Abundant life is about who you treasure, not what. Because God treasures you, and all God’s children, and will help you do the same.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 18 C
Text: Luke 12:13-21

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

This is a familiar pain.

A beloved parent dies, and the children become hyenas, fighting each other over the carcass, wanting all the scraps they believe they deserve. It’s ugly and heartbreaking to witness or experience, especially when such a fight would break the parent’s heart. That’s what’s happening here. Our friend thinks Jesus should arbitrate this family dispute, force the brother to share the inheritance.

The tragedy in these situations is that the family ceases to be a family. Siblings become opponents, enemies. People don’t speak for years, decades, sometimes never reconciling.

What this brother treasures is the inheritance. What he needs more than anything is to treasure his brother, treasure the relationship, treasure the family. No inheritance is worth that.

Until our friend understands that life abundant and worth living is about who you treasure, not what, Jesus can’t help him.

Treasuring the whats gets us into trouble every time.

Jesus speaks today about the desire for money, because it’s money our friend treasures. But what causes all the pain and suffering in this world, and even in your life, is when people treasure the what, not the who. Sometimes it is money. Sometimes something else.

If you treasure being right, then when you disagree with loved ones someone will be a winner and someone a loser. Someone you love is hurt because you treasured the what, not the who.

If you treasure safety and comfort, then when you make buying decisions, when you vote, when you live in the world, you will support systems that provide you what you want at the cost of your neighbors. Someone suffers because you treasured the what more than the who.

When our society treasures ideas and opinions more than people, laws trample over people, crush them, kill them. Polarized political fighting happens when people forget the who – that is, the people who are deeply affected – and treasure the what – being right, getting their way, not having their privilege challenged, denying their own prejudice and bias.

Everything that ails our society, our culture, our personal lives, can be traced to treasuring a thing rather than a person. No thing is more valuable than a child of God. No inheritance, no perceived right, no need to win, no stubborn refusal to learn and grow, no principle, no doctrine. That’s what Jesus keeps saying.

The last time this summer someone tried to get Jesus to give him what he wanted, Jesus focused on love of God and love of neighbor.

He taught that eternal life isn’t a thing to be received, it can only be lived, right now, in love of God and love of neighbor. Because love of God and neighbor also isn’t a what, a thing to be believed. It’s a way of life that, when lived, focuses you and me on what really is valuable, what treasure really matters to us.

We start with love of God because God is the first Who we can truly treasure.

God is not a what to pontificate about or to define or to fight about.

The holy and Triune God who made all things is a Who, who loves you and the whole creation enough to die for you and the whole creation. Who came in person, in Christ Jesus, to show you, and me, and all people, the face of God, the heart of God’s love. To give tangible proof that you, and I, and all people, and the whole creation, are beloved.

That’s the Who you want to treasure first: the God who loves you beyond death itself, who will always be with you and give you life. Treasure God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength, because God treasures you with all God’s heart and soul and mind and strength.

Treasure that. Lean into that: you are God’s beloved.

And when you treasure the God who treasures you, you are changed.

The Word of God’s love for you and the creation wraps in and around your heart, and you are transformed into someone who loves in the same way, who treasures the who, not the what.

This Meal Christ gives works its way into your cells, your bones, your breath, and transforms you into someone who treasures your neighbor as you are treasured.

This Spirit God fills you with stirs in you and shapes your heart and your mind and your soul and your strength and creates a new person who loves and treasures all God’s children.

If our friend today really wanted Jesus’ help, he could have asked, “Teacher, could you help me and my brother reconcile? I really miss him.” Jesus would have loved to help with that.

And when this value system, this treasuring, spreads throughout the family of God on this earth, no oppression or suffering or systems or laws will be able to withstand it.

We can help each other a lot in this.

If our conversation and lives – whether personal or communal – start focusing on things, protecting institutions, defending points of view, being right, or whatever, we can say to each other or to ourselves, “who is it we’re not treasuring right now?”

If our life together starts veering into abstract things we think and argue, even about God, we can say to each other, “where is God in all of this and how can we treasure God’s presence here? How is God’s love shaping us and our lives?”

Abundant life is lived with whos not whats. And God deeply desires you to know abundant life. And me, too. And all God’s children.

That’s something worth treasuring, for the rest of your life.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

God is here – in your life, in this world – and will help you let go of your anxiety and distractions so you can see God’s grace and find the blessing God brings.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 16 C
Texts: Luke 10:38-42; Genesis 18:1-10a

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Abraham and Martha honored a sacred obligation in their culture.

Abraham would have been shamed if he’d let these three strangers walk by without offering hospitality. Martha did the only thing acceptable when a guest appears, welcomed them into her home.

And in both households two critical roles of hospitality were done well. Food and refreshment is central to hospitality, and Sarah and the servant prepared that for their guests, while Martha did that for Jesus.

