A young businessman decided to take his brand-new BMW out for a lovely Sunday drive around a mountain road. It had soaring vistas and overlooked magnificent ocean views. It was all going smoothly, but at one turn he just slightly miscalculated and before he knew it, he and the car were headed over the cliff. Distraught, he attempted to right his car back on the road, but he was over the tipping point, so at the very last minute he managed to detach himself from the car, and climb out onto the top of the cliff. Well he stared down at the car, so distraught at his loss that he failed to notice that in getting out of the car he had unfortunately caught his arm in the door and this arm was torn off at the shoulder.
As he stared down at the abyss, loudly lamenting and saying “my BMW! My brand-new BMW!” a trucker spotted him, pulled over and came to assist. Hearing the man lament his BMW, the trucker pointed the man to his arm. He said “I think you’ve got a bigger problem than your car. Come on, we have to take care of your arm, and maybe I can find it and the surgeons can stitch it back on.”
At which point, the businessman looked for his arm and, aghast, said, “My Rolex! My brand-new Rolex!”
J
Sometimes all of our priorities get a bit out of whack, don’t they?
[1]In many ways, I think that priorities—where we place our resources and what we value in our society—are a lot of what I am hearing about in today’s public dialogue. One of the bishops in New York has actually suggested that all of his seminarians go and visit the Occupy Wall Street Protest because he thinks that the Occupy movement is speaking helpful criticism of society that we all need to hear. One priest who went to Zuccotti Park in New York summed it up this way, “’Everybody is really, really clear that what they’re protesting is greed. It’s not about luxury, it’s not about capitalism…. That’s what made Jesus turn over a few tables in the temple, was greed and corruption.’”
[2] My friends who know more about the Tea Party movement are also talking about priorities, but from a different angle. Thus we all have a frame of reference for understanding a bit what Jesus might be addressing with certain Pharisees in today’s gospel.
Jesus doesn’t appear to be as upset about what the Pharisees are teaching—listen to them, he says. But he does think that their ways of acting, although they may have begun rooted in piety (and I might note many Jews around the world still use the base practices he is discussing in very devout ways), they have become about show. About getting the approval of people rather than God.
They are in the wrong because they have taken practices supposed to undergird their faith and their relationship with God and used them as ways to one-up one another.
[3] This is a tension typical of all humans, isn’t it? Instead of greed, it was others’ opinions that got their priorities out of whack.
By contrast, in 1 Thessalonians, Paul is busy showing them that he lives consistently with what he says, as we all attempt to do as Christians. He doesn’t have motives of greed, as we heard in the verses before this, but instead strives for the reward of sharing the Gospel. He doesn’t demand honor, as do the Pharisees. Paul is truly showing a way of servant leadership here, a leadership based on integrity.
One might note that he actually was one of the Pharisees at one point, so he knew whereof he spoke.
[4] Being a Christian, Paul says, means that your priorities change. You are no longer a citizen first, or a member of an ethnic group, but your primary identity is tied to your faith community.
[5] The early martyrs of the church would put this concept into practice every time they were asked their names before they were killed for the cause of Christ. They would say “I am Christian.” And no, that wasn’t their first name! They were “Christian” prior to being anything else. They claimed what was at first a term used against them and made it a positive group identity.
Thus we are no longer about pleasing the tribe or our standing with each other due to certain actions, but we are proving ourselves to God and God alone, but this is lived out in community.
This is very hard to grasp in today’s society—just the other month
Christian Century Magazine put out an issue profiling churches that had “Dis-membership Plans,”
[6] which attempted to address increasing unwillingness to sign up and commit to being a member of a faith community. Yet, time and time again we see that, as great as our individual spiritual insights and gifts might be, we just can’t do half alone of the amazing ministry that God multiplies out into the community when hands and minds and hearts work together in the church.
The other day I watched a video many of you may have seen about All Saints/Todos los Santos, made about 12 years ago, showing your journey toward being a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural community. It wove Fr. Anthony’s story of claiming his Latino identity with the church’s story of building not just a separate Latino service, but a unified community.
[7] This process was hard, and the movie makes that clear, but it has led to such rich fellowship, fellowship that like Christian identity in general, supersedes national or class identity and fellowship that looks beyond greed to what Christians can really share together in community. Next Sunday we will fellowship bilingually once again, and we will see that sweet community all blended together, and it is a work in progress, as it always was.
But it is something special about this place, something about this community being together that none of you, not even Fr. Anthony, could have done alone.
Unlike Paul, my ministry is not that of a traveling preacher selling his wares on the road, but that of a pastor who is, albeit temporarily, dedicated to full-time ministry in this place. So one of my tasks is asking for money, as you hear at least annually from the pulpit or a letter, (although I think we all agree giving is a year-round affair). This Sunday we ask for you to all consider what membership in this church means to you. Giving financially to your Christian community is only one piece of being allegiant—it may only be the arm, but it is an important arm! It’s a way of showing your faith and owning your Christian identity, not just for show like the Pharisees in the Gospel but because it is a part of who you are and a part of your faith. It is an important element of membership in the church and a way in which we are all invited to offer up some sacrifice to God so that God can multiply it.
And I truly believe that God does multiply what we give. If we give whole-heartedly, without fear of lack, trusting in God’s abundance, All Saints will see the increase. It won’t just be in the budget and the programs we can do. God’s harvest is so much bigger than that. The good news will spread through what we do—through this town and all towns as we strive to show the world an alternative to greed and grasping. And in this, may we see what we heard in the Psalm:
“They sow fields, and plant vineyards, and get a fruitful yield. (107:37)”
So Be It! Amen!
[3] Patrick Gray, “Exegetical Perspective: Matthew 23:1-12,” FOTW Year A, Vol 4.
[4] Tat-Siong Benny Liew, “Exegetical Perspective: 1 Thess. 2:9-13,” FOTW Year A, Vol. 4.
[5] Susan Marie Smith, “Homiletical Perspective: 1 Thess. 2:9-13,” FOTW Year A, Vol. 4.
