ThisWeeksSermon September 21 Pentecost 19

“Credit and debt: religious issues? ”
The 19th Sunday After Pentecost, September 21, 2008
May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you, in the name of God our Creator, our redeemer, and our sanctifier.
Amen.
Jonah: It came in a night, it perished in a night
I laughed out loud when I first looked at today’s first reading.
Charming in its simplicity, it reads like a child’s fairy tale.
God sends Jonah to predict God’s judgment on the evil city of Nineveh, and the complete destruction of everything there.
The people of Nineveh repent, and then, unexpectedly, God changes his mind about destroying the city.
God’s mercy wins out over God’s justice.
Mercy trumps justice.
Jonah had wanted it to be the other way around.
Justice, not mercy.
Simply stated, Jonah was ticked off.
Went off in a huff, like a spoiled child.
Made a temporary dwelling for himself just outside the city.
Then the part that got me to burst out laughing.
God “appoints” a bush, like appointing a clerk of the vestry or something, God appoints a bush and makes it come up over Jonah’s head, to make Jonah more comfortable.
Reminiscent of Jack and the Beanstalk, this magic bush grows up out of nowhere to provide shade.
Then, overnight, a magic worm is chosen by God to help teach Jonah a lesson.
God “appoints” a little worm to attack the plant, and the plant it withers.
(What do you suppose biblical literalists make of this one?)
Anyway, the scorching sun beats down on Jonah's head, and he faints.
Too weak to even stand up.
He begs for death.
Finally, though, I think the lesson comes down to this.
God says to Jonah:
You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow.
It came into being in a night, and perished in a night.
Well, all I’ve been able to think about this week, in relation to those words from God, is about the economic catastrophe that we’ve been in the midst of, an economic crisis likened to the 1929 stock market crash that brought on the 1930s depression era.
The current situation has been brought on, at least in part, by failure to regulate lenders offering low-interest mortgages with zero down payment, but also brought on by the quick buying, then quick reselling of real estate and artificially jacked-up prices and with huge profits.
Everyone had been gambling that this “house of credit cards” would not fall.
But it did fall.
The money has been squandered.
Risks were taken that should not have been taken, and we are suffering because of it.
God said to Jonah:
You are concerned about the bush which you didn’t work for.
Instead of “bush,” think “profit” for a minute.
God said to Jonah:
You are concerned about the “profit” which you didn’t work for.
It came from out of nowhere.
And now it’s gone.
Taxpayers are bailing out financial institutions.
Our children and grandchildren may well be left to pick up the tab.
“On Faith”—a religious blog
“On Faith” is an internet blog on religion sponsored by the Washington Post and Newsweek magazine.
You’ll find a link to that site on our homepage.
Each week a cross-section of “panelists” respond to a topic.
(Our diocesan bishop, Mark Sisk, incidentaly, is one of those panelists who often participates.)
Panelists comment, and readers are allowed to react.
This week’s topic is about the economy:
“Are the economy’s recent financial failures also moral failures?”
And “Are credit and debt religious issues?”
Those were the questions.
Credit and debt: clearly religious issues
The Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite is professor of theology at the Chicago Theological Seminary.
She’s one of the panelists at this “On Faith” blog.
This week, she said that credit and debt clearly are religious issues.
She points out that Jesus certainly thought so.
We all know the story of Jesus entering the temple and driving out all who were selling and buying.
That was not about putting a stop to rummage sales in church.
He overturned the tables of the money changers.
They were money brokers, bankers.
Jesus took on the bankers who were ripping off the pilgrims who came during Passover.
He physically disrupted the largest “National Bank” in Israel, the organization that hooked the poor on high-interest credit and drove them into debt.
They were the target of Jesus’ anger, those bankers who were in cahoots with the priests who ran the temple.
These unjust lending practices drove many residents into extreme poverty.
These practices created vast slums in Jerusalem.
Jesus stared greed in the face, even as it had penetrated the very space called “religious.”
The rich get richer at the expense of the poor
The Rt. Rev. N.T. Wright is Bishop of Durham in England.
He’s regarded as probably the top theologian in the Anglican Communion these days.
He also writes for the “On Faith” blog.
He pointed out this week something else that we all should know.
In the Bible and in the Koran, it’s forbidden to use money to make money.
In other words, it’s forbidden to take interest, even though pretty much the whole global economy nowadays is built on that system, and not much else.
The idea of using credit, “taking the waiting out of wanting”, he calls it, the idea of using credit once was thought to be a sign of moral degeneracy.
Bishop Wright suggests that pervasive use of credit is a major indicator of society’s ill-health.
Bishop Wright doesn’t have a remedy, but he says he does know that whatever the remedy is, it will involve cheerful generosity.
He talks of money as “an idol.”
And he says, “Giving money away is the first great step toward dethroning that idol.”
He says he has yet to see any actual good arguments for a system where the rich get richer at the expense of the poor.
Reading the Bible selectively
Susan K. Smith is senior pastor at a UCC church in Columbus.
In her posting on the blog, she points out that we all are pretty selective when it comes to quoting Scripture and applying it to our lives and work.
But the Bible clearly says it’s good to be generous.
It’s wrong for us to be greedy.
Usury, charging interest, overcharging of people, is clearly condemned in the Bible.
“If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, charge no interest.”
That’s God speaking in the Book of Exodus.
In the Book of Leviticus, it says this:
“Do not take interest of any kind, so that your countryman may continue to live among you.”
The push-pull tension between people and money has been an issue since the beginning of time.
And our current horrendous economic situation shows where our hearts have been.
In spite of American pride in being a religious nation, it’s clear that it’s money that comes first, above everything else.
God’s generosity
In the story of Jonah this morning, we encounter God who was more about mercy than about justice, God who pointed out to Jonah that the bush that God “appointed” to provide shade wasn’t anything that Jonah had earned.
It appeared one day and was gone the next.
God scolded Jonah.
Pointed out that mercy trumps justice.
Currency in God’s realm
In Jesus’ parable this morning, the workers who only work for one hour receive the same pay as the workers who work all day.
To our capitalistic, consumerist minds, this is very troublesome.
It seems grossly unfair.
From the point of view of work and wages, it’s a gross in-justice.
In truth, however, the parable has nothing at all to do with the money paid for work done.
It’s not about justice.
The parable is about God’s mercy, God’s tenderheartedness, God’s compassion.
The “currency” in the realm of God is not dollar bills.
It’s God’s freely given favor.
It comes to us as a gift, totally unearned.
It’s the same gift that Jesus told his followers to offer others.
Following our brother Jesus, Jesus, our teacher, means living in the Realm of God that Jesus talked about.
It’s a realm in which generosity trumps stinginess, where mercy trumps justice, and where our “currency,” our “net worth,” is measured not by dollar bills, but by the tenderheartedness and by the compassion that we freely offer to others.
Prayer
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life.
Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.

