But our citizenship is in heaven
Crazy Week! No! Eleanor Roosevelt did not vote this last ,Tuesday!
The dead cannot vote.
Understatement you say!
Everyone I know is happy that this election cycle is over. The scriptures today puts our lives in focus and gives me hope. It reminds us that God is still in charge and we are not.
One of the most remarkable things about reading scripture daily is that I always find something new. In our Gospel today from Luke, the debtors never actually paid the debt. For some reason I thought the rich man was paid. The corrupt steward just took the promissory note which is a legal document even today and exchanged it for a reduced amount of debt. They were given a pardon so to speak. It would be the same if your mortgage principle was cut by 50 or 20 percent over night.
The debtors were happy.
The rich man was not.
The steward was dishonest and at the very least incompetent. He was without a doubt a bad manager of the rich man’s affairs. However, he was smart enough to know how to endear himself to the debtors.
In the news recently there was an interview with an Intensive Care nurse, named, Joey in a COVID 19 unit in Billings, MT. It was a very emotional report on the emotional toll of people dying in a hospital alone and the doctors and nurses that take care of them. It was a moving story that will grow larger as case totals rise . It made me cry.
Everyone struggles with the outside world. Work is always a dirty four-letter word if you do it correctly. Nonetheless, our struggle include world affairs, war and sickness.
Saint Paul encourages us in our first readings from Philippians For many, as I have often told you and now tell you even in tears, conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their “shame”. Their minds are occupied with earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven.”
My lesson from both readings is that while we are worried about sickness, death and financial wellbeing for both ourselves and our families, we still have to trust in our citizenship in heaven. We were Baptized and are full members in that body.
Because of the Baptism we were given gifts. We are given the grace to use them and are responsible for them. As stewards of God’s gifts on this planet, how do we rate? We all have gifts. The big take away for me is that none of them are mine.
Everything is God’s. My wife. My children and grandchildren. My meager assets. They all belong to God.
And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently. For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than the children of light.
My job for today and tomorrow if God grants me that is to be a child of light. We have gifts and how we use them for God’s Glory is how we show where that light comes.
“This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine”
God Love You Always
Bob Burford
