To begin this morning I place before you two texts. One text is from our bible reading this morning from the Gospel of Luke and the other from a Christian author reflecting on our spiritual journey.

From Luke`s Gospel we read,

Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father`s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also. (Lk 12:32-34)

From Christian author Ann Weems we read,

Sometimes the pages won`t turn in our book of dreams,
And we are left clinging to a life
We never lived...
Just wanted to.
Stuck in the stark reality
Of unlived dreams,

we sniffle and tread water,
or we go in search
of the Holy One
who will wipe the tears
From our eyes
and offer to us
the only dream
that lives.

(Kneeling in Jerusalem,Ann Weems, Westminster/John Knox, 1992"Our Dreams" p. 58)

In my mind these two texts raise the same question ways: where is true life to be found?

In Luke Gospel Jesus counsels us to seek a path in life which will lead us to true treasure "which no thief comes near and no moth destroys". Author Ann Weems encourages us to chase after a dream which is real and not illusory, as she puts it "the only dream that lives".

There are few experiences in life more discouraging than waking up one day with a sense of profound despair that one`s life has been about nothing of importance- or worse totally mistaken. As a spirit person Jesus was preoccupied with showing people a path to true and lasting treasure.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus identified four areas of life which can easily lead us down the wrong path: possessions, status, family, and piety. I would like to comment on each this morning

The easiest wrong path for us to understand is the path leading to possessions and status. I lump these two together- possessions and status- because they are in many ways the same striving to build up for ourselves a buffer against any onslaught of misfortune. Our society tells us over and over again that our personal worth as a human being is measured by what we possess, and the power we wield.

The bible speaks constantly about possessions and the dangers of greed and Jesus reminds his disciples over and over again that life is about service and not domination over others. It seems to me, that the danger with possessions for most of us is not so much that we are greedy but that we want security. To pick up on the imagery of the bible text this morning, we are less concerned about moths damaging what we possess than we are about the thief breaking in and taking it away. The thief comes in many forms: a faltering economy, job loss, marriage breakdown, or corporate mismanagement of our retirements funds. As for the burglar at the door, we have insurance, of course!

The gospel advances a shocking solution - we should sell all we possess. And some people do just that. You may have read the story this week in the newspaper of Janne Ritske, an Ottawa woman, who after 20 years with World Vision and the development agency of the Christian Reformed Church, cashed in her retirement funds and took off to work with the poor in Cambodia. Now 10 years later she has built up an organization (Tabitha International) employing 33 Cambodian people that has helped more than 91,000 of Cambodia`s poorest people. But who will look after Janne when she retires. I suspect that this is not an issue that keeps her awake at night!

Doing as Janne did may not be possible for many but what is possible for all is keeping a gospel perspective on what we possess. I believe this to fall within the work of selling all we possess. Your possessions- do you possess them or do they possess you? That is the question that travellers on the gospel path must always ask themselves.

It is difficult for a society like ours to understand Jesus teaching about the poor- that they are blessed. The underlying conviction here is that those who have no possessions or status are never under any illusion that happiness and security can be found in them. I have often heard it reported by people from societies like ours who visit very poor countries that they are astounded by the faith and generosity of the people - the truly poor and dispossessed of this world. We are amazed at the richness of spirit of people who live in poverty. I have had this experience myself and it puzzled me for years why I saw little of that amongst the poor in Canada.

They are not more or less believers than anyone else. Very few see themselves as blessed by the circumstances in which they live and it is an experience which isolates them from one another and does not draw them together as it seems to do elsewhere. I think that the difference is that the poor here live in a social context which always holds out to them the possibility of a better life based upon acquisition. Indeed, it says to them, if you try harder you too can enjoy the good life based upon wealth and status.

The poor in Jesus`time, and in so much of our present world, were under no illusion that they could or even should have more. They will never have access to wealth and never be able to rise above their present social status. These poor, unlike our, are not blamed for their own poverty. The poverty is simply seen as their appropriate lot in life. In such societies the heart naturally seeks fulfilment in other things. Faith blooms in dispossession of this kind. When you do not have lesser things to hold onto you hold onto God and God holds on to you. As the Epistle to James says, "Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom" ( James 2:5)

After years of listening to the stories of the poor and dispossessed who come to this church for one thing or another, I conclude that our poor are, in a way, the most miserable of the poor. They are offered a life which will they will never, for the most part, achieve and at the same timedemeaned because we place most of the blame for their situation upon their own personal inadequacy. This is its own special form of hell.

Please do not understand this to mean that God wants us to be poor. God wants us to be well and to share in all the good things of the earth. That the poor are blessed is not a what Jesus wanted but rather of what Jesus saw. Jesus saw the power of possessions and status to interfere with a deeper relationship with God.

In a spiritual sense, the laying aside of striving, which is fundamentally a self-centred dynamic, is liberating "It is the Father`s good pleasure to give you the kingdom" If the kingdom is a gift for what are we striving?

Every morning we should say to ourselves, "It is the Father`s good pleasure to give me the kingdom. For what am I striving this day?"

But what can Jesus mean by warning us about the family and piety? Surely it is a good thing to be devoted to family and to be pious (that means consciencious in religious observance). Family is held up in our society as a supreme value. In fact, if participation in the life of the church is seen as interfering with time together as a family them guess which takes first place?

And yet the biblical portrayal of family is anything but flattering. Violence is born in the family as we read in the Genesis story of Cain and Abel and so is greed as in the story of Jacob and Isaac, and so is deception and pride as in the story of David and Absalom. What the bible does recognize is the tremendous influence of family upon us-for better and for worse.

For Jesus the problem is not with family per se but rather the narrow definition cultures give to family. Family is about obligation to a few to the exclusion of others. Families form our personal identities and values and families resist our efforts to change them. There are few relationships more complex than those within families. Many family expectations are legitimate ones; but the family, like any social structure, can also be possessive to such an extent it prevents a fuller gospel understanding of family where every human being is our brother and sister and mother and father.

And the same distortion can be found among the pious. Jesus`concern about piety is well explored in the first reading today from the Book of the prophet Isaiah in which the prophet reminds the Hebrews that if worship is outward observance without inner change it is futile. The heart focussed on its own holiness and salvation seldom has room for anyone else. Too often religion is used as a way of making oneself superior to others. This was the reason for Jesus anger against the Pharisee praying in the temple. This kind of piety is rigid and judgmental -and believe me I know whereof I speak after reading the e-mails sent to me following General Synod. How can people with such zeal for God`s Word use such hateful language? I am told that there is an article in a large circulation USA Christian publication describing me as "the most vile Christian in North America" (Finally, I am known to excel in at least one thing!!) This does not bother me in any personal sense but it does distress me to think that the Christian Church continues to generate this kind of believer. How will we ever build a world of peace if we can`t stop the name calling amongst ourselves!

So there you have them- Jesus`top four ditches we can fall into along the path to true treasure.

And what was his solution? I hesitate to mention it because it seems like such an odd thing to say. The way to treasure is the way of death.

Death of the false self, the self which is not really grounded in God but the self formed in the ephemeral and inadequate assurances drawn from what culture, not the Gospel, has to tell us about possessions and status and family and piety. When we as Christians proclaim that Jesus died for our sins we are saying, in part, Jesus showed us a path leading beyond our illusions and unrealistic dreams.

Let us not forget that Jesus, first and foremost, offered us a path- not dogma or morality or institutions - but a path- through life based upon a relationship with a loving God, so that we can take pleasure in finding what is authentic and true and lasting. The real treasure and the lasting dream