see the other

Thursday August 8^th, Luke 12:  13 Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."  14 Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?" 15 Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Too often we want Jesus to solve our problems, and the problems we want solved we want to be solved in our favor.  Instead of a “fix it for me Jesus” approach to life, we are called instead to a life of living and loving relationships, and we are not always on the receiving end.  Jesus asks us the question, how are you going to handle this and every other situation in your life in a kingdom way?  How are you going to solve this problem with your brother or sister in Christ?  Step one is obvious, yet the hardest, it is to see the other as you brother or sister in Christ.  Military spending, which makes up well over half of all spending is opposite of where we need to go.  Security measures and fences and papers please laws are the antithesis of God’s love.  More tax cuts for the wealthy who make their money off the labors of the poor is an anathema to God’s grace.  Yet these are the directions we go because we secretly hope that someday we too will reap or rape the financial rewards of such policies.  It is however a rape.  It has nothing to do with love and leaves only victims in its path.