Gratitude and Generosity

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
October 23, 2022

25 Proper C 

          On Thursday, I spent part of the morning with our parishioners at Laurel Lake.  We gather once a month for Eucharist and conversation, and I always look forward to that time together.  As we chatted before the service, I found myself especially grateful that we could gather.  I remembered the two whole years we had been unable to gather there, much longer than we were unable to gather here at Christ Church.  In a similar way, I find myself still remembering the long months when we worshipped only on Zoom or Facebook Live and could not gather here, and I continue to feel deep gratitude on Sunday mornings when we gather, or when we gather for fellowship events like our party Friday night or potluck theology coming up, or youth group, or pretty much anything.  As I have said before, I hope I never take our ability to gather for granted again.  God led us through a strange and lonely wilderness, brought us back together again, and I am grateful beyond measure. 

          This morning we hear yet another peculiar parable from Jesus.  On the surface, the point seems obvious.  Be like the tax collector, not like the Pharisee.  Be humble, not haughty.  Be authentic, not a hypocrite.  Rely on God, not our own good works.  If I thought that was the point of the parable, we could just move on to the Nicene Creed.  But rarely is Jesus interested in the revelation of the obvious.  So we will need to dig a bit deeper this morning.

          First, the Pharisee.  The portrayal of the Pharisees in the gospels demonstrates a first century Christian bias rather than historical fact.  Luke is less guilty of this than other gospels, such as John, but he is still guilty.  When we read other first century sources about the Pharisees, we find that the Pharisees were deeply faithful.  Their scrupulous keeping of the law was intended to make all of life holy and pleasing to God, NOT because they were trying to earn anything, but out of gratitude for all that God had done from them as a people.  Kindness, hospitality to strangers, and care for the poor and widows were deeply held values.  Over and over again in the Hebrew scriptures, we hear God referred to as the One who brought the people out of bondage in Egypt and into the Promised Land.  Over and over again, the people try to live in response to the gracious and saving work of God.  Do they always succeed?  No.  But they never give up.

          So we have our Pharisee this morning who begins his prayer with “God, I thank you…”  We have no reason to think that this is anything other than the honest expression of gratitude that begins many Jewish prayers.  Maybe his gratitude that he is not like other people is a bit arrogant, but he is genuinely grateful.  His prayer is really no different from “there but for the grace of God go I” when we see someone who is down on their luck.  Then the Pharisee tells God what God probably already knows-that he fasts twice a week and gives a tenth of all of his income.  The Pharisee goes well beyond what the law requires.  Is the Pharisee boasting or is he grateful that he is able to give and do more that the law requires? 

          Then we have our tax collector.  Tax collectors were despised by the people.  The tax collectors collected the taxes using whatever means necessary, and because there was no IRS to pay them a salary, they collected more than was due and kept the difference for themselves.  Jesus rather liked tax collectors, however, calling one, Matthew, to be a disciple, and dining with others.  The tax collector’s prayer begins and ends with “God be merciful to me a sinner.”  He asks for mercy, which he knows comes from God.  However, he does not offer to repent much less find a new career path.  He simply recognizes that he is a sinner and asks for mercy.

          After describing the prayer of the two men, Jesus says “I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."  What are we to make of this?  Is Jesus commending a life of extortion so long as we know we need God’s mercy, while putting down the person who was actually living a faithful life and acting out of gratitude, even if with some measure of arrogance?  In the gratitude vs. humility contest, does gratitude lose?  What are we to take from this parable?

          Despite Jesus’ claim that the tax collector went home justified and the Pharisee did not, I wonder whether this is a winner-take-all game, where we have to choose between gratitude and humility, or whether there is something to be commended in both of these people.  The Pharisee is grateful to God that he is able to keep the law and do even more.  He thanks God for that, so he knows that he is dependent on God for his ability to live faithfully.  The tax collector knows he is a sinner and is dependent on God for mercy.  Both men are aware of their dependence on God.

          Perhaps Jesus tells us that the tax collector goes home having been justified by his time in the temple because the tax collector is the one who needs justification.  Perhaps the Pharisee was already justified.  Perhaps prayer is the ultimate leveler and that is what Jesus means by the exalted being humbled and the humble being exalted.  The Pharisee and the tax collector are both beloved of God, on whom they both know they are dependent.  This is humbling to the Pharisee and exalts the tax collector. 

