Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Today’s text

Luke 12:13-15
A man in the crowd said to him, 'Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.' He said to him, 'My friend, who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?' Then he said to them, 'Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for life does not consist in possessions, even when someone has more than he needs.'

Reflection

Why are you here, Jesus? You clearly grasp the reason that resides at the core of your being and the nature of your life.

Settling family squabbles over money and possessions has no interest to you. You are not defined from the outside, by what others want or expect. Frustrating the expectations and perceived needs of those who came to you doesn’t bother you.

You are not anxious about pleasing them or winning them over with a wise word or felicitous answer to their query.

You quickly dismisses the role of arbiter or judge and frustrates the desire of those you might have “won over’ with a wise or pleasing answer.

I don’t think you go out of your way to trouble or annoy people, although there are other stories in the Bible where it appears that you are dong exactly this. Not here.

Here you are clear that settling fights or offering an equitable solution to a family problem is an annoying distraction that you brush away like a pesky fly.

You knew this did not connect with the substance of your being, the depth of your soul.

Your soul was focused on life, what brings it, what takes it away, of what life consists.

And it certainly doesn’t consist of most of the things on which we spend much of our time and substance.

I think that is at the core of frustration for me on some days. When the day is done I wonder: how much of this day flows from the depth of my soul, from deepest loves and convictions?

How much of it truly satisfies the heart because it comes from or leads to my deepest loves--and the Deep Love who holds me?

How much is done to satisfy expectations or desires foisted on me from the real or perceived expectations of others, expectations I sometimes take on even when they distract from the deepest substance of my soul, from being the person I am, the one you call me to be?

Today, Jesus, let me be true to the substance of my soul. I hunger to be so clear about my reason for being as are you.

Pr. David L. Miller