ThisWeeksSermon September 14 Pentecost 18

“ How to follow Jesus? Be kind. Be forgiving.”
The 18th Sunday After Pentecost, September 14, 2008

May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you, in the name of God our Creator, our redeemer, and our sanctifier.
Amen.

Imagine a world in which

Imagine this.
Imagine a world in which everybody would forgive everybody for everything.
Not just following the words, “I’m sorry,” but a world in which everybody would forgive everything anyway, even when there was no regret.
Imagine a world with no grudges, no arguments, no retaliation.
Just forgiveness.
It would be quite a different world.
It would be a new and better world.

The parable of the unforgiving servant, part 1
This morning we heard a parable, the story of the unforgiving servant.
There are two parts to it.
The first part of the reading is thought to have come from Jesus, most of it, at least.
A secular ruler, probably a government official, someone in charge of tax collections, this ruler canceled a servant’s huge financial obligation.
Ten million dollars!
Told him he didn’t have to pay it back.
We don’t know why the servant owed all that money.
Doesn’t seem to matter.
But then, as the servant leaves the ruler, he runs into another servant, one who owes him a debt of just a hundred dollars.
When the second servant can’t come up with the money, the first servant refuses to forgive the debt.
Instead he has servant no. 2 tossed into prison.
This story contrasts the response of the secular ruler with the response of the first servant.
One is willing to forgive a staggering debt.
The other refuses to cancel a petty sum.
Then, when the secular ruler finds out about the first servant’s stinginess, he sends the first servant off to be punished, “tortured” is the word we hear.