          The reading from Sirach begins “Give to the Most High as he has given to you, and as generously as you can afford.” The response to God’s generous action in the life of the Pharisee, and hopefully the life of the tax collector, and certainly in our own lives, is gratitude.  The response to gratitude is generosity, whether of our financial resources as with the Pharisee who gave more than the law required, or with our time like the disciples who gave all of their time to Jesus, or the generosity of our hearts, like the tax collector who knew he had sinned.  Whatever else Jesus might have meant by this tricky little parable, I believe Jesus calls us to recognize our dependence on God, which leads us to gratitude which leads us to mirror the divine generosity with the whole of our lives. 

                                                                             Amen.

         

Knock

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
October 16, 2022

24 Proper C

          In the days before everyone had caller ID on their phones, back when every phone call we answered was an adventure, one of our frequent callers in the church office was a woman named Rose.  I recognized her voice before she identified herself, if she identified herself, and to this day I can see her face and hear her voice.  She was a slight woman.  A person who at least claimed to be her husband was always hovering in the background whether Rose called on the phone or showed up at the office door.  Rose always needed something: food, gasoline, a night in a hotel, a bus ticket somewhere.  The list of needs seemed endless, and even when we sprang for the bus ticket out of town, a week later Rose and her husband would be back needing something more.  Sometimes we could help.  Many times we could not.  But Rose was nothing if not persistent and she would call or knock until her needs were met.

I am reminded of Rose when I hear Jesus’ parable this morning.    Jesus seems to tell his disciples to be as persistent in prayer as the widow was in demanding justice against her opponent.  In Jesus’ time, judges were entrusted with protecting the poor, the widows and the orphans. Widows had no way to support themselves.  They were totally dependent on God and the justice of the judge for their survival. In the parable, the judge tries to ignore the widow’s request, but because the widow will knock until her needs are met, the judge finally grants the widow justice so that she will go away. At the end of the parable, Jesus says "And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them." Jesus seems to be telling us that if we pray long enough and hard enough, if we are persistent enough and if we refuse to take "no" for an answer, eventually we will wear God down and get what we want.

There are at least two problems with this parable.  First, how many times have we prayed with all the persistence we could muster and yet our prayers seemed to go unanswered?  Did our loved one die, or our problem not get resolved, or our relationship remain broken because we did not pray hard enough?   Secondly, this parable makes us out to be spoiled children who, if we pester God long enough and hard enough, will get whatever we want so that we will go away.  Somehow I don’t think either of these is what Jesus has in mind.  So how can we understand this parable?

The reading from 2 Timothy reminds us that all Scripture is given to us for our learning.  I find this troublesome.  Does God really want us to stone our children when they talk back to us, as Deuteronomy 21 suggests, or refrain from wearing blended fabric as Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 22 suggest, or hate our mother and father, brothers and sisters, or even life itself as Jesus suggests in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. But the writer of 2 Timothy is not talking about every individual verse of Scripture, nor is 2 Timothy talking about taking one verse of Scripture and using that single verse to interpret all of Scripture. 2 Timothy is telling us that the whole of Scripture is inspired by God and given to us for our learning. God invites us to use the fullness of Scripture to understand a single difficult passage, so that we don’t have to rely on just our own experience and the words of a single passage of Scripture to figure out what God is calling us to do and be.

So, in this morning’s parable, we have a widow and an unjust judge. When we think about all of Scripture, we remember that over and over again in the gospels, especially Luke’s gospel, Jesus identifies with the poor and the outcast, the widows and the orphans. In Matthew’s gospel, we hear Jesus say that whenever we minister to the hungry and the thirsty, to those on the margins of society, we minister to him. In the book of Revelation, we hear Jesus say "Behold, I stand at the door and knock."  In the Hebrew Scriptures, the one who cares passionately about justice is God.  On the other hand, throughout Scripture, typically the ones who act unjustly and exploit other people, are people, not God. In the parables, typically, the bad king, the rude guest, the corrupt manager, or the stingy farmer represent people, not God. So, in the context of all of Scripture, perhaps there is different way to understand the parable of the unjust judge.

Perhaps God is the one knocking so persistently, demanding justice, and perhaps WE are the judge. Perhaps the persistence in this parable is God’s persistence, the knocking that will not stop until justice has been served. And in this parable, suppose that we are the judge, the ones empowered by God to bring about justice, to care for the poor and the oppressed, the outcasts and the victims of injustice. The persistent knocking is Jesus standing at the door of our hearts and knocking so that we may see and hear and feel the injustice of the world and be inspired to do something about it. Perhaps prayer is not about continually pestering God to do something about all that is wrong with our lives and the world until God gives in just so we will go away. Perhaps prayer is, at least in part, our listening and watching for God to show us all that is broken in this world and how we are to work on God’s behalf to bring about justice, healing, and peace.

