A Life Of Gratitude

In Jin Moon
November 14, 2010
Lovin' Life Ministries

On Nov. 14, 2010, Rev. In Jin Moon spoke to the Lovin' Life Ministries congregation on how one will fill in the hyphens between the two numbers (year of birth and death) shown on one's tombstone. After reflecting on the tragedy of the life of President John F. Kennedy, Rev. Moon concluded that "it's not really important how long you live your life but it's how well you live your life in service of others that truly makes you remembered, revered, and adored even after you're gone." After looking at the importance of gratitude in our everyday lives, Rev. Moon ended with a quote from the poet Rumi, "Do not be satisfied with stories of other people accomplishing different things. Unfold your own myth. Unfold your own story. Accomplish your personal destiny."

Good morning, brothers and sisters. How is everyone? It's so good to see you again after two weeks. Have you been all right?

I first would like to thank our brothers and sisters in Los Angeles for giving us such a warm welcome two weeks ago. The Lovin' Life team is still glowing from the love, care, enthusiasm, and inspiration we received from the Los Angeles community. So thank you once again.

Wherever I go with my Lovin' Life team, we always get such a rousing round of applause and appreciation, and we always are trying to figure out how we can make our time together better -- more meaningful and more profound. As we visit different districts -- our brothers and sisters in Los Angeles and different parts of the country -- we're always struck by what a great bunch of brothers and sisters we have, the ones prepared by our True Parents to work together with them to usher in the new millennium with this breaking news.

All of you have an incredible mission, but you have been so blessed. I see this every time I meet a brother or sister from a different part of the world, or a different city in the United States. Each time I come face to face with brothers and sisters of the Second and Third Generations, I'm inspired. I'm grateful that our Heavenly Parent has not only given us life, but he and she have given the greatest gift to all of us, which is each other. So I want to take time this Sunday to give ourselves a round of applause.

In Los Angeles not only did we worship together with Lovin' Life on Sunday, but we also had a Halloween party. I got to see my team in Halloween get-up. We had Reverend Cotter as King Tut, the pharaoh; Joe on guitar as a cute little teddy bear; Billy as the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland; Scott, our bass player, as a gorilla; Omar as a pirate; Ben as a Goth figure, representing the Emo community; and Il Hwa as Little Red Riding Hood.

Easy Rider

I got to see a lot of district leaders in Halloween garb. One in particular, Reverend Krishnek from Seattle, came up to me and said, "Hello, In Jin Nim," and for the life of me I could not figure out who this man was. He looked like someone out of the movie Easy Rider. He had these 1960s' round spectacles and a huge mustache that swept down like this. I don't know how he managed to keep it that way. And with a wig, he looked like a hippie out of the sixties. I was trying to figure out who this person was, and he looked at me and said, "Reverend Krishnek." I said, "Oh, hello, Reverend Krishnek. I just did not recognize you."

It was a wonderful opportunity to see different brothers and sisters that I've known for a long time in different outfits. Laughing and poking fun at each other's costumes was a great deal of fun and excitement. I felt that this is what life is all about: We honor God, love each other; honor each other as a community, and at the same time celebrate our lives by having fun and watching our children participate in fun activity. I thought it was wonderful.

So thank you to all the adults who had the courage to come all dressed up. The children were encouraged to dress up, but the adults were left to their own devices. But the majority of people who came were dressed up and wanted to participate. So I want to thank everybody for participating and making the event such great fun.

The weekend after that we got to spend a wonderful Children's Day with our True Parents in Las Vegas. Again, our True Parents are here with us. One of the things Father likes to do when he comes to America is to meditate and pray for this great country. Father is always trying to find ways to share his breaking news with the men and women of this country and to uplift the country to its providential greatness so it can influence the world in a good way.

This time in Las Vegas Father is continuing in that prayer and meditation. We just heard that our True Parents will be coming to the East Coast and celebrating November 22 with us here at the Hammerstein Ballroom. The event will be celebrating God's liberation.

John and Jackie Kennedy

When I first heard that Father wanted to hold a 3,000-plus-person event in celebration of God's liberation on November 22, it made me remember something that happened 47 years ago in American history. We had a young president who had come into office with a beautiful and sophisticated First Lady; they were symbols of Camelot, the American dream, and all things wonderful, beautiful, and youthful.

When they were elected as president and First Lady, America had a great deal of hope. But, we know that on November 22, 1963, America witnessed a historic tragedy. We saw this glamorous couple, full of youthful vision and dreams, fall prey to an assassin's bullet. It still remains as one of the wounds in the consciousness of the American people.

