This Week

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 Jesus 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 toward God." 
----Luke 12:13-21

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean -
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down -
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
----Mary Oliver"The Summer Day"


Your lamp was lit from another lamp.
All God wants is your gratitude for that.
----Rumi


If I survive this life without dying,
I'll be surprised.
----Mulla Nasrudi

 These children and riches are mine"; 
thinking thus the fool is troubled. 
Since no one even owns himself, 
what is the sense in "my children and riches"?  
Verily, it is the law of humanity that 
though one accumulates hundreds of 
thousands of worldly goods, one still 
succumbs to the spell of death.  
All hoardings will be dispersed, 
whatever rises will be cast down, 
all meetings must end in separation, 
life must finally end in death. 
----Udanavarga I.20.22, 
as quoted in Jesus and Buddha, 
by Marcus Borg


It is not necessary to have great things to do.
I turn my little omelet in the pan for the love of God.
----Brother Lawrence

  

Is the message in Jesus' parable useful just 
	for monks and hermits, or for us too?
Is it bad to have a retirement plan, 
	to save? What if having financial resources 
	gives you more time to pray, or more resources 
	to share? What is Jesus arguing against?
What do you hoard; what barns have you built?
How are you "rich towards God"?
How do you understand your inheritance from God? 
	What do you get? Is it enough?
Does the threat of death change any of this 
	for you? Have you ever felt that threat 
	in a way that changed the way you live? 
	What else has caught your attention enough 
	to change course in your life?
What do you plan to do, or are you doing, 
	"with your one wild and precious life?"