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My heart beats for love. I want to be different. I want to be who I am called to be. WORTHY and LOVED!

Monday, February 29, 2016

"The Grave Robber: The Third Miracle” - John 5: 1-9


The story in today’s text is one of my favorites in the Gospel of John. Jesus encounters a man who hasn’t been able to walk for 38 years and asks him one simple but life-changing question: “Do you want to be made well?”
We are now in the second week of our sermon series based on Mark Batterson’s book The Grave Robber, about how Jesus takes what Satan has made us think is impossible and makes it possible again. 
The man we encounter in today’s text certainly would think that his healing seems unlikely at best, impossible at worst, in the face of his circumstances. The average male in the ancient world Jesus inhabited lived to be 38. If you lived past the age of 2, the average age was 40. He was seemingly nearing the end of his life, even at the age of 38, and he had never walked. It would seem that he would want to walk, he had positioned himself in the place where waters that were said to be able to heal when the water was stirred, but he himself never made it into the waters. Perhaps seeing other people make it the water before him crushed his hopes, for now he was around the water simply begging, the only way he would have been able to support himself in ancient society. He begged for money, not for healing. 
Enter Jesus. Jesus saw this man laying there and asked him a life-altering question, “do you want to be made well?” But the man didn’t answer him right away. Instead, he started to make excuses, sir, I have no one to put me into the pool. He couldn’t even bring himself to voice his desire for healing, only instead the reason it wasn’t going to happen. 
Do you recognize yourself in the man? I recognize myself in him from time to time. Jesus is trying to offer us something beautiful and instead of claiming it, we simply say that it is impossible. Or Jesus offers us a life-changing opportunity, but we don’t take it because others say that we aren’t good enough or others have told us not to take the risk. But, brothers and sisters, this miracle story proclaims that Jesus can make the impossible, possible in our lives.
One of the staple books of my childhood was The Little Engine that Could. Published in the 1930s, perhaps many of our children or grandchildren have had this book on their shelves as well. In fact, it was name one of the Top 100 Books of All Time by a poll of teachers. The story tells of a long train that needed to be pulled over a mountain. Train after Train was asked to do so, but each had an excuse as to why it couldn’t. Finally, a small engine agreed to try. As the train kept slowly pulling the larger train up the mountain and onto the other side, it kept repeating “I think I can” until finally it celebrated making it safely to the destination with the phrase “I thought I could.”
I don’t think we need a world where we keep trying things on our own, but I do think we need a world where the church picks up a new refrain, inspired by The Little Engine that Could, “I think Christ can!” Mark Batterson writes about prayer, “If you assume the answer is no, you don’t even give God a chance to say ‘yes’”. Its as if we have given up believing how big our God is, brothers and sisters! We need to start believing that Christ can in our lives and in the lives of others, lest we become a group of Christians who simply make excuses. 
Some of you are aware that one of my brothers coaches swimming for elementary and middle school students for the YMCA. We were talking about some of his swimmers that are improving in leaps and bounds and he reminded me that it took those kids years to get to the point where they are improving like they are now. He noted that we live in a world where parents want their kids to be naturally good at a sport, so after 2 or 3 years if the student isn’t developing the way the parent thinks they should, they jump ship and try the next sport, and the next, and the next. But it takes time to get to the point where you develop the muscles and skills to swim well. Or play the piano well. Or be able to dance ballet in pointe shoes. But too many people give up quickly because they aren’t perfect 100 percent of the time, at an early age. We wouldn’t have any skilled athletes or performers if everyone would have this mindset - for no one hits a homerun all the time. Yet, isn’t that exactly how some of us treat prayer? We pray once or twice for something and if it didn’t turn out exactly how we wanted it to, we give up. Sometimes trying another one or two times to pray about something else, sometimes not praying for anything again for a long time. 
Here is a man who has not been able to walk for 38 years - almost a lifetime for him. How many times do you think he cried out to God for a miracle? Yet, it wasn’t God's timing yet. On this day, this Sabbath day, Jesus chose to heal the man and he had so given up hope for a miracle that he didn’t even recognize what he was being offered. 
Two years ago one of the District Superintendents in our Annual Conference, Rev. Beth Jones, preached on this particular passage of scripture, but related it to the church. She stated that God is asking the church if we want to be healed, but sometimes all we could offer were a list of excuses. What if we started to believe again that the seemingly impossible becomes possible with Christ, not just in our own lives, but in the lives of the local church as well? What if we wanted to live and serve Jesus Christ so badly that we were willing to change just about anything in order to glorify God? 
We cannot change all of our circumstances, but sometimes we need to change our spiritual routines. In today’s passage the man was going about his daily routine, begging outside of the city gates. Probably most people passed him by, but perhaps a few people a day would speak to him. What if he would have ignored Jesus like he had probably ignored questions from others before? What if he wouldn’t had been willing to even try what Jesus was asking of him - to pick up his mat and walk? 
Do we want to get well Church, both as a whole and as individuals? If the answer is no, then we should simply keep on doing what we are doing, making excuses like the man by the pool. But if we truly want to be made well, we need to be willing to take a step of faith, that just might, with God’s help, turn into running and leaping and praising God! There were all sorts of laws pertaining to the Sabbath and that man probably broke most of them that day, as he went walking all around because he was healed. Because he could with God’s help!