When I thought about this date and that our True Father wants to declare God's liberation to the world on the same day that symbolizes for the American people a day of loss of the young President Kennedy, it caused me to reflect. Many of us are very adept at our careers, some of us have many children, some of us are grandparents, and we have brothers and sisters and friends -- we come from all different backgrounds and situations. President Kennedy was born into a family of wealth and privilege; he had the best education; he had everything that money could buy; and when he entered the White House, he encapsulated the American dream.

But the way we remember people after they've passed on is the same for everyone. Every tombstone has a series of numbers: with one number symbolizing the beginning point of a person's life; the second number symbolizes the end of a person's life, and in between is a hyphen. Regardless of what your background is, whether you're Jack Kennedy, or Cindy Marshal, or Hiroko Sato of Japan, at the end of your life you are remembered in a series of two numbers connected by a hyphen.

Thinking about that was a wake-up call for me to The Persian poet Rumi once said to his followers, "Do not be satisfied with stories of other people accomplishing different things." He said, "Unfold your own myth. Unfold your own story. Accomplish your personal destiny." in the hyphen between these two numbers so we can be remembered in a certain way after we're gone. I've often thought it's like being at high school with a big exam to prepare for. You get ready, go to school, and wait for the starting bell to let everybody know that the school day has begun. You go through your day, sit through your exams, and what you are listening for is the bell that signals the end of class, the end of your exams.

When I came to America, my parents put me in school, and I started taking exams in English. I was fascinated because in Korea the majority of exams have multiple-choice questions. You study really hard, but you know that there's an answer on that page, and it's a matter of picking the right answer. When I started in the American school system, one of the things that struck me was that only some sections of the tests were multiple choice; others had fill-in-the-blank questions.

I remember as a young girl looking at the exam and being scared out of my wits, thinking, "Where is my answer? I want my answer. What if I don't get it right? There's a chance I won't get it right." The fear of possibly not knowing scared me to no end.

I remember accompanying one of my children on a school trip, and the teacher had the children take a paper and make crayon rubbings of the dates and name of a person on a tombstone. When I saw these papers, I looked at the numbers and the hyphen, and it reminded me of the fearful experience of taking a new kind of exam: Fill in the blank. It was an invitation for me to look at my life. I know the day I was born, and God knows the day that I will go back to him and her. I asked myself, "This hyphen that connects my birth to my death, how am I going to fill it in, and what am I going to fill it in with?"

When you look at President Kennedy's life, for instance, you realize that he was blessed in material wealth; he had an abundance of possessions. The Bible reminds us in Luke 12:15 to beware of all different kinds of greed, for man's life does not consist in the abundance of his or her possessions. The Bible is reminding us that regardless of what possessions and riches one has accrued, it doesn't amount to much if he or she hasn't touched people, if he or she hasn't moved people, if he or she hasn't loved people.

In the afterlife, what you take with you are those memories and wonderful impressions of the time spent with loved ones, of incredible experiences that you've had with somebody. These are the treasures that you take with you to the afterlife. You cannot take your mansion, your Rolls Royce, or your jewelry. All the possessions that lead men and women into a life of temptation are meaningless because we can't take them with us.

If we are to understand that the Good Book is cautioning us not to concentrate on the abundance of possessions, then we need to ask ourselves what we are doing with the opportunity we've been given to enjoy our experience of this wonderful thing called life. How are we going to go about it? How are we going to live our lives?

When we look at the life of someone like President Kennedy, we see that his external achievements represent all you can accomplish in a lifetime -- working hard, doing well in school, having a great career and then being elected as president of the United States. But at the end of the day, if through his presidency he did not touch people, he did not inspire or move or love or serve people, what did it all amount to? What did it all mean?

We realize this point when we ask ourselves how we should live our lives if the end goal is not the accumulation of an abundance of worldly possessions. Such reflection leads us to the simple conclusion that it's not really important how long you live your life. A person can live 20 years, or eight days, or 90-plus years, but it's how well you live your life in service of others that truly makes you remembered, revered, and adored even after you're gone.

It's not what we have in our lives in terms of riches -- a great home, a great car, a great collection of stamps or Pokémon cards -- but it's how we are. It's not what we have; it's how we are. It's not the external riches but how we are in terms of the wealth of God's love and the love that we have for each other that determines whether our life was worthwhile and meaningful or not.

