When we're deep into a specific Gospel, we
often forget the driving force behind Jesus' historical ministry.
Though scholars consistently remind us that
Jesus had no intention of founding a new religion, we often need to be
reminded of what He actually tried to accomplish.
Luke clearly tells us (in chapter 4) that Jesus
conceived of His role as someone announcing that God is accomplishing in our
lives today what most thought He would achieve only in the future.
God is here
The carpenter from Galilee had a passion to
inform people about God's being present and working effectively in their
daily lives - whether they notice that or ignore it.
Jesus was convinced our lives would be more
fulfilled once we surface that presence. But, to accomplish that, we have to
"repent:" to totally change our value systems, to do a 180-degree turn
on what and whom we normally focus.
Paul, writing to the church in Colossae
(Colossians 3:1-5,9-11), reminds his readers of the new direction they're
expected to pursue. "If you were raised with Christ," he writes, "seek
what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of
what is above, not of what is on earth."
Among other things, the risen Jesus expects His
followers never to fall into the trap of concentrating on what divides us:
"Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all."
Only those who can cut through the incidentals
and surface the unity all people share will notice God's working in their
lives.
Another point of repentant focus in the first
reading (Ecclesiastes 1:2-2:21-23) and Gospel (Luke 12:13-21) revolves
around our attitude toward wealth. The author of Eccles-iastes looks at
acquiring riches from the perspective that, one day, someone who hasn't
worked for them will inherit them. In other words, we're working to make
someone else wealthy.
The author's general advice is to back off,
and not spend so much time and effort acquiring wealth. Others, not
ourselves, will benefit from our labors after we die. Enjoy life right here
and now. Never work so hard and long that we ignore the pleasures all people
should be experiencing throughout their lives.
Jesus' view
In the Gospel, Jesus, presuming His followers
are trying to achieve repentance, approaches wealth from a somewhat
different point of view. Both He and the Ecclesiastes author agree that our
riches will belong to others, but Jesus stresses the aspect that God's
plan for us includes neither greed nor a life directed only to accumulating
wealth.
"Take care to guard against all greed,"
Jesus warns the person who wants Him to mediate a family dispute. "Though
one may be rich, one's life does not consist of possessions."
Jesus illustrates His point with a parable
about a person so obsessed with wealth that he overlooks his own mortality.
The words Jesus pronounces over this rich but unfortunate individual have
echoed down through the centuries: "You fool, this night your life will be
demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?
Thus will it be for all who store up treasures for themselves but are not
rich in what matters to God."
Though the authors of the Bible expect us to
"make a living," they're concerned that doing so not stop us from
living. God's working in our lives through those around us is too valuable
an experience to be ignored.
Nothing should ever block our vision of that
reality.
(8/2/07)