou who changest not, abide with me.”
Readings for this weekend are about things that become worn AND about those which endure. Don’t get caught up in trivial nostalgia about The Good Old Days, but help your friends welcome the positive changes which we believe the Creator is providing… We continue to hear from Hosea (11:1-11), portraying YHWH’s self-musings. “The more I called them, the more they went from me….[Therefore] the sword rages in their cities, it consumes their oracle-priests, and devours because of their schemes….[Yet] my heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger…” Israel continued to indulge in idolatry, to their own disaster. Hosea can be endorsed for presenting a non-vindictive, always-hopeful God, frustrated with the non-essential baggage carried by immature progeny.
The Letter to the Colossians continues to address the ongoing notion that faithful living is dependent upon formulas and propriety more than the knowable intimacy of God through Christ. “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above (sic), where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” (3:1) Some things distract us from our holiness: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed; anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive language. These not only demean Creation, but dissipate our energies: they may pleasantly release adrenalin, but the good feeling soon passes. So what ARE the “clothes of the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator…”? (3:10)
“Take care!” Jesus said. “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed;for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:15) What radical talk! Then he told a parable (vv. 16-21) about a successful fellow whose main worry was in storage of all his stuff. But he died, and “the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” Again, the fault wasn’t in investments, but in their accompaning distractions. David J. Schlafer offers, “Distractions occlude clear discernment and lead to choices and commitments that are often tragically foolish….What does it mean to be ‘rich toward God’?” (FEASTING on the WORD, C 3:315)
People today can’t hide from the care of their things. Some have tried to live at Walden Pond, or on a pole in the desert; some hermitages can be safe havens–for a while. But most of us have to live in a material world, even as we decry it. How, then, to manage our resources so that God and Creation are lifted up? How can I redistribute my wealth as a worshipful sacrifice through Jesus?
God Bless Us,Every One Horace Brown King
My thoughts on scripture passages prescribed for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook, or at horacebrownking.com
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HB… Well…. you hit a high note on this one. I have lots and lots of stuff. I’m to sure if I’m attached to it, or more to what they symbolize. No… not a display for the neighbors, who probably don’t know about the pile of stuff in my garage, which I blame on the kids. My stuff isn’t valuable to anyone but me. There’s a a pen in my closet with Garfield holding on to a heart. Sue gave it to me, and it’s worth exactly $1.98. Nevertheless…. I hold on to that pen, and other “stuff” like that, and those things can easily get in the way of my Spiritual connections. Thanks for the focus. We still need to find a way to connect.