When I think about the hyphen in between the two numbers, it causes me to contemplate the word gratitude. In the course of my life, I have come to understand that in order to maintain a life of gratitude, there are certain things I need to keep in mind. One of those things that I remind myself over and over again is the importance of accepting self-discipline.

The word gratitude implicitly includes the word attitude. Gr-attitude is like "great attitude" equals gratitude. But also audibly in that word gratitude is the word great. Within gratitude, then, there's an invitation to work on, be tenacious in, and show effort in maintaining a great attitude.

I know all of us seek to uphold this attitude toward life. If we are to do that, why does the senior pastor say we need self-discipline? In order to have a great attitude toward life, we are grateful for all the things that we receive. It means that we are busy working on ourselves, that we don't have time to be criticizing our life, our neighbor, our spouse, our sibling. It really is an invitation to take the responsibility to discipline myself to work on myself, and thereby affect my environment with an atmosphere of love.

Let me share with you a story of a beautiful Korean sister who worked for several years at East Garden. She was a quiet sister who went on her way, always trying to help, always trying to smile, always there but never really making a fuss. I remember during this particular time a lot of conditions were being held at East Garden. There was an elder sister who was responsible to carry them out -- seven-day fasting, seven-day prayer, 21-day prayer, 40-day prayer, 120-day prayer, different gatherings and readings, and lots of meetings.

I remember one instance when I happened to walk into the kitchen and there was the elder sister berating the quiet sister, and the elder sister's voice was so loud that we could all hear it. She was getting on the quiet sister's case for being lazy, not being faithful, and not being diligent in doing the conditions. For the last three days, the sister hadn't come to the condition they were doing.

The quiet sister didn't say a word in her defense. She just stood there and bowed her head as the senior sister went on, "You are lazy. You need to work on mind over body. Where is your faith?" -- All the typical things an elder might say to a younger. The elder sister asked, "Do you understand what I am saying? You need to be more diligent. You need to do another seven-day because you messed up the seven-day for all of us."

I wasn't aware of what happened after that. I was in school and moving to Boston, and I lost touch with that sister. Later I was called back to attend that sister's Seunghwa ceremony. It turned out that she had chronic health problems that resulted in her death. She suffered a lot of pain but quietly, secretly. She looked like a lazy bum to her superior, like she was totally faithless, like she didn't care. But she was trying her best to fulfill all the conditions. There was a will, but the body would not follow. She never took the time to explain herself, so she simply bore the criticism and went on. But I remember at the Seunghwa ceremony the person shedding the most tears was this elder sister.

In witnessing that, I realize that in our community, where we need to grow together, to "true rub" each other, to become better people, better spouses, better brothers and sisters, we are so willing to discipline everybody else. But many times we forget to concentrate on our own self-discipline.

When I saw the flood of tears from this elder sister, I knew exactly what she was feeling without her having to say one word. She was realizing that in her attempt to discipline everybody, perhaps she had judged somebody wrongly without understanding where that somebody was or what that somebody was going through. If you don't know what the person is going through, the smart thing to do is to give that person a little room. But when we are zealous about disciplining everybody else except ourselves, we can so easily fall into the same trap that caught the elder sister. In this trap, it's only after you lose the person and realize that the person was fighting an excruciatingly painful illness that you think, "How could I have mistreated this person, when I could have taken the time out to hear why she couldn't attend? In asking her why, maybe I could have been a source of comfort for her."

That lesson stays with me to this day: In this era when we are serving our True Parents and have the opportunity to build ideal families, we have a chance to live a life of gratitude. I am reminded that in maintaining a great attitude, the most important thing is self-discipline, in that we work on ourselves before we try to discipline anybody else.

The second thing I realize when I think about gratitude is its implicit concept of growth. Because we've met our True Parents and feel that we have the ultimate truth, many leaders, friends in our movement, and members tend to say, "You don't understand the true meaning of love. Let me tell you what true love is all about. I will tell you in five minutes, you will see, and you will experience it."

In a community where we seek to live for the sake of others, we must be vigilant to not be so arrogant in our faith. I've been so privileged to spend wonderful summers with my father in Gloucester, Provincetown, and Cape Cod, and one of the greatest things about True Father that you realize when you fish with him day in and day out is that he never stops growing. He never stops learning. When he enters a new arena, such as fishing in Gloucester, he researches everything there is to know about it.

The messiah, the Lord of the Second Advent, does not approach the fishing industry with the arrogant attitude of "I know it all." In fact, he comes in with a heart of humbleness and a desire to learn and grow with his ingenuity and make it better, such as when he developed his own line fishing method for catching tuna. I myself experienced the fruits of my father's labor in inventing this line fishing.

