Relinquish your Possessions
I have often said that when we read the gospel we need to
read them not as biographies, or even histories, but books of theology. The writers
believed that in Jesus’ life and ministry, his death and resurrection, we see
God. We meet God at work in Jesus so that we can see God at work in our world. Luke
offers us a picture of God who brings good news to the poor, release for the
captives, recovery of sight for the blind, and who sets the oppressed free
(Luke 4). The hard question Jesus asks his disciples in this week’s reading
(Luke 14: 25-30) is what in our lives prevents us seeing God at work in our
world and what stops us joining in this work.
The reading finishes with an admonition
that those listening relinquish their possession. Mitzi J. Smith from Working Preacher suggests that “this is a
challenge to reject greed, hoarding, and overabundance for the sake of
overabundance and in favor of sharing and the elimination of poverty and its effects
(Luke 12:13-21, 33-34).” She goes on to state that “(We) are a society that
encourages greed over giving, hoarding over sharing, and overabundance as a
marker of social status over the elimination of poverty. What humans have
created, we can eliminate by daily recommitting ourselves to the God who loves
compassion, mercy, and justice and hates poverty, greed, inequity, and
injustice.”[1]
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