They That Have Wallets Full of God (Luke 12: 13 - 34 )

This night that came to the rich fool with full freezers, that also comes to us, requires our souls. The rich fool and the Apostle Peter got tossed up in the same night: the fool, caught up in his garages overflowing with bargain TP and cajun chicken breasts from Costco; the Rock, a passion to give up failures from over-reaching his humanity. The battle of being spirit and human in a material world crossed into the stars and the waves. For us, now, the battle is in our wallets.

Pastor Mark points out that the point of being so flung is to allow ourselves to be moved by God to give up our stuff in the material world - the stuff of life that predicts precarious attachment to our souls and belies our belief that we can overcome the workings of the material world to get personal power.

Learning to hang loosely onto the material world reveals that we need to trust the one we are giving up our piles for: Him and them -those living at subsistence levels. Trust reveals our allegiances: if we truly know the one we love, there is safety. And to feel more safe, more worthy of being identified as worthwhile, the veneer comes off. We're done stockpiling trust in our world, our stuff - ourselves, ultimately,

Jesus, a man famous for being the most alive, gets to the heart of the reason why we can trust: "Don't you know you are worth more than birds?" Give up the chase for stuff, for experiences for sale, chase Him into his neighborhood, his favorite vacation spot. It happens to be a kingdom of joy, peace, hearts stored up with memories of God breaking in, God coming through, God showing up and overflowing when a relationship, a job, a vacant lot inside, required our soul. "Now I seek cuz my heart's in overflow" is a spontaneous a song I heard today when some people were singing about how dead they used to be 'til Jesus came as a person to them.

They could have been singing about my bird who I thought would die outside the safety of our house. I was the one who, this summer, who lost our treasured cockatiel named Screech. I had been ignoring for a few days his need to get his wings clipped. He flew off my hand onto the neighbor's gable and then her treetops when I was checking on my son playing in the front yard. My kids along with fairly interested neighbors came and babysat under the trees while our freed bird sang breakout songs. I prayed mostly to get the bird back to recoup my reputation as responsible adult with my kids, not something to pull out from plastic, but a treasure, too, nonetheless. This was the second time I ignored the signs of wings popping out and the bird escaped.

I heard the Lord say, "Watch how he flies," in reply. I knew how he flew. Far away from my care and keeping into the very high sycamore across the street. I begged the Lord for several hours, trying to work up some trust. It was a dark night where it seemed my soul was required: if the bird didn't come back, what then? New bird? I think my kids were thinking, New Mommy, for sure.

The bird made a last half circle when I our tree climbing friends poked at him with a wicked rake. Schreech flew. But I got it this time: he flew in half circle, due to uneven, clipped wings. I was able to position my daughter downwind. Mid-circle, mid-flight she snapped up our jailbreaker while the Lord God Creator of creatures needing to be free was saying, "See how he flies . . . see how he flies. . . right into My hands."

God, we pray to trust you to give up our CD's, garages, freezers, vacation homes, our attempts to control the waves of our lives with bright and shiny things. Help us God to desire the Spirit of God more than plastic, wood and metal. You are alive. Help us make you famous because you are real.