What about you? Where have you told God that it is impossible in your life to be healed? Where is God just waiting to work the possible? Not in our timing, but in God’s! Amen. 

Thursday, February 25, 2016

“Journey to the Cross: Cup to Bear” Mark 10: 32-52

I love to travel. I’ve been to eight different foreign countries, and nothing thrills me quite as much as loading up the car for a road trip. While I enjoy traveling alone, most of my journeys are taken with other people, which creates deep bounds that cannot be shaken. When you go on a long trip with someone you get to know them in ways that are different if you only see them a few hours each day. Going on the journey with someone lets you know what makes them them - what they like and dislike, what irritates and soothes them. 
The disciples were on a journey with Jesus. A three year journey were they slept where he slept, walked where he walked, ate what he ate. They were with Jesus every day, listening to his teachings as they went from town to town. And yet, the disciples didn’t quite understand Jesus - what made him tick. Last week we discussed how they didn’t understand his teachings about his own death and resurrection. This week, we find the disciples, chiefly James and John not understanding what his kingdom is about. 
James and John stated out with a statement that I think many of us make in one form or another as well, “we will do whatever you ask of us, Jesus”. “Whatever you need”. “Wherever you want us to go.” Of course they had another goal with their statement - we will give you what you want, if you give us what we want. We make much smaller versions of bargaining when we are on a journey with someone. You pick the restaurant we stop at this time and I’ll pick it next time. You drive now, I’ll drive later. We live in a world where we think we deserve for things to be equal and balanced, but that isn’t always the case - especially in our faith journeys.
We seem to have bought into this lie, that simply isn’t Biblical, that if we are a good enough person or serve Christ enough with our lives, then we will avoid suffering. If we tell Jesus what he wants to hear, that we will do whatever you ask of us, Jesus, then our lives will go smoothly. But that isn’t the way, it works. It wasn’t that way for James and John and it isn’t that way for us. 
Jesus catches on to their intent with their promise right away and turns in back around on them - what do you want me to do for you? And of course they had a response ready to give him - let us sit beside you in your glory. Even with all of the talk of suffering and death, they still thought that Jesus had come to be a military leader to conquer Rome and that they could be beside him, in all his glory, when the final victory is won. They mis-understood Jesus’s Kingdom being about political authority instead of the Kingdom of God. 
But Jesus, instead of chastising them, Jesus responds by once again telling them that they missed the point - they don’t realize wha they are asking for. Their quick response to Jesus’s deep question show that the did not slow down to truly reflect upon what he was asking or to pray about their response. We too, can get caught up in this cycle. We hurry past the question in order to make our answer known. We bypass the thoughtfulness of the question with our quick response. All because we don’t understand what Jesus means, and that makes us uncomfortable.
But Jesus confronts the uncomfortable nature of the questions, answers, and conversation head on with another question. Jesus led through his stories and questions and he provoked people to look deeper into their hearts, no matter how uncomfortable it made them feel. He asked if they could drink from this cup - the cup of pain and suffering - and be baptized with the baptism of death - not for the sake of their glory, but so others may come to know the Lord. He essentially asked them if they had the courage to suffer for the sake of God’s glory alone. To which, once again, they quickly answered, we can. 
Then the other ten heard about the conversation and became even more upset. Jesus took the moment to teach them about servants hearts and giving one’s very self, sacrificially for others, but the moment was still lost. Jesus was trying to model for the disciples, both with his teachings and how he lived his life what it meant to be a servant. But like those disciples so long ago, we miss the point today. We want all the glory and not the work. We want things to run smoothly without the sacrifice. We want to be the idea people and not the servants. We want the public honor without the suffering.
Jesus was trying to show his disciples, so long ago and us today, that authority is earned with service and suffering. And we are to live lives not focused on being honored by human standards, but instead focused on Kingdom things - things we never considered as noble before - like suffering and servanthood. 