I imagine that Rose continues to knock on the door or call the church office, always in need of something more.  Rose reminds me, and Rose reminds us, of the persistence of God that will continue to knock until we, like the judge in the parable, get out of our metaphorical beds, and do what God is asking.                                                                                      Amen.

Surprise!

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
October 9, 2022

23 Proper C 

          One Sunday last summer, I worshipped at a small Episcopal church up near Lake Erie.  The service was a typical Episcopal service, and when it was time for the second reading, I noticed that a woman was listed as the lector.  However, a young man stood up instead.  Rather than go directly to the lectern, the young man went up the center aisle, stopped near the front and took an elderly woman by the arm.  He led her up the steps to the lectern and waited.  The women read in as strong and clear a voice as I have ever heard.  When she finished, the young man gently escorted her down the stairs and to her seat.  I am sure there was nothing remarkable about this to the congregation.  This is just the way they roll.  But for me, as a visitor, an outsider, I experienced a profound moment of God’s abundant grace, tender and yet strong, and one that still gives me goosebumps.  For a moment, the woman was healed of her old age and able to use her God given gift just as she had for what I suspect was many decades.  The smile on her face spoke volumes and my heart was filled with gratitude for her and for this congregation.  I expected a routine Sunday morning service. Instead, I had an experience that I am still talking about months later.

          This morning, we see 10 people with leprosy approach Jesus while still keeping their distance.  We hear them call out “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”  What are they asking of Jesus? Do they need something to eat?  A place where they can stay despite their leprosy?  Or do they recognize Jesus as someone who can heal them?  Their request is for mercy, which could mean a lot of things.  In response, Jesus tells them to go and show themselves to the priests.  And as they went, they were made clean.

          Only one, when he realizes that he has been made clean, turns back to praise God and thank Jesus.  The person was a Samaritan, an outsider, considered by some at the time to be enemies of the Jewish people.  Jesus says to the Samaritan “Were not ten made clean?  But the other nine? Where are they?”  Well, they are exactly where Jesus told them to be.  They have gone to show themselves to the priests as Jesus commanded.  Jesus seems unfairly critical of the nine.  But to the 10^th, he says “Get up and go on your way.  Your faith has made you well.”

          What are we to make of Jesus this morning?  Is this a reminder to write our thank you notes?  If so, one would think there would be some consequence for the 9 who did not return to give God thanks, and to our knowledge there is no such consequence.  Is the lesson that somehow gratitude and faith are intertwined, and the 10th man’s faith has made him well as Jesus seems to say.  I do believe that gratitude and faith are intertwined, but all 10 of the people with leprosy were healed so the linking of faith and gratitude does not seem to be necessary for healing.

          What the 10^th person realized, that perhaps the other 9 did not, was the unanticipated magnitude of what God had just done in his life.  As a Samaritan, he might not have expected such generosity on God’s part.  His response to God’s unlikely action is to praise God with a loud voice and fall to the ground in gratitude.  In that gratitude, we see a pure expression of faith, which Jesus commends.  The other 9 turned to go show themselves to the priests before they were even healed.  They were not without faith.  But in the Samaritan, faith finds expression in gratitude for God’s action in his life.

          We hear a similar story in 2 Kings this morning. Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram so not an Israelite, also has leprosy.  Elisha sends a messenger to tell Naaman to go and wash in the Jordan seven times and he shall be healed.  Naaman responds in anger, expecting a much more dramatic healing.  But eventually Naaman is convinced to go to the Jordan and once he had washed 7 times, he was healed.  Naaman’s healing led him to say “Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel."  Again, God’s healing power is demonstrated in the least likely person, someone outside the fold of God’s chosen people. Naaman responds in faith and we can hear the gratitude in his voice.

          This morning we will baptize Banks Reed, known in our family as Baby Banks.  In baptism, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever.  After Banks has been baptized with water and sealed by the Holy Spirit, we will ask God to “Give him an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.”  Jesus calls us to have an inquiring and discerning heart to see where God is at work, which will sometimes be in the least likely places, to have courage and perseverance to keep watching and believing that God will act even when God seems rather absent, and to allow ourselves to be filled with joy and gratitude in all that God does.  Both the Samaritan and Naaman turn out to be unlikely but powerful models for how we are to follow Jesus. 