The parable would have ended here
This is the point at which Jesus’ parable would have ended.
The way a parable works, you see, is that the hearer is invited to choose the appropriate behavior.
Jesus would have left it right there., a parable, simply a story with a lesson, left for us to figure out.

The parable of the unforgiving servant, part 2
But Matthew adds part 2 to the parable, his own interpretation, his own conclusion, at the end of the reading.
He sees the story not as a parable, but as an allegory, a story that reveals a hidden meaning.
Matthew suggests that the story is theology.
It’s about God.
“Secular ruler” is code for the word “God”, and “servant” is a code word standing for “church members.”
So the moral of the allegory for Matthew is in the ending he created, where Jesus suggests that “torture” is what God will do to you and to me, unless we find it in your hearts to forgive each one of our brothers and sisters.
That’s Matthew’s idea: if you don’t forgive the failures and mistakes of others, God won’t forgive your failures and mistakes either.

Jesus’ meaning
For Jesus, the parable was not meant to be a threat.
Jesus had intended the parable to end without Matthew’s conclusion, leaving it to us to figure out that forgiveness cannot be halfway.
Forgiveness cannot be negotiated.
Forgiveness cannot be compromised without some very bad consequences.

Matthew 18—the centrality of forgiveness
What both parts of this morning’s gospel reading portray, however, is the centrality of forgiveness for those of us who follow Jesus.
We know that God persistently forgives.
We know that God lets go of the past, in order for us to get a second chance, or a third chance or even a fourth opportunity to experience new life.
This same persistent forgiveness is required of us as well, in our personal relationships, in our communities, in our politics, everywhere.
Just as God is infinite in God’s forgiveness, so we should be, also, reconciling with those who have hurt us, even when they don’t apologize.

You Don't Have to be Wrong for Me to be Right
Brad Hirschfield has written a book called You Don’t Have to be Wrong for Me to be Right.
He points out that we live in a world in which religion is killing more people than at any time since the Crusades.
A former militant himself, he now renounces all delineations of people into categories of totally right or totally wrong, entirely good or entirely evil.
He wants to build bridges among people of different faiths, even including those with no faith at all.
He’s devoted to teaching inclusiveness, celebrating our differences, and delivering a message of acceptance.
It’s not just to feel good.
It’s a strong antidote to the blind passions and willful arrogance that are a threat to all of us.
He points the way to derail the continuous conflict by addressing several points, but mainly, he writes about how justice can coexist with mercy and forgiveness.

Forgiveness: central to Jesus’ message
If you were to distill the great spiritual teachings from around the world, distill them to their most basic principles, one thread would emerge to unite them all.
That thread is Kindness.
It’s not the sweet, sentimental thing that we might think it is.
Kindness.
Instead, kindness is an immensely powerful force that can transform individual lives, can ripple out to change and improve relationships, change our communities, and ultimately, even change the world.
Kindness is a practice that can be cultivated, he suggests.
Practice speech that is truthful and helpful and loving and forgiving.
It was central to Jesus’ message:
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

Fascination with Jesus
I’m here because I am fascinated by Jesus.
I am profoundly affected by Jesus’ life, indelibly haunted by Jesus’ death, and genuinely compelled by Jesus’ teachings and example.
Jesus is my role model for life, the one I wish to follow.
And following Jesus means loving unconditionally.
It means offering hospitality to strangers.
It means showing compassion for the poor.
It also may mean opposing the traditions of religious and political authorities, upsetting the pious expectations of what an upstanding Christian should say or do.
Following Jesus means subverting religious certainty.
It means making people responsible for their own lives.
And following Jesus means forgiving without limit.
When Peter asked “how many times?,” Jesus answered “not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

Easy to say
These things are easy to say, but difficult to live out.
But just imagine a world in which everybody would forgive everybody for everything.
Not just following the words, “I’m sorry,” but a world in which everybody would forgive everything anyway, even when there was no regret.
Imagine a world with no grudges, no arguments, no retaliation, no war.
Just forgiveness by everyone.
It would be quite a different world.
It would be a new and better world, you can be sure.
It would be the world that God imagines for us.

