Re the Gospel reading for August 1st 2010

Luke 12:13-21




The following is from Mike Kinman, Dean of the Episcopal Cathedral in St. Louis,MO (It is reproduced with his permission). He was writing to a parishioner and her husband, whose names I have made anonymous.

"What God promises is that we will have enough to survive But even more than that, God promises enough so that we will be able to share and that God will never leave us. And I have never seen that promise broken. I have been in one of the poorest places on the planet -- Southern Sudan -- and there I found people living on the edge of famine who were completely certain of God's presence with them and took incredible joy in sharing the little food and shelter and water they had.

So a big piece of this for me is perspective. We live surrounded by wealth unimaginable by most of humanity not just in the world today but throughout history ... and yet we report a higher level of anxiety about money than most nations in the world.

And that brings us to the final thing. This is about liberation. God's desire from us is not for us to be charity machines or impoverished, but not to be imprisoned by our wealth. To let go of it and participate in the great joy God knows in giving life and creation to us ... the joy of giving away all that we have. It's the liberation you and Am..t know, A.y -- and how you are raising your kids -- in testifying with your life that your beautiful home is not just for you to enjoy but is to be shared by friends, family, neighbors, travelers, and on and on and on".


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