                                                                                      Amen.

         

Increase our Faith!

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
October 2, 2022

22 Proper C 

          A week or so ago, our daughter-in-law Leslie sent us a video of our granddaughter Evelyn doing science “appearaments,” which is three year speak for “experiment.”  In the video, Evelyn has a Pyrex measuring cup with a red liquid which she pours into a mason jar that has some kind of white and blue powder in the bottom.  When she pours the red liquid into the mason jar, a vast amount of purple foam pours forth from the jar and onto the cookie sheet that is protecting the counter.  In the video, Evelyn squeals with delight and says “It does make purple!”  Her utter delight in what she has done comes across in her voice, her face, and her body language.  Don and I watched the video over and over again and laughed and laughed.

          I hear that same kind of innocent delight and curiosity in the apostles’ words this morning when they say to Jesus “Increase our faith!”  The apostles have been following Jesus for 16 chapters now, and they have heard many parables and stories about what it means to follow Jesus, many of which we have heard over the past few weeks.  They have heard the parables of the lost sheep and coins, the story of the prodigal son, the story of the shrewd manager, and the story of the rich man and Lazarus.  They are eager to have enough faith to follow Jesus and, no doubt, to please him.

          So I expect to hear Jesus have the same delight in their question, their desire to learn, and their curiosity that I have in Evelyn’s.  But Jesus says “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea’ and it would obey you.”  Who has that much faith?  What kind of response is that to people who have given up everything to follow Jesus and want to grow in their faith?  I imagine the apostles being very disheartened by Jesus’ reply.

          However, I do not think Jesus is putting the apostles down for their lack of faith and their inability to cast a tree into the sea with the very command of their voice.  I do think Jesus is telling them that they are making the wrong request about faith.  The apostles are treating faith as if faith is something that can be measured like cocoa or chocolate chips, or something that can be created by mixing red liquid with white and blue powder.  Jesus is telling them that the size of their faith is not what matters; that even with a small amount of faith they can do great things.  The apostles are hardly without faith as they have left their families and their livelihoods to follow Jesus. 

          If Jesus is telling the apostles that they are making the wrong request about their faith, then what is the right request?  And what on earth is Jesus talking about when he goes on about the slave preparing dinner?

          Jesus’ comments about the slave are quite offensive to our ears.  The slave has been plowing the ground or tending sheep all day, presumably without pay.  Now the slave is commanded to prepare supper and serve the master.  And while, in my humble opinion, a thank you is always appropriate, Jesus assumes that no gratitude is needed, much less required.  In fact, putting the apostles in the place of the slaves, Jesus says “So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done.’”  How is this supposed to make the apostles feel, the apostles who are excited about their faith and want to know how to increase that faith.  They are worthless slaves???

          Jesus’ point about the slave, however offensive we might find his words, is that he was simply doing the work he was given to do.  I wonder if the response to “Increase our faith” is “Do the work you have been given to do.”  The reference to slaves, while abhorrent to our ears, is a reminder that, like a slave, we belong to someone else.  We belong to God.  Perhaps faith, rather than something that can be measured a quarter cup at a time or mixed up in a mason jar, is something more like muscles that grow with use.  Exercising the muscles of faith is done by faithfully doing the work God has given us to do.

          Our baptismal covenant, which we renew each time we celebrate a baptism, tells us how we are to live faithfully, gathering for worship week in and week out, repenting when we fall into sin, seeking and serving Christ in all people, respecting the dignity of every human being, striving for justice and peace, and proclaiming the good news by word and deed.  My friend Rick worked tirelessly over many years for basic human rights for the LGBTQ community in a city that, at the time, really did not care about such rights.  He finally moved a mountain and got those rights established.  My friend Judy worked to establish a domestic violence shelter in a West Virginia town where she was told by those in power that there was no domestic violence.  She did the equivalent of tossing a mulberry bush into the sea and made that shelter happen.  Both Judy and Rick exercised their faith one small step at a time, with many steps backwards in the process, until major changes were made.  Their faith grew, through both adversity and success.  When we live faithfully and do the work God has given us to do, whether raise our families, or help build a Habitat House, or work to assist refugees and immigrants, or get up and go to work each morning, or serve in the various ministries at Christ Church, one small step at a time we grow our own faith as we make a gospel difference in the world. 

