Thursday, August 9, 2007

Today’s text

Luke 12:13-15

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge and arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.

Prayer

There are many kinds of greed. I am certainly guilty of several varieties, most often I suppose the greed for reputation and status. I want to be considered smarter, wiser, better, more articulate, gracious and caring than I really am.

And isn’t that the crux of greed, to convince others we are more than we are, lest they see our smallness and discover the vulnerability, the uncertainty we hide? We clutch our fear and fragility and crouch behind the crumbling façade of accomplishment and accumulation that time, soon enough, erodes, exposing what we never needed to hide--our humanity.

For our vulnerability is always a secret grace, offering a paradoxical peace. The smallness we fear invites us to flee into the arms of other needy souls and the immensity of God’s grace, there to find that when we are weak we are strong.

We fly to God on the wings of our needs. The greeds that consume--for wealth or status, for reputation or even to accumulate books and relationships--impoverish the soul, leaving us more fearful and vulnerable. Greed isolates, refusing to walk the bridge of common human need into the receiving arms and unfailing grace of the One who always awaits us.

So let me be on guard for all kinds of greed, dearest Jesus. And may your grace flow through the open windows of my need.

Pr. David L. Miller