Winning the Mega Millions Lottery

What a funny country America is.  In tough economic times; when people are out of work;  as we look at a national debt reaching enourmous levels; the lottery still flourishes.  Last week a single ticket was worth over 650 million dollars.  The day before the drawing, the prize was at a mere $550 million.  In one day, with the excitement of the largest prize in the history of the country, the prize jumped $100 million dollars.  Americans poured more than $100 million dollars into our economy in just one day.  Well, sort of.  The money won't actually help our economy.  A large share will go to the government for taxes. I sure don't see anyone from the government thanking us for that huge tax income. They don't even have to buy a ticket and they are big winners of millions of dollars from the person who actually buys that ticket.

My father had great wisdom. One of my favorite things he taught me was "nobody ever went broke paying taxes." He told me that as we watched the news one day.  Some big executive was going to jail for tax evasion.  While the media made him out to be victimized by a huge tax bill, my father explained that his taxes are less than half of the money he ever had at any one time.  So he squandered away his money long before the tax bill came.

I can't buy a ticket for the national lottery in Florida. We are one of only eight states that doesn't participate. I have a daughter in Oklahoma. They play. She and her husband make up the infamous improv comedy duo Red Letters.  I knew she would be up for one of those improv comedy games called "only questions".  We called her. "Can you buy us a ticket?" we asked her. "How many?" she asked.  My response was, "How many sets of numbers do they draw?" She is really smart so she knew that was the end of the questions game. I won.  For the record, she could have won. She usually does. Back to the lottery.
We didn't win the lottery.
I saw the man in charge of the lottery on TV the day before the drawing. The reporter asked why people buy tickets with a one in 170 million chance of winning. His answer surprised me although it shouldn't have. It was obvious. He said that people love to dream. Once you buy that ticket you think of what you will do with the money. Holding a ticket gives us hope. People invest in hope. $100 million dollars in one day for hope, not for the economy.
I saw a Facebook post from my cousin. She said her family had the best time sitting around the table talking about what they would do with all that money. She said it was one of the best family times they had experienced in a while. We did it too. Plans for buying houses. Vacations we would take. Dreams only millions of dollars could accomplish.
It made me think beyond that. Being a Christian gives us hope. The day you buy into all that stuff you learn at church is like the day you bought a ticket for the biggest lottery. But in this lottery there are many winners.  We have hope. Well, sort of.
The fact is once you "buy a ticket" in this game you are a guaranteed winner. Christians sure don't act like it. We walk around worried about what we will do before we cash in our ticket, never talking about what it will be like after we cash in the ticket.  We could dream. We can dream of what it would be like to be in heaven. To see all the things you wanted to see for free. To have the best foods.  No rent, no mortgage. No debt. You can do all the things you ever wanted to do without worrying about money.
As my father told me, "nobody ever went broke paying taxes." Jesus said that too. Give to Caesar what is his, and give to God what is God's.  He wasn't just talking about money here. We belong to God.  We have hope. With Easter coming, lets act like it!

Osama Bin Laden in Heaven?

Is he? Probably not, but really that isn't the point of this blog post. The truth is, a title like this one shows up in search engines so I am fishing for some accidental readers. If you are one of those, welcome!
I recall looking at our prayer book in church a few years back. In one of the prayers every week in our service, we would say "We pray for all who have died, that they may have a place in your eternal kingdom".  Someone had written in pencil right under that prayer "Too Late!" That stuck with me for quite some time.  Not the response, but the prayer.  The response made me look again and think what a funny prayer that is.  Are we letting everyone in without any kind of requirement? The only stipulation to get into heaven is to die. We all will do that sooner or later.  Is that really what the Bible says happens?
This past weekend we had two funerals at our church. Neither one was for a parishioner of ours. I played the music for the second funeral.  The first one wanted Bob Marley on iPod.  Not the strangest music request I have ever heard, but it goes in the top 10. I am pretty sure neither one who died had a home church or if they did, rarely attended.  
What do you tell a family who walks through your doors and asks for a funeral service at a church?
If we were like the person who wrote in the prayer book we could tell them it's too late.  If you never went to church in your living days, why would you want to visit now? Isn't it like taking your car to a car wash after you totaled it? Who does that?
My favorite part of planning for the service is when one of our members asked me about the second service. She told me they wanted several people from our church to be there because the people in attendance were not only non-believers, but many were addicts.  "Oh" was all I could think of to reply.  People in need of good news is where I thought she was going.  She asked me "Do you know why we are wanting many of our parishioners to come?" "Um, to witness to the non-believers?" was my guess.  That was an incorrect guess. Apparently some people (who are some people?) were worried the addicts...mourners at the funeral, would steal stuff from the church.  I looked around to take quick inventory.  A few of my CDs, some 12oz bags of coffee, some candles were all anyone could carry off if they wanted.  I would be happy to give anything away that someone needed, but that wasn't a comforting response to her concern.
Sure we have stuff.  But the great things we have as Christians are faith, hope, and love.  Faith; to believe the promise of God. Hope; to anticipate our place in heaven. Love: to love our neighbors as ourselves.  Love our neighbors enough to support them in time of grief.  Hope they won't take our stuff? I don't think so.

Maybe everyone gets into heaven.  If they did, would it make it any less better?  Challenge your faith like the workers in the field from Matthew 20:1-16.  If you are there, is that enough?  Is it fair?