Your face, Lord, will I seek.
Amen.
All of today's reading talk about God providing for us, loving us, caring for us; and how we keep turning away and not trusting God, thinking we ourselves can do better. But God still loves us and is sad, not angry, when we go our own ways.
According to the prophet Hosea, God has compassion on Israel - I loved them, I called them, I taught them, I held them, I fed them; and yet when they turn away I will not be angry, I will not destroy, I will not come in wrath. In the end they will come back to God.
The Psalm tells the same story - Israel were wandering in the desert, lost, hungry, thirsty, away from God. They called to God who was right there waiting for them. God lead them to safety, gave them food and drink and love.
We heard God in Hosea saying that God would not be angry. In the reading from Colossians we are urged to get rid of anger and all other such things and return to being in the image of our creator. In that image there are no longer opposites - Jew/Greek, slave/free and so on - but Christ is all in all.
Luke relates an event - someone said to Jesus - Tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me. This person was out for what he could get, and he wanted Jesus on his side. Maybe he was right about the inheritance, maybe not, but in saying to Jesus "Tell my brother..." all he has demonstrated is greed and a longing for 'stuff'. The parable that follows tells us about possessions. The rich man stored them, hoarded them away so he could live a long time without worry or care. He died that night with lots of stuff but no faith in God. Where did his greed get him? Nowhere! He had no faith in the God of abundance - lavish, limitless, extravagant; who fed the five thousand and had baskets left over; who rained down manna from heaven. Grace is what God is made of, what God excels at - super-mega-hyper abundance.
From the Rule of the Community of the Sisters of the Church:
Our Poverty in the Community
is an expression of our love for
and our following of Christ,
who though rich
for our sakes became poor
and lived on earth in simplicity
and dependence.
For Christ's sake
we voluntarily renounce all that we
have or might have,
seeking as the treasure which
alone can satisfy the human heart - God, whose riches are infinite,
in whom we possess everything.
We shall learn Jesus' attitude to life
of freedom and joy,
of detachment and abandonment to God
and so we shall live simply,
pilgrims of a pilgrim church travelling light;
free from a spirit of possessiveness
and anxiety, trusting ourselves
and all that concerns us to a faithful God.
Real living comes from giving your life away, not by holding onto everything and trying to get more.
Make a fist like you are holding tight to something. How can you receive anything else? Only by opening your hand.
Consider thinking we can look after ourselves without God. Where do we end up? Lost, hungry, thirsty, dead with a full barn.
Consider God's love for us, in spite of all we do to turn away. God is waiting for us, calling to us, holding out to us all we need, especially God's steadfast love. God has always loved each of us, individually and collectively. All that is asked of us is to trust, believe, and accept all God has for us.
Let us pray:
O Christ, you know all things.
You know the secrets of the heart,
and the strain of a divided life.
Give us such a vision of yourself
that our hearts may be set on you alone;
such security in your love that our
lives may show forth the beauty of your peace.
Amen
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