In preparing for the sermon this week I am reminded of a story of a young man who was fascinated with the world. This man was always interested and moved close enough to his job so that he could walk there and enjoy the world he lived in.  Being inquisitive and aware he looked at everything he passed by and tried to look at everything as if it were new every day.  Then one day on his walk he found a pebble on the sidewalk that was unlike any pebble he had ever seen before.  It has blues and reds and even some yellow, so he put it in his work bag and kept walking.  
 
Inspired by that one pebble he kept his eye out for more unique treasures and almost every day he added another.  While he loved these treasures that he kept in his bag, it was like most things that went into his bag, they went in, but never came out.  
 
One day when he was especially tired, and the walk was just arduous.  He was starting to curse his decision to move so close to work that the only option was to walk. He stopped looking around and found no pleasure in his walk any more.  Then there was that bag, heavy and overstuffed with papers and electronics, he had actually forgotten about his little treasures that now filled the bottom of his bag. When he got to his office, he emptied the bag and there was a pile of dirty pebbles and other treasures. Individually they were neat, but as a group they were just a bunch of dirty pebbles. 
 
He could not help but laugh at this “heavy bag” that he had made heavier because he could not let go of something that might have been special but not really worth the extra burden. Then he thought about why he was so tired and realized that he had been carrying too many burdens in his life, things that hung around, which he had never dealt with most of which, he could just let go.  And he did just that.  As he walked home that day he took his pebbles and carefully set each down, a burden he was letting go of.  By the time he got home his bag was empty of everything but his computer. He smiled and realized that he had more energy than he had in months.
 
He also began to enjoy his walks to and from work again.  Yes, he would stop and appreciate what he saw, but every time he picked up a pebble he would take a moment and appreciate it, then he always would, set it back down and say a little prayer. 
 
Getting rid of your burdens is not about forgetting or hiding them. What the man realized was that he had to name them and let them go.  Jesus did the same.  In Luke 4:14-37, the writer is directly addressing burdens as Jesus makes his way home to a reception that is all but welcoming. Jesus knew he had to go, so as to not be burdened by not fulfilling his call, but also to let them know how important it was to let go and follow God. 
 
Of course, their response was to not only throw him out of town but also take him to his death at that very moment.  He got away and made his way to Capernaum to share the message. It was a different kind of message then they had heard before.  It was kind and uplifting. But when a possessed man began to badger Christ, Christ saw the burden inside the man which they understood to be a demon, and He cast the demon out. 
 
There is so much that burdens people and regardless of where you are in life, you have a burden.  For some it is medical, others financial, and others social.  Many are burdened with frustration over the state of the world and others still burdened by the questions of their faith.  The thing about burdens is they weigh us down. They keep us from living the best we can and often get in the way of relationship.  ​

​This week I lost my lock and my swimsuit at the YMCA.  Technically, I did not lose them. I left them behind and they were probably thrown out. In a combination of being hurried and tired from exercising, I was not being mindful. Both were at the end of their useful lives but, it still was frustrating. In this case I was being a fool. Form a secular standpoint a fool is “a silly or stupid person” or “a person who lacks judgment or sense.”[1]However, when we look at how the term fool is used Biblically:
 
A fool is one who, either by ignorance or by deliberate and calculated pre-determination, follows a lifestyle or commits specific acts that are detrimental for the person or society.”[2]
 
I think this distinction is important to understand especially in the light of what we are facing in our society today. By relegating the understanding of the fool to perceived or real intelligence levels or competence, we miss the Biblical relationship between the fool and the wise.  In fact, the Bible, in many places, shows that the fool has more intelligence than the wise, but the wise ones are living intentionally and also with an understanding of the past, present and future.
 
It is how I was being foolish last week, thinking through the motions of getting ready, but not thinking about what I was doing, letting the urgency keep me from being mindful and aware of what I really needed to do.  It may be a silly example, but it is one that highlights how often we all act foolish in little ways and hopefully helps us see how we maybe foolish in bigger ways as well. 
 
A mentor of mine once told me the difference between the foolish and the wise was simple, “the fool lives in the moment and the wise understand their place in the moment.” This is where being mindful is so important to the growth of becoming wise.
 
In California we are very aware of mindfulness, we see ads and hear about it in many places. Mindfulness and its practice became part of the culture when “spiritualists” were big in the 60’s and 70’s. As these new traditions were forming, often picking up on themes and practices found in various religious traditions, the leaders often recognized that in both the eastern and western religious traditions, mindfulness was core practice especially in the more mystical traditions. 
 
While different traditions may refer to it in different ways the practice of being mindful is essential for connecting with a spiritual life.  Conversely, lack of mindfulness is often problematic to one’s spiritual nature because it removes us from having the intention in our lives and forces us to react to the world. Just like the fool, the one who is not being mindful, often misses out on life because they are unable to see the fullness of what the world offers.
 
In the Christian tradition, however we recognize that this lack of intention is more insidious than just losing a lock and being inconvenienced. It's what is broken on the inside that makes it difficult to lead our lives, which also, often allows evil to emerge. 
 
One of the great questions of the 20thcentury has been: “how could the most advanced and educated country in the world succumb to the Nazi movement.”  So many books written, dissertations, movies, etc. made to try and explain this question though, none really fully answer.  The closest is to say that as a society, the Germans were overwhelmed with the situations they were in and the evil of the Nazi party was able to slowly encroach, because instead of thinking, people were willing to accept.  Or one could say, instead of being mindful, the were living in the moment. That is how things really become scary.
 
As Christians we are called to interact wisely with the world.  But to do that, we need to think and be mindful of our place within the world and not just go through the motions.  If it is easy to lose a lock because of not being aware, we can easily lose our faith and even ourselves if we are not being mindful and wise.