The Text: Luke 13:10-17

 Jesus today attempts a miracle healing.

Sadly the healing was not successful. You may be surprised to hear that because we see a woman who had been bent over for 18 years released from her condition.

But when we look closer we will see that that may not have been the target of Jesus’ healing.

This woman had been suffering for 18 years. She had not asked for healing and yet Jesus calls her over.

In fact Luke doesn’t even call it a healing but a release from a spirit that had kept her bent over.

The true healing that Jesus seems to be initiating is with the synagogue leader who has been bound not by a physical but a spiritual sickness.

The synagogue leader was teaching what he had learnt about the Sabbath Law to the people in the synagogue.

“There are six days to do work – come on one of those to be healed and not on the Sabbath”.

There are 6 days that this woman could have been healed but Jesus chose the Sabbath because he knew that the religious leader had forgotten his duty to care for those in need.

Jesus’ healing revealed the true state of the synagogue leader’s heart in that instead of rejoicing that this woman is now free from this crippling disease he instead referred to the letter of the law which to him took precedence over her wellbeing.

This message is a challenge to us to see if we may have neglected the care of others among us because we have been side-tracked by other things.

Each Sunday, all sorts of burdens are carried into our churches.

Some, like the bent-over woman’s condition, are more visible than others. But others have pain that is not so obvious or perhaps someone else will deal with it.

The difference between the bent over woman and the leader of the synagogue was that the woman went away healed while the synagogue leader still had his sick heart that needed healing.

It is similar to the Pharisee and the tax collector, with the righteous law-abiding Pharisee going away without being made right before God despite all his obedience to the law while the sinful tax collector, with all his disobedience, went away right before God.

This healing was a problem for the synagogue ruler because of when it happened.

Come back tomorrow when it’s alright for healings to be performed.

Wait a little longer.

After all, what is one extra day in an 18 year long suffering?

For Jesus, it is one day too long – for the woman and for the synagogue ruler.

The tension here is between two faithful Jewish men – Jesus and the synagogue ruler – who are struggling with each other concerning what it means to be faithful to God.

Both men believe they are keeping the true meaning of the Sabbath.

The story portrays Jesus as keeping the Sabbath because he sees it differently, and because he has a different sense of timing.

The time for God’s grace and healing is now, not later.

Often when we think of Pharisees and other religious leaders in the New Testament times we think of them in negative terms.

Judgmental, close-minded, harsh, moralistic, religious fanatics.

If we were to ask the general public today it would probably show that many see Christians in the same way.

The religious leaders were trying to be faithful to God and the commandments.

Somehow the people thought that the way to please God was through religious obedience, worship services, impressive buildings, long prayers and fasting, focusing their attention on the law, right down to every technical detail.

All this, even though God often told them that what mattered most is what’s in our hearts, and how we treat one another, and especially how we treat those in our midst who are most vulnerable: that’s the teaching behind the Good Samaritan: (Luke 10:25-37). The priest and Levite ignored the needs of their hurt brother in order to remain ritually clean for their temple duties.

So while religiously they were right – in their love of neighbour they were wrong.

These religious leaders focused on God and how they might serve God better but couldn’t see the suffering of their community.

They didn’t always get it right, but they were sincerely trying.

They sound a lot like us.

As Christians certainly we want to serve God and show our love and devotion to him.

But do we let our devotion sometimes get in the way that we don’t notice that God places in our midst those who also need our love and devotion?

But as we read the Old Testament we see that God was demanding in strict obedience to the Law of Moses with threats of being put to death for disobedience.

What has changed?

The change is that God sent his son Jesus to fulfil the law that we couldn’t fulfil under the old covenant and introduce a new covenant.

The writer to the Hebrews today compares the Old and the New Covenant.

The characteristics under the Old Covenant of Moses included:

The mountain that couldn’t be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a storm, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”

But with Jesus there is a New Covenant brought in.

A new mountain – Mount Zion – the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, with innumerable angels in festal gathering.

Which covenant are you living under?

It is very easy to slip back into the Old Covenant which put the Law first ahead of the needs of people and further burdened them – there are 6 days to work – come back on one of those days to receive God’s grace.

That doesn’t mean the law isn’t important but Jesus interpreted the true meaning of the law in loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and loving our neighbour as ourselves.