Prayer
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life.
Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.

"An Evening with Bishop Roskam" September 10th

What really happened at Lambeth
Billed as “An Evening with Bishop Roskam,” the event took place Wednesday evening, Sept. 10, at Christ Church in Poughkeepsie. Members of Episcopal churches in the mid-Hudson region were invited to meet with The Rt. Rev. Catherine Roskam as she shared here observations about what really happened at Lambeth.

She said she was pleasantly surprised at the way the conference unfolded. The previous Lambeth, held in 1998, was political. This Lambeth was “spiritual from the getgo,” she said. It began with three days of retreat in Canterbury Cathedral, a very “thin place.” The Archbishop of Canterbury was at his best when leading the retreat and with the reflective part.

Each day began in the “big top” with eucharist, which included excellent preaching and music and prayers from all around the world. That was followed by breakfast and small-group Bible study for the bishops. Spouses followed a different track. Bishop Roskam’s small group was very diverse. As the conference progressed, topics drew the bishops deeper and deeper into conversation.

Bishop Roskam said she was pleasantly surprised and very encouraged by remarks made by the Archbishop about midway through the conference. In his reflections, he talked about Christians feeling that they were understanding themselves as being led into something new. He pointed out that there always were Christians who were led in that manner. It’s a justice issue. But more important, it witnessing to the power of God.

“Near the end of the conference, after a trust level had been built, we had really profound conversations,” Bishop Roskam explained. “It didn’t change minds, but it did increase understanding, both ways.

“When you hear what we heard about the context in which they live … some were going back to churches where their lives were in danger. The martyring goes on now, people eing martyred for their faith, now.”

No conclusions were reached. Following the Archbishop’s request, they didn’t decide anything at this meeting. The bishops agreed to meet again in five years. Some couldn’t bear to part, and didn’t wish to wait ten years.

Bishop Roskam fielded questions from the audience at the conclusion of the two-hour “Evening.”

jb+

Babysitting in Washington, D.C.

She's sleeping!

Rob and I drove down to Washington, D.C. yesterday. Jenn and José are involved in a conference here this week. We have adjoining rooms in a large hotel in Arlington. We're here to spend some quality time with mom and dad, but mainly to do some childcare today.

What a wonderful little girl. Just nine months old now. Growing so fast, learning so much. Wow!

However, caring for her takes me back a number a years to when I was a young father. That's when I learned to pray. "Please God, in your mercy, please let this baby go to sleep, just for awhile."

Finally walked her up and down the halls in this hotel in her stroller. That knocked her out.

See many of you Sunday!

