Jesus invites us to not only see our possessions as a prison, but the urgency of giving as a vehicle for freedom.
For Sunday
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 14C
Collect
Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Reading
From Luke 12:32-40
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Reflection
Last week we had Jesus admonishing the collection of possessions. Now we’re hearing the encouragement to his disciples that they sell their possessions and give alms. We can count these among the kinds of ideas that we know and also wish Jesus didn’t say.
But he did. And we are left to wrestle with just how literally to take that command.
Most of us will reason we need to take it somewhat literally. Or at least, in the operative sense, more literally than we do now. That we should give more and accumulate less.
As someone who has practiced minimalism, this idea is certainly attractive and familiar. Because we know less is more.
I also don’t think we’ll find a “right” answer this way. We’re too bound up in unsatisfying solutions.
Jesus’s focus on urgency, however, drives both concepts home. Because we are called to reject the idea of being possessed by our possessions, getting rid of what is weighing us down, and giving from our wealth to those in need. And we are also called to act now.
It’s about urgency
I suspect the urgency of giving, of attuning our heart to generosity over accumulation is given a command of immediately because it is so easy to put it off. We might claim I can be generous tomorrow. Until tomorrow comes and we say, oh jeez, well, I’ll do it tomorrow, then.
Jesus seems to be joining these ideas around a sense of now so that we fully grasp just how much who we are (as in identity) is built around who we are in daily activity. Not unlike how “we are what we eat”. We are what we give away. Or accumulate.
Jesus is inviting his followers to be people who are not possessed by possessions. Who give generously to protect the poor. And who make Jesus’s generous Way of Love to be their way in the world.
I’m continuously reminded of the wisdom that I tell myself often. And it fits here:
- The best time to do something was earlier.
- The second best time to do it is now.
Problem in the Text
This week’s video deals with that problem: We don’t want to take any of it seriously.