The journey to the cross is a hard one. It is marked with trials and tears. We cannot bargain our way out of it - telling Jesus that we will only follow him so far before he does exactly what we want. And we cannot look for the riches of the world at the foot of the cross. But Jesus does tell us that if we make this journey, a servant’s journey, we will be able to watch Christ ransom others, trading his own life for their salvation. Is this a journey you are willing to go on, not just this Lenten season, but every day? Is this a cup you can drink from? Amen. 

Monday, February 22, 2016

John 4: 46-54 The Second Miracle


We are now in the season of Lent. A time to reflect upon our faith lives, both individually and corporately, and to be a people of prayer and repentance. As I was reflecting about what messages to bring this Lenten season and what topic to bring before us, I turned to Pastor Mark Batterson’s book The Grave Robber. We are aware during this season of Lent what we are headed towards - ultimately Jesus’s last meal with his disciples before he is handed over to be executed. We end our season of Lent together, with the celebration of Easter - a proclamation that the grave does not have victory over our lives.
However, I am well aware that for so many of us, during this season of Lent and our daily lives, that it seems like the grave does win. Seems like we simply go through the daily motions each day, without really expecting God to show up or make God’s self known to us. We relegate the miracles of God to big days - like Easter and Christmas - instead of searching for God in our every day lives, and seeking to have God revealed to us. We live most of our lives as if God’s glory isn’t present to us.
Thus, for the next five weeks, I want to invite us to open our eyes and hearts to the movement of God around us. While this sermon series will focus on some of the miracles found in the Gospel of John and what that reveals to us about the very character of God, I want to offer a word of caution as we begin. As believers, it is not our job to seek out miracles. We do not demand miracles from God in order to prove that God exists. Instead, we follow Jesus, which is what the season of Lent is all about - following wherever Jesus may lead, even to the cross. But while we are following Jesus we have ourselves postured in expectation - that God will show up and move in a mighty way - even if it seems unexpected. 
Today we find ourselves on a journey with a royal official whose son was sick - so sick in fact that he no longer knew what to do. He and his wife had tried the standard things - the doctors, the advice from friends. But his son was not getting better. The Official had heard of Jesus, and that he was in the area - relatively speaking at least. The Official left his sick son and travel over 20 miles to reach the town where it was rumored Jesus was staying. He begged Jesus to heal his son, whom he feared was close to death. He would give anything for his son, but at this moment all he had left to give were his tears and his pleas.
Jesus didn’t respond the way he expected though. Instead of traveling with him the 20 miles back to Capernaum he started talking about people in general - saying that unless you people see signs and wonders you won’t believe. The official didn’t care about what other people needed, he needed Jesus to come and heal his son. Right now. At this moment. Then he simply said “go, your son will live.”
How would you feel if you were the royal official on that long journey back home? Would you believe what Jesus just told you - that your son would live? Or would your head hang low and heart be heavy, feeling that surely when you returned home your son would be dead? Would you be angry at yourself for going to Jesus, instead of being there for your son or not trying something else? 
Yet, he didn’t even make it the whole way home before the servants came to meet him along the way - proclaiming that the boy was alive and well! Some translations say that the boy was healed at one o’clock in the afternoon. Others’s say that he was healed in the seventh hour. Whatever the time may be, the father realized that it was the exact moment when Jesus told him to go home, for his son had been made well. This was the second miracle of Jesus as recorded in the book of John. 
Pastor Mark Batterson writes a striking truth about miracles when he said “everyone wants a miracle, but no one wants to be in a situation that necessitates one.” For miracles need a problem to fix, an illness to heal, and dilemma to solve. Jesus’s first miracle took place not far from this particular healing, in Cana, where he turned water into wine for a wedding feast - a dilemma to be solved. But this, this seemed so much more dire, for a young boy’s life hung in the balance. 
The miracles of God don’t look the same. I think part of the reason we have a hard time wrestling with miracles in our minds is we try to look at them through the lens of our human nature. We want to make God subject to the very laws of nature that God created. We reason that we can’t be in more than one place at a given time, so God can’t either. Or we say, that we believe that if you put a and b together you will always get c - looking for a pattern or reason behind the miracle of God. But really, Christ intervened in the lives of those whom he was around at a given time. In this case, a desperate man, who went out of his way to find Christ, believing that maybe, just maybe he could help when no one else could. 
But why doesn’t God give everyone a miracle? I have two responses to this question. The first is in response to the deeper question of “why”. Why was this man’s son healed of illness when so many of our loved ones die of other illnesses? Why couldn’t God just heal everyone? We may not like it brothers and sisters, but death is a result of the fall. Death is a result of sin. Notice that I am not saying that people are sick because they have sinned, rather that because sin entered into the world their is disease and death. We may not be able to control the circumstances we are in, and we certainly cannot demand a miracle from God, but we can choose if we are going to seek out God wherever we may find ourselves. 
Secondly, though, there truly are miracles every day. Times when we find ourselves in just the right place at just the right time. I have a dear friend named Zhenya. By all logical reason Zhenya and I should not be friends - she was born in Russia, I in America. Yet, she served as the translator for the mission teams I have served on in Vladimir Russia. Then when I was in seminary in New Jersey, she received a job a mere 30 minutes away. And a few years ago when I received a scholarship to go to a conference in the mid-west, I stayed with her and her husband. A friendship across continents that should have never been if not for God arranging circumstances. I think all too often we miss the miracles right in front of us, because we expect God to act in a certain way instead of simply looking for the movement of God among us. There is a difference between expecting God to act and expecting God to act in a very certain way of our choosing. 

When the royal official came seeking Jesus he didn’t know what to expect, only that his son was in need. It was the seventh hour, almost time to give up, yet he kept going. Where are the places in your life where you have just about given up? Where are the places in your life that you need to keep praying? Where are the places in your life where you may be overlooking the miracles you have already been given? Will you join me this Lenten season praying big, Kingdom-sized prayer for those around us - not demanding that God work a certain way, but instead praying that God opens up our eyes to perceive God moving amongst us, already, here and now. Amen. 

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Mark 10: 17-31 “Journey to the Cross Pt 1” Mid Week Lent 1



There is a popular Christian chorus that declares. “At the cross, at the cross, I surrender my life - I give it all to you.” Such commitment to surrender our lives to Christ is a journey - not a one time choice. It is a path that we choose to tread day in and day out. This Lenten season for our mid-week services we are going to dive into what that looks like in our daily lives, based on the gospel of Mark.
We open up this evenings text with an interruption. Jesus is on his way to the next town, but before he could leave a man ran up to him and begged him for the answer to just one question - what must I do to inherit eternal life? 
Is that not a question that many of us have asked and heard over the years in its various forms: how can I be certain that I am saved? How do I get into heaven? 
I remember a Bible study I was teaching a few years ago about evangelism - sharing our faith. One of the women in the room with the deepest spirituality I had ever encountered shared with the group that she wasn’t sure she was saved because she didn’t have an earth shattering moment where Jesus entered her life in such a way that she had what she dubbed “a salvation story to share”. Its one of the questions I hear most often from church folks, who like this woman, have grown up in the church hearing about Christ and growing closer to him each day, but wondering if that is truly enough.
This man is wondering the same thing. How does one know for sure that they are going to have eternal life? But Jesus took his question and turned it on its head. First, he took time to instruct the man about God - directing that man back to the source of all that is good - God alone. Even before he could get to his question, the man seemed to get confused  - referring to Jesus as the good teacher, not because he recognized him as Messiah and Lord, as Peter did in another passage of scripture, but because he noticed that Jesus seemed to have something special about his teachings and healings. 
What about us? Are we just as confused as the man in this scripture lesson? Are we confused about who and what is good in our lives? Good isn’t just keeping the letter of the law, like the man said he did, good is keeping in the spirit of the law - which means doing that which honors God. Are we doing what we do because we think we should or because it is the law of scripture or are we responding to God’s goodness, power and love? Are we doing what we ought to do or are we lead to do as a response to God’s saving grace in our lives? 
For the man, Jesus’s next response, next teaching for him was a hard truth - he may be keeping the letter of the law, but his wealth was getting in the way of knowing the goodness of God and responding freely to that goodness in his life. Before we start to chastise this man I think we need to examine our own hearts this evening and ask what is keeping our own hearts from receiving and responding freely to the goodness of God. Our judgment of others? Our need to accumulate wealth or possession? Our need to follow God on our own terms, instead of responding to the call of God on our lives? What could potentially block us from God’s goodness is going to be different for each of us. For this man it was his wealth. For us it could be something entirely different - but we need to stop and examine our hearts before we can renounce it.
This man was probably expecting from Jesus’s first question and response to hear that he was all good - that he was guaranteed an in for eternity - but once again Jesus didn’t give his second answer in terms of eternal life, but instead spoke about having treasure in heaven. It is as if Jesus is asking the man where is your heart? What’s most important to you?
The man’s face fell and he went away. He was confronted by hard questions and even harder truths and it was more than he could bear. Sometimes when we look into our hearts and start to really ask what is most important to us, we may become shocked and disappointed with the answer. Perhaps you have been traveling along your journey with Christ and think that you have it all together - you go to worship, serve the Lord, and are feeling good about everything - only to hear the question of Christ - where is your treasure? And you start to look deep into your heart and realize that things aren’t as they seem. That you are following Christ but only the way you want to, only the extent you want to, instead of giving your very all to God. 
The man couldn’t give up his wealth, because there as power, presteige, and privilege in his wealth and he was looking for that same power, preseitiege, and privilege from Christ telling him that it was all good, he was all set, and that he was on his way to inheriting eternal life. But Jesus, in the Gospel of Mark, teaches not about eternal life, but about the Kingdom of God - which is both ever present and yet to come. Christ teaches that the Kingdom comes from God’s very self, God’s goodness, and as he teaches about it more and more it starts to hit closer to home, becoming relevant and challenging. For in the Gospel of Mark, the Kingdom of God was much bigger than getting to heaven when you die - its the issue of surrendering your heart to the work of God here and now. And the man just couldn’t bring himself to do it. The harder question is can we? Are we more concerned with where we are going to go when we die than honoring God with our lives here and now? Are we more about doing things within our own power, or doing the impossible for the sake of God’s kingdom? Can we surrender our lives for the sake of God’s Kingdom?

Let us take time this evening to reflect on our own hearts asking God if we are truly surrendering our very selves for the sake of the Kingdom and if there is anything that is blocking us from God’s goodness. Amen.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