The religious leader, in his eagerness to show his love to God, like the priest and Levite on their way to the temple, neglected to love their neighbour.

The religious leader was called a hypocrite because he allowed his members to care for their animals on the Sabbath but ignored the needs of a human being created in the image of God.

Do we sometimes care more about things in the church while ignoring the needs of fellow human beings created in God’s image?

As Christians we have been set the task to value all human life because we know and believe that all human life is created in the image of God.

And when we begin with that foundation that all human life is created in God’s image then everything we do will take that into consideration.

Whether it’s our worship, whether it’s our work, whether it’s our sport, whether it’s our special interests and things we stand up for – caring for human life guides our values and decisions.

It is so easy to let our political agenda or our theological agenda or our personal agenda to guide our values and decisions which doesn’t always take into account the well-being of others.

It comes so natural to tell those squatters to get a job and wait their turn for public housing.

It’s comes so natural to tell those illegal immigrants to go back where you came from and stop jumping the queue.

Issues like these and others can reveal the true state of our hearts despite all our exterior obedience.

It’s so easy to put rules first and people second.

That’s where the synagogue leader got it wrong.

He was guided by his zeal for the commandments of God without considering God’s call to love his neighbour in need.

There are times when our Christian beliefs will be challenged when we are wondering the right decision to make.

But when we act out love for God and our neighbour as Jesus did, then we allow God’s heart to guide us and his grace to forgive us when we might feel that we have broken God’s law for the sake of a neighbour in need.

Jesus saw the Sabbath Day as a day for God to free us from the weight of the world that keeps us bent over rather than a day where we add to that weight by trying to please God.

This lesson invites us to ponder the ways in which our own rules, customs, and habits of what is right and proper have in fact become “Bad News” and burdens on those seeking release.

As Jesus once said – the Sabbath was made for humans – humans were not made for the Sabbath.

So let the Sabbath free you but more importantly use the Sabbath to free others.

 

 Texts: Luke 12:49-51, Hebrews 12:1-4

 All good things must come to an end. This is the way we view much of our lives.

As children we all look forward to birthdays, and Christmas celebrations with family. But when it’s time to go home sadness, tears, and tantrums take over because the fun is finished, and all the good things have come to an end.

We part company with our cousins, and the festivities, to return to the mundane everyday motions of life. The division causes distress, the fun never seems to last. It’s takes so long to arrive and then in a flash it’s over. Mum and dad are the agents of division and the destroyers of delight. It’s at this time children would rather be separated from mum and dad and reunited in celebration with their cousins.

This type of sentiment doesn’t end in childhood. We carry on through life looking to live for the moment, or we reminisce over the past. We long for things to be the way they were. We get distressed about what the future might bring – failing bodies, loss of loved ones, loss of our independence, and finally loss of life. Are you anxious, uneasy, or distressed about what you are becoming over time?

Jesus was anxious too! He was distressed but not in the way we are about the future. Rather Jesus’ distress occurred because of the present, and all the while his hope was in what the end of his ministry on earth would bring.

So, Jesus laments in a way which is different to us, he says, “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.” (Luke 12:49-51)

Jesus looks forward to finishing what needs to happen. He is torn to the core of his being; he is distressed, until the result is complete. While a quasi-superficial peace exists he is distressed. Until the things we perceive to be good come to an end, there is no peace in Jesus’ heart.

Just like a parent taking distressed kids home after a fun filled day, Jesus knows no peace until God’s children are laid to rest, so we might be rested and refreshed through his rest at the cross and in the grave.

See the problem here is as old as there have been parents and children. There is the constant struggle between those who have age, experience, and wisdom on their side verses the young who lack wisdom but have a whole bundle of energy to burn.

We put recreation before both groups asking, “What is recreation?” and get two very different answers. For some the idea of recreation is to go, go, go! Experiencing action is what recreation is all about! But for others recreation takes on a more subdued event of relaxing, sleeping, and resting the body.

For Jesus recreation is somewhere in between! He was distressed and wanted to go, go, go, but this is so he could get to the place where he was placed in perfect rest, completing his work of recreation.

