Luke 8:4-15 & Psalm 56:9b-13

4 And when a great crowd came together and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: 5 "A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell along the path, and was trodden under foot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns grew with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew, and yielded a hundredfold." As he said this, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." 9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but for others they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy; but these have no root, they believe for a while  and in time of temptation fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.

Psalm 56:9b-13

This I know, that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise,
11 in God I trust without a fear. What can man do to me?
12 My vows to you I must perform, O God; I will render thank offerings to you.
13 For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

           "Choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life". That seems hard to believe doesn't it? I still recall Tevia asking God to be cursed (with wealth) so bad that he should never recover.. We all need money for our basic needs and truth be told we'd like a lot more for our wants as well. Some people seem to have it all and that's ok. God does want the best for us.

            We need to know that money does not necessarily equal happiness. I've said it before and we need to be reminded even as I check the morning money reports on line. Enjoy worldly things only in so far as they remind you of how blessed you are and that the joy is in living and not in things.

             One of the reasons I was in need of therapy as I contemplated the growing awareness that I was gay is that I might be called to give up everything I had. House, family, position in the community etc. Fortunately, the same faith that drove me to seek closeness to our God, the same faith that lead me to serve God, is the same faith that gave me the assurance that God loved me no matter what and that my true happiness was not in anything I 'owned' or thought I owned (position, status, even family). The psalm for today just says it all. My happiness while perhaps elevated by nice things, a viking range, subzero refrigerator, the status of ordination and the joy of service and preaching, the joys of my children, are not mine really at all and they themselves do not bring happiness by themselves. They only bring a semblance of happiness, a partial happiness that is only fulfilled in the lens and understanding of God's love. You really do have to know who you are and that God loves you.

                  This is true for all of us. This I know, God is for me.