During fishing season, my father invited many blessed children and leaders to fish with him. I remember one weekend when one of the elder Second Generation came to fish with True Parents and True Family. He came with great fanfare, a lot of talk about how he was the son of a 36 Couple and someone who had done great things, done well in school, was well respected. Because he was one of the elders of the blessed children, Father made him captain of his own boat.

This gentleman had never fished before in his life. He didn't know the difference between a steering wheel and a compass. Yet Father made him captain of a five-man crew. You could see the crew's puzzlement over what to do with a captain who had never driven a boat or fished on the open sea. But Father assigned him, so they consented to work together with him.

He came to the boat not knowing anything, but with the mission to be the captain. He had to give orders: "Line up." "Anchors down." "We need to go there." "We need to do this and that." Can you imagine the trepidation of this young man? When you find yourself in this predicament, there are various ways you can approach being a captain. If you don't know anything about the boat, one way is simply to group your crew together and say, "Look, guys, I don't know a thing about the open sea or about operating this boat, but Father wants me to be the captain. So I'm here to do the best I can, but I need your help."

But what he chose to do was to pretend that he was the all-knowing captain. We watched this horror unfold. He got on board and did the obvious: "Haul the anchor up. Lines off. Start the engine." Now this is a small boat, and the captain doesn't have a first mate. The captain has to start the engine. He's the one who has to drive the boat. He said, "Start the engine," and the crew looked at him like, "What is he talking about? He should be starting the engine."

When the fleet went out we were all watching each other, so I was watching this unfold with great interest. I guess he finally was told that he had to start the engine and drive, so he started the engine, but instead of slowly putting in the gear, he jerked it. The first horror of it took him by surprise, and then people on the boat said, "You need to do this; you need to do that." After the initial difficulty he seemed to be listening a little more.

We all noticed there was a person standing next him pointing this way or that way, but whenever one of the crew pointed in one direction, he didn't respond right away. What he did was to continue going straight, and straight, and just when it looked totally wrong then he would start slowly turning the right direction. His strong pride was getting in the way of his being the fantastic captain that he could have been had he been willing to acknowledge and accept the competence of his crew and work together in unity as a team.

Somehow they managed to get out to Northwest Corner, where we usually dropped anchor in preparation for the chumming that starts in the early morning. On beautiful days the ocean is like glass. You feel as though you could step onto it and start walking, like Jesus walking on the water. It's that beautiful, that serene. I guess because it was such a beautiful day he was standing on the rail of the boat, cutting an imposing figure against the sky. He was holding onto one of the poles, waiting for the tuna to arrive, while every couple of minutes we could hear him telling the crew, "Chum, chum."

Then all went quiet. We wondered what was happening. Then there was some ruckus around the boat. While he was cutting this imposing figure and issuing orders left and right, he lost his grip on the pole. All we heard was, "Whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa!" and then a splash because he fell into the ocean. But because he was the captain, he had to get up quickly. His crew helped him up, but he didn't want any of their help to dry off. He went back to standing on the rail, dripping wet. He was going to be the imposing figure giving orders.

We were watching with binoculars by then, and I said to my crew, "Let's get a closer inspection of what's going on." Though he was dripping wet, because of his pride he could not even come down and dry himself off because the sheer embarrassment filled him with so much fright that he became like a petrified figure. The crew asked if he would like something to eat. "No!" "Would you like. . . ?" "No!" He was going to ride out the embarrassment.

When a boat hooks a tuna then the other boats immediately have to anchor-up and move out of the way so the crew has a chance to fight the fish. So one of the boats got a tuna on the line, and you could hear all this yelling going on, "Tuna! Anchors up!" This imposing figure had to start moving because he had to pull up the anchor and get his crew ready for moving. He was rapping out orders, but maybe he felt he needed a better view of what was going on. The lines were drawn up, they were ready to move, and he started the engine, but for some reason he left the steering wheel and went up on the rail again for a better view.

I really don't know what he was looking for but after awhile I heard, "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa, whoa!" and a splash. He fell in again. The crew helped him back up. This was a double embarrassment. He became more and more petrified in cutting this imposing figure. I could tell it was a rough day for the crew. By the time the boats were to go in, with the assistance of his crew he managed to make it back to port.