Now this might seem all a bit confusing to us who live in an age where recreation and holidays have lost their original purpose. And we do well to take the word recreation and stick a hyphen in so we hear recreation as re-creation. Our recreation is a time to be recreated or re-created. So too for holidays! Holidays were once holy-days set apart for a very different purpose than what they’ve become today.

To find the function of holidays and days of recreation, the commandment “Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy” is as good a place as any to begin. After all the Sabbath is where God rested when he finished creation, and it’s where we’re re-created as we rest in God’s presence. And if it’s good enough for God to rest, perhaps we can enjoy the work God gives us in creation, and rest in him to be re-created and made holy as he is holy.

In the Old Testament the Sabbath begun at sundown on Friday and finished at sundown on Saturday. The Sabbath was a day to be re-created, and it was done by resting in the hearing of God’s Word. And so recreation and holidays flow on in the same vein. We are called to enjoy our work while we have it, and look forward to the holidays and days of recreation, not to glorify ourselves and neglect his Word, but to learn and hear it through teaching and preaching, regarding it as holy and therefore bringing glory to God.

How mixed up we have become in these things today! We lament and are distressed by the work God gives us and then when times come for us to be re-created and made holy, we choose to busy ourselves to the point of exhaustion and distress.

When we need re-creation and holiness, we are blinded by our desire for recreation and happiness, and the holidays and days of recreation become difficult days of uneasiness — and dis-ease!

Recreation is meant to lessen our dis-ease, yet for many their pursuit of recreational activities has become a disease! In fact, our distress from the unholiness and chaos of our search for fulfilment exposes the greatest disease of humanity – our sinfulness.

So as life seems to ebb away we become more and more like children at the end of a day of celebration. We become distressed over what is passing away, rather than being distressed over the fact we have become addicted to death and transient things around us. We want to stay and play, wearing ourselves out to the point where we’re so delirious we’ve lost all sight of what God truly intends for us.

Jesus says his coming has brought fire to the earth rather than peace. And this fire comes not only to the world but to us as well. There’s a division within us; a struggle between who you once were, and into whom you are being re-created.

The Holy Spirit delivers the fiery Holy Word of God into our hearts and the battle begins. Jesus seeks to conquer our unbelief, restlessness, and idolatry. Our hearts are receiving the will of God, and subsequently the distress of Jesus dwells in us until our baptism is made complete at the day of our resurrection after our earthly death.

But the old nature doesn’t die easily; it fights and assails us because Christ is in us. Our human nature would have us believe life is about selfishness now! That peace comes from me being number one! We would be at peace if conflict didn’t occur in us. But the reality is we are not living but dying, and for those who allow God to re-create them in Jesus Christ, they are being made his new creations. But it causes distress within as it divides sinner from saint. Like Jesus we are looking forward distressed until the fire of Christ’s fiery baptism of blood on the cross finishes its work of refinement in us. Then life will really being and death will be a thing of the past.

Jesus’ work of recreation divides not only the new believer from the old Adam within. Jesus also says it divides families and communities. Our sin separated Jesus from his Heavenly Father’s love on the cross. He experienced the full gamut of God’s wrath as a result of taking our addiction to death on himself, so we might be joined with the Father.

There are no shades of grey at the cross, Jesus was completely cut off from life, and experienced death in all its viciousness. And so the division continues to this day. We wrestle and struggle with those who choose the opposite from us. The question is this: Am I upholding God’s holiness and re-creation won for me in Jesus’ death, where one day I will be living in eternal peace? Or am I choosing to chase re-creation in unholy things, forsaking Christ’s work on the cross? There’s no halfway here! Either there’s surrender to Christ or surrender to eternal death. And between the divisions there will be an impenetrable void, impassable for all eternity.

So the reality for you is not that all good things are coming to an end but the truly good things are yet to come! Until death is a thing of the past, there will be times of distress, but at the second coming of Christ, we look forward to perfection and joy. Therefore, we’re encouraged as God’s children not to resist him but to be encouraged by all those who have gone before us bearing the forgiveness and faith of God. And so we hear…

…since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. (Hebrews 12:1-4)

Amen.

The Text: Luke 12:32, 35-38

Have you ever been promised a generous gift? How did you feel about it? Did you look forward to receiving it with eager anticipation? How did you feel when it became yours? Generosity is a rare virtue in today’s world. That’s why we’re overwhelmed when it happens. Today’s Gospel contains Jesus’ announcement of the Good News of God giving you the greatest gift of all – His Kingdom and all the privileges that go along with life within it. What better gift could we be given? This gift is for people of all ages, including infants.

