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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
November 1, 2024
Reading: Luke 12:13-31
Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’
Meditation-Rebecca Northington
This past Sunday The Redeemer Youth Group had two outings. First, we had our monthly trip to St. Francis Inn in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. This is always an opportunity for us to serve the community a warm lunch, charge their phones, give out their mail and meds, and listen to their stories, their worries, and their hopes for the week. Conversation often stays fairly superficial but can become more personal as guests reflect on their own journey.
I was working the office on this particular Sunday, often a solitary job, when an older visitor I had seen on previous Sundays over the years, asked to use the phone. He didn’t have a mobile device, so he used the office phone. He placed his call, spoke in Spanish, and asked if he could wait five minutes for the return call. As we waited he told me a bit about his life. He was from Puerto Rico but had been in Philadelphia for 38 years. He had been back to Puerto Rico twice in all that time and had lost touch with any remaining relatives to time and death. He works in construction and has no children of his own, but has a handful of nieces and nephews. He had a kind and polite demeanor and was a pleasure to talk to. When his call came in, he made plans with his sister, thanked me and the kids for coming to St. Francis Inn, and was on his way.
That evening we took the kids to West Laurel Hill Cemetery to explore the grounds and look for the many famous people buried there. We gave the kids a list of 23 famous people and their accomplishments. This included the founders of Tylenol and Campbell Soup, the owner of many Philadelphia sports teams, and the creator of the modern tennis racket and skis. The collection of famous people at West Laurel Hill is remarkable. As is the display of wealth. The field trip was the beginning of a lesson on the legacy we leave behind when our time on earth comes to a close. Do we want it to be a list of accomplishments, or grand mausoleums representing the vastness of our stores and wealth? (if you haven't checked out the cemetery and seen the mausoleums I highly recommend the trip btw!). Or do we want our legacy to be more profound, more of a commentary on what kind of person we were and how we affected our community and those around us?
On the other end of the cemetery from the grandiose mausoleums is a “Green Burial” graveyard. Here the deceased are wrapped in biodegradable shrouds and placed in the earth with some native plants on top of them. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The monks at St. Francis Inn take vows of poverty, and serve those in need. They leave little to no environmental or material footprint, and yet their legacy is vast and powerful. I imagine many of them would choose the green graveyard for their burial. As I read today's scripture I could not help but think of this juxtaposition between the most powerful and the most servile.
You may be wondering here if we are counseling our young to avoid accomplishment, achievement or success. We are not, but we are cautioning them to be deliberate about the kind of person they become in the midst of all of the influences in their lives. Accumulating money and goods are powerful forces, as this scripture reminds us. It feels good to have excess; it helps us to feel safe, secure and protected from what may come. It helps us to have advantages for us and for our families. But, and this is a big but, it complicates a lot. How we parent, how we treat others, the proximity of our compassion. When we can afford to build mausoleums to keep ourselves separate, we may forget to take care of those in need; to those the Franciscans devote their lives. When one can afford to live apart, sometimes one forgets to see, or care, or understand the others. And then they become forgotten.
This parable reminds us that we do not know when death will come for us. We need to be prepared to face the reality of our choices, and the people we have become. Building bigger monuments, or bigger barns for our crops will not fill us up to our core, nor bring us closer to God. Sharing the riches of ourselves with one another, to all others, can be the way to fill our spiritual “barns”, and help us to become closer to God, ourselves and one another.
It is a good reminder: “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’”
Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen
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