Will someone shut that damn goat up?

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Tobit 2:9-14; Mark 12:13-17

Who was right in the debate between Tobit and his wife?  I can see merit in both positions.  Anna received the goat as a bonus for the work she had done.  Her employer might have been very pleased with her work, or maybe they just felt bad for her because she was working so hard and her husband was blind because a bunch birds pooped in his eyes. 

But Tobit’s position also has merit.  He did not want to risk eating meat that had been stolen.  He didn’t know where it had come from.  Perhaps his sense of justice was a bit too strict, but legally speaking hecould have been correct.  There is an undercurrent of real stewardship in telling Anna to take the goat back.  So often we have more than we deserve; more than we need.  Could it not be said that when we keep more food for ourselves than is necessary we are robbing the hungry?  Perhaps all of us have stolen food in our pantries.  I think I do…

What would life be like if all of us decided that we would give to God what belongs to God?  My guess is that it would be heaven.  For now, we live in this world and it belongs to God.  All we really possess is the life we have and everything else belongs to God.  If we only took and used what was necessary for sustaining our lives we would probably find that in very short order, poverty would vanish forever.  Poverty exists today because we who can afford all we want in this life are greedy.  Deep down we see ourselves as Caesar; we are demigods ruling our own empires and everything belongs to us.  I wonder what causes that kind of blindness.