The apostles want Jesus to increase their faith.  Jesus tells the apostles and Jesus tells us that we increase our faith when we go about the work we have been given to do, exercising our faith as people who belong to God.  Our faith will grow, amazing things will happen, and we will change the world, one small step at a time.

                                                                             Amen.

 

       

Together

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
September 25, 2022

21 Proper C 

          The parish that I served in Springfield, Ohio runs a substantial food pantry on the 4th Wednesday of each month.  Because there is no room for the line inside the building, the clients line up in the parking lot starting several hours before the pantry opens.  In the summer, parishioners set out lemonade and ice water for the clients along with goodies of various kinds.  In the winter, coffee and hot chocolate are available for the clients as they wait.  Parishioners and clergy work the line, chatting with the clients, offering lemonade or water, and praying with the clients if requested.  Over the years, relationships have formed as the church works to meet a need in the community. 

One afternoon, a man passed out while in line and the emergency squad was called.  At the end of the afternoon, there was one car left in the parking lot and we figured the car must belong to the man who left in the ambulance.  The windows were down and we had no way to secure the car, so we called a police officer with whom we had a relationship.  Officer Tom came, got the license plate number, ran a check, got the name of the owner, and left to see if he could find the owner at the hospital.  He found the owner, got the keys, came back and secured the car, took the keys back, and told the owner to give him a call if he needed a ride when he got out of the hospital.  Such is the kingdom of God!

          In our gospel reading this morning, we hear about the first century version of a food pantry.  In the first century, the custom was for the poor and hungry to go to the gate of the wealthy and wait to be brought leftovers.* That is what Lazarus is doing this morning.  He is lying at the gate, waiting for the rich man, or someone in the household, to see him and bring him something to eat.  This was as reasonable of an expectation then as lining up at a food pantry is now.  The problem is that the rich man does not seem to have gotten the food pantry memo and never sees Lazarus or notices Lazarus’s hunger.  Only the dog seems to care about Lazarus, providing comfort and relief by licking Lazarus’s sores. 

          Finally Lazarus dies, presumably still at the rich man’s gate, and is taken away by the angels to be with Abraham.  In his death, Lazarus gets the comfort he never received in his life.  The rich man dies, lands in Hades, where much to his surprise, he finds himself tormented.  While he does see Lazarus now, he sees Lazarus only as someone available to meet his needs. But even if Lazarus wanted to, and we are not told whether he does or not, tending to the rich man is impossible because of the deep chasm between them.  The rich man is flat out of luck.  But he is not completely without concern for others, as he begs Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers so they do not find themselves in the same predicament.  Abraham refuses, since the brothers have Moses and the prophets and if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t be convinced by someone rising from the dead. 

          What are we to make of this?  Is the message that once we die there is a great role reversal and those who have abundance in this life will suffer in the next, and those who have nothing in this life will gain in the next?  That seems a bit simplistic.  Is the message that if we don’t listen to what Moses and the prophets say about how we are to care for the poor we won’t be able to hear that message from Jesus either?  Quite possibly.  Or is the message that of I Timothy to those who are rich where we hear “Do good, be rich in good works, generous and ready to share, thus storing up the treasure of a good foundation for the future?”  I think that is closer.  But why?

          Today we kick off our “Better Together” theme for the fall.  Among the many things we have learned over the past two and a half years, we have learned that we are better together.  We missed each other during the time we could not be together.  As we began to regather, we missed those who could not yet be with us for a variety of reasons.  We had a joyous Jubilee celebration back in May.  We have a great pancake brunch ahead of us this morning.  We have another event planned for October.  We gather for worship each Sunday with energy, beautiful music and people of all ages gathered at the altar many Sundays.  When we pool our resources, whether time, talent, or treasure, or simply our presence, we are better together.  Together, we can do more and are better than anything we can do alone.

          But Jesus reminds us this morning to have an inclusive and encompassing understanding of what “together” means.  “Better together” is not just about those of us who gather in this building to worship, pray, learn, and enjoy each other’s company.  Jesus reminds us that “together” includes people very different from ourselves.  Together includes all who gather in this building, from boy and girl scouts, to AA and Al-Anon, to Music from the Western Reserve, Job Search, and the Hudson Garden Club.  Together includes all those we serve through Habitat for Humanity, the Domestic Violence Shelter, the Akron and Hudson Food Pantries, the International Institute of Akron, and on and on.  

