The Gospel for October 29, 2004 (James Hannington and his Companions)
Luke 12:13-31
A man in the crowd said to him, ‘Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.’ He said to him, ‘My friend, who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?’ Then he said to them, ‘Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for life does not consist in possessions, even when someone has more than he needs.’ Then he told them a parable, ‘There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, “What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops.” Then he said, “This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time.” But God said to him, “Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?” So it is when someone stores up treasure for himself instead of becoming rich in the sight of God.’ Then he said to his disciples, ‘That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Think of the ravens. They do not sow or reap; they have no storehouses and no barns; yet God feeds them. And how much more you are worth than the birds! Can any of you, however much you worry, add a single cubit to your span of life? If a very small thing is beyond your powers, why worry about the rest? Think how the flowers grow; they never have to spin or weave; yet, I assure you, not even Solomon in all his royal robes was clothed like one of them. Now if that is how God clothes a flower which is growing wild today and is thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more will he look after you, who have so little faith! But you must not set your hearts on things to eat and things to drink; nor must you worry. It is the gentiles of this world who set their hearts on all these things. Your Father well knows you need them. No; set your hearts on his kingdom, and these other things will be given you as well. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1995, c1985
A Study
William Barclay comments that God's kingdom is "a state on earth in which His will [is] as perfectly done as it is in heaven."
Jesus makes it crystal-clear in this text that saving for a rainy day is not high on the list of things that make up God's will. But He allowed himself to be supported by women of means, so having some possessions is clearly not off the list completely.
This reading makes two points about possessions. First, if we live for what we own, then our possessions will totally own us. Second, setting our hearts on owning things takes our hearts away from God's kingdom.
A Reflection
I live in Montgomery County, Maryland. The median income (half the households make more, and half make less) is $71,551. The national median income is about $57,500.
And 5.5% of my county's population are below the poverty line ($17,029 total income for a family of four). That means that 55 people out of every thousand that live here are in poverty. That $17,029 won't go very far to buy the median house, either, at $221,800.
As someone who seldom has other than commercial interactions (if any) with members of the lower half of that range, how do I respond to the situation? Jesus said to sell all I have, give it to the poor, and follow Him.
What if I'm not ready for that? More to the point, what if my wife is not ready for me to do that? Or my grown children or grandchildren? Jesus pointed to those around him as his family. This is a hard nut to crack.
If I did the "sell everything" bit, writing this blog would be very hard, though I could do it at the library, if they would let me in smelling as bad as I would be after dumpster-diving for food and sleeping under a plastic bag near a transformer to keep warm. I sure couldn't afford next year's hosting fee, so I guess that would be it for this study mode.
I'm not trivializing this. In college, I often ran out of money before I ran out of month, and crackers and water are a miserable meal for a few days. In survival school, no food or water turned out to be a way to "persuade" people to cooperate with the mock enemy.
But both of those situations had defined ends to them. I once crashed a helicopter in the middle of the Mediterranean sea. After an hour floating around in the water waiting for somebody to come and save me, I began to wonder what it would be like in a few days. That kind of situation, where there is no defined end, is close to what the poor face every day of their lives -- and what breeds desperation and worry.
A man I just met is a high school teacher by day, and runs a food bank at night and on the weekends. That man is doing something. I'm just talking about it.
As I search for a via media, a middle way, I'll try to keep some notes along the way.
Those we remember today, the Rev James Hannington, a missioner to Uganda, and his colleagues, gave it all up for Jesus, as martyrs. In the 1970s, another Bishop to Uganda was murdered by that government's infamous Idi Amin.
The Collect
Precious in your sight, O Lord, is the death of your saints, whose faithful witness, by your providence, has its great reward: We give you thanks for your martyrs James Hannington and his companions, who purchased with their blood a road unto Uganda for the proclamation of the Gospel; and we pray that with them we also may obtain the crown of righteousness which is laid up for all who love the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
10:33:46 PM 
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