What is it that makes us want to have so much control over our own lives? Why is it that we find it so terribly hard to listen to God’s voice and God’s message? Why do we have to do our own thing? Why do we want more and more and more?
In Hosea’s day God’s children were attracted to what their neighbors had and they wanted it. So they imitated them and began to live life them. They even worshipped the same Gods. The culture of the world was pulling them away from God. They were doing their own thing.
Paul in his letter to the Colossians asked them to quit doing what they had been doing and to “Pursue the things over which Christ presides.” If they were going to call themselves Christians then they had to die to their old lives and live lives as Christ lived. Quit doing their own thing.
The brother in the gospel lesson from Luke wanted Jesus to mediate a dispute between him and his brother so they could get the estate settled and he could get his share of the inheritance. He wanted his own way; he wanted his own thing.
What did Jesus say? He said, "Take care! Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot." Jesus taught that we should fill ourselves with God not fill our lives with doing our own thing.
I was asked this week what I preached and it made me think. What do I preach? What I preach may be different than what you preach and it’s probably different from what you might hear another person preach on the same words of Scripture.
I preach that God loved us so much he came to live among us as Jesus Christ. Jesus taught us that God is love and that we are to live lives of love, loving God and loving our neighbors. To me that means that I can no longer just do my own thing. I must be about doing what God is calling me to do, love him with all I have in me and love my neighbors caring for them as I would like to be cared for.
Our lives are not all about us and what we can accumulate. We have been blessed by God with lives so that we can share what we have with our friends and neighbors.
That’s the Message for us today. Our focus, our calling is not to do our own thing but to do what God has and is calling us to do, love Him and love our neighbors.
Friends, God has blessed us with much and it is our calling to be about doing his good work.
Thanks be to God for his amazing love and grace. Amen.