Jesus addresses you with words of such tender endearment when He says, “Fear not, little flock, for your Father is thrilled to give you the Kingdom (v32).” A little flock is one that can receive special care and attention from its shepherd. He knows their unique needs and requirements. We’re not to let size intimidate us. The Head of the Kingdom of Heaven isn’t an aloof, out-of-contact king, but a caring parent. We’re more than citizens of this Kingdom. In Baptism we were incorporated into God’s family and made members of the royal household, where we are its princes and princesses.

Jesus came preaching the good news of the Kingdom with Himself as its central focus. Jesus is the Kingdom Incarnate, the Kingdom personified. Our Lord is the bringer, the content and the completion of the Kingdom of Heaven. When He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 5:3)” He means that this new community is for all the ordinary folk, those only all too aware of their limitations and inadequacies.

Through the embassies of God’s Kingdom, our churches, God establishes His reign of grace throughout the world. Jesus inaugurated the time of God’s favour with us, for our lifelong benefit and blessing. Grace involves being welcomed into heaven‘s royal household with no strings attached, no prior requirements we have to first meet. We sing about Christ, the Prince of Peace in Hymn 219:

Blessings abound where’er He reigns

The prisoner leaps to loose his chains;

The weary find eternal rest

And all the sons of want are blest.

Jesus brings the blessings of a regal joy, a majestic mercy, a peerless peace and a hope that’s sure and certain. His address to you “Fear not, little flock” is words that create courage, words that eliminate our anxiety. These words seek to fill us with a disarming fearlessness that makes us eager ambassadors of Christ, ambassadors who are thrilled to act as His advocates and supporters in our community.

Jesus had high hopes for His little flock. It hasn’t let Him down. It began as an insignificant minority, but what a creative minority the members of His embassies, His churches, have been! The advancement and progress of the Kingdom of the Father, His Son and the Holy Spirit is rarely visible. Our Lord’s parables of the Kingdom reassure us that from lowly and insignificant beginnings, a mighty harvest will come. “Jesus said, ‘The Kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come (Mark 4:26-29).’”It can furthermore be compared to yeast mixed into flour until it permeates and transform s all the flour, as in Matthew 13:33.

God works behind the scenes, both in those who are Christians and those who are not yet Christians, to bring them in, and keep them in His Kingdom. That’s why Jesus refers to His Kingdom as “the pearl of great price”, and the treasure of infinite worth in which we joyfully invest all that we are and all that we have.

It was unexpected that God’s Kingdom was open to all kinds of sinners and not just for the righteous. Instead of its righteous citizens ruling over the world, its citizens mingle with those still outside as its enthusiastic advocates. Its unostentatious nature masks its ultimate and unsurpassed greatness. In our worship we have a foretaste, a first instalment of the Kingdom of Heaven, which whets our appetite for its coming in all its fullness.

God gives to us what God asks of us. In the verse before today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Seek God’s Kingdom” – a treasure that God is keener to give to you than you are to receive it. The privileges we have as Christ’s ambassadors far outweigh the responsibilities He requires of us. Before He seeks our service, Jesus comes to serve us. As He says of Himself, “I am among you as One who serves (Luke 22:27).” In Holy Communion, His Kingdom becomes very real and concrete, as in this Blessed Sacrament, we receive its blessings and benefits. Our Sunday Worship has been called “Divine Service”, because there, Christ Himself serves us with His forgiveness, His grace, His comfort, His support and His encouragement, in anticipation of the Last Day when all of Heaven’s blessings will be ours in overflowing measure.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus called “blessed” all of His servants who are getting ready for His return. The knowledge that He is preparing a place for us in His Father’s House motivates us to prepare ourselves for His appearance on the Last Day. Because His forgiveness means we can live as if today is the first day of our life, we can live as if tonight might be our last night on this earth. We can join our Lord in praying, “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit”, or else we can pray Simeon’s song with him.

