Would You Take a $20

Would You Take a $20

Suppose I hold up this relatively new $20 dollar bill, and ask how many of you would be glad to take it? Would you? If it were a $100 dollar bill you'd take it in a heartbeat! Suppose I were to crumple it up in my hands, would you still be willing to take it? Suppose I sully it in dirt and grime, how about then? Would you still take it? And if I were to toss it disdainfully on the ground and stomp on it and treat it as shamefully as I could, what would it be worth to you then?

Anybody?

Yes, it is still worth $20.

Some of you might be horrified at such treatment of legal tender. I was when I first heard the story. Something innately within me cried out for respect of legal tender. 

So then, what about you? How much do you suppose you are worth? Especially in the eyes of God? Suppose you are crumpled up by misfortune? Suppose you are dirty, grimy and sullied by sin of your own doing or somebody else’s? Suppose you are stomped on by oppression and shamefully mistreated at home or in the workplace or anywhere else; how much are you worth then in the eyes of God?

Exactly! Your value is not diminished in the least in the eyes of God whatever becomes of you. 

In Jesus’ campaign speech, or what we more commonly call the Sermon on the Mount, he was fond of saying this: “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” ~Matthew 6:26 

In this same speech or sermon at the very outset, he blessed the poor and those who mourn, the meek and those who hunger for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart and the peacemakers, and he blessed also those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. He repeats the essence of this message in what biblical scholars refer to as the Sermon on the Plain which you can read in Luke 6:17-49. Because the essence of the message occurs in different places, many scholars suppose that Jesus went back to these themes time and again as he made his way around Galillee. 

What price then does God put on your head? Of how much value then are you? Can you put a price tag on a human life? your own or anybody else’s?

It is one of the mysteries of the Gospel that your life is worth as much as the life of the Savior. God gives his life for you in the person of Jesus. You are worth dying for. God will give his life for you. God did give his life for you in the person of Jesus. 

The Psalmist says "worship God in the beauty of holiness." What does it mean for us to "worship" God? Interestingly enough, if we look at the word “worship” in the dictionary, we learn that it is both a noun and a verb. As a noun it can be described as a feeling of reverence to God or to anything or to anyone that is sacred. Typically, worship comes with a set of rites and rituals to help us recognize that which is sacred and holy. As a verb, worship is the act of rendering reverence and homage to God or to something or someone who is holy. 

You see, when we come together week by week to worship God, we ascribe to God the Glory and Honor that is due God’s Name. We recognize God's worth to us. God's value is infinite, absolute, the ultimate worthiness of our lives. But what of your value as part and parcel in the act of worship? To me this is the key to our worship. We learn in these songs we sing, in these Holy Writings we listen to week by week, even on occasion, in a decent sermon or two, and above all in the sacrament; that God’s life has been and is being given for us in order that we might learn not of God’s worth alone, but our own as well. For insofar as God's worth is infinite, absolute and the ultimate reality of life, so too we come to discover the same of ourselves. 

In today’s first lesson, what upsets Elijah and this whole business of the prophets of Baal is that the folks had gone off to worship graven images. They had forgotten God. They actually had forgotten much more than what can be understood merely to be a petulant and jealous God. No, there is much more to this contest between the prophets of Baal and Elijah than a bit of trickery as to who could make the carcass of a bull ignite in flames. 

What had happened is that the folks had forgotten their own worth in the eyes of God. For what really matters to God is that we understand our worth to God as much as God’s worth to us. Instead off we go chasing after some graven image or another time and again throughout our history.

In our own time, what is the object of our worship? What is our bottom dollar? In colloquial idiom we call it The Almighty Dollar as if it were a god to us. Take a good look at Wall Street; you may notice that there is a bull ensconced there and there are those whose greed and love of money reaches such an extent that the bull of Wall Street becomes an idol and an object of worship to many. I needn’t point out to you that at the bottom of the crash of 1929 or 2008 was greed gone wild. Time and again we need to learn and relearn that such misdirected worship will always come crashing down upon itself. 

