The Myth of More

During the past month our faith community has been in a series of worship gatherings called, "The Big Give." We intentionally tied this series to the economic stimulus plan and it is our hope and prayer that through the series compassion might be unleashed among our community and that our generosity quotient might increase.

Yesterday we looked at Jesus' teaching in Luke 12 and the Parable of the Rich Fool:

The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'


This is one of Jesus' masterful stories and during our worship gathering I invited our community to write an alternative ending to the story ending to this parable. "The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest . . ." In just a few moments some powerful ideas came forth:

• The rich man instituted a profit sharing plan for his employees...
• The rich man shared with the poor of his community, together they strengthened their village therefore having the power to withstand outside attacks...
• three ghosts appeared to the rich man...
• the rich man became bored with his wealth and was stirred to consider his ways and discover a new path for his life...

What kind of ending would you suggest?

The reality is that we all have the opportunity on a regular basis to live out this parable. As people of affluence we have all experienced an abundant harvest. What story are you writing with your life in regard to your possessions - your time, talents and treasures?

We opened the message up yesterday considering the words of Rene Padilla. This video, "Consuming Culture" is one segment of a three-part series that is available from The Work of the People. I love one of his opening questions: "do you live to possess or possess in order to live?" Take a listen and I would love to get your feedback on his perspective on our consumer culture.



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