The drive from Dhilanthi's parents' house at Wesley College to my uncle's or her sister's house at Rajagiriya, used to be pretty ordinary. Two years ago, when I was there, I noticed that they had built a brand new road. There are many more cars on the road now. I don't know if the road came because there were more cars or more cars came because now there's a new road. But despite the war going on in the North of the country and its effects that are felt in Colombo, such as bombing the airport, the country on a rapid pace towards material progress. This time on that road to Rajagirya was the clearest expression of the country's values. As you round the corner approaching Rajagiriya your eyes are emblazened with an enormous and bright yellow icon of American capitalism -- the golden arches. Our kids wanted to make sure that we stopped to eat there at least once, just to see if it’s the same -- and from the cheeseburger to the chicken sandwich, to "would you like fries with that" -- it’s the same, bur fancier than your run of the mill McDonalds here. Down the road there is a Pizza Hut, Domino's and KFC. And Sri Lankan children who grew up on tea and King Coconut, now gusszle down Coke and Sprite.

Not only that, CNN is a regular TV channel and so is MTV-- you don't have to pay to watch these -- and many American sitcom junk -- including Married with Children are regular fare on TV. And the movies -- not the good ones -- but the junk that's on late night cable channels are showing in the local cinema in many towns and villages. How I wished that people who produce good American stuff would get their material out there -- but perhaps people who produce good stuff, aren't particularly interested in globalization.

Globalization is the big word in Sri Lankan theological circles these days. These days are not like the days when Sri Lanka was politically under colonial powers, they say. This is much more insidious. Now, more than ever before, Sri Lanka is colonized by capitalism's market forces.

For our children, though, it was a very important experience. They got to see relatives they had never met -- play with cousins they had only heard of and hear stories upon stories from both sides of their parental families. How much they processed and how much they will retain, we'll find out in years to come. But in every telling of the stories of both our families -- and this was particularly true as we approached the time of Dhilanthi's parent's Golden Wedding Anniversary, as well as in my family's stories, there was a very strong underlying theme -- that we are where we are today, for no other reason that God's graciousness to us.

Telling the story of God's graciousness, particularly at a time when other stories compete for our children's attention is extremely critical. It is important to note that when we and our children come to hear the stories of God's faithfulness, we don't come story-less. Rather, our imagination is already saturated with other stories, which we have learned to trust. We get these from the values of our market-driven culture and are constantly re-told such that they are ingrained into our brains. I don't have to tell you, you know these stories. Money is the key to happiness, says one story. We buy this story, don't we? Is it not true that most of us, sitting right here aspire to having more money that we are willing to work unterminably long hours at the expense of ourselves and our families? And then there are lots of others who go crazy over lotteries and casinos and TV shows like "Who wants to be Millionaire?" Just do it, says another. Do what, you ask? Anything you want. Everybody is doing it, if it is drugs or alcohol, if it is sex before marriage or outside marriage, its OK. That's the cool way to live, says this story. "Coke is it" says the punch line of yet another story. Is what, you ask? The answer to all life's problems, of course. These are only a few examples. What is important to note is that when we come to listen to God’s story we come with our heads filled with stories from our material culture.

Let’s understand that these stories are at best inadequate. At worst, they are outright lies. They are inadequate because they lack the life-giving power that comes from beyond ourselves. So, when we come to hear and receive the stories of God, we cannot but notice the shallowness of those stories. I have said this before and it bears saying many times over. Evangelism is about switching stories and discipleship is about discerning being faithful to God's story rather than the stories with which our culture bombards us.

You remember, when God called out a group of slaves from slavery in Egypt and made a covenant with them in the desert -- that day, God promised them a land flowing with milk and honey. There is a fundamental premise in that covenant, which was spelled out more fully by Moses in a sermon which we now call Deuteronomy and later reiterated by Joshua, that the land was God's gift. Not that they deserved it, not that they earned it, not that they conquered it; they saw the tremendous miracles that God performed all along the way. It was obvious to them that the land was given, freely and extravagantly. Along with that acknowledgement came the notion that nothing was theirs to own, in fact, everything, was to be used carefully and responsibly. You will be hard pressed to find evidence there for a capitalistic understanding of private ownership.

So for instance, in Deuteronomy 26, there is a ritual for offering first fruits to God. Now, first fruits are actually tokens. They indicate the acknowledgement that the entire crop is God's. But since it cannot be all carted into the temple, they were simply asked to bring the first-fruits. Here's the instruction. "When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and settle in it, you shall take some the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. You shall go to the prist who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.' When the priest takes the basket form your hand and sets it down before the altar of the lord your God, you shall make this response before the Lord your God." What follows next, often referred to as the most ancient credo of the Isrealites is in fact a recalling of the story of God's graciousness. "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power and with signs and wonders, and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord have given me." It was very important to narrate the story over and over again, in fact to ritualize it so that the people will never forget it.

Full moon day is called Poya Day in Sri Lanka and is a public holiday. It is a day reserved for Buddhist religious observances. Almost everybody goes to temple on that day to hear again the stories that give them life-giving values, to participate in rituals of giving their first-fruits and seek to be loving and caring people. The stories are, of course, different from ours, but they are stories that are filled with noble, life-giving values. But then they come out of the temple to a city that is incredibly crowded with icons and noise of capitalistic values and TV commercials whose values run entirely counter to the story they heard at the temple, that that story has little chance of being remembered. This is true for us and our children as well. We are here for a couple of hours once a week, but the rest of the week we are bombarded with values of the dominant culture that there is little chance that we or our children can retain the values communicated by God's story.

