Pentecost 13(RCL): The Eye of the Navel

Teachers and Preachers, use what you'd like w/a simple attribution. No further permission needed.

Hosea 11:1-11; Psalm 107: 1-9, 43, Colossians 3:1-11, Luke 12:13-21

It would seem that babies remember some things and not others. It takes a bit a time, but once they reach there it would appear there is an endless fascination for the things that they can do "all by themselves".

Gee whiz..... I can stick my finger in the air.... look at my finger! I can stick my finger in my mouth! I can stick my FIST in my mouth! I can stick my FOOT in my mouth. I'm hoping you're getting my drift. Sure, they are learning about the infinately tiny corner of their own world. Let's say they progress on the relative curve and learn to walk. Wobbly at first, with a great deal of cushion control by the Pampers...... yet....... when they grow up, do they remember who held their fingers or armpits while they were making those historical steps. Probably not.

One can only hope, as God did, in the first text, that it would dawn on the peoples He had nurtured that there would be some remembrance with gratitude. The Psalmist tells us to heed the words: LET THOSE WHO ARE WISE remember these things and the steadfast love of the Lord.

Luke, the storyteller gives us a picture of greed as applicable then as now. There is someone with abundant wealth. Gee, what can I do with it all?

Like the child whose world is small, the rich person can make their own being, their own navel the center of the world.

Time and again calls us out of that "ME, ME, and MORE ME" phase into a bigger world. Sure, the rich landowner can build more storehouses.... and they grain could rot in them. OR he could take his sights away from his navel into the big, marvelous world that is NOT his alone.... and distribute the grain amoung many. Perhaps God made ostriches to stick their heads in a dent, but we were made for bigger things! Let's make the choice to grow into them! Amen and Amen

Copyright © 2007 K.L.Joanna Depue and DJ on http://www.geraniumfarm.org/

The pressure of procrastination

I MEANT to do it yesterday. I SET ASIDE A WEEK FOR THAT PROJECT a year ago.

Our intentions come first, the actuality comes second.

I am in the middle of paying for my procrastination. It's not that I MEANT to forget to get my taxes done. That is one of those things you kind of have to WORK AT forgetting. God knows, between the mail barrage and the media nagging as the calendar approaches April 15 of any given year (that some TV stations file under the heading of human interest stories) a person in this country must make a conserted effort to avoid being touched by the long arm of the Treasury Department (still informally known as the IRS).

Yet I managed it.... between being busy and downright sick, I didn't file...... so as soon as I return from the retreat I am assisting on, it will be me and those hundreds of pieces of paper I have been sorting out for the last two weeks. It goes without saying that my filing system is a bit out of kilter and I have a full huge garbage pail of shreadding to do.

First things first. Get the returns done. Show them I was sick when they were supposed to be filed and since. Send the originals and any witholding I owe to the government, give copies to the accounting Dept. at the UN so that they can send a tax cheque (which they have deducted from each salary slip over the year) directly to the Treasury Department. Then I find out how much they will dock my pay for being sick, then I can specify the amount of my lump sum to be applied to my mortgage, then I will get a retiree pass then they will process my retirement benefit then they will sign me up for subsidized after service health insurance.

All because I 'couldn't face it' at the the time.

How often does our indecision end up being a radically bad decision. The chances are about 50/50.......

Me thinks in this instance the percentages aren't quite as optimistic...... but at least I have MOTIVATION on my side...... no income can be pretty darn motivating!

Well, this is once case of procrastination I believe I will not repeat in the future........ something a bit less severe.....perhaps.