Our Lord’s reward for lifelong faithfulness is never commonplace. It comes as an unexpected gift out of all proportion to anything we may have done. Faithfulness to our Lord so thrills Him that He reverses normal Master/servant roles and tells us that in Heaven He will again come and wait on us in order to serve us. What a revolutionary message that was! Such a role reversal was utterly unheard of. It would be like a bridegroom serving the waiters at his wedding, or like a restaurant customer paying to serve the restaurant’s waiters instead.

Such an unexpected promise is one that Jesus Christ alone could make and keep. In His Kingdom, the first are last and the last are first. There, the greatest become like the youngest, and the leader like one who serves: “For who is greater, the one who is at table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as One who serves”, Jesus says. What an utterly undeserved honour it will be to receive personal attention from our Lord in Heaven. Perhaps He will stoop down to wash our feet, as He did so unexpectedly to His twelve apostles on Maundy Thursday eve.

We, Christ’s humble servants, will be treated like royalty. There won’t be any famous men and women in Heaven because every human being there will be famous. Heaven will be a place of perpetual giving and endless thanksgiving. Jesus says, “Blessed are those servants whom the Master finds alert when He comes; truly I tell you, He will fasten His belt and have them sit down to eat, and He will come and serve them (Luke 12:37).”  Back in Jesus’ time, a master serving a slave would have been unthinkable. But then, Heaven will be full of surprises. When Prince Edward defeated and took prisoner King John of France, he nobly condescended to wait on King John the same night at supper. Serving us in Heaven won’t be beneath Christ’s divine dignity, because it wasn’t beneath Him to be our Suffering Servant while on earth.

In Heaven, we will shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory. We will be with Jesus and like Jesus as we share in His gigantic joy. To at last see our Lord face to face will be an awesome vision of which we will never tire. One way to get ready for Heaven is to develop a capacity for surprise – surprise at all the breath-taking things God does for us. Psalm 126 will become true: “When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” The LORD has done great things for us, and we rejoiced (vv1-3).”

Heaven will be the greatest surprise party ever. It will be like all the best family reunions, wedding breakfasts and Christmas celebrations rolled into one never-ending celebration. All human words are inadequate to describe what awaits us in Heaven. “What no one ever saw or heard, what no one ever thought could happen, is the very thing God prepared for those who love Him (1 Corinthians 2:9).” This world, which serves as a scaffolding for God’s new world, will one day be removed. There, in God’s new world, we will experience life’s ultimate adventure in all its glorious abundance. The best is yet to come. There, we will be blessed, not because of what we do, but because of what we let Jesus do for us.

Who cannot help but love, honour and rejoice over our Lord and Master who promises to do such wonderful things for us? “Blessed are those who are invited to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).” We are truly blessed indeed to be servants of Christ the “Servant King!

This is our God, the Servant King

He calls us now to follow Him

To bring our lives as a daily offering

Of worship to the Servant King.

So let us learn how to serve

And in our lives enthrone Him;

Each other’s needs to prefer

For it is Christ we’re serving.      (AT 261)

And then in Heaven, Christ will serve us, forever. Amen.

The Text: Luke 12:13-21

Most councils will have what are known as “hard rubbish” collections. These are collections where you can throw out items you no longer need that are too big for your regular rubbish bins.

It is no surprise today seeing things that are not really rubbish in the collection – TV sets, tables, and lounge suites piled up on nature strips waiting for the truck to come along and take it to the tip. These days it just seems we all have so much stuff that we just throw out things that are probably still okay but we just don’t need it anymore because we’ve bought something new.

I often wonder how refugees feel when they come here from refugee camps where they lived in such harsh conditions to see the things we throw away.

It’s everywhere you look. Unneeded Stuff!

From garage sales, to car boot sales and trash and treasure markets, to nature strips with people riffling through your trash to find something of value.

Stuff is everywhere.

What a difference there is between third world countries and first world countries like ours when it comes to being thankful for what we have.

We’ll send a steak back to the kitchen because we asked for “well-done” and this is still red inside while the starving line up for hours for some grain to cook or some fresh water and the thankfulness for what little they receive.

We feel like second class citizens because our internet is slow – or our mobile phone isn’t the latest model – or our computer takes so long to turn on – while millions go without food and shelter.

We feel embarrassed because we can’t get our hair to sit right or we’ve noticed a wrinkle with ageing while children are dying from AIDS, malaria and other diseases overseas.

