“The Path of Life”Main point: Greed leads to death. Jesus provides an alternative. Generosity leads to life.BLESSING THE CHILDRENSERMONIntroductionMost people when given the choice between life and death will choose life without a moment's hesitation. It's an instinct. We are survivors. We strive to live. These are the terms in today's gospel reading on greed. A path of life and a path of death. The teachings of Jesus are a path of life that we cannot find anywhere else.I hope it is no surprise to you to learn that these teachings differ from other ways or lives are informed. The ways of conventional wisdom, cultural norms, and common sense are not the same as the life-giving words of Jesus.  For example…When someone makes you mad, conventional wisdom may tell you to cut that person out of your life. But Jesus tells us to go to that person, and do your best to work it out with them. When someone disagrees with you, common sense might tell you to leave that topic of disagreement alone for fear of rocking the boat. But Jesus tells us to be humble and listen to those who disagree with us because they might share wisdom with us that we would miss otherwise.When a rough-around-the-edges kid on your youth sports team pushes your buttons one too many times, cultural norms might tell you to cut the kid from the team and be done with them. But Jesus tells us to go the extra mile and give second chances because the second chance you give to that kid might be the last lifeline they have left.You see, there are a whole lot of situations in life, when conventional wisdom leads us to a more impoverished existence. And though the path of Jesus is often in conflict with what the world teaches us - Jesus’ teachings lead us to abundant life. This is salvation.We need to be informed by Jesus. And we have just such an opportunity today.ContextToday we find Jesus confronted with a situation in which he is asked to make a judgement. Following the tradition of Jewish rabbis, he sees a teachable moment and pauses to give a warning. Rabbis often taught about two paths: the path of wisdom that leads to life and the path of foolishness that leads to death.Beware of Greed"Take care!” Jesus says, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."Warnings against greed are common in wisdom literature. You probably know the story of..King Midas and the Golden Touch (a story from Greek mythology), The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg (Aesop Fables),Ebenezer Scrooge (A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens)Greed is simply the love of more stuff. It pushes us to keep moving so we can get more - achieve more, accomplish more, obtain more. Greed promises satisfaction when we get to wherever it is we're going. But it's a trick. The goal posts keep moving and we never quite get enough to feel satisfied. So we keep moving.

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