But someone also needs to attend to the guests. You can’t just leave them alone in your entryway, or standing outside. So Abraham was with his three guests, found them shade under the tree. Mary sat with Jesus, made him welcome as the meal was prepared, attended to his needs.

We’re not going to pit these two sisters against each other. Jesus never did. The important thing in both these stories is not who had to do what role. All offered faithful, welcoming hospitality, gave blessing and gift. So if the problem isn’t that Martha cooked while Mary lounged, a completely unfair assessment, what is it?

It’s simple: Martha was “worried and distracted by many things,” Jesus says.

Maybe by whether the meal was coming together. Maybe Jesus was a surprise guest, and she worried whether she had enough in the house. Maybe she’d just had a hard week. Maybe Lazarus was looking tired and Martha was starting to worry he might be sick with something. Who knows?

Regardless of source, her anxiety and worry distracted her from enjoying Jesus’ visit.

I get that. There’ve been times when I was the main one preparing the meal for guests and I was anxious and distracted. Not about being the one making the meal – I enjoy that. It could have been anything. And then I’d feel, after the guests had left, that my state of mind cost me the pleasure of having them there.

Maybe you remember a celebration where you just weren’t fully present because your mind or spirit were roiled up, and afterward it felt like you missed all the fun. Or something you long expected ended up a disappointment because of your state when it actually happened. Maybe even here, in this place, you’ve missed out on the grace of the beautiful music, or God’s Word, or the Meal, because of your distraction.

But what made it worse for Martha was that God was visiting her house.

Like Abraham and Sarah. This wasn’t an ordinary guest, this was God-with-us, in our human flesh. And that was a huge loss for Martha. Because her problem really wasn’t her sister Mary, or cooking the meal. You know what it’s like to blurt out something in your worry or anxiety that’s only masking your deeper concerns, or to say something you regret. If she really wanted Mary to help, she’d have found a way to ask. They loved each other.

But she spoke to Jesus. And her question is deeply revealing of her anxiety: “Lord, do you not care?” She’s worried about her place in Jesus’ love.

And sadly, because of her anxiety and distraction, even if Jesus acted in love toward her, she probably missed it. We know that feeling, being our own worst enemies and missing what we dearly want because we’re in a state where we can’t see it. And so Martha misses the very presence of God in her house.

And that’s how you know what the “better part” is that Jesus hopes Martha can find.

And you, too. It has nothing to do with what roles you and I are playing in our lives, whether we’re like Martha, or Mary, or Sarah and the servant, or Abraham. The better part is learning to recognize God’s presence in your life, in this world, for healing and hope. And if you’re worried and distracted by many things, it’s going to be hard.

Do you feel despair and fear over the condition of our world, like so many of us do? It’s legitimate. But if that takes you over, you’ll lose the ability to see where God is moving and acting in this world.

Are you anxious about threatening, uncontrollable things in your life, or that of those you love? Most of us have felt that. But if you and I lean into that anxiety, we might lose the eyes to see where God’s love is moving and touching and bringing life.

And if you feel guilt or suffer from fear that you’re not enough, that you’ve done things you’re ashamed of, again, we’ve all felt that. But if that distracts and dominates your heart, how will you see when God looks at you with the deepest love and says, “you are my precious one, always?”

This is why you and I come here every week: to learn to see God’s presence in our lives and the world.

Sure, sometimes our distractions win the day, even here. But here we can find quiet for our spirit to breathe and rest. God’s gift of music pulls us out of ourselves and draws us into the presence of God. God’s Word speaks into our hearts of God’s hope for justice in this world, and calls us beloved. God feeds us with goodness and love. Here we learn what it is to be on holy ground, to see and sense God’s presence.

Here you also learn that all ground is holy, there’s no such distinction as sacred and secular. Your eyes are opened so when you step out into your life, into your world, you can see God’s presence everywhere. When you’ve learned here how to drop your anxiety and distraction and find joy in God with you, you’ll be able to do that better out there, in the holy, sacred ground that is all of God’s creation.

This is the better part that will never be taken from you or this world: God is with you, and in this whole creation.

And when God is present, God blesses you with faith and trust to see God even more clearly.

Martha’s trust in Jesus became so deep that, even as her brother was lying in his tomb, she made the Gospels’ greatest declaration of Jesus as God’s Christ, as God’s Son who’s come into the world. Mary’s devotion to Jesus became so profound that, she, and only she, sensed the coming tragedy as Holy Week began, and she poured out her love with costly perfume and her hair over Jesus’ feet. And Abraham and Sarah, each nearly a century old, received the blessing of a child, but more, the blessing of courage and trust that this God they risked everything to follow would always be with them.

That’s the blessing, the better part God wants for you and the whole creation. With the Spirit’s help, even you will be able to see and trust ever more deeply that God is with you and in the world, and rejoice in that.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen