This coming Sunday's Gospel comes from Luke. Here is an excerpt:
12:15b "Life is
not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot."
We talked about this passage today, reading it three times
from three different Bible translations.
This one comes from The Message.
I was struck by this particular part of verse 15, in this particular
version. Society seems to define people
by what they do or do not have; by what they do or do not do. After a week on the reservation, experiencing
a spectrum of people, from those who were giving to those who were receiving, I
found that people who gave, received and people who received, gave. It was no surprise, but the way society
places people on a continuum based on haves and have not’s, it is often easy to
forget that these are human beings we are talking about. All people are capable of both giving and
receiving. All people are poor and all
are rich. It depends how we define poor
and how we define rich. I experienced
people who were financially well off who gave not only of their financial
wealth, but of their wealth of spirit, of faith, of hope, of ability and of
their time. I experienced people who
were financially poor give too; gifts of spirit, faith, hope, ability and
time. But also of intimate knowledge of
the community in which they live, teaching us, the outsiders, how they balance
the need with the resources.
Dear God, our lives are not defined by what we have; they
are defined by our devotion to our faith in you. How we are able to give of ourselves to
people—all people, is our reflection of you in our lives. Be near us as we live our faith in the world,
understanding that we are all your children, created in your image, with gifts
and talents unique to each of us, each to be given freely, as instruments of
your love. Amen.