That We All May Be One

When I was a parish priest in the 1980s, I did a second theological degree at the General Seminary in New York. It took four summers and a lot of reading and paper writing in between. In those days, General Seminary, which is located just north of Greenwich Village in an area called Chelsea, was in a pretty tough neighborhood.

It’s now all become quite “gentrified” and the apartments are all co-ops or condos that sell for an incredible amount of money. But in those days one regularly came across homeless people and folks asking for money on the street. One of our Church History professors used to carry a pocket full of one-dollar bills so that, when he ventured out in his clerical collar and black suit, he would have something to give when he would be asked for assistance…as clergy invariably are.

I used to wonder what kind of response my friend would have gotten with his one dollar bills when the needs before him were so obviously much greater than that!

But clearly he wanted to avoid turning people down and appearing to be like the rich man in today’s Gospel “who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day” but who apparently had walked right by the “poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table.” (Luke 16:19)

Those very tables get turned in the afterlife when the poor man was rewarded and the rich man punished for his neglect of the poor. I was reminded of Judith’s quote in last Sunday’s sermon that it may be the responsibility of the rich to take care of the poor in this life, so that the poor may take care of the rich in the next! Although in this story a great “chasm has been fixed” forever dividing the poor man from the rich one!  It’s too late in this case. The rich man had “missed his wake up call!”

Certainly it’s clear from the pages of the New Testament that Christians have a responsibility to minister to the poor. In Matthew 25 Jesus makes the point that we will be judged, at least in part, on the principle of “ inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these, you have done it unto me.” And there are least two ways that we can respond to that calling.

One is by direct services to the poor (a “ramped up” version of my old seminary professor passing out one-dollar bills to people on the street). In some ways that’s what our PUNCH churches and Churches United try to do through CareLink, food pantries, and other such programs here in the Quad Cities. Another method is to “get upstream” of the problem…to try to figure out why there are so many poor and hungry people around the world (and even in this rich and prosperous nation) and to try and do something about the causes!

Our church tries to name both of those approaches in something called The Five Marks of Mission” set out in the Anglican Communion’s MISSIO Report of 1999, affirmed by the Lambeth Conference of Bishops, and our own General Convention. It identifies  five challenges in our mission as Christians:

“to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God” ;

“to teach, baptize and nurture new believers”,

“to respond to human need by loving service”,

“to seek to transform unjust structures of society”;

“to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and to sustain and renew   the life of the earth”

So, both approaches are found here: “to respond to human need by loving service” and “to seek to transform the unjust structure of society.” Anglicans in Africa and other parts of the “Two-Thirds World” expend a lot of prayer, time and energy on those two aspects of poverty reduction and they challenge us regularly to do the same thing!

Two years ago at the Lambeth Conference I joined 670 Archbishops and Bishops from across the worldwide Anglican Communion in marching through the streets of London passing out copies of something called the “Poverty and Justice Bible.” This is an edition of the Holy Bible which has more than 2,000 passages that speak of God’s attitude to poverty and justice highlighted in bright colors. You literally “cannot miss” the many references!

That was a pretty dramatic gesture and the color-coded Bibles may have been helpful to those who may rarely – or never – open the pages of our Sacred Book.

But we really shouldn’t need such reminders, dear friends. We have Matthew 25. We have today’s story of the rich man and Lazarus. And we have our Epistle today from I Timothy:

“There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these…But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.  For the LOVE of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains…

As for those who in the present age ARE rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainly of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.  They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really IS life.” (I Timothy 32 passim)

That’s a “wake up call” for all of us! And I don’t think we even need a “color coded Bible” to know what God is asking of us today!

When Susanne and I returned from vacation so that I could officiate at the funeral of our beloved Ann Gardner last week, one kind parishioner asked me at the reception, “Did you know what you were getting into when you agreed to be interim Dean here at Trinity Cathedral?” I think she meant that we have had more than our share of funerals in this parish over the last eight months or so…but, of course, I did ‘know what I was getting into.’

I’ve been ordained for nearly forty years and I know well that parish ministry is not only preparing sermons and presiding at the Eucharist season by season throughout the Church year, but an ongoing cycle of baptisms and weddings and hospital and nursing home calls and, yes, funerals as well for those of our parish family whose earthly sojourn has ended.

