THE PARABLE OF THE RICH FOOL – Part 2 of 3

What’s your attitude toward things? As we see in Jesus’ parable of the rich fool, one of the inclinations in the second half of life is to worry about security, to grasp and to stockpile. Many of us hold and store much. We may not have barns, but our closets, basements, and garages are full.

The rich man in the parable made two false assumptions. First, he counted on having many years -- which he didn’t. His life was about to abruptly end. Second, he supposed he could hang on to his stuff, which he couldn’t. God said, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:20 ESV)  The answer: not yours! They will pass into someone else’s hands within the next twenty-four hours. “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” (Vs. 21)

The man was stingy. He was keeping things to himself. Covetousness had conquered his heart. He was not generous, and he was not rich toward God.

-- Excerpted from “How to Finish the Christian Life: Following Jesus in the Second Half” by Donald W. Sweeting & George Sweeting 

#6433

WHAT REALLY MATTERS

“Jesus told [the sister of Lazarus], ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in Me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in Me and believes in Me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?’  ‘Yes, Lord,’ she told Him. ‘I have always believed You are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.’”  (John 11:25-27 NLT)

Perhaps it is only when we realize and celebrate the intrinsic value of every human life that celebrity -- true celebrity -- shines most brightly. On our death beds, none of us will speak of the jobs we’ve held or the stuff we’ve acquired in our lifetimes; here Bull Markets and Nielsen ratings are irrelevant. A life-threatening illness jettisons pretention in no time flat. Death is the great equalizer. Death dares us to define what really matters. 

-- Nancy Cobb in “In Lieu of Flowers: A Conversation for the Living”

#6352

IN THE END, THE EXCLAMATION POINT

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  (1 Corinthians 15:55,57 NIV)

Several years ago, I received a phone call from a young woman in my congregation, asking if I could go to the hospital to see her… For several months she had experienced upsetting symptoms, but had charged them off as related to pregnancy and delivery… She was a victim, her doctors reported, of multiple sclerosis…

There are times when it is very difficult to be a parish pastor. If you care about people and want to help them, you dread those moments when almost anything you say will seem trivial. If you’re a medical doctor, you can begin outlining a series of treatment or medication, even if both of you know that it’s only a stopgap. But when you’re a pastor, you deal only in words and in the intangibles of faith; and you’re afraid that any words you speak at such a moment will be inane, and that if you try to convey faith, your words won’t be heard. You wish, often, that faith could be bottled or packaged in some physical form, so you could hand it to a person, and they in turn could grasp it, then perhaps take it like a capsule, three times a day, with a glass of water.

But suddenly -- I shall always credit it to the Holy Spirit – a sentence came to me, and I spoke it. “Multiple sclerosis isn’t the last word,” I said. “It isn’t even the next-to-last word. The next-to-last word is faith, and the last word is God.” We talked a while longer, and we prayed. But most of all we remembered that the last word, always and always, is God. The devil will seek to push any number of counterfeits upon us, to persuade us that we have come to an end. But it is never the end until we have said God. And after God comes the exclamation point…

Because that’s the way it ends if you place yourself in Jesus Christ, because He has made an ultimate end to death. No comma or semicolon, no poor period, no fumbling ellipsis, and surely no question mark. An exclamation point! Thanks be to God, an exclamation point! 

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas, excerpted from a sermon entitled “In the End, the Exclamation Point”, February 28, 1990

TO DIE IN THE LORD

“And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them.’”  (Revelation 14:13 NRSV)

Several older women were having lunch together in a café.  They were discussing how they wanted to die.  One lady said, "I want to die in Arizona.  I've always loved the climate, and when I go I hope it's there."  Another lady quickly responded, "Not me!  I want to die right here at home.  I want my family close by."  A third lady said, "I'd like to die in the spring.  Just one last look at the flowers, you know."  The fourth lady said, "Me?  I should like to die in Hawaii having a fling and spending my last nickel."  Finally, the last lady took her turn.  "When I die," she said, "I want to pass away in the Lord. In Florida, in Arizona, in the spring of the year, all is of little consequence.  But to die in the Lord, that is Paradise!" 

How about you?  Which way do you want to die?  Rich or poor, here or there, suffering or in your sleep – all that is ultimately of little consequence.  But to die in the Lord, that is happiness. 

-- Rev. Keith Schroerlucke in a sermon entitled "When Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow"

#5968