August 7 Matthew 16:24-28

Please read the passage before the commentary.

We are born naked.  We spend a lifetime adding clothing, money, things of all kinds.  We die naked: nothing of what we have added to our resumes do we take with us to the grave.  We gather things only to lose them to the next generation until that generation passes them on to a future generation.

Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Christ will fund it.  This is because the only constant in life is the life we call God.  We share God’s life somehow in what we call this life; it is a life of participation, not of complete ownership.  Only by giving up the life of participation can we enter the fulness of God’s life.

What are signs of God’s fulness?  It is that all things somehow share in God’s existence.  Respecting all creation, human and otherwise are signs that we recognize God as the source of life.  We cannot buy God’s life.  Money cannot do it.  Bribery cannot do it.  Selfishness cannot do it.  Only the humility that backs us away from claiming ownership can bring us to God’s life.

Jesus put it this way, that we deny ourselves, lake up our crosses and follow him.  He came to serve us, rather than being served.  He came to give us his life by sharing with us our  life.

August 7 Matthew 16:24-28

Please read the passage before the commentary.

We are born naked.  We spend a lifetime adding clothing, money, things of all kinds.  We die naked: nothing of what we have added to our resumes do we take with us to the grave.  We gather things only to lose them to the next generation until that generation passes them on to a future generation.

Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Christ will fund it.  This is because the only constant in life is the life we call God.  We share God’s life somehow in what we call this life; it is a life of participation, not of complete ownership.  Only by giving up the life of participation can we enter the fulness of God’s life.

What are signs of God’s fulness?  It is that all things somehow share in God’s existence.  Respecting all creation, human and otherwise are signs that we recognize God as the source of life.  We cannot buy God’s life.  Money cannot do it.  Bribery cannot do it.  Selfishness cannot do it.  Only the humility that backs us away from claiming ownership can bring us to God’s life.

Jesus put it this way, that we deny ourselves, lake up our crosses and follow him.  He came to serve us, rather than being served.  He came to give us his life by sharing with us our  life.