jerry

ThisWeeksSermon September 7 Pentecost 17

“ The Bible: Divine Revelation or Divine Realization?.”
The 17th Sunday After Pentecost, September 7, 2008
May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you, in the name of God our Creator, our redeemer, and our sanctifier.
Amen.
In The Episcopal Church, you know, at the end of each of the first two readings, there’s always a versicle, sometimes a versicle followed by a response.
We’re offered a few options.
It can be “Here what the Spirit is saying to God’s People,” when reading from the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, or it can bec
“Here what the Spirit is saying to the churches,” when reading from one of Paul’s letters to the churches he started up.
An alternative we’re given is simply to say, “Here ends the reading.”
It’s the one I prefer.
We begin with the words, “A reading from the book of whatever.”
Seems appropriate to simply conclude with “Here ends the reading.”
The default response in our church, however, and in most churches of the “catholic persuasion,” is the statement, “The Word of the Lord,” and the response, “Thanks be to God.”
This one gets me, and not in a particularly good way.
The word of the Lord?
I don’t think so.
But I remember Bill Clinton saying, “it depends on what the meaning of the word IS is”?
And it’s kind of like that for me.
The Word of the Lord.
It depends on what you mean by the word WORD and what you mean by word LORD when you say “The word of the lord.”
A divine revelation from God?
I don’t think so.
The literal truth handed down by God?
Nope.
The inerrant, infallible, unchanging Truth?
No way.
So why call it “the Word of the Lord”?
What must a person think when hearing about God drowning everyone on the planet except Noah and his family, or about God drowning the Egyptian army, or about God calling for the massacre of Canaanite men, women, and children.
Could that possibly be the “Word of the Lord” in any literal way?
What would an unchurched visitor in our midst think on hearing Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where he says, “Wives be subject to your husbands, as unto the Lord.”
Or where he points out in his letter to Timothy that women were created second, they sinned first, and should keep silent in church?
The word of the Lord?
I think not.
And then there’s the gospel, of course.
We raise the book high as we carry it down the aisle, revering that book as though the book itself is something to worship, something “holy,” inspired somehow and handed down from generation to generation.
We call it “the Word of God” as well.
This morning’s gospel
Let’s take a look at this morning’s reading of the “Word of God” from Matthew’s gospel.
Here we find Jesus talking with his friends.
Jesus says, “If another member of the church does wrong, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone.
If that person listens to you, you have won him over.
But if not, take one or two others along with you, so you have witnesses.
If that doesn’t work, tell it to the church.
If that doesn’t work, treat the person like a pagan or, worse yet, like a tax collector.”
Does this sound anything like words from God?
Did Jesus really have a bad-tempered set of followers who engaged in no holds-barred confrontation?
Jesus of course was the one who spoke of loving your neighbor, turning the other cheek, loving your enemies.
Does this passage sound like something Jesus could have suggested?
“Tell it to the church, and if that doesn’t work, excommunicate the person?
Jesus would not have suggested such a thing.
Not on your life!
Anyway, he couldn’t have.
Jesus couldn’t have spoken of the church at all.
The church didn’t exist yet, hadn’t even been though of.
The church wasn’t recognizable as an institution for many decades after that.
This little excerpt we heard this morning was put into Matthew’s gospel because Matthew needed to say something to the members of his own faith community, members who, from time to time, faced internal conflict.
So even though Jesus’ own attitude toward similar people was quite different, the later ecclesiastical practice of excommunication, was based on this particular passage.
And as a result, the church throughout the ages, has latched on to the power of excommunication as its prime way of keeping its members in line.
Today it’s pretty ineffective in disciplining defiant members.
And when excommunication does occur, people usually just go away mad, or switch denominations.
