Luke 12: 32-48 (links validated 7/12/22)

The CBS show “Undercover Boss” has been on the air since 2010! The basic premise is that a high-powered CEO puts on a disguise and joins the rank and file of the lowest-level staff. The boss gets a sense of the working conditions, the people, the culture, and what employees think of the higher-ups. Often, the episode ends with at least one of the lower-level employees receiving some sort of extra support or acknowledgment by the CEO. Undercover Boss is not the picture of the Master that Jesus portrays. Our True Master doesn’t need to learn any lessons or encounter his workers for the first time: he is intimately in relationship with them. The Master in Jesus’ parable is already thinking of and providing blessing to his servants. The Master that Jesus embodies as God doesn’t just go undercover for a few days, but joins our human nature and works like, as one of us.

consider this passage from St. Thérèse of Lisieux. She wanted to enter religious life long before it would have been proper. When her local Carmelite convent denied her premature request, her beloved father took her on a pilgrimage to Rome to comfort her. It did not. She felt abandoned by the church and by the God who had previously been so present to her. Yet what this young woman, who died at age 24, wrote of this time reveals why she is not only a saint but also a doctor of the church. Who else could understand that the purpose of prayer is not our pleasure, not even our directly experienced fulfillment? No. It is to place ourselves before the Lord, to offer ourselves to him as he gave himself to us. Only 14 at the time, Thérèse rereads her abandonment as God’s amusement...

Today’s Gospel reading reminds me of the old story of the apparition on the corner of Main and Market in a busy city. It was Saturday morning when Fr. Pascucci heard a knock on the rectory door and an extremely excited lady said, “The Lord has appeared on the corner of Main and Market.” Father was in the process of trying to decide if she was suffering from stress or whatever, when a second person came running, “Father, father, the Lord has appeared on the corner of Main and Market.” “When?” Fr. Pascucci asked. “He’s there right now,” they both answered. So Fr. Pascucci went down the block where a large crowed had formed, and sure enough, he saw Jesus. After a while the Lord left. Fr. Pascucci didn’t know what to do, so he called a monsignor friend of his. His friend told him to call the bishop. So Father Pascucci called the bishop and told him the news, “The Lord has appeared on the corner of Main and Market. What should I do if he comes back?” The bishop thought for a while and then told Fr. Pascucci he’d get back to him. The bishop then called Rome, and, being an important bishop, he got the pope. “Holy Father, he said, one of my priests, Fr. Pascucci, reports that the Lord has appeared on the corner of Main and Market in his parish. He wants to know what he should do in case the Lord comes back.” After a few moments the pope replied, “Tell Fr. Pascucci to look busy.”...

My earliest memory of a sudden death occurred on the farm when I was four years old. Dad still farmed with horses in those days. He sometimes let me drive them ahead of him five feet at a time when he was hand picking corn. It was only a couple of years later that a little Ford tractor would usher in the modern era of agriculture on Sumwalt Farm. As usual, that day I went with Dad out to the barn to help with morning chores. As we opened the barn door we were greeted by the sweet, pungent odor of animal warmth, alfalfa hay, and the remains of the same in the gutters Dad was about to clean. My eyes went immediately to the flattened body beneath one of the draft horses. I did not want to believe what I saw. There was my favorite kitten, a fluffy calico bundle of joy; she loved to chase me around the barn batting at a piece of bailing twine. Dad explained that Tiny had been attracted to the warm spot where the horse had been laying and was asleep there when the horse laid down again. “It was just one of those things,” he said, “couldn’t be helped.” I don’t remember if I cried, but I can still feel the shock and the injustice of it all. It was my first introduction to one of the harsh realities of life. Death can intrude at anytime and anywhere...

(Includes lots of Greek exegesis!!)

always good insights!

(always excellent exegesis)

About a month ago, a Baptist church in central Florida wondered if God could change lives through generosity. So they tried, just to see what could happened. They raised 7.2 million dollars. They used the money to eliminate medical debt for 6,500 local families. Medical bills were the number one reason for poverty in their county, and their generosity liberated thousands of people. The secret to the whole passage is that generosity destroys fear and liberates us to live lives of freedom...

Saint Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish priest who provided shelter for thousands of Jews in his friary and was an active voice against the Nazi violence. He was arrested by the German Gestapo and imprisoned at Auschwitz. When a fellow prisoner escaped from the camp, the Nazis selected ten other prisoners to be killed in reprisal. As they were lined up to die, one began to cry, “My wife! My children! I will never see them again!” At this, Maximilian stepped forward and asked to die in his place. His request was granted, and he led the other men in song and prayer as they awaited their deaths. Maximilian had also lived in Japan and founded a monastery on the outskirts of Nagasaki. Four years after his martyrdom, on August 9, 1945, the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, but his monastery miraculously survived. Maximilian’s feast day, when Christians around the world celebrate his life and sainthood as a hero of the church, falls one week [on August 14th] after Nagasaki Day. Each year, we spend the week reflecting on the best and the worst that human beings are capable of...

Some years ago I had the privilege of hearing Barbara Brown Taylor deliver a sermon at the Princeton University Chapel. At one point she related a story from her childhood when she was growing up in the American South. Every day after school Barbara and her siblings were supervised by an African-American babysitter named Thelma. Thelma was remarkable for how little she ever talked to the children. Each afternoon she’d sit in a rocking chair reading her Bible while the children did homework or played. If things got out of hand, all Thelma had to do was lower the Bible an inch or two, just enough for the children to see her eyes glaring overtop the old King James Version, and order would be rather quickly restored...

includes links to “Keys to the Kingdom”, a Traditional gospel blues song, performed by Abigail Washburn (lead vocals), Kai Welch (trumpet, backing vocals), and friends

W.H. Auden famously said he didn’t think there was such a thing as an atheist poet. I have friends who disagree, but he thought the act of writing a poem was a religious act. Because you were allowing something so radically other into your imagination. And it could change you. The metaphors that Jesus shares in our text today are indeed things that are “radically other.” If we allow them into our imaginations, they might change us.

Henri Nouwen is a wise teacher in the art of listening for God’s calling and framing our lives by God’s values. In Spiritual Direction, he shares this: From the beginning of my life, two interior voices have been speaking to me: one saying, Henri, be sure you make it on your own. Be sure you become an independent person. Be sure I can be proud of you; and another voice saying, Henri, whatever you are going to do, even if you don’t do anything very interesting in the eyes of the world, be sure you stay close to the heart of Jesus, be sure you stay close to the love of God. “You are here for just a short time,” Nouwen writes elsewhere in the same book, “for twenty, forty, sixty, or eighty years—to discover and believe that you are a beloved child of God. . . . Life is just a short opportunity for you during a few years to say to God: ‘I love you, too.’” Perhaps Nouwen’s words might helps us learn to bind ourselves to the right ultimate source of value.

Nicolaes Maes was fond of the subject of dozing women. He painted the subject more than once and more than once used this woman as his model. Because she appears in several paintings, some historians speculate that the model was, perhaps, the artist's mother. She is peacefully napping, having set aside her lacemaking as well as the book in her lap and the open Bible on the table. I would hope we would not begrudge this woman an afternoon nap...

Luke's gospel (Luke 12:32-40) offers us a glimpse of the relationship between people and whatever they hold most dear. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And you will do whatever you need to do to protect your treasure. You'll make sure that your door is locked against robbers who would break in and steal your treasure. Here a heavy wooden chest owned by Melk Abbey. Notice the thick sides of the chest. Notice the lock on the front of the chest...

Nick Saban is, for those who don’t know, the head football coach at the University of Alabama. Coach Saban is one of the most fluent coach-speakers in the history of coach speak. He can spend 20 minutes talking and say nothing at all. Yet somehow, in this case, as I listened, I began to realize that, put back together, the last five weeks of Gospel lessons have had a consistent theme running through. With the ubiquitous bottle of Coca-Cola Classic placed in the sight of the camera, Coach Saban spoke to reporters about the importance of his players focusing only on today. “It’s really important that they focus on what they control today. We have so many players here who get frustrated about what happened yesterday, or they get a little complacent because they had success yesterday. And then we get some players who get worried about what is going to happen in the future. Really, what you do today, correctly, making the right choices and decisions… that’s what really prepares you for the future… You know, all of us are a little bit addicted to tomorrow. I’ll quit smoking tomorrow. I’ll go on a diet tomorrow… I’ll start studying tomorrow, but really making it happen today is the way you improve. That’s the way we’ll get better. That’s the way you’ll create more value for yourself and that’ll really help our team get a lot better as well.” Dan and Stu, the sports-talk guys I was listening to, unpacked what Coach Saban was saying, noting that he was actually tapping into something that is taught in many of the world’s religions. “It’s not just great coaching. You will find… there is great wisdom in that that you will find in a spiritual quest. Eckhart Tolle [who, by the way, changed his name due to the influence of the 13th century Christian Mystic, Meister Eckhart] has written about the power of now. The two things that happen in life that contaminate a human… are regret, which is yesterday, and fear, which is tomorrow.”...

I'm fascinated by preppers, the folk who are getting ready for the big disaster. Stockpiling food, learning survival skills, building bunkers, and caching weapons. Their desire often seems to be modelled upon the American action hero who steps in when the state fails. These folk are not going to be some "small little flock" at the mercy of the strong. They are going to be prepared. And these folks' hearts are comforted, at present, because they have been active. They are dressed for action and prepared for thieves. But I suspect that when the endless heatwaves come, and if civilisation melts down, they will find that even their bunkers are full of clutter and broken promise, for some thieves can never be denied. A planet cannot be placated...

John Powell, in his book, Unconditional Love, tells the story of a young student who was dying of cancer. In the final stages of his illness, he came to see Powell and said something to this effect: Father, you once told us something in class that has made it easier for me to die young. You said: “There are only two potential tragedies in life, and dying young isn’t one of them. These are the two tragedies: If you go through life and don’t love and if you go through life and you don’t tell those whom you love that you love them.” When the doctors told me that I my cancer was terminal, I realized how much I’ve been loved. I’ve been able to tell my family and others how much they mean to me. I’ve expressed love. People ask me: “What’s it like being 24 years old and dying?” I tell them: “It’s not so bad. It beats being 50 years old and having no values!”...

Just last month there was a great deal of news coverage on the anniversary of the first moon landing. One of the mementos carried by Neil Armstrong were two pieces of the Wright Brothers airplane from their historic 1903 flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Buzz Aldrin, the other man who walked on the moon that day, was a Presbyterian elder who had received special permission to serve himself communion on the surface of the moon. This was kept secret because of the backlash that happened after the Genesis story was read when humans first orbited the earth in 1968. In 1969 there was a planned break between landing on the moon and actually going outside. As the men prepared for that phase of their mission, Aldrin sent a message to earth: "I would like to request a few moments of silence. I would like to invite each person listening in, wherever and whomever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his own individual way." Then he reached for the wine and bread he'd brought to space - the first foods ever poured or eaten on the moon. He wrote, "I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the side of the cup." He then read some scripture and ate. Armstrong looked on quietly but did not participate...

Back in November two New Jersey firefighters had spent 12 grueling hours putting out a fire. After that exhausting shift, they hit a local restaurant to grab a bite to eat and some coffee. During the breakfast, the waitress happened to overhear them talking about their dramatic shift. When they had finished their meal and asked for the bill, they were handed the following note: Your breakfast is on me today - thank you for all you do; for serving others, for running into places everyone else runs away from. No matter what your role is, you are courageous, brave and strong... thank you for being bold (and badass) everyday. Fueled by fire, and driven by courage,　what an example you are! Get some rest! - Liz.

I remember as a teenager reading David Wilkerson’s A Thief in the Night, as well as The Late Great Planet Earth. All the signs seemed to be suggest that we were, to use the title of Barry McGuire’s famous song, we were at the “Eve of Destruction” (I should note that when first released this was an anti-war protest song, which became an apocalyptic ballad after his conversion. That's when I first encountered it).

Owen McQuade was my partner. This was the perpetual problem of my primary school years. I was always teamed with losers. Indeed, when it came to playground sports, I wasn’t even a selected member of the squad. I was in that group that got assigned when the team captain would say, “And you can have the rest.” The sad little sin of the primary school years: the losers aren’t even kind to each other. Owen McQuade has become a powerful man, much like his father, very kind and gentle. Back then, all I could see was his sloppiness with Elmers.

How can anyone, American or not, believer or not, ever think they can predict when God will throw the switch, hit the delete button, yank away the welcome mat, and drop the final tattered curtain? Jesus seemed awfully clear in this week’s passage from Luke 12:32-40: no one knows. But I know. And you do to. For me it was April 21, 1993. My world ended after a late night call from the pastor—my district superintendent (DS)—with authority over me. The DS announced I’d be leaving the church I then served. It was unexpected, humiliating, and unfair. That decision, I later learned, was based on him lying about me and my wife to the United Methodist Bishop and other superintendents.

Pray for the ability to discern the presence of God, because life is short and you're old before you know it. Life is short, so live every day as if it were your last, because some day you'll be right. Life is short, so wake up, stay alert, be prepared, light the lamps, get ready. Listen for the knock, answer the call, serve where you're sent. Life is short, so do what you love to do and give it your best. Whether it's business or teaching or medicine, if you don't love what you're doing and can't give it your best, think seriously about getting out of it.

in his short book, Giving to God, Mark Powell makes the point that we often mistake the meaning of the phrase, 'Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also'. Too often we think this means that we can find out where someone's heart lies by looking at where they have placed their treasure. Instead Powell asserts that it might well mean something else. Our hearts can be trained...

("Leslie Weatherhead used to tell the parable of the Persian carpet. That's a carpet made on a vertical frame. The weaver-artist sits on one side and the boy weaver who actually makes the knots sits on the other. When the boy makes a mistake or inadvertently changes the plan, the artist doesn't necessarily have him change it, instead he alters the pattern...")

("My grandmother was a woman of faith. I don't say that because she went to church all of her life and raised seven children who went to church all of their lives, or because she was named 'Mother of the Year' by the Catholic Daughters of America or because she had a son who was a priest and a daughter who was a nun...")

("We were there together all in that place for nearly an hour before the geyser fully erupted. It came about twenty minutes later than the clock in the nearby shop had indicated. Still, just as it has for hundreds of years or more, it keeps more of a schedule than any other geyser in the park --- perhaps anywhere in the world. And just as millions before had done so, together we witnessed something remarkable...")

A young man named Ronnie was a shift supervisor who happened to be training a woman named Sarah Bittorf for what he thought was her new job as waitress at a Boston Market restaurant. As they worked, Ronnie went on incessantly about how much the customers irritated him. 'I literally hate customers more than anything in the entire world. I hate them so much.

("Our goal, especially at worship, isn't to master a lesson or to study a text. It's to meet a person, someone who can surprise us. This is why we stand for the Gospel, and often accompany the Gospel book with candles. Like citizens on their feet for the president, we are recognizing the presence of a person among us. Saint Anthony didn't simply receive an new insight at Mass. He didn't proofread a text; he encountered a person. Listening with all his heart, perhaps even straining to hear, he heard a voice that captivated him. And that's all it took. He fell in love...")

In her book Traveling Mercies Anne Lamott , who is white, tells about when she first started going to St. A ndrews, a n African American Presbyterian church in Mar in County, California. She was broke, an alcoholic, single, and pregnant . “When I was at the end of my rope, ” she writes, “ the people at St. Andrew tied a knot for me and helped me hold on.” When she announced she was pregnant, the congregation cheered for her, and immedia tely began giving her things: food, clothes, and most importantly the assurance the baby was going to be part of the family. T hey also began slipping her money. Sh e writes about how many of the older women, living close to the bone on small social security checks, would sidle up to her and stuff bills in her pocket

("My own father, at a family wedding when I was barely 20, dashing in his black suit, asking a very homely and ill-dressed girl of 15 who was hugging the wall in her misery to dance – and he danced with her three times (no one else did). I heard him tell her, as I danced by, that she was beautiful. Later, when I asked him why he said that, he replied, She needed to hear it more than anyone else in the room...")

("That surprising phrase, "greed is good," came from the ultimate 80's movie about greed, Wall Street. It starred Michael Douglas playing the infamous Gordon Gecko, the embodiment of avarice gone amuck.....")

("The story is told about a demon assigned to tempt a young man. It was his first assignment so the "junior devil" discussed his strategy with a senior devil. 'I know how to bring this young man down,' he said, 'I will convince him there is no God.'...")

The late Indian Jesuit Antony de Mello was renouned around the world for his ability to teach people to pray. He warns us that while we are searching wildly for that great experience of God there are a host of rich experiences of God that are passing us by. One needs to do very little, really, to experience God. All one needs to do is quiet oneself, become still...

("Recently a Chicago hotel was reported to offer help to guests with a 'BlackBerry addiction'. It seems these portable handheld devices, which are intended to aid in one's daily life, have actually become an encumbrance for many. Rick Ueno, general manager of the hotel, admits his own obsession with constantly checking his email....")

("My wife and I recently took a vacation in the upper Midwest. Because our young adult sons had to work, we left them at home on the east coast. We gave them a rather vague idea of just when we'd return. Our sons, however, pressed us for a near exact time and date of our return...")

("One recent cartoon pictures a man sitting in his living room with a look of panic on his face. He's dropped his book and his hair stands on end. He's yanked his legs off the floor and onto the chair where he clutches them in his arms...")

("'Only idiots make proposal plans', said a certain young man, who was planning a surprise birthday party for a young woman he hoped to marry. In fact, he planned to ask her to marry him at the beginning of the party and give her the biggest diamond in all the world...")

("Some years ago I had the privilege of hearing Barbara Brown Taylor deliver a sermon at the Princeton University Chapel. At one point she related a story from her childhood when she was growing up in the American South. Every day after school Barbara and her siblings were supervised by an African-American babysitter named Thelma...")

("Herbert Farmer had been having a long busy day and came home exhausted. He put on the kettle and being English, he made a pot of tea, and had just sat down to enjoy his tea when the doorbell rang..." and another illustration)

some guy went up to the top of a big tall building in Manhattan with a briefcase bulging with hundreds of hundred dollar bills. He opened the briefcase up and started tossing the money over the side of the building - hundred dollar bills blowing in the wind, floating down to the street, where surprised pedestrians picked them up, not knowing where they came from...

("One night a couple of weeks ago, I came home quite late and it was already dark. I knew I'd have to leave the car's headlamps on until I could get into the house, so I didn't trip on the steps. But as I turned into the drive, I saw that my husband had turned on the outside lights...")

Walter was a hypothetical shut-in. He was crippled with arthritis and walked with two canes. Occasionally I saw him driving by the parsonage, going to the grocery store or to the bank. In his late 70's, he lived alone, his wife having divorced him and having moved in with the neighbor man next door. Church, however, was not something he attended. He had a lot of bitterness and anger...

("There is a story about a tourist who was traveling along the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy. When he reached the castle, a friendly old gardener opened the gate and showed him the ground which the old man kept in perfect order. The tourist asked when the owner of the castle had last been there. '12 years ago', the old man answered..." and several others)

("Charlie Gibson hosted a Friday night television special about the friendships Billy Graham has had with all of our Presidents since Truman. The common question the Presidents asked the evangelist was, 'Will I go to heaven?' Here is the man who has the nuclear bomb button at arms reach 24/7 and his concern is the afterlife...")

("You may have heard the story about a five year old that had spent his early years in foster homes. He had never drunk a full glass of milk as each child was only allowed to drink down just one swallow. In his new home a big glass of milk was set beside his plate at suppertime...")

("Once a newly assigned devil was explaining his strategy to a veteran. 'My plan', he said proudly, 'is to convince the man that there is no God.' 'No', said the senior devil, 'That will not work...")

"When I participated in my first 4-H Horse Show, I had to borrow a saddle that fit me. I had learned to ride bareback. So, when the judge had us do everything in the arena, I had trouble keeping my feet in the stirrups. I fought back tears when I got last place..."

("An unskilled worker goes for a job interview and demands a pay higher than that demanded by skilled workers. When asked why he demands so much for his unskilled work he explains that because he is new to the job he would put in more effort and time than the skilled workers to do the same job...")

"St. Thomas was employed by the local king Gundaphorus to build a new palace, and Thomas was given money to buy materials and hire workmen. Thomas gave the money to the poor, but always assured the king that his palace was rising steadily. The king became suspicious when Thomas kept putting off his requests to see the work in progress and finally sent for Thomas..."

("While a family was vacationing in Europe, they found that they needed to drive three days continuously, day and night, to get to Germany. So, they all got into the car – Mom, Dad, and their three year old daughter. The little daughter had never traveled at night before. She was scared the first night in the car, seeing only the deep darkness outside the window..." and other humorous illustrations)

("Recently, I heard the story of a older woman who, over the course of her life, had accumulated a large number of quilts. She had about 25 quilts, most of which had been handed down to her through her husband's and her own family. A few of the quilts she had made herself. She was a widow who had never had much money and had always lived her life simply....")

("O world invisible, we view thee, O world intangible, we touch thee. O world unknowable, we know thee, Inapprehensible, we clutch thee! Does the fish soar to find the ocean, The eagle plunge to find the air-- That we ask of the stars in motion If they have rumor of thee there? Not where the wheeling systems darken, And our benumbed conceiving soars!...")

("Mary Anne, a junior at the local high school was considered by all to be the most popular girl in her class. In addition to being very smart, she was the class rep to the student council, on the year book staff, co-chair for the junior prom, a great volley ball player, and very involved in social service activities....")

("Once upon a time a family was driving home from their summer vacation. It had been a good vacation and everyone was happy about it, including the Daddy, who had a reputation of being something of an impatient man. However, the vacation was now over and it was time to get back to the real world...")

("With "treasure" and "adventure" and "getting away from the ordinary" in mind, allow me to slip back to a Robin Williams movie from the early '90's, entitled "Hook". Perhaps you remember it. This flick was a sequel to the old story of Peter Pan. I remember watching it with my then much-younger children, and being 'hooked'. This children’s tale really spoke to the father in me at that time...")

("Many years ago in a country town in South Australia the local delicatessen owners were Lebanese Roman Catholics. When they originally came to Australia they were Orthodox, but without a local church they became Catholics. But these brothers were really more ecumenical. While they worshipped in the Catholic Church they supported the functions of every denomination in town...")

("A renegade Episcopalian priest named Malcolm Boyd published a book of prayers in 1965 entitled, Are You Running With Me, Jesus? Just to let you know that my formative years weren't spent just listening to music, I also read stuff like this. 'It's morning, Jesus,' he says. 'It's morning, and here's that light and sound all over again.'...")

