Lasting Riches

What are your three major worries? What gets you tossing and turning at night?  Money? Family? The future? Work? Then the book of Ecclesiastes is for you.  There is some comfort in its world-weary wisdom. All is passing—life, love, property, worries. What good does it do to worry yourself to death? Death will come soon enough when God turns us all back to dust (that’s a little of the psalmist thrown in, for further emphasis). Now, into the week! 

Thank God for Jesus. He certainly is a wise teacher in today’s Gospel, sidestepping a request to get involved in family bickering over an inheritance. His work was about getting people into the kingdom, not getting people to share the family gold. Even so, Jesus draws a lesson from this situation for the crowd: Avoid greed. Don’t reduce your life to what you accumulate.  

To bring it home, he tells about a rich man so sure he is going to be around tomorrow that he plans on stockpiling all his goods for himself so he can “rest,  eat, drink, and be merry” for the rest of his days. But God has other plans for him.  

Jesus’ wisdom: Be rich in what matters to God. Colossians agrees: Think of what is above, of Christ at God’s right hand, of the glory that awaits you. Make  Christ your all and God your treasure. Remember that the goal is transformation,  not accumulation. So, put on that new self; put on Christ. 

Consider/Discuss

• What have you changed by worrying? 
• Do you accept Jesus as your teacher? What is he trying to teach you today? 

Responding to the Word

Jesus, teach me to place my life and the lives of those I love in your hands.  Help me to be rich in what matters to God, and to put on the new person who is the fulfillment of the Father’s plan for me. Give us all wisdom of heart.