But we need those stories. Those who forget Sinai run the risk of letting Pharoah capture them again. Indeed, those who forget the forgiveness they received from their sinful past, run the risk of getting back to sin again. If we forget the story, we begin to assume that the land is ours and not God's and that the giving of first fruits becomes an empty ritual if it is done at all.

In our journey through the gospel of Luke, we have now come to a very important story. I remember how this story came to me one afternoon. I happened to turn on the TV and caught a snippet of a talk show. Isn't that a fascinating cultural phenomenon! On this day there were 4 sisters who grew up together in a loving family, and even after their marriages stayed close. When their father died a few months before that without a will, all hell broke loose. They fought with each other at home and on the program. They were so enraged that they were unable to hear each other at all. It was just amazing that people would do that on national TV. Then suddenly I remembered something that Jesus said about a similar situation. So, I picked up my Bible and turned to Luke 12:13 - "Someone in the crowd said to him, 'Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.' But he (Jesus) said to him, 'Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitor over you?' And he said to them, 'Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.'" That is the crux of the matter, I thought, "Take care! be on your guard against all kinds of greed." And here in front of my eyes there was greed pouring out of these women.

The interesting thing here is that greed is the result of forgetting the story. It is the product of assuming that the earth in fact belongs to us, and not to God. Those sisters probably did not know that Biblical affirmation at all. But they forgot even the rest of the story, the sacrifices the parents made in order to save that money and property to give to them; that they were getting something for nothing, as a gift.

Jesus, in order to stress that point, went on to tell about a man who forgot the story. He forgot that the land was a gift -- given to be used for God's purposes and glory; not his. So, when the land produced a bumper crop one year, he broke down the old barns and built new big ones. I mean, he didn't just expand the barns he already had, he broke them down and built new ones. But, nothing wrong with that. But the problem arose when he said to himself, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years, relax, eat, drink and be merry." Notice, he did not say, "Thank you God." He did not say, "Praise be!" I hope that each time we sit down to eat, we do not take our food for granted but acknowledge our gratitude, if not in our lips, at least in our hearts. The man did not say, "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor" and so "here's the first fruits of the crops that you produced out of the land." No, he said to himself, "eat, drink and be merry." He forgot the story. But God said to him, "Fool, this very night, your life is being demanded of you." And then comes the moral of the story: "So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

You fool! Jesus doesn't mince words. Those who forget the story of God's deliverance and God's faithfulness and providence but give their allegiance to market driven stories that make us greedy and covetous, that make us anxious and stressed out, are indeed fools.

In stark contrast, a little later in the chapter, Jesus calls us, "Little flock" -- "Children" says Jesus, "Don't you know? It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." That's the real story. Or put another way, "Seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness and all these things shall be yours as well." So, he goes on, "sell you possessions and give to the poor." Try it out, Jesus is saying. Put your treasure in purses that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. This is so important -- you see, because of this principle. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

But we find it very hard to believe this story, don't we? It is easier to believe the story that is represented by Mc Donalds. Because insecurity is one of the prominent features of our fallen-ness. We work hard to put bread on the table for our families. But live on the brink of not having bread to eat, shelter, clothing, and sometimes an opportunity for meaningful work. And then we are insecure and we get anxious. But anxiety about our prospects for today and tomorrow, is a distortion of the dream of our generous God. Our story is that God has promised to hear even before we ask God knows what we need.

You Fool! Jesus would say. Today, your soul is requiered from you.

Let me tell you something we can learn from Sri Lankan Buddhist families. In observant Buddhist families, every evening the family gathers for a short ritual at a little shrine to the Buddha that they have in a prominent place in their home. A parent would tell the children a story and they would remember the five precepts that they are to live by and make a commitment to do so. Five simple precepts -- I will not kill, I will not steal, I will not tell lies, I will not indulge in sexual promiscuity, I will not indulge in intoxicants. Still the influence of the market driven stories are heavy on the family. But the story is re-inforced and the precepts are followed.

The letter to the Colossians spells out some precepts for us.: Put to death what is earthly in you -- sexual immorality or treating other people like objects and greediness which is idolatry. Put away anger and malice and slander and potty-mouth conversation. Stop lying to each other. Put on a new nature, where there can be no divisions amongst you based on property or class, race or nation, or gender, because you are all one in Christ Jesus. Put on, as clothing, compassion, kindness, meekness, patience, forbearance--put on love, which ties everything together. And most of all, Be Thankful.

All of that is more complicated than five simple precepts. How do we inculcate in ourselves and our children the story of God's deliverance, faithfulness and providence? Here's how all of that hangs together -- Be thankful. Thankfulness is an acknowledgement that what we have is what has been given to us. There is no room for pride and arrogance when we are thankful, and there is no room for greed and covetousness. Many of us, know to be thankful. How often I hear, a "Thank you Jesus" even in the midst of oppression, poverty, deprivation; in the midst of sorrow and sadness, prejudice and rejection, I've heard my neighbors pray "Thank you Jesus." They pray it too in the midst of joy, in the midst of gladness, as the voice of vibrant life, at births and weddings, at picnics and barbecues at farewell parties and at funerals.

You know, the word Eucharist or what we call the Lord's Supper means exactly that -- thankfulness. So to be thankful is like having a eucharist in the heart. Dare to make your whole life a eucharist, a thank you, in which the common elements of bread and wine, meat and potatoes, wheat and grapes and labor and play, become the source of new life. So that at least when we sit down to eat, which most of us do at least three times a day, and particularly with our families we say thank you, Jesus.

That's the alternative story to the market driven story of greed and consumption.