In today’s Epistle, Paul notices a similar phenomenon. Have the folks forgotten the Gospel so soon? Are they chasing after other gods so quickly. Has the Gospel message become so quickly confused with the secularism of their time?

And what of today’s Gospel? It seems appropriate that a soldier comes to the fore on Memorial Day weekend. Jesus is astonished at his faith. In fact the entire Gospel passage is astonishing. This particular soldier has a profound respect for the Jewish People. That’s unusual right there. An occupation force is more likely to despise the people and the place it occupies and vice versa. But not so here. In fact, this particular Centurion was instrumental in building the Synagogue. Therefore both the Jewish elders and the Centurion have a profound respect and admiration for one another. For this particular Centurion, the slave who was sick was of deep value to him. The people were of value. Even their God was of value to him. And more than that Jesus was of value. He knew that as he gave orders to his soldiers, so too, all Jesus had to do was give the word. 

This is astonishing! Jesus said that nowhere in all of Israel had he seen such faith. Here was a man who understood what it meant to worship. Worship led him to value people, even if they were slaves, or a foreign people who worshipped a foreign God. For this particular Centurion people were of much more value than the whole pantheon of Roman gods. Nowhere had Jesus seen such faith. 

This soldier got it. This is what Jesus had come to teach us; "Love one another."

How astonishing indeed! Think of the foreigner in your life. Think of the slave and the poor and how well they are treated and spoken of. Think of those who worship God differently than we do. How well do we honor “the other” in our time and in our nation? 

Our lives are of immeasurable value to God. All lives do; domestic and foreign. However crumpled, sullied by sin or stomped on by oppression and violence, in the eyes of God we all remain of infinite value.

The Psalmist wants us to “sing a New Song to God”.

The Psalmist wants us to “worship the God in the beauty of holiness.” For then we shall see the beauty of holiness.

Then we shall see the holiness of all God's people.

"Sing to God a new Song!"

In the Name of God, the most holy, undivided and everlasting Trinity.

"THANKS-TAKING"

As for me and my family we will be nowhere near any retail stores today.

Thanks to the marketing gurus of Walmart, the Corporate Greed of Financial Institutions and Multi-nationals, much of America and the Western World has been sold a bill of goods. Like sharks in a feeding frenzy many will descend upon the Big Box stores and push their way through to a bargain.

It is not necessary to live this way.

There are many other ways to live.

Today I will enjoy a long walk with the dog, I will do some writing, listen to some good music, enjoy the company of my wife and be in touch with our children. The eldest is visiting his friends in Britain. The next is with his friends in Virginia. And the youngest is in Chicago with his friends.

One works for an inner city anti poverty agency.
One is devoted to great literature, particularly the mastery of Shakespeare.
The third sings for an internationally renowned acapella singing group.

Living as an ethical presence, on behalf of the poor, delving into the human condition through the literary corpus, and singing exquisite music....ah, these are the things that satisfy something profound in the human soul.

Much is missing in the human soul if it does not satisfy itself with something a bit more profound than crashing the doors at Walmart.

As for me and my family, we shall search for something more. Something to satisfy the soul.

Thanksgiving is not "for" anything. I am certainly not thankful that I am rich in things. I have enough and am giving away much of what I have accumulated through the years.

No, Thanksgiving is a way of life. Gratitude is simply the manifestation of a heart that finds in life all that is uplifting and especially on behalf of those who had been laid low.

The American worship of the Almighty Dollar has much to learn.

This Black Friday is black indeed. Especially when it blackens the soul with nothing more than the frenzy of shopping.
Black Friday is black indeed when it exploits the worker with a minimum wage that keeps working people working harder and falling further into poverty.
The Pope is quite right in calling this a modern form of idolatry.

