Good day dear friends.
As we pray for our morning, please lift up Art Amey who is having eye surgery in Austin this morning, and for David Gish who is having major surgery here at CTMC. Last, but not least, some of you knew that Pastor Ryan our associate was not feeling well Sunday and he suspected mono, well the doctor confirmed he had it. He left for a driving vacation to Chicago and somewhere between here and Austin he hit a deer. His car is in the shop and he borrowed his parents' car and is driving to Chicago. Pray that when he gets there he might have some rest and time for healing while enjoying his friends and his beloved Chicago deep-dish pizza!
Our text for today comes from Matthew:
Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
In Sunday's NY Times Magazine, page four, two full-page ads for an insurance company that struck me with the first page being a picture of a majestic-looking elk at the top of some steps, with the caption under it saying, "The question isn't how you reach your goal, it's who do you follow?" I thought then, a Sunday morning, as I do now, a Wednesday morning, how appropriate! I always imagine the Sunday Times Magazine as being read by men and women in bathrobes, sipping coffee as they await their morning brunch. The thought of bathing, dressing, and going to church possibly far from their minds. Yet, I pray that this ad make them as it did me, "Who AM I following?"
The text from today comes from the passage of Jesus' encounter with the one we've come to call "the rich young ruler." That title gives him away: Rich, young, powerful. Was there a question as to how he reached his goal of being rich? Not really. Youth came naturally. The power? Hmm, yes, the power. His problem was that he had NOT yet reached his goal. Overcoming his fear of his mortality. He had the riches of this life, yet his joy was not complete; something serious and something sacred was missing from his life. The joy of the knowing that this life is not all there is. Was the young man ill? We don't know. Was someone he knew and loved ill? Maybe. Something made him think that one day he would find himself leaving this world and he wondered what lies beyond this life, and if all he had heard from and about this itinerant preacher about life and its true meaning, what did he have to do to attain it?
The question asked, the response came quickly. Sell what you have. Give the money to the poor. Come, follow me.
Could you make it any harder Lord? The young man lived in the top 1% of his society. He had things others only dreamed of, yet in the lap of luxury there was missing the comfort and joy of being alive and having hope for tomorrow.
Sell what you have. Part with what makes you comfortable. Part with what is killing you.
Give the money to the poor. Did you stop to think that what you have could be used to feed someone who hasn't eaten in some time? Could your money be used to help pay for the medical treatment of someone not being able to sleep because of pain and discomfort?
Come, follow me. You haven't really reached your goal if your life is empty. Full of things, empty of life is no way to live. And it's no way to die.
PRAYER: Loving God of all things, You own the herds of livestock on the hills, and You even own the hills, yet, Your desire is for us to live this life in abundance. Help us all to realize what true abundance really is. Let us know it is not in things, but in that which You have provided for us. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
e.v.