We feel embarrassed if we have to wear last season’s clothes while millions are lucky to have a piece of rag to cover up their humility.

We live in a society where obesity is our major health problem while millions are starving.

It’s very easy to lose perspective on life and forget to be thankful for all the blessings which God has showered upon our lives.

And let’s be honest – we have an abundance and have more than we need.

Maybe we don’t have all that we “want” but we have more than we need.

Greed is something we understand well.

All one has to do is turn on the television when the Power Ball jackpot reaches some obscene amount of money and listen to the interviews of people saying what they will do if they hit the big one. Our human nature will tell us that the more we have the more we want and the less thankful we are.

All of us are capable of being like the man in the story that Jesus told.

He tells the story of a rich man who receives a more abundant crop than normal but instead of being thankful and finding a way to help others he pulls down his barns, builds larger ones, and stores the grain and everything he owns there.

The man’s focus was himself.

His chief advisor was himself.

The only beneficiary to his actions would be himself.

Notice how many times “I” is used in his decision-making.

‘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 myself, ` you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry’.

God’s response: “You fool.”

The man loved his riches and didn’t even thank God for what he had received.

That’s where his heart was.

But he would have no opportunity to enjoy his wealth, because he would die that night.

Jesus accuses the man of not being “rich in what matters to God.”

When our possessions become our focus they muddy our thinking. We are not thankful for what we have we see what we don’t have.

And life then becomes a worry for us because we believe that we don’t have enough. And when that happens we become ungrateful for what we have rather than thankful.

The man’s life is about to take a sudden turn; he will die that night.

Our lives can take sudden turns: the results of a medical test; the death of a family member, or friend; a loss of job; the breakup of a marriage. These and many other crises can make life very difficult to bear and no one is exempt.

No amount of fame or fortune can prevent disaster; but they can be even more devastating if our lives are not rooted in God, who is our rock in hard times and our strength to see us through.

Money can’t buy everything.

This is not against preparing for rainy days that causes Jesus to call us fools, nor does he condemn wealth.

It is the selfish and excessive desire for oneself that becomes greed and becoming thankless for what we have. It is the way we treat our abundance and our wealth that matters to God.

Our parable today asks us to think about our stuff – our possessions in two ways:

How much stuff do we really need and when we have more than we need how do we use it?

How much stuff do you really need?

When you have a more abundant “crop” than you expected what is your response?

When you are thankful to God for what you’ve received you want to share those blessings with others.

And the reason God wants you to do this is also twofold.

Firstly to help others in need. God gives abundantly to this world, but because of human nature, the resources are not shared evenly. According to one report is estimated that half the world’s wealth now in the hands of just 1% of the population.

But the other reason why we need to look beyond our possessions is because God has richly blessed us all but our greed cannot see that and be thankful. As Paul said in our reading: Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

This is where we can think of our own baptism.

What an amazing blessing God has given us.

Our eternal life has been assured as children of God for which we are truly thankful.

But how easy for the worries of life to hide that from us as we worry about earthly things – worrying about money and possessions and work and other physical things.

Just look at Adam and Eve who had everything they could have possibly wanted or needed. But instead of being thankful Satan convinced them there was more.

And that’s what Satan does to us.

No matter how much we have we will always want more until we stop and thank God for what we have and not become disheartened over what we don’t have.

Our lives are so blessed – we probably don’t even realise how much we have to be thankful for!

The Red Cross released a statement that read:

(see: https://www.redcross.ca/crc/documents/What-We-Do/Emergencies-and-Disasters-WRLD/education-resources/lucky_ones_povdisease.pdf )

If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of the world, but are we thankful?

If you have money in the bank, your wallet, and some spare change you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy,, but are we thankful?

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness you are more blessed than the million people who will not survive this week, but are we thankful?

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the agony of imprisonment or torture, or the horrible pangs of starvation you are luckier than 500 million people alive and suffering, but are we thankful?

If you can read this message you are more fortunate than 3 billion people in the world who cannot read it at all, but are we thankful?

If you don’t think there is anything to be thankful to God for then we need to look again.

And even if we had just the shirt on our back – we would still be abundantly rich because Jesus died for us and we have eternal life in heaven.

That is the greatest possession anyone could ever have for which we should be truly thankful.