A Portal for God's Peace We warmly welcome single persons, people of all races and families of every kind.   Sunday Service: Holy Eucharist at 9:30 am Child care is available   Church of Our Saviour 191 Flanagan Way (Rt 153) Secaucus, NJ 07094 Map and Directions   Tel: 201-863-1449 Fax: 201-863-1474 Mark A. Lewis, Vicar MLewis@secaucus.org Dorothy Fowlkes Pastoral Associate   This page revised 7 Sep 01 http://www.secaucus.org/ oursaviour		The Church of Our Saviour in the Town of Secaucus, New Jersey Home | Welcome | News | Sunday | Bulletin | Sermons Bookshop | Stewardship | Justice | Community | Links ----------------Leave frames---------------------   Storing up treasure. Losing the riches of God. Reflections on the lessons for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, 5 August 2001 By The Rev. Mark A. Lewis, Vicar Ecclesiastes 1:12-14; 2:18-23 / Psalm 49:1-11 Colossians 3:12-17 / Luke 12:13-21   I don't know how I can find anything to say. No Times, No National Public Radio for over 2 weeks. No music, electricity, clocks Turtles, not ruins. Cereques and iguanas. As usual, I read a lot. Which is a kind of listening, I suppose. But -- on the whole -- it was a big listening vacation. Listening to the other folks from all over in the camp telling about their lives. And just listening in the quiet for different kinds of noises usually blocked out by the refrigerator humming or the radio playing. So, when I read today's lessons, I was sort of primed to think about listening to Jesus. Notice how he says in the gospel "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?". It made me remember one of the really impressive things I learned in seminary: That Jesus never asked people to sign up and join some church. And he never claimed to be outlining a whole big set of rules and regulations. He just said what he said. Lived how he lived. And left it up to the people who encountered that to go on with their lives -- changed (ideally) or not. Church membership and rules came much later. As far as Jesus is concerned, to follow him means simply to listen to him and then see how that changes the way you see things and do things. And the story he tells in today's gospel is a perfect example. The scene starts out as a discussion about inheritance laws and fair play. But Jesus sidesteps the rules and regulations aspect of it all and tries to make a point about greed and anxiety and how those things have serious consequences for families and societies. He tells a parable about a fellow who defines life by the surplus of possessions he controls. The farmer in the story hasn't done anything wrong. He's just a get-ahead kind of guy who has met with some success. But, still, God calls him a fool. Here, the word "fool" is quite specific in a way that doesn't jump right to mind. Jesus is famous for referring to the Psalms in his interpretation of scripture. And -- interesting -- throughout the Psalms the word "fool" is used to mean just one thing: A person who lives as if there is no God. It's not a bad definition of a fool, when you think about it. Someone whose deeds indicate that life revolves around themselves and what they have. Their personal comfort and the accumulation of wealth and goods -- all without taking into account any concept about what God's intention for creation might be. Life is God's gift to us, the parable says, working to fulfill material goals is not life at all. In fact, the foolish farmer has forfeited his life by spending his time and energy on exactly that until, suddenly, it's too late for any other kind of living. The parable speaks to the way we all live. And the way we really are going to have to live if we expect to survive in our time and place. But it can be tempered. It is foolish, the Bible says, to pretend that the things we gather about us are the same thing as security. The rich farmer dies not because he's done anything wrong. He just dies because that's what happens to everyone sooner or later. He's a fool because he has been fooling himself for too long. "Storing up treasures" the Bible says, is not an enhancement of life, but a distraction from it. Kind of like a voodoo charm. You might tell yourself it's making magic happen. But most people would say that's an escapist fantasy. It's being "rich toward God" that amounts to an authentic security -- a hedge against whatever might come our way, good or bad. Being "rich toward God" might mean different things to different people. Might even be pretty hard to figure out for yourself. But that -- and not lots of stuff -- is the goal to look toward if security and strength is your aspiration. Even though it may not fit in just perfectly here, I can't resist quoting a wonderful passage from Isaiah (5:8) not often heard in church. "Woe to you who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is room for no one but you, and you are left alone to live in the midst of it all!" I am speaking now of one of my own many sins. I know I should relax about hedging against things I may want and not have later on in life. But I don't relax about it. I woke up at three o'clock yesterday morning wondering where a $100 traveler's check left over from my vacation was. I couldn't remember. I got up. I couldn't find it. I laid awake for hours worrying about it and finally, at dawn, got up again and found it stuffed into an envelope with something else. Now, I was no worse off without that thing. And no better off when I found it. And I am only fooling myself if I think anything I do today will stave off need or desire or longing in the future. I wonder, even, why I am so convinced that needing and longing in old age are such terrible things. They are, after all, principal signs of living. So, here I am back again in the noisy world where lots of things are required just to get through the day. Where lots of stuff makes us think we' re better off. I'm glad to be reminded just now -- after a couple of weeks with very little stuff around me -- that building bigger barns is the same thing as fooling myself. Hoarding is choosing to dwell on death before death chooses to dwell on me. Do me a favor, please. Keep an eye on me, if you would, and let me know if you see me trying to get rich in things as a substitute for getting rich toward God. Because -- whether I show it by my deeds or not -- I really believe Jesus when he says that's the only way to live. -- Mark Lewis   Your comments or questions are welcome MLewis@secaucus.org. Links to additional "Reflections on Lessons" may be found at the bottom of the Sunday web page. © 2001 -Church of Our Saviour Home | Welcome | News | Sunday | Bulletin | Sermons Bookshop | Stewardship | Justice | Community | Links http://www.secaucus.org/oursaviour Webmaster - DRoberts@Secaucus.org

This is information about the animal referenced in my 5 August sermon.
http://www.sedetur-qroo.gob.mx/caribe/especies/mamiferos/cereque.html