Thought for Today
Genesis 1:12 The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good.
Ecclesiastes 9:7 Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has long ago approved what you do.
Luke 12:19 And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.'
Luke 10:27 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
“Throughout Scripture, oppression is defined as taking advantage of the poor and needy.” (These Days, August 6, 2025)
Again this morning, my mind is focused on the issue I wrote about on Wednesday and that quotation above. I said then, “I do not believe that justice and compassion are primarily economic issues.”
I woke up this morning with 2 songs running through my mind. The first is a much-beloved hymn, All Things Bright and Beautiful. I love to sing that hymn. I especially enjoy how the refrain sums up the Creation story in Genesis, “All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small. All things wise and wonderful, our dear God made them all.” Every time we sing that hymn in worship, I remember those words in Genesis at the end of the acts of creation, “And God saw that it was good.” I do not believe God randomly or arbitrarily made things good. I believe God made them good for the benefit and enjoyment of God’s children, themselves described in Genesis as being made in God’s own image. I believe God intended for us to enjoy the fruits of God’s labor, Creation.
I often cite Micah 6:8, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” For me, it is a companion verse to Luke 10:27. Sadly, I think we often misread and misunderstand both. We interpret them in terms of economics.
I belong to 2 faith traditions, 2 denominations. They are almost identical in theology and primarily differ in governmental structure. I receive communications from both frequently. Much of the focus today for both is what we call ‘social justice.’ Any Christian who has read the Bible, especially those 2 verses, is in favor of doing justice and loving kindness. The idea is not confined to Christians. Most of God’s children favor goodness, kindness, humility and love.
Much of the communication I receive, however, seems to be based on the implication that we should all be embarrassed by any sign of material wealth in our lives. Some even seems to imply that citizens of the U.S.A. should be embarrassed by our nation’s wealth and our own freedoms. Somehow having the freedom to think and say what we believe, even our faith and belief, is implicitly evil and wrong. The freedom to relax, eat and be merry is portrayed as evil and wrong.
I do not find those ideas in scripture. I think we are often tempted to not read Luke 10:27 to its end. That verse ends with “as yourself." We are commanded to love ourselves. Regrettably, far too often we exceed loving ourselves; we are too successful at that to the detriment of loving others. But the measure of our love is not to deprive ourselves of the fruits of our labors. The issue in Luke 12:19 is not the “eat, drink, be merry.” The issue is the “relax.”
We do not need to be ashamed of or embarrassed by our material wealth if we work to share that material wealth with others. We are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. That is part of what we pray for each week in worship when we pray “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
The other song, by the way, is Jimmy Buffett’s song Fruitcakes. I love its line, “I treat my body like a temple, you treat yours like a tent.” It is okay for us to treat our bodies like temples. We just need to treat others the same way.
Stay safe, love your neighbor as yourself, trust God,
Pastor Ray