Conflicts still divide the church, but these days the only people now banished, excommunicated, are clergy who transgress, who cross the line.
In progressive Christianity, a shift
We live in a culture, I think, where we’re much more comfortable with black-and-white, than we are with shades of gray.
Public opinion polls conducted during the past few years have consistently found that more than a third of Americans believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible.
Fundamentalists are convinced that every word in the Bible is literally true and was handed down by God.
A majority of adults in this, the most religious nation in the developed world, cannot name the four gospels or identify Genesis as the first book of the Bible.
Nonetheless, a third of Americans cling to the story of creation that appears in that first book of the Bible that they can’t even locate.
Why do they cling to that story?
Someone has told them it’s in the Bible, and that it’s true.
How can anyone understand what creationism means or make an informed decision about it if they can’t even locate the source of the creation story?
A progressive approach to religion
The progressive approach to religion, with its many shades of gray, is determined to make room for secular knowledge, and to make room for cultural changes.
In the progressive Christian movement, there’s been a shift.
It’s a shift in understanding the Bible, a shift that’s away from seeing it as “divine revelation,” to instead understanding it as “divine realization,” understanding the Bible as a record of our religious ancestors’ evolving realization of what God is, and what God might be wanting at any particular point in time.
When the Bible and scientific truth are in conflict, we need to recognize that it’s the Bible that's wrong.
That's not a problem, unless you think that God wrote the Bible, because that would mean that God had to be wrong. But the Bible was written between 2000 and 3000 years ago.
How could anyone think that absolute truth could be captured in an ancient document authored over centuries by dozens of people. Episcopal Bishop Jack Spong, rightly, I think, puts it this way:
"Religious claims for the literal accuracy of the Bible are nothing more than the conclusions of frightened people who cannot deal with the world of today and so they hide in irrational conclusions.", they hide in the world of yesterday.
Paul Tillich & the Bible
Paul Tilllich was one of the great fathers of progressive theology.
There’s a wonderful story about him having to do with the Bible.
Tillich was teaching a class. He had a belligerent student who didn’t think Tillich had a high enough view of the Bible as being the “Word of God.”
In each class the student would raise his hand and ask all sorts of questions about the Bible.
And Tillich would always give some abstract explanation of the Bible as the Word of God.
One day it was too much for the student.
He grabbed his Bible, rolled it up in his hand, and ran down to the front of the room and began waving the Bible in Tillich’s face. “Tell us once and for all, is this the Word of God or not?”
Tillich calmly answered, “The Bible is the Word of God, if, instead of gripping it, you let it grip you, if you allow it to be a tool in which you realize the inexpressible.
The point is that once the Bible has been liberated from needing to offer divine absolute authority for all time then the Bible can become a wonderful tool and a contemporary resource for everyday living.
This morning’s gospel
This morning, that resource for everyday living comes in the very last sentence of Matthew’s story, where Jesus says, Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.
Scholars aren’t sure Jesus actually said it.
But it sounds like Jesus.
And not only that, it expresses a Truth that you and I know every Sunday when two or three or more of us gather around this altar in this church.
Those words express a Truth that we experience in the liturgy, when we recall the wonders of the “divine realization,” passed on to us and continuing even now, realization of God moving among us, God living within us, God transforming our lives, even revealing new Truth, in our place and in our time.
When two or three of us are together because of Jesus, we can be sure that Jesus is also here with us.
Prayer
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. This is our prayer.