("A few months ago, the New York Times told the story of 'Reggie' who achieved a lifelong dream of obtaining a college degree at the age of 52 He recalled the poverty of his family during his high school days and told of the hopeless feeling he had knowing that most of his friends were going away to college, but neither he nor his family had the resources for a college education...")

("A wealthy American was being shown around the Vatican and as the Pope was in Castel Gandolfo he was taken into the Pope's private apartment. On the Pontiff's desk he noticed a gold telephone and was told that it was a direct line to God. When he asked if he could use it he was told that it would cost a half million dollars. He didn't call...")

("Let me explain by a simple analogy, which is a Christmas drama. The play is entitled WAITING FOR THE CHRISTMAS GUEST by Edwin Markham. In this Christmas play, there is an old shoe cobbler by the name of Conrad and his wife, Martha. In his dream, Conrad the cobbler, had a vision that he was going to be visited by Jesus himself before Christmas day...")

("A man died far from his home, and this is what his will said. 'Let the community where the land is situated take what they wish for themselves, and let them give that which they wish to Arif the Humble.' Now Arif was a young man at the time, who had far less apparent authority than anyone in the community. Therefore the elders took possession of whatever they wanted from the land...")

("To revert to computer language for a moment Christianity is not competing against the other add-on modules, it is competing against the operating platforms If you are buying a home computer you first have to choose whether to have a Windows platform or a Macintosh platform. Whichever way you choose, that basic decision will then limit what programs you can run with it....")

("When I was very young I had a best friend. We did everything together. We played and we ran. We went exploring in the woods. We played ball. We had a great time. My best friend was my dog. His name was Puddles. Now, Puddles was a great friend and a great dog but he was not a handsome dog. He was not a Lassie or a Rin Tin Tin. First of all, Puddles was a beagle...")

Steve is a very important man. He runs a multimillion dollar company. His annual salary is in the high six figure range. He travels extensively in the corporate jet and the corporate limos to various destinations. Personally, he is married and has two children. He is a member of all the right organizations and country clubs. Steve is considered to be a very influential person in large number of circles. In short, when Steve speaks people listen. To achieve this status and position Steve works long hours. His workweek averages 60-80 hours. He has very little time with his family. He has lost touch with his children's likes and dislikes. He does not know their hobbies. He does not attend their activities. In fact, he does not speak to them very much at all. One day Steve has a few minutes between appointments. As he relaxes in his chair he begins to wonder. He asks himself what is life all about. He lists his accomplishments in his mind. He goes down a checklist of the people he knows and the places he has been. Steve thinks about his net worth. After he goes through all of these thoughts he finds himself asking one question. Is this all there is? Is this all there is to life? He begins to think about his family. He realizes he has not really been with them for a long time. Oh, he has come home and spoken a few words. He has taken them to the country club while he played golf. He realizes he has lost touch. He really does not know who they are anymore. That night Steve goes home. He has dinner with his family. After dinner he sits down with his teenage son and has a long talk. They just sit and chat about what is happening in his son's life. As the time approaches for them to go to bed, Steve turns to his son and says, "I'm sorry I have not taken the time to be with you. I'm going to make some changes so we can be together more often. I love you." His son starts to cry. Steve is taken back. His son says, "Dad, I have been so upset. I don't remember the last time you told me you loved me. Tonight, after we all went to bed I had decided to commit suicide. Please be here for me and help me. Please keep telling me you love me."...

("In an ancient Kingdom the monarch had no heir. He issued a decree that if there was a really kind man in the kingdom he would make him his heir. There was a really kind young man in one of the barrios and the people there persuaded him to apply to be king. They dressed him up in nice robes and gave him gifts to bring to the king...")

"'I know he doesn't do anything, but his heart's in the right place.' In other words, when someone's heart is in the right place, something else about them isn't. There’s a gap: between their intentions and their actions, their feeling and their understanding, or their desire and their ability..."