          Amos cautions against those who revel in fine things and do not grieve the ruin of Joseph.  Scripture is clear over and over again that all of humanity is connected, that when one person suffers we all suffer and when one rejoices we all rejoice, and that we are to care for those in any need or trouble.  At Christ Church, we are most certainly “Better Together.”  But today Jesus reminds us that we are best when we believe and live like there are no boundaries around what we mean by “together.”

                                                                                      Amen.

 

*www.workingpreacher.org  Commentary on Luke 16:19-31 for September 25, 2022 

Scoundrels

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
September 18, 2022

20 Proper C 

          Jimmie Nell Johnson was my 6^th grade teacher.  You may have heard about her in another sermon or two, such was the impact she had on my young adolescent life.  Mrs. Johnson was utterly no nonsense, but she had the ability to see and bring out the best in each of her students.  Each of us was her own special project as she worked to figure out what we were good at and make us great, or at least better.  At the end of each day, as we filed out of the classroom, she had something positive to say to each of us.  Some days, the most any of us could expect was a kind “tomorrow will be better.”  But that was not Mrs. Johnson’s way.  She would find something good to say about each of us every day about that day, and she was genuine.  Because she was utterly no nonsense in addition to being kind, we believed her and we all flourished in her classroom.

          Today we hear what must be one of Jesus’ strangest parables.  Last week we had two parables that made so much sense, about rejoicing when the lost was found, that we were called to dig for a deeper meaning.  This week we are doing to have to dig to find any meaning whatsoever.  We have a manager who is fired for squandering the rich man’s money.  That much makes sense.  The manager is desperate.  He has no income so he has no place to live, so he’s going to need some friends.  So the manager calls in those who owe the rich man money and slashes their bills so they will now owe the manager a favor.  Basically the manager is cooking the books, which is not surprising since he squandered the rich man’s money in the first place.  But to us, the manager looks like he is only digging himself in deeper and that the rich man will be even angrier with the manager.  The prophet Amos has stern things to say about such behavior this morning, mocking people who claim to be people of faith yet say “We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances.”  Any way we look at Jesus’ parable, this person is a scoundrel and likely to get what he deserves.  But instead of throwing him in jail, the rich man commends the shrewd manager and Jesus tells us to make friends for ourselves by means of dishonest wealth.   The parable goes against everything we think Jesus is about.

          So what gives? This is where Jimmie Nell Johnson comes in.  Suppose we read this parable through the lens of someone looking to find the very best in people?  What if the manager has so badly squandered the master's property that getting back 50 or 80 percent of what is owed to the master is actually a great bargain?  Instead of looking at a total loss, the rich man is getting back 50- 80% of what he is owed, thanks to the manager’s shrewdness.  Given that the manager has squandered the rich man's property, now we have a bizarre sort of win-win.  The rich man is happy to get something back.  The manager is happy because now he has friends to stay with.  The clients are happy because their debt load is lower.  Jesus follows the parable by saying "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful in very much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much."  In some really weird way, the manager has actually been faithful in a very little and will be welcomed into the eternal homes.

          I would not be impressed by this line of reasoning if not for the fact that Scripture is full of stories about scoundrels that God used to advance the story of salvation.  From Cain and Abel, to Jacob who stole his brother’s birthright, to Joseph’s brothers who sell him into slavery, to the call of tax collectors to follow Jesus, and many stories in between, God sees not just what a mess people had make of their lives, but their capacity for good.  So perhaps our parable this morning fits right in with those places in scripture, and perhaps those places in our own lives, where we have made an utter mess of things, and yet God chooses to use us and our messes for good.

          Following the parable, Jesus says “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.”  Jesus tells a lot of parables about the little becoming great.  The parable of the mustard seed, where a tiny seed creates a great shrub, the parable of the small amount of yeast which leavens a huge lot of bread, and the story of a small bit of bread and fish that fed thousands of hungry people are just a few examples Jesus gives us of something small becoming something mighty. 

          I will be the first to say that this understanding of the parable leaves a lot of questions about honesty and dishonesty, what kind of behaviors Jesus commends and doesn’t commend, and what Jesus really wants from his followers.  But at the end of the day, perhaps what Jesus promises us is that no matter how much we have messed up, God will see the best in us and work with the good, no matter how small.  Perhaps the good news is that a bunch of messed up people with even a little bit of faith can make a gospel difference in the world.