“We Don’t Understand” Mark 9: 30-37

We have arrived at the beginning of the Lenten season. A time set apart the six weeks before Easter to repent of our sins and be in an attitude of prayer before the resurrection of our Lord on Easter morning. 
The disciples also knew that they had to prepare. Jesus had told them time and time again that something was coming - that he would be killed and then would rise again. Only they didn’t understand it. Not the first time they were told, and not on this instance either. There was something about how Jesus was talking - the mixture of sadness and intensity in his eyes that caused them to be just as afraid as the words he was speaking. What did he mean that he would be delivered into the hands of man?
The disciples knew that not everyone loved Jesus the way that they did. They understood that Jesus seemed to caused a disturbance wherever he went. They saw the ways that the Pharisees whispered about him in disapproval - but how could any of those people hand him over to be killed? And why would he rise again. Dead men didn’t rise. At the very best, God lifted them up into the heavens before their death - but dead people coming back to life, especially after three days, was unheard of. 
They needed a distraction from all of this teaching that saddened and confused them so they found themselves returning to their favorite subject - who was going to be the greatest. Who was going to rule with Jesus. Because to rule you needed to be alive and surely their rabbi was going to live for a long time, just to teach them. 
Jesus must have overheard them however because he asked them what they were discussing. But no one would answer him. Then he started up with his confusing teachings again - to be first you needed to be last, very last, and be a servant. That was not what they had signed up for. No they wanted to be first. Not a servant.
Then he picked up a child - a child! - and said that only if they welcomed a child, one whom they didn’t even know, they could welcome him. Jesus, we don’t understand! Why do you make things so difficult!
Even with knowing about Jesus’ death and resurrection, even with all of the writings of the church mothers and fathers and two-thousand years of being the church to work in our favor, I’m not sure we understand Jesus’s teachings any better today then his disciples did so many years ago.
One of the things that I am called into ministry to do is listen to stories. Especially the stories of those who have left the church who have been hurt by church. At times I just want to weep when I hear about people who have been hurt by people who, like the disciples, just wanted to exercise their power, to let others know that they were greater than then. This season is our time to repent church of hurting people. To ask God for forgiveness for not putting first things first.
Some of you know that I have a short article posted in a book about the obstacles young clergy face. As my dad and I were recently talking about the book he commented on how hurt some of the authors were, and I said yes, some have left the ministry and other’s have left the church entirely because of the wounds church people cause. Brothers and sisters, we have much to repent of, this Lenten season, for sins of the past and the present, and ways that we have knowingly and unknowingly hurt people.
And now, now is our time to be a people of prayer. A people who pray for those who are broken in this world, including ourselves. Now is the time to pray that we understand Jesus’s teachings a little more each day so we can more fully live into them. Time to pray for the needs that surrounds us.
Some of you also know that one of my favorite ministries at my last parish was the time I intentionally spent on Sunday evening at a local pub, not drinking, but simply sitting with a sign stating that I was a pastor. It was amazing to see the conversations I entered into with people, and I always closed by asking to pray with them. No one ever refused to let me pray for them. Brothers and sisters, let us pray for all people this Lenten season, as we seek to introduce people to the love of our Savior and more fully live into his teachings with our own lives.
But today, on Ash Wednesday, we also remember. We remember that we don’t know everything. We remember that we don’t have all of the answers. And we remember that we don’t fully understand, just like the disciples so long ago. 
While I love all types of worship services, the ones that are the most meaningful for me as a pastor are funeral services - a time to remember a person for who they truly are, not just the good things, but the imperfections as well. But then to declare that even in their imperfections, even in their flaws, they were loved by God - not for what they knew and understood, but because they were a child of the Lord. 
May we remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return. May we remember that we are put on this earth to minister to other’s, not to hurt them because of our own egos. 

Let us repent, pray, and remember this day as we enter into this holy season of Lent. Amen. 