"THANKS-TAKING" is a very long way from Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Fr Paul

Greed and Idolatry

The following is a a sermon preached at Trinity Church, Topsfield on August 3,2013

Greed and Idolatry

Good morning all. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Paul Bresnahan. I am a native of Somerville, Massachusetts. I am married and have three grown male children two of whom live locally and one of whom lives in San Francisco. He sings for a well known musical group “Chanticleer”. I received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Glendon College, York University in Toronto, Ontario in 1967. I majored in Psychology and minored in Sociology. The behavior of human beings as individuals and in groups has turned out to be a life long fascination for me in parish ministry. That I’ve done for over 41 years now in congregations in my home Diocese of Massachusetts, the Diocese of Ohio, South Carolina, and West Virginia. Most recently I served in an interim assignment in Douglassville, PA not far from Reading. Now, I’ve been invited to consider another position in the Diocese of Bethlehem. I felt like I was getting to old for all this until a 72 year old Irish carpenter came to the house the other day to do a few small improvement projects for us. We compared notes. He likes to work for 6 months and take six months off to go to Florida. I like to do part-time interim ministry and spend a week every month being in my home by the sea off Lynn Shore Drive. There the dog and I can watch the tides come and go. This is what keeps me going; the love of the sea and the love of the work I do for God and the people of God. People like yourselves.

I attended the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, MA; now known at the Episcopal Divinity School. I majored in Scripture and graduated way back in 1972. So then I studied the words of Jesus, the Law and the Prophets with some care.

In today’s Gospel, for instance, Jesus told us to be on our guard against all kinds of greed for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. My namesake, Paul the Apostle to the Outsiders and the Outcasts, identifies greed as being idolatry itself in today's Epistle. The Prophet Hosea recounts the story of God’s love for his people, and how he feeds them and quenches their thirst, but not just of the sort that is necessary for physical survival. He nourishes them with freedom from slavery and finds for them a Promised Land and gives them a Law to live by. But the people turned away from God to worship idols and God’s fury is kindled against them. So the story goes in today's First Lesson.

So today let’s turn out attention to greed and idolatry. My step father was a wonderful man. He was the only man able to love my mother, a feisty woman if ever there was one. But H.K. as my brother and I called him; his name was Homer Kershner, had backbone and knew how to stand up to my mother.  Oh the fights they had were impressive; but as I say he loved her. Neither my mom nor H.K. were the least bit religious. Mom was married and divorced at least three times we know of. When she married the only man who could really love her, the church refused to marry them. But this was back in 1958 long before the church revised its canons to allow for remarriage. And my uncle, well, my uncle was what my grandmother called a “confirmed bachelor”. I didn’t know at the time that meant he was gay. I had to become an adult to figure that out. He was reluctant to come very far out of the closet. And the church had little interest in standing up for the likes of him. As I say, all this was way back in the 50’s and 60’s, long before we talked about any of these things. I sometimes feel like there are eyes and smiles looking down from heaven as what now emerges as a much more merciful and inclusive church. I am pleased to say that I have played a small part in all this. Even now Pope Francis is making room in the heart of the church for divorced Catholics and gay clergy. Who would have thought!

But my step father was a very practical man. He was an engineer. It was his view that there might be a God. One can hardly account for the wonder of Creation without the notion of a God. So, as it was in H.K.’s theology; we can probably allow for God’s existence. Nice of him to all God to be, I thought. But as to the matter of life and death; it was pure simplicity; when you’re dead you’re dead. He was also a practical man when it came to business. He understood the rat race. He worked in the midst of it. To him business is driven by the profit motive and ultimately all that mattered was the bottom line. Ultimately, the only worship there was in the world was the worship of the Almighty Dollar. He said as much more than once and my mother would give her “Amen” to that frequently preached homespun sermon. 

As I grew more and more into the church, you can well imagine how our values clashed. Particularly as I studied the Scriptures such as the ones we have before us to study today, I sensed a collision between Corporate America and the Biblical mandates. 

Watch out for the Greed.

Feed my sheep

I have come to bring good news to the poor

Insofar as you have done it to one of the least of these you have done it to me.

