Despite the conflation of worldly wealth with one's self worth, as if the doing and results were within one's own powers, in the end everything is from God and belongs to God. We may be stewards or big or small wealth, or indeed none at all. So the scene with Pharisee hosting a big banquet (Luke 14:1 and 7-14) teaches that the invitation should not be from one's own largess or noblesse oblige, but rather should be owned by God with the inviter on equal footing to the person(s) invited. Think of the parallet case this past summer when the old remnant cherry trees bore such abundant fruit and we point several people to the locations for their family harvest: "it is 'all you can eat' and God is hosting. Bring a friend, too."
A big part of the task for preachers in the ocean of popular culture predicated on consumer life, "more is better," is to help people to unlearn those habits in order to develop their vision and heartfelt relationships as steward of the planet and its peoples. It is hard work to teach people to receive life's blessings and its burdens in the right spirit; not in the conventional mode of "homo economicus seeking to maximize value."
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