What is important to us? What are willing to do for it?

The Old Testament reading for today comes from Isa. 3:8-15.  The prophet speaks of those who grind the faces of the poor, who crush God's people.   Perhaps these oppressors do what they do for gain: the "spoil of the poor" is in their houses.  Perhaps they do what they do simply because they can, for the pleasure of exercising their own wills.

The Gospel reading for today comes from Luke 20:41-21:4. Jesus tells his listeners to beware the scribes who "devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers." He gives us some insight into what motivates these oppressors: they love being greeted with respect in the marketplace. Weirdly enough, some oppressors, at least, do what they do because they want people to like them. They want "validation" from other people. "See, he has plenty, people like him, he must be good," regardless of how this wealth was obtained and whether any apparent virtue is real or sincere.

The New Testament reading for today discusses how we ought to live. Paul writes, "But we exhort you . . . . to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we charged you; so that you may command the respect of outsiders, and be dependent on nobody."  We should earn the respect of others, but the source of well-being should not be dependent on other people.  The source should be God's love for us, and our love for other people. 

What is important to us is God, his love, and our love for his creation: to get it, we should sacrifice the false sense of esteem that other people can give us. To get that esteem, those around us and we ourselves must pay too steep a price.   The greater blessing comes to us for free.