Sunday, February 7, 2016

“Enough: Cultivating Contentment” Luke 12:15, Ecc 2:10-11

We are now in our third and final week of our sermon series on finances, specifically when to recognize that we have enough. 
We live in this tricky relationship with material things - we know that we need things like food, water, and shelter to live. And we are blessed to have resources to purchase other things that we enjoy. But we need to be ever mindful of the thin line that we could possibly cross that where we go from enjoying things to being held captive by them. The thin line between owning something and letting it own us. Before you think I am speaking a bit too harshly about things owning us, pause and think back over some of the thoughts you have had over the last few days. Were there any about how you needed a new thing? Or you wish you had something that someone else owned? Or how you couldn’t possibly give money away because you don’t have enough?
We need to pause and examine our relationship to material things, truly examine it. Do we have more than we need? What do we do with what we have? Americans are generally very poor at recognizing what we consume, and that includes Christians. While Americans only represent 5 percent of the world’s population, we produce 40 percent of its garbage. We mis-use the resources God has called us to be stewards of. We throw things away that someone else could use. We think it is our right to make money to buy and waste things. We don't recognize the wisdom of Solomon, who notes that whoever his eye desires he did not keep from. We see things we want and we feel that we have to have them. We have a damaged relationship with material things, where they control our hearts.
Solomon goes on to state that he considered all that his hand has done, all that he had toiled for in order to have the things that he now has, and realizes that it is all vanity and chasing after the wind. The truth is, all too often we look to things to make us happy, when at the end of the day everything is temporary. There is an old saying that you can’t take things with you, but we don’t live our lives like that. One of two things happen. The first is what I see the most often as a pastor. You spend your entire life accumulating things that you think that your family will want when you pass away. And then either the family fights over those things, either as an act of grief or greed, or more often then not, those things end up getting thrown away. Dumpster bins full of material things that were once important to us, but don’t hold the same value to our family and friends, most of whom have their own material items.
The second situation is a bit more rare but was portrayed in an episode of The Gilmore Girls on TV. One of the main character’s uncles died. When he went to purchase the casket to bury him in however, the lid could not close, because the uncle had such a long list of his material possessions that he wanted to be buried with. He was going to take everything with him in the grave so that no one else could take them.
We spend most of our lives accumulating things, perhaps giving away a bag to charity here and there, instead of examining the very heart of the matter around material things, asking ourselves why we really want something. When we pause and answer that deeper question, we find that we want things because we have the false belief that that the thing itself will make us happy, instead of seeking to be content with what we have - which is exactly what Jesus warns against in today’s Gospel passage.
We also have a damaged relationship with the concept of contentment. We all too often can find ourselves being content, or satisfied with our relationships, how much we love others and love God, and satisfied with our faith journey, how much time we put into serving God and other’s or praying or reading the scripture, but not content with the material things we have. It’s like we get it backwards, being content with the areas of our life we should be seeking to grow in while striving to accumulate more things than we could ever use.
At my first church there was a lovely family that did something I had never heard of for Christmas. Their celebration lasted for days. Each of the four children were only allowed to open one gift at a time and then they took the toy or gift out of the box, played with it for a period of time, before they opened the next gift - hence the longer celebration. When I asked the mother about it, she said they adopted this way of celebrating Christmas so that the kids learned to be content with what they have. To fully appreciate each gift for what it is worth, instead of simply moving from one box to the next, resulting in a feeling of discontentment. 
That mother was teaching her children not only about contentment about how to have a grateful heart.  Jesus is today’s gospel lesson proclaims that one’s life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. I would further add that one’s life does not necessarily consist of possessions at all. Yes, we need certain things to live, but our life - that’s another story. Our life for all that it’s worth is full when it contains not material possessions, but those attributes that you cannot place a price tag on, love, gratitude, joy, peace, wisdom, honor, and mercy. The list that cannot be bought. These things can only come from cultivating time where your heart and soul are truly filled - relationships with others and with God. 
At the end of the day things are mostly just things. We find that every day when we hear of natural disasters, when people have to leave behind almost everything to seek safety. The question that is often asked is “what would you take with you if you were facing a fire?” but you could say flood, tornado, hurricane. What would you take with you? Most people don’t answer with the newest things they just acquired, but instead with treasured memories - photo albums, letters, things with deep meaning. Folks, most of the things we acquire each day don't have deep meaning. They can’t make us happy. So lets stop looking for freedom and contentmenr in material things, and instead look towards what matters most - deep relationships with others and with God. 

Brothers and sisters, it is time to embrace the counter-cultural stance of contentment, not to be different, but in order to free ourselves for God’s purposes. What a better time to do this then the season of Lent which stats this week. Its time to be freed to be generous. To be freed to de-accumulate. Freed to reject that which breeds the oppression of others. Freed to shun that which distracts from seeking after the Kingdom of God first and foremost. Amen.