Life is not about having things – it is about having God.

+  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

In my final year of seminary, I was serving a large parish in Cambridge, MA.  Easter was a pretty big deal at the parish, and it fell to me to manage the Easter Egg Hunt.  That Holy Week, donations of colored eggs kept pouring into the parish office, and by Saturday, we had nearly 1,000 eggs to “hide” in the cemetery.  By the time the egg hunt took off, the grass was so thick with eggs, they were hardly hidden at all – and the image of the winner sticks in my mind. 

She was an adorable, four-year-old red head, one of the quickest runners, and in the end she had fifty-three eggs.  At some point, her basket became so heavy that she could no longer carry it, and I watched, as in desperation, she finally handed it to her older brother, who dutifully followed behind her.  I have no idea what she did with all those eggs.  But I do knowthat she certainly didn’t eat them all, and likely had lost interest by Easter Monday!  There really can be too much of a good thing as the old saying goes.  And in this case, the whole scene was made more poignant by the Easter theme.  The egg, a symbol of resurrection and liberation, had become a burden and a detriment to poor little Eliza.  What odd things we humans can do! 

Indeed, Jesus reminds us in Luke’s gospel, “one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”  The one with the most eggs in the end doesn’t win – she actually loses. Because life is not about having things – it is about having God.

The possession that matters is our place in Christ.  Our belonging to God.  Perhaps so best articulated in the Funeral mass… as the preface goes…

For none of us has life in himself

And none becomes his own master when he dies.

For if we have life, we are alive in the Lord,

And if we die, we die in the Lord.

So, then, whether we live or die,

We are the Lord’s possession.

The only possession that matters is the Lord’s. 

Our earthly goods don’t matter.  Everything we’ve saved up will crumble in the end.  It has no lasting value.  In fact, our Prayer Book instructs all people to make wills and to arrange for the disposal of our temporal goods.  Temporal.  They are not eternal, but rather have a shelf-life.  While it may be hard to part with earthly goods, I think it is somewhat of an easy concept to grasp, with their fleeting nature.  That their gathering does not have any lasting value.

“One’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”  Rather it consists of our relationship with God.  And we are called to thresh away those things that limit or obscure our relationship with God.  Perhaps more difficult to grasp and

tease out are the mental possessions that keep us from God.  Those things and ideas that compromise our relationship with God.  That oppressively occupy our minds.  Today’s scripture names some of the bigees….

Greed…idolatry…anger…vengeance...dishonesty – perhaps even with yourself. 

Those things that keep us from acting in the image of God.  Toward all of God’s children. 

And yes, we all have them.  That’s what it means to be human.

What possesses your mind?  And keeps you from the love of God?

And if you don’t know, try this simple exercise.  Get quiet and silently meditate for one minute.

Take note of those thoughts that come into your mind and keep it from stillness. 

What is it that preoccupies you?  Possesses you even?  What are those pesky thoughts about?

Health concerns?  Fear about money?  Work?  Relationships?  The future?  The past?  Only when we truly know what possesses us, can we turn it over to God.  Can we come before him with honesty and humility.  And embrace the safety, the mercy, that only He can give.

The safety of our city was once again rocked last week, by a midtown mass shooting that killed five people, including one police officer.  And of course, we are still learning the details. 

What we do know is that this individual acted against the Lord’s possession.  Against God’s children.  And we wonder how it all started.  Because we hear in his suicide note seeds of basic fears and losses – health, security, job, family.    

I don’t have any answers today.  All I have is grief and prayer.  And I know that we cannot continue in safety without God’s help.  We need His help.  And we must truly put to deaththose things that divide us and threaten our common humanity.

Nevertheless in the midst of our grief, we come together in celebration as we do every Sunday – in a way the Eucharistic celebration perfectly captures today’s complex set of emotions.  Both the sacrifice and the joy.  In His mercy, God sent his son Jesus Christ to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us, and to reconcile us to God.  We celebrate our redemption even as we recall His death, resurrection, and ascension.  Even as we remember today that we are the Lord’s possession, and that our time is in his hands.

There’s one final detail about that incredible Easter Egg Hunt – it took place in the graveyard – right next to the Church and right at the top of Harvard Square!   Little children dancing around, with their bonnets and baskets, proclaiming, death has no dominion over us!

So let us also remember that even at the grave we make our song,

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!