334 SE Tecumseh Road  P.O. Box 5  Tecumseh, Kansas 66542  (785) 379-5005  Fax - (785) 379-5061

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That’s priceless!  Timothy 6:6-19 In our day, when couples started out, we made do with hand-me-downs. These days, young people want it all from the very start – new car, house full of new furniture, and preferably an interior designer to put it together for them. ---There are three Catholic churches in town, and all used to be filled. Now, two are closing, and even the third isn’t nearly full.----All of us were raised in the church. And now - very few of our own children and grandchildren have anything to do with the church. Sound familiar? These were comments heard on our recent vacation in Ireland and The Netherlands. Ireland has been in an economic boom ever since joining the European Union. Work is plentiful, industry and housing and roads are developing at a feverish rate. People are financially better off than they’ve ever been in the nation’s history. The Irish airline’s magazine proudly reports that per capita, Ireland now boasts more millionaires than the USA! Isn’t that a good thing? But we may ask: at what cost? What gets lost in the “boom”? Answer: spiritual foundations are eroded, and increasingly people move away from the church and away from God.  When told to give thanks to God after each meal, one of my cousin’s little children (whose parents have no church connection whatsoever) said: Why? We paid for the food with our own money, didn’t we? Out of the mouths of babes, right? For Ireland, The Netherlands, the USA and other nations belonging to the (so-called) developed part of the world, the words of Paul to Timothy ring painfully true: But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction….. in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. (6:9-10,NRSV) Who needs God, after all? We have plenty of money, which we earned ourselves – God had nothing to do with that. A charge card – that’s priceless!  Here at home, as in Ireland and Holland, we are very adapt at amassing and laying up earthly treasures. Perhaps that is how we define being developed and civilized. Paul speaks to that: As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. (6:17)  We brought nothing into this world, Paul tells us, and we can take nothing out of it.  We loved Ireland, and thoroughly enjoyed our contact with its beautiful people. I love my family in Holland, and so does Dottie. We want nothing but the best for all of them. And so I pray that they – that we, that I – return to the understanding that we can and should: do good, be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for [your]selves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that [you] may take hold of the life that really is life. (6:18-19)  - Pastor Piet – September 30, 2007