One of the most difficult things is learning how to drive out of port and how to drive into port, meaning you have to park the boat in its space. If you've never done it before, it's not recommended that you try it with a fishing boat. But because he was captain, he was going to do it. There he was, trying to back into the berth, but unlike driving a car, where the cars are in contact with the pavement, in the water the boat moves more than you'd expect. If you're not accustomed to it, you're not ready for the movement of the boat and how to steer it. Because he didn't dare ask how to do it, he ended up crashing one side of the boat while trying to park it. Then the fear really hit him. "Father is going to find out! What am I going to do? What will I say?"

One of the crew members said, "Captain, it might be a good idea just to tell Father what happened." The brother really struggled with that. A couple of other crew members said, "You have to tell Father before he finds out. Father has hawk vision. Even though there are 20-some One Hopes, Father will see any dent. You cannot escape his hawk vision. You have to report."

Finally he did apologize to Father. I remember Father just listening to the story. When the other people had gone, Father pulled this person aside and said, "You know, being a leader doesn't mean you have to know all the answers. Being a leader means that you serve your crew -- your brothers and sisters -- so much so that they're inspired to work with you. That's what being a leader is all about."

I'm sure it was an important growing moment for that brother. The whole fishing experience totally demolished his concept of what a captain should be. Our True Father stresses the importance of learning and growing every day because each day will give us a new experience and new knowledge that we can digest and share with members of our community or family.

Not only self-discipline, but also willingness is a very important component of gratitude. The third point included in gratitude is a willingness to seize the moment to love because life is precious. Or as Latin students used to say, "Carpe diem." Seize the day; seize this moment to love.

We believe in a great Heavenly Parent, God, inspiring and empowering all different aspects of our lives. Many times in our faith we can become complacent in thinking that, of course, God will take care of everything. "If I concentrate on my mission, I don't have to worry about anything because God will take care." Many times in our community "God will take care of everything" meant "God will take care of my wife, my husband, my children, my neighbors. If I just concentrate on my mission, then God will take care of everything else."

But when I think about living a life of gratitude, that's not the kind of life I'm thinking of. We're always expecting God to solve it for us, to make it easy for us, to serve it on a silver platter. But what we really need to do, if we understand that we have to live a life of gratitude, is to seize the opportunity before us and to realize that in our actions we're permitting God to let go of some of the burdens that we put on him and her each and every day. If we are truly mature and empowered eternal sons and daughters of God, we would not be waiting for God to take care of it all. In fact, we would be approaching and living each day of our lives with this carpe diem attitude -- let us seize the day, let us seize the moment.

This reminds me of an e-mail I received from an STF participant. I see Tomeo [Tomeo Wise] sitting right here. Not to embarrass him, but he wrote about a fund-raising experience he had. They had set a goal of raising $1,000 a day for God and the providence. He was singularly determined to hit that mark. Any of you who have fund-raised know that's a lot of money to raise in one day. He set himself against a 24-hour clock and tried his best to make that $1,000 mark.

When the 24 hours was almost over, he realized he had only around $850. Then he started to get desperate. He prayed, saying, "I want to do this. I pledged I would raise this money. I want to offer this." In his desperation he decided to seize the moment. Time was ticking away. He saw a young man walking nearby and went up to him. Instead of just talking about, "Could you please donate to the youth ministry and the good work that we're doing here," he was vulnerable and up-front in telling the young man, "I've set this $1,000 condition because I want to dedicate this offering to God and the providence and the good work that our ministry is doing. But I'm $100-some short. Could you please help me?"

Tomeo must have looked pretty desperate, but this young man just turned to him and said, "I don't have that kind of money." When Tomeo lost this opportunity to make his goal, he became despondent, went back to the van, rolled up the windows and started to break down. Waterfalls of tears covered his face. He must have felt pretty devastated.

But the interesting thing is that he heard a knock on the window. Lo and behold, it was the young man. He asked Tomeo, "Where are you from?" Tomeo said, "We're from the Unification Church." The young man said, "There are lots of great young men and women from that church. I've heard good things about it. I've never met somebody so determined, so dedicated to reach his mark. You've inspired me and I want to help you." This person gave Tomio the exact $120 he needed to make his goal.

Now I am not sharing this story so that busloads of STF-ers and Second and Third Generation will be out there on the streets wanting to break Tomeo's record. The story has a very interesting and profound ending after Tomeo had this powerful experience of meeting his mark. Immediately he wanted to share it with his brothers and sisters, with his leaders. He came back all inspired and empowered: "I made it!"