                                                                             Amen.

Numbers

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
September 11, 2022

19 Proper C 

Two parables:

          Once, after a very long time of not being able to sing together in worship due to a pandemic, a certain church that will remain unnamed was finally able to sing together.  There had certainly been music over the past many months-organ music, recorded hymns and choir anthems, but no live singing.  When the Sunday finally arrived, and singing was allowed even if masks were required, the joy was palpable.  The priest was grateful for the mask so her tears of joy would not show.  What had been lost was found, and there was a sense of wholeness again as the church sang together as one and there was great rejoicing.

          Again in that church, after many months of not being able to see one another’s faces because of the pandemic, the Sunday came when the masks could come off.  That which had once been taken for granted and lost, the ability to exchange a smile, to see each other fully, had been restored.  The smiles were huge.  The energy created by simply seeing the faces of friends was contagious.  What had been lost was found, there was a sense of wholeness again, and there was great rejoicing.

          When we hear Jesus’ parables this morning about a lost sheep and a lost coin, we understand the losing, the finding, and the rejoicing.  For once, Jesus actually makes sense and I love the thought of God rejoicing!  And yet, when Jesus’ parables make such great sense, we are often called to look deeper.

          First, the answer to the question “Which of you, having 100 sheep and losing one of them does not leave the 99 in the wilderness and go after the one?” is probably no one.  No one is going to leave the 99 unattended and go after the one.  Then there will be one found sheep and 99 lost sheep.  Secondly, Jesus is making a rather large leap from the finding of a lost sheep or coin to the rejoicing in heaven over a sinner who repents.  Neither a sheep nor a coin are capable of repentance.  They are just lost.  Lastly, we can think that the shepherd and the woman represent God looking for the lost, but we are never lost to God.  We may feel lost.  We may act lost, rather like the people in the reading from Exodus this morning, and God may not be happy with us, but God knows right where we are. We are never lost to God.

          So what is Jesus up to this morning and how do these parables respond to the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes who say “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them?” 

The answer, I believe, is in the numbers.  There were 100 sheep and 10 coins, both nice round numbers that indicate completeness.  Both the lost sheep and the lost coin belonged to a larger whole.  Without the lost sheep or the lost coin, the whole is broken.  Something is missing.  When the sheep and the coin are found, the whole is complete again.  And there is great rejoicing, not just that the lost have been found, but that the broken has been made whole.

          Later this morning/in a few minutes, we will baptize Madeline Bailey.  We can easily think that we have brought this little sheep into the fold and we will say “We receive you into the household of God.”  So, yes, we do welcome Madeline into the fold. But we also welcome her into the fold to join us in the work of making the broken whole.  Our work, as the baptismal covenant tells us, is to work for justice and peace, to proclaim the Good News in word and action, to respect the dignity of every human being, to bring wholeness to this broken world, and to rejoice when whatever is broken is made whole. 

          One last story.  Two of the Sundays I was on sabbatical, I worshipped on line with St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham. In June, that church was the victim of a terrible shooting that took the lives of three beloved parishioners.  The whole was broken in a devastating way.  I took that shooting hard.  An Episcopal Church in a community not unlike Hudson where a friend of mine worships had been attacked.  On the Sunday after the shooting, the church was packed and the rector delivered a powerful sermon about being a gospel witness to the love of God even in the midst of tragedy, loss, and brokenness.  Some weeks later, I joined them again on the Sunday they reconsecrated the Parish Hall where the shooting had occurred.  Again, the church was packed.  The sermon was delivered by a former rector who is now a bishop.  The message, however, was the same.  Our call as Christians is to work for the healing of the world, to mend brokenness, and to be a force for love.  In the midst of sadness, loss of many kinds, and unspeakable grief, there was wholeness and deep joy and genuine rejoicing grounded in God’s abundant love that is without exception.  I am sure that rejoicing was not only earthly, but heavenly as well.

          On this day especially, when we remember the events of 9/11 21 years ago, and the deep losses of so many kinds on that day, and in the midst of the many losses and frustrations of our own day, Jesus’ response to the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes reminds us of the call of the gospel to work for wholeness.  The work of the gospel, and the work of baptism, is to restore the broken to wholeness, to work for unity where there is division, and to proclaim our faith that love heals by showing that love to the world.  The appropriate response to the restoration of wholeness and unity is not grumbling, but deep and unbridled joy-both on earth and in heaven!

                                                                            Amen.