Whose Head is on this Coin?
Again, I’m amazed at how uncanny it is that the Holy Spirit seems to continue to be working in overdrive. This past week I just got our taxes in under the wire – with all that was going on we absolutely had to get an extension. So, October 18 was the bewitching hour.
I remember back to when I had taken over much of the financial aspects of my parent’s construction and real estate company. I had opened a letter from the California State Franchise Board. Mail from these people is never good.
It turned out that Dad owed them around three hundred dollars and some odd change. This was for his share of the employees overhead for about two years previous. Dad was absolutely insistent that this was all a mistake. Their mistake!
I would spend hours on interminable hold attempting to contact someone so this issue could be resolved. Dad would not be mollified until every last stone was turned over.
We went down to their regional office in Long Beach and spent, I can’t tell you how many hours, while Dad attempted to convince the woman at the counter that he was right. He really didn’t owe them anything.
It’s no wonder that the Plexiglas window was one inch thick. They probably get a lot of irate taxpayers like my father.
Finally, after we got home, he somewhat settled down. My arguments forecasting impending doom and confiscation made an impression. I had reminded him of the adage of our high school government teacher, Mr. Marchek, “The power to tax is the power to destroy.” And how dictatorships have most effectively used this mechanism to eliminate their opponents. This was one fight he was not going to win.
Grudgingly, though he wasn’t going to pay this “unfair and outrageous” tax bill and penalties, he would acquiesce to my writing the company check to satisfy the “greedy so-and-sos.”
Matthew tells the story of religious authorities coming to Jesus with the question about the obligation to pay taxes off to Rome, the colonizing power of their land. This was a highly provocative question for two reasons. First, given the brutality of Roman occupation, any payment or cooperation with their demands would be seen as collaboration with a hated enemy. Second, the face on the Roman coin to pay the tax was that of an infidel who claimed to be divine, who claimed the titles of divinity proper to a god. To handle this coin was to become ritually unclean. Haram! Definitely not kosher.
So here come these pompous leaders thinking to trap Jesus. Hypocrisy dripping from their lips like honey:
“’Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what do you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’”
“But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, ‘Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.’ And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’”
And you know the rest. “Give to Caesar the things that are Caeser’s and to God the things that are God’s.”
Just whose face is on that coin?
In a democracy it’s all our faces. All of us!
My friend at lunch the other day said, “If it’s true that it takes a village, then it’s up to all of us to make sure the streets are swept and in good repair, that the sewage and water systems are functioning and that there are decent schools to educate our children.”
Community is a gift of God. It is up to us to exercise good stewardship of our common life together – paying the bills. That, in part, means providing the necessary financial as well as the political support. It means behaving in a civil manner towards one another and accepting our obligations to participate in the process. It means constructive criticism – and causing “Necessary Trouble” as a last resort