("Our waitress told us her name was Kathy, and then as I was ordering, I told her I used to meet there in a Bible study for businessmen, called Agora. I said, 'I don't remember you, but I do remember a busboy I made friends with named Hector.' She said, 'Oh, yes, he's here. His wife just lost her second baby, and he's really depressed. Maybe you could help him.' So I said, 'Sure.'...")

("I was on my internship in Lacrosse, Wisconsin, when an elderly man in our community died....He lived in a little house that was in a sad state of disrepair. He got food and clothing at the local pantry. People in the community felt sorry for him, because he was so poor and elderly. In the winter, he only heated one room of the house and, finally, froze to death, because there was not enough heat in the house...")

("Listen to what George Carlin says about stuff: 'That's all your house is-a place to keep your stuff. If you didn't have so much stuff, you wouldn't need a house. You could just walk around all the time. A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it, and when you leave your house, you've got to lock it up. You wouldn't want to somebody to come by and take some of your stuff...")

("Shel Silverstein, in his latest collection of poems entitled FALLING UP has a little poem that I think sums up the transient nature of things and possessions. It is entitled Snowball. I made myself a snowball As perfect as could be. I thought I'd keep it as a pet And let it sleep with me. I made it some pajamas And a pillow for its head. Then last night it ran away, But first--it wet the bed..." and another illustration)

("This is why Frederick Buechner was able to say that when he was a boy after his father committed suicide and he went with his mother and brother to live in Bermuda, that God was with him. He didn't really know it then. He didn't know it until he reflected on it some years later. He then perceived that God was there all along, helping him mature in the face of that terrible tragedy...")

("David Berger was 26 years old, aspiring to be a medical doctor. He had a big heart and when the terrorists entered his dormitory he could have escaped. Instead, he stayed and tried to defend his fellow athletes. Berger’s family lives in Cleveland. So Archdeacon went there to interview them...")

("There was a man in l924 who was willing to take a risk. He agreed to assume $28,000 debt of a troubled pharmacy. He made the business profit by increasing the volume of the newsstand and developing a home delivery service. He recruited 75 paper boys and increased his paper business to $30,000 a year. His drugstore had a soda fountain and ice cream was a popular attraction...")

("At an equestrian show in Calgary several years ago, the show was being conducted in an arena and the ice had been covered with some sort of board held together by tape. Everything went well until a line of six horses was wheeling around the corner. Suddenly, the tape tore, then the board slid across the floor leaving two riders stunned, laying helplessly on the ice after their two horses fell..." and other illustrations)

("I had the opportunity to spend over a year in Japan as the Assistant Pastor at Tokyo Union Church, and since I'm a Japanese-American person with a face that looks very Japanese, I could be a spy there. I could blend in. I could sneak up next to people conversing in Japanese. Even more I could sneak up next to Americans speaking in English...")

("The center of my life: what could it be? This question is at the heart of a recent book, become a movie, by Andre Dubois, The House of Sand and Fog. In the story, a number of people are trying to identify the meaning in their lives. It seems to be centered in a house. A recovering alcoholic woman loses this house given to her by her father because she has failed to pay the taxes...")

("A certain lord kept a fool or jester, in his house as a great men did in olden times for their amusement. This lord gave a staff to his fool and told him to keep it until he met a greater fool than himself, and if he met such a person, a greater fool, he should give him the staff. Not many years after, the lord fell sick..." and other illustrations)

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("A few weeks ago, it seemed like half the world was on pins and needles, waiting for the final book in the saga of Harry Potter...")

("Tony Campolo tells a wonderful story about a friend of his who had to take a bus trip across central India. He was in one of those old-model buses that should have been retired a decade ago. it was seemingly held together with string and glue. As is often the case with buses in Third World countries, this bus was packed, not only with people, but with packages, furniture, and just about every kind of domesticated animal..." and other illustrations)