Do I Have My Stuff or Does It Have Me?
- davidwperk
- May 1, 2024
- 5 min read
Devotional Reflection, Wednesday, May 1, 2024
The week of the fifth Sunday of Easter
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s Gospel reading:
24‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 963)
AM Psalm 72; PM Psalm 119:73-96
Lev. 19:1-18; 1 Thess. 5:12-28; Matt. 6:19-24
Today we celebrate the Feast of Philip and James, Apostles. (See below.)
David’s Reflections
Thomas Moore has written about money that, “Like sex, money is so numinous, so filled with fantasy and emotion and resistant to rational guidance, that although it has much to offer, it can easily swamp the soul and carry consciousness off into compulsion and obsession.”*
We get that sense about money in Jesus’ teaching in today’s Gospel. Jesus speaks of the eye as the light of the body. One way of reading that would be to take “eye” as a reference to one’s disposition, one’s outlook on life. If greed dominates one’s vision, that person’s view of all of life gets tainted by that viewpoint. One cannot confine greed to one zone in the soul. It captures the entire psyche. Like a diseased eye, a greedy outlook distorts one’s vision of reality.
Jesus’ final figure of speech in today’s reading should be sobering. He puts money on the level of a human master, one that can elicit your loyalty and control your agenda. A one hundred dollar bill does not simply lie inert on the sidewalk; rather it calls out to you, “Pick me up and take me home with you. I will make your life richer.”
Money and possessions have a way of eliciting our loyalty, channeling our life energies into their pursuit, and blinding us to other more significant loyalties that go begging in its shadow. We underestimate its power if we think of wealth or possessions as morally neutral and merely waiting to serve us for good or evil. The biblical vision is that behind money lurks a demonic force that actually seizes and controls our lives. We can find ourselves captive to its power and serving it.
We can be seduced into believing that having wealth makes us secure. But, when is enough enough? We will be driven by anxious fear that we do not have enough, a fear that gives rise to a preoccupying anxious striving for more. That anxiety constitutes an emotional fever, a symptom of misplaced trust, of a fundamental idolatry at the core of our lives. And, all we possess can be blown away in a hurricane of financial or family or health disaster.
And, as Moore warns, we are not rational about all this. These basic attitudes slink along unrevealed within the psyche, driving us to compulsive behaviors of which we live unawares.
The antidotes do not taste palatable to the psyche--giving more of our possessions away to the work of the church and charitable organizations, accumulating fewer possessions, being less driven and preoccupied by our portfolios and retirement accounts. Loosening our grip on ourselves and our stuff. So much of that time and emotional energy can be redirected toward other people and toward self giving acts of service and ministry.
Jesus did not merely teach this. He lived it, a life of simplicity with scarce possessions but the life most fully resplendent with love, service, and commitment.
As Luke quotes him, “One’s life does not consist in the abundance of their possessions.” (Lk. 12:15).
*Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), p. 192.
Collect of the Day, Fifth Sunday of Easter
Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 225)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Philip and James, Apostles.
Collect of the Feast of Philip and James
Almighty God, who gave to your apostles Philip and James grace and strength to bear witness to the truth: Grant that we, being mindful of their victory of faith, may glorify in life and death the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A Collect for Grace
Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100)
Disturb Us, Lord
Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little, when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of the things we possess we have lost our thirst for the water of life.
Stir us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery, where in losing sight of land we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hope, and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope and love. Amen.
(Attributed to Sir Frances Drake upon departing to sail to the New World, 1577. Cited by The Right Rev. Clay Matthews, Clergy Retreat, Diocese of So. Virginia, 2004.)
A Prayer for Light
O Lord God Almighty, as you have taught us to call the evening, the morning, and the noonday one day; and have made the sun to know its going down: Dispel the darkness of our hearts, that by your brightness we may know you to be the true God and eternal light, living and reigning for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 110)
A Collect for Mission
Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen. (BCP, 101)
Daily Office Gospel, Matthew 6:19-24
19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22‘The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; 23but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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