ThisWeeksSermon August 31st Pentecost 16

“ Taking The Long View avoids the tyranny of the moment.”
The 16th Sunday After Pentecost, August 31, 2008

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“After my walk in the woods, later that day, I sent a huge bouquet of flowers to the daughter who had raked me over the coals, and had written me off, and never wished to speak to me again…. 

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Even in the face of disappointment, be compassionate, be a little humble, and be as generous as you can be. It’s okay to love “wastefully.” This is the lesson I learned in the last week of my vacation.”
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May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you, in the name of God our Creator, our redeemer, and our sanctifier. Amen.

Well, it’s been a really great month in the Adirondacks
even if the weather was unusually off for this time of year, until a week ago.
There were only two days that actually felt hot like summer the whole time.
Only went swimming twice.
And so much rain, almost every day for the first two weeks.
And cold, too!
But it didn’t matter to me, because I absolutely love it up there.
Doesn’t matter WHAT the weather’s like.
Trouble in paradise
It was at the end of the third week that something went wrong for me.
Father-daughter problems.
My older daughter, who’ll be 40 in a few weeks, is absolutely the most wonderful, good-hearted person that you’ll ever meet in your whole life.
She has awesome values.
Will give you the shirt off her back.
Lots and lots of fun, too.
But, in my view, and probably anyone else’s, she’s not managing her life very well.
She’s in an unstable relationship.
(We won’t go into that; I’ll spare you the details.)
She has very limited income, and very limited impulse control.
It’s a bad combination.
It’s really difficult for her to take “The Long View,” to consider the longer term consequences of decisions, difficult for her to see the big picture.
She called me up at the campsite.
“Dad,” she said.
“I have an emergency.”
One of her three cats (not one of which she can afford to care for), one of her three cats was lethargic and hadn’t been eating.
She had taken the cat to the after-hours emergency vet, but they wouldn’t take the cat in without prepayment.
“Dad, I need you to call the vet and give them a credit card number.”
I did.
I was told they’d let me know what the charges would be.
Fairly quickly, I got a call back.
So far, I was told, they had run up charges of $540, and they were estimating a total of “not much more than $1000!”
Long story short, I said “no.”
Called my daughter.
Left a message.
And then my daughter called back.
Lots of indignant, angry shouting.
She said she never wished to speak to me ever again.
My daughter, you see, has no children, and this cat, is one of her surrogate “children.”
By extension, this cat is my “grandson.”
A sleepless night
I didn’t sleep well that night.
I had been jolted off my feet by the discovery of the apparent fragileness of my relationship with my daughter.
One “no”, and it was all over, forever!
Never ever thought that could happen.
The Long View on a long walk
I took a long walk with the dog the next day, along that logging road you see pictured on the front of your service booklet.
Feeling sorry, then feeling self-justified, then feeling pretty ticked off, then feeling sad again, mostly feeling sad at the loss of my daughter.
A black cloud followed me that morning.
No amount of reassuring myself did any good.
I was so stuck in that moment.
As I walked, however, I started thinking about what I’d been reading earlier that morning.
Inner strength comes from doing what God means for us to do in life, in spite of fear, in spite of doubt, even in spite of death.
Only in taking The Long View can we avoid the tyranny of the moment, and the terror of the immediate.
In The Long View, God is with us, providing inner strength when we need it.
As I walked along through the woods, recalling those words I had read, it was like magic.
It was all I needed to do.
Just recall those words.
Inner strength comes from doing what God means for us to do in life.
It’s by taking The Long View that we can avoid the tyranny of the moment.
The black cloud lifted all by itself.
All of a sudden I knew for sure, deep down inside, that I was not alone in this trouble I was having.
God, the Awesome Mystery that moves among us and lives within each one of us, somehow magically provided the Peace I was looking for exactly when I needed it.
Matthew
In this morning’s reading from the gospel, Matthew tells us something about facing trouble.
The passage was written 60 to 70 years after Jesus walked the the dusty roads of the Middle East.
And even though we’re pretty sure the narrative is fiction, the reading really DOES sound like a teaching of Jesus.
Don’t run from suffering, Jesus says.
Embrace it.
Follow me, Jesus says, and I’ll show you how.
Those who want to save their life will lose it.
Those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
Losing your Self is The Way.
It sounds like the Buddha, it sounds like Confucius, and it really sounds like Jesus.
It’s by giving up everything that you find what is truly True.
The Long View
Peter Gomes is the one whose words I had been recalling during my walk in the woods.
In his book, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, he says that it’s the taking of The Long View that provides a sense of proportion, proportion to the here and now.
In fact, he says, The Long View is the good news of the gospel, because in The Long View, God reigns.
In spite of the troubles of the moment, and the difficulties of the time, God’s justice, in the long run, will prevail.
Taking The Long View allows confidence when there appears to be no reason for confidence.
Christian martyrs knew this.
In the face of torment, torture, and every reason for fear, they faced death confident that in The Long View, God would prevail.
Paul
Today’s reading from Paul’s letter to the church in Rome also tells us something about facing trouble.
Paul tells us to love truly.
Be hopeful, even in the face of disappointment.
Be compassionate and humble.
Love even more generously than the next person, and not be stingy about it, not be afraid to love wastefully.
Flowers for my daughter
After my walk in the woods, later that day, I sent a huge bouquet of flowers to the daughter who had raked me over the coals, and had written me off, and never wished to speak to me again.
It wasn’t my first impulse, to send flowers.
My first impulse, I must admit, was to have her phone (which I pay for) pulled out, punish her and to give her a good “talking-to.”
But I sent flowers.
The card I included read, I will ALWAYS love you.
Signed it Dad.
The next day I got a phone call.
She’s talking to me again.
And I’m talking to her.

Even in the face of disappointment, be compassionate, be a little humble, and be as generous as you can be.
It’s okay to love “wastefully.”
This is the lesson I learned in the last week of my vacation.
Prayer
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life.
Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
jb+
Sunday, August 31, 2008