NOTE FROM PASTOR J R FOR SUNDAY, JULY 31, 2022
This Sunday is the 8th Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel lesson assigned is yet another familiar story from Luke. This one begins with a person in the crowd asking for Jesus to intervene in an inheritance dispute. Jesus declines to get involved but does use it as a teaching moment of the dangers of greed and hording and not sharing. Jesus does this in a story that has come to be known as “The Parable of the Rich Fool.” Jesus summarizes the lesson to be learned from the parable with these words, “Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasures for oneself but is not ‘RICH IN WHAT MATTERS TO GOD.’”
It begs the question: What does it mean to be rich or not rich in what matters to God? A quick reading of the Gospel of Luke itself answers this question. For example, in Luke 10, a couple of chapters prior to Jesus telling this parable, Jesus shares the parable of “The Good Samaritan,” In it Jesus makes clear anyone in need is our neighbor and using even our own resources to help neighbors in need. Later in this same chapter of this week’s assigned text, Jesus says, “to whom much is given, much is required.” (Luke 12:48) You almost have to work at being willfully ignorant to not know what Jesus means to be NOT rich in what matters to God.
It seems obvious that in this parable Jesus is saying that hording the blessings of abundance with which God has graced our lives and using them only to make a life of ease for ourselves, is certainly NOT rich in what matters to God.
Join us in worship IN-Person, on Zoom or by Facebook Livestream this Sunday as we explore further the opposite of what it means for us to be “RICH IN WHAT MATTERS TO GOD!” based on Luke 12:13-21.
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