These are the words I heard from Jesus. And so I built a homeless shelter and expanded soup kitchens, food pantries, and transitional housing for battered women and their families in congregations I served. The church as I have experienced it as least when it is vital and mission driven, organizes its live around the needs of the vulnerable in our midst. And we are fearless advocates for those in need. These values clashed with my family’s values.

Yet, I loved my step father. He was a good and honorable man and as I said before he loved my mother. As they ripened in age and faced weakness that age brings and began to face into the inevitable, my mother wondered sometimes about God and heaven, my step father continued to insist on his rather self evident truth, as he proclaimed it; “When you’re dead, you’re dead.” I often smiled at H. K. and said; “For living with my mother, you’re going to go to heaven whether you want to or not!” We all got a good chuckle over that one.

Greed and idolatry are two concepts that come back to us again and again in the scripture. And so does our love for one another. These themes continue to swirl around one another in a potentially creative or destructive dynamic. In the reading from Hosea today we see God’s wrath kindled as the worship of Israel strays away from the Justice and the Law of God; a Justice and a Law that requires the faithful to be caring of the vulnerable in our midst. But we know too how the prophets like Amos warned the people; “Woe to you who grind up the poor!” Notice that what deepens the ire of God in idolatry is not just the theological and liturgical dimensions of it; it is the way the poor end up being treated.

It is interesting that the warning involves the future of the nation. For if the idolatry continues the nation puts its own survival at risk. This is obviously true in the prophetic tradition. This same theme Jesus repeated at the end of his ministry. It is so important that the great Cathedrals of France like Chartres and Notre Dame repeat the theme in impressive sculptures placed prominently over the west portals. Every king, queen and commoner must pass under the same judgment seat of Jesus. There he is separating the sheep from the goats. I went to France earlier this summer with a group of young people from my church in Douglassville, PA. We were on Pilgrimage. None of the tour guides knew the of the biblical backdrop of that sculpture. To them it was just a quaint warning from a superstitious bygone society to keep the peasants in line. But none of the commentators I read seemed to understand that the sculpture was a reference to those ultimate questions of Jesus.

When I was hungry you did or did not give me something to eat.

When I was thirsty or not thirsty you did or did not give me something to drink. 

Likewise when naked, or sick or in prison...you did or did not minister to me.

Thus the nation shall be judged. Thus shall all the nations be judged; by how well or how shabbily the poor are treated. For insomuch as you have done it to one of the least of these, you have done it to me; Jesus said more than once. The French Revolution derived a great deal of its impetus from the callous disregard of the monarchy and the church for the plight of the poor. Whether she said it or not Marie Antoinette’s word’s “Let them eat cake” cut like a knife into the soul of the nation. The violent outcome may not have been necessary if the Monarchy and the Church had more of a heart for those in need. After all it was no less a light than Winston Churchill who quipped: “I’d rather fight an enemy who has been well fed than one who is hungry”. 

Alas, nations and empires come and go and when the heart and soul of a people is fully invested in the nation its chances improve significantly. But when the rich turn their backs on those in need history teaches us again and again that such a posture endangers the entire national enterprise. You can judge for yourself how we are doing on such measures especially when we think of something as directly related to this dynamic when our food stamp program is so drastically cut. As I say, you can judge that for yourself.

Suffice it to say idolatry and greed are directly related according to the biblical material we have before us. As we consider the factors that contribute to our social policies in the nation, I hope we also keep our biblical social ethic also in mind. 

Thankfully, God is reluctant to remove his love from his people as we can see from the passage in Hosea. Just because my step father and I disagreed about our theological position with regard to the resurrection did not interfere with our love for one another. We his children must also learn to love especially those most diametrically opposed to us.

After all, the Eagle cannot fly let alone soar without both wings. If those on the right wing learned how much we need those on the left and vice versa, imagine what we can do? In the meantime we sputter and stall in gridlock and mutually nullification. Imagine what we can become the day we discover we are all on the same side.

Fr. Paul