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There is a well-known and well-worn story about the comedian Jack Benney, who was known for having frozen his age at 39 and reputed to be the stingiest man alive. He was confronted one night by a robber who pointed a gun at him and said, “Your money or your life!” After long moments of silence, the gunman yelled at him, “Didn’t you hear what I said? Your money or your life!” To which Jack Benney replied, “Don’t rush me. .... I’m thinking. .... I’m thinking.”

Now, most of us wouldn’t go that far. But when we hear the words of Jesus, “One’s life does not consist of possessions,” there is at least a side of us that says, “Well, that’s news to me!” And, even though deep down in our hearts we know, and deep down we believe that the best things in life are not things, we still have this tendency built in, some part of us, that loves to accumulate things, just like the rich farmer in the story. We all have stuff, lots of stuff. And we have a tendency more to hold on than to let go, to pile up than to cut back. It’s amazing. We have that bundle Sunday here, sometimes as often as three or four times a year, when we ask you to look in your closets and bring any used but usable clothing to share with others. We always find in our closets enough, and more than enough, no matter how many “Bundle Sundays” there are. Every once in awhile we stand and get a moment of clarity and say, “Where did I get all this stuff, and why do I keep it all the time?” Now, some of this may be we just don’t have the time to clean house or to clear out. But there is still a side of us that is quite at ease at accumulating things and holding on, holding on to money, holding on to material things, holding onto to things even more important that aren’t material.

So, today, in light of the gospel, I want to take four looks at this. Look #1 is to look to the end. Look to the end. Remember the rich man who knew he was near death, and he did not want to go into the next life, penniless and unprepared. So, he gathered his three sons around his death bed and he made them promise, much against their will, and very sadly, but at the threat that he would cut then out of his final will, that each of them would put ten thousand dollars of his own into his casket when he died. The first was a lawyer, and he came and, with a painful sigh, he put the ten thousand dollars into the casket. The second was a doctor and, with a sob in his throat, he came up and put ten thousand dollars into his casket. The third was a priest. In fact, he was a monsignor, so he didn’t worry about money. He went up with a smile on his face, without a tear in his eye, wrote a thirty thousand dollar check, put it into the casket, took twenty thousand in, and walked away.

Now, look to the end. If we do that, if we look to the end, we remember you can’t take it with you. Look to the end; we remember there are no pockets in our shrouds. So the first thing to remember is “Look to the end.”

Look #2 is “Look to the present.” Recently, I had my car radio on KGO and I ended up listening to some of “Money Talk” with Bob Brinker. After a long time of discussing and answering phone calls about investments and buying stocks and property values and interest rates, he then said something very interesting. He said, “Now, remember, the goal of this is not to keep everything you get, or to hold onto everything you earn. The goal, really, is to invest very wisely.”

“Once you have reasonable security, I recommend two investments. Investment #1,” he said, “invest in leisure and vacation for yourself.” That’s very much like this first reading, “Vanity of vanities.” That teacher goes on to say, “There is nothing better for mortals than to eat, drink, and to find enjoyment from their toil. This, also, is from the hand of God.” And then, Bob Brinker’s second recommendation for investment was to invest in the education of our world, of young people, of our own children, our grandchildren, young people who are poor, whom we do not know. He said that’s a wise investment. Reminds me of Martin Luther. Martin Luther was asked once, “What would you do if you were absolutely certain that you were going to die tomorrow?” His answer was that he would go out and plant a tree, showing confidence in God’s continuing love and a desire to make a difference in the future of our world. That’s how we need to look at the present. We look at the present and say, “What difference can I make?”

Here’s a little homework all of us, myself included, might try when we get some quiet time this week. Ask the question, “If I look at today’s world with eyes of compassion and eyes of justice, what would I do differently? If I want to plant a tree, not for vegetation, but for compassion and for justice, for the future of our world, what would the seeds of that tree be? Look to the present. Look to the present.

Look #3 is to look to the things we store up and hold tightly that are not things. Do we hold greedily to friendship, offering it only to a few, if any. Do we hold fiercely to our time, sharing it very seldom, if ever? Do we hold on tightly to our involvement, refusing to step up, to get involved when we might be needed or when we could make a difference? Look at the things that are not things but are precious possessions as well.

Look #4 is to look to our imagination. I have a plaque hanging over the fireplace in my room. It reads, “Imagination is evidence of the divine.” Creative imagination is a means of letting go and letting God into our lives in ways that are big and ways that are small. One pastor back East, (And I will say he had a small parish. So we are not going to try it here.) announced that, at the end of Mass, he would be standing in the vestibule and he would give a crisp five dollar bill to any parishoners who would agree to do something special with it that week and come back the next Sunday at homily time and report what they had done. One person gave the five dollars to a hard-working waitress on top of the tip that he usually gave, just to surprise her. Another gave the five dollar bill to the attendant at a toll booth and told her to pay the toll for the next five cars. Another, a woman, gave the five dollars to a homeless person that she had been walking by every day and always turning the other way and not looking at him. Small acts of imagination and generosity sometimes lead to bigger acts of letting go of our treasure and of our time. The man who tipped the waitress got to know her better and her situation and is now working for health care for those in the food industry and in service jobs. The woman who shared with the homeless man got into a conversation with him and now she volunteers once a week at the neighborhood soup kitchen.

But my favorite story of imaginative sharing comes from my own mother. Like most of us, she would regularly get begging letters from religious orders, from institutions, organizations, charitable causes. Unable to afford much, but unwilling to give a simple flat no, every time she got one of those letters, she would take a dollar and put it into the return letter and save each one of them..... until she went to Reno. Then she would gamble for them, and if she won, they won. In the last five years of her life, she became a close penpal of Archbishop Dennis Hurley of South Africa, a heroic figure in the seventies and eighties. (In fact, he just died this year.) both in the Church and in South Africa where he shared jail with Nelson Mandela and protest with Desmond Tutu. The friendship between him and my mother began when he received over a thousand dollars from her. And he never knew that he had won at Keno!

Look to the end. You can’t take it with you. Look to the present, with eyes of compassion and eyes of justice. Look to ourselves and not just to the things we possess, and look to our imaginations.... And let us give thanks to the Lord Who is so good.