[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage 568, Pentecost 10, 8/5/07

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

Pentecost 10 – August 5, 2007


Psalm 107:1-9, 43
Hosea 11:1-11
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21

The Twilight of a Possession

Passion for possessions seems to drive our society.  Shopping is a cure 
forthe blues.  Anticipating the next major purchase gives life 
momentum.  We are actualized in the act of acquiring things. When we 
have to move, however -- when we have to put every single thing we have 
bought into a box into a truck -- possessions take on another aspect.  
They become the source of anxiety. Will it get broken?  Will it fit the 
new house?  Why did I ever buy it in the first place?  Early in their 
existence they buoyed our lives, but now they weigh us down.  They 
become like a lead life preserver.

This is true for the little moves of our lives, but it is more true for 
the final move of our lives.  Dying people don't have to be reminded 
that they can't take it with them. They have a declining interest in 
possessions.

Possessions always come to a twilight, not just because we pass away, 
but also because their ability to sustain us passes away.  What 
happened to that toy for which you were willing to fall down in a 
screaming fit on the department store floor before Christmas?  What 
happened to it in March?  What happened to that new car?  Boat?  Resort 
property?  If you are still as excited about them now as you were when 
you bought them...  If they still sustain your joy in living the way 
they did at first, then these Scriptures are not for you.  No, these 
words are for the people who finally cannot be satisfied with material 
possessions regardless of how exciting they may have been – people who 
just can't sustain their lives with their possessions.

The material things that really sustain life move through us, e.g. air, 
water and food.  The only security in them is that they keep flowing 
not that we possess them.  When I see refugees leaving a war torn land, 
people who had ancestral homes, I remember how tenuous our grasp can be 
on even the most basic of possessions.  When I look at my retirement 
account, I stop short of declaring, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up 
for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry."  (Luke 12:19)

Hosea reminds us that our real deliverance is from the invisible God 
not the visible blessings of God. “Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to 
walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed 
them.” (Hosea 11:3)

Jesus calls me to mistrust my abundance and the abundance around me. 
(Although, I like to refer to abundance as blessings.)  Paul reaches 
out to my faltering spirit with hope.  I am being transformed from a 
person who breathes earthly air to one who breathes heavenly air.  The 
currency of this world is being exchanged for the currency of the next. 
  It is something God is doing in me, but it is also something I do.  
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust 
consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for 
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes 
and where thieves do not break in and steal."  (Matthew 6:19-20)

The twilight of a possession can be the dawn of faith.



May these thoughts strengthen you.

An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
(an e-mail service)

[See Web Page address below for a Children’s Message coordinated with 
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