But he didn't expect that the minute he walked in to report the great news that he had completed his mission and now he had a great offering, that he would be met with, "Oh, it's Tomeo. Of course. It's easy for Tomeo. He's our captain." I wouldn't be surprised if some people said, "Did he use some of his own money to make that $1,000 mark?" There were a number of different reactions.

In his e-mail he wrote that he was totally floored. He thought everybody would be, "Way to go, Tomeo! A thousand dollars!" That's what he was expecting, not, "That's easy because it's Tomeo." He wrote, "In that moment I realized that a lot of us kind of look at you that way. 'In Jin Nim did what? That's easy for her.'" He realized that what looks so easy and natural to other people actually took hard work behind the scenes.

When I look at True Mother, she is the essence of simple elegance. Mountains can fall on her, waterfalls can knock her down, but she will be standing up, looking extremely elegant and inspiring at the same time.

That's when Tomeo realized something that all great artists realize. What we seek to do with our lives, with our art, is to make it look effortless, make it look graceful, make it look ever flowing and so natural. That's the epitome of art. That's where we would like to be as dancers, as musicians, as writers. We want to be able to write in simple, profound prose that can bring people to tears. Tomeo realized that many times when we look at great artists, we just see the end result and don't realize how much work was put in behind the scenes.

A life of gratitude is really a work in progress in that in our attempt to accomplish our personal destiny, gratitude is an attitude that will carry us through on our journey and take us to our goal, which is to become great men and women, eternal sons and daughters of God. I believe and I know that every human being on earth has that personal destiny to fulfill. But if we also think that we are living in the time of True Parents, then how much greater can this be?

When it's our time to go back and our tombstone is engraved with two numbers connected by a hyphen, an invitation to fill in the blanks, we need to ask ourselves what story will that hyphen tell our children and their children and their children? What myth will we be leaving behind?

The Persian poet Rumi once said to his followers, "Do not be satisfied with stories of other people accomplishing different things." He said, "Unfold your own myth. Unfold your own story. Accomplish your personal destiny." I believe that the best way we can approach this long walk or journey toward fulfilling our personal destinies, is by maintaining our great attitude with self-discipline, while being willing to grow, open to learning new things, and committed to having the courage and willingness to seize the moment each day. If we seize each day and make something beautiful out of it, before we know it, we will be unfolding our own myth, and that is a beautiful thing.

So, brothers and sisters, on this beautiful Sunday let us go forth with a heart of gratitude. Let us maintain this great attitude by working on ourselves, disciplining ourselves, growing together as a community, and seizing each opportunity that comes our way to make each day worthwhile. And in so doing, when we are long gone, there will be beautiful songbirds praising all of us and our lives, lives well lived and wealthy in God's love and the love of people we love. Thank you, and God bless.

Notes

Luke, chapter 12

1: In the meantime, when so many thousands of the multitude had gathered together that they trod upon one another, he began to say to his disciples first, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

2: Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

3: Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.

4: "I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

5: But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear him!

6: Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.

7: Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

8: "And I tell you, every one who acknowledges me before men, the Son of man also will acknowledge before the angels of God;

9: but he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

10: And every one who speaks a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

11: And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious how or what you are to answer or what you are to say;

12: for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say."

13: One of the multitude said to him, "Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me."

14: But he said to him, "Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?"

15: And he said to them, "Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

16: And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully;

17: and he thought to himself, `What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?'

18: And he said, `I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

19: And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.'

20: But God said to him, `Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'

21: So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."

22: And he said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on.

23: For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.

24: Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!

25: And which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his span of life?

26: If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?

27: Consider the lilies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

28: But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O men of little faith!

29: And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be of anxious mind.

30: For all the nations of the world seek these things; and your Father knows that you need them.

31: Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things shall be yours as well.

32: "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

33: Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.

34: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

35: "Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning,

36: and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks.

37: Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes; truly, I say to you, he will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them.

38: If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those servants!

39: But know this, that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into.

40: You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an unexpected hour."

41: Peter said, "Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?"

42: And the Lord said, "Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time?

43: Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing.

44: Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.

45: But if that servant says to himself, `My master is delayed in coming,' and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk,

46: the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him, and put him with the unfaithful.

47: And that servant who knew his master's will, but did not make ready or act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating.

48: But he who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, shall receive a light beating. Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more.

49: "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!

50: I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!

51: Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division;

52: for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three;

53: they will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against her mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."

54: He also said to the multitudes, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, `A shower is coming'; and so it happens.

55: And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, `There will be scorching heat'; and it happens.

56: You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky; but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

57: "And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?

58: As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison.

59: I tell you, you will never get out till you have paid the very last copper."