On the other hand,  I have sometimes in my life made a commitment to an organization or a committee without first finding out all that would be expected of me, or how much time and energy would need to be expended. Haven’t you ever done that? Well, in today’s Gospel (Luke 14:25-33) Jesus is warning his followers not to make that same mistake if they plan to be committed to him and to his way of life! He’s talking today about what Dietrich Bonhoeffer once called “the cost of discipleship.” The cost of being a follower of Jesus.

To illustrate his point, he uses some practical examples: a construction project which might get launched before anyone got around to estimating the cost of materials and labor. Or the folly of declaring war without estimating the troop strength and fire power necessary to assure victory for the home team. Those would be pretty obvious mistakes (even if we know that they actually do happen in life!) but Jesus does not want his would-be disciples to make one like that as they
consider following him!

And, in today’s Gospel, he talks about putting our faith above even family if necessary; about carrying our crosses; and about prioritizing our relationship with him over material possessions. I think the way Jesus speaks of these things may be, to some extent, examples of what scholars call “Middle Eastern hyperbole.” It’s a sort of style in Arabic languages and in Hebrew to use strong and dramatic language in order to make a point.

You remember Saddam Hussein talking about the “mother of all battles” or some Iranian dictator talking about “destroying the United States” as if either of things were possible or within their reach. Or, more to the point, Jesus himself talking about it being easier for a “camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.”  I think it must be that sort of exaggeration Jesus is using when he talks about ‘hating’ one’s “father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even life itself.”

He’s clearly making the point that our relationship with God is more important even than family relationships, but surely one who was committed to the Commandment about ‘honoring father and mother’ and once described his mission as bringing “life abundant” to all, cannot literally mean that we should hate our families or our lives.

Similarly, not many of us will be carrying literal crosses to our death as he did (even though Peter and Andrew and perhaps some of the other apostles were indeed crucified for their faithfulness!). And not everyone is called to “give up ALL our possessions” like monks and nuns and missionaries sometimes do. But we are asked to value God above money and to be generous in our giving and our sharing with those who have less than we do.

Now, none of us can know for sure whether we will be equal to the task or whether we will indeed be able to fulfill our commitment to being a disciple. Jesus is not asking for a guarantee of complete faithfulness in advance. If that were the case, perhaps none of us would qualify to be a disciple. But, through these parables and teachings, Jesus is asking us to consider in advance what real commitment to him requires.

If you listen to some televangelists or some mega-church preachers today, you might think they were trying to sell you a car or a kitchen appliance rather than the Christian gospel! In some parts of Africa this is called the “Prosperity Gospel” – just come to Jesus and you’ll be rich and famous! We certainly have our own versions of that in our own country (in fact, we actually exported it!) These charlatans make the gospel sound as easy as possible, as though no real commitment was required. Jesus’ call is far different. He was not looking, and is still not looking, for superficial commitment or a crowd of tagalongs. Instead he asks for our total commitment if we are to become his followers.

I tried to be pretty clear about that in the class of confirmands I prepared earlier in the year. I shared with them The Episcopal Church’s catechism including the part which defines “the duty of all Christians (which) is to follow Christ; to come together week by week for corporate worship; and to work, pray and give for the spread of the kingdom of God.” (BCP, 856)

We require all our baptismal candidates and confirmands to commit to the Baptismal Covenant which not only invites belief in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; but continuing in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and in prayer. To resist evil and confess our sins when we fall into them. To proclaim by our words and the examples of our lives the love of God we’ve experienced in Christ. To look for that Christ in all people, so that we can love our
neighbors as ourselves. And to strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human being. (BCP, 304-305)

Those are lofty goals and we may not attain them perfectly. But we need to be clear about what Jesus asks of us from the get-go. That’s why I tried to emphasize that with our confirmands. That’s why we have over sixty young people in our parish this weekend participating in a Happening weekend where they are learning some of these things.

That’s why we will be launching our new Sunday School program – for children and adults – next Sunday and why I PLEAD with you as parents and godparents and grandparents to make sure that you and your young people are here every Sunday you possibly can be throughout the year!

This is not a casual commitment we are asking you to make, dear friends. We are asking you to be prepared to pay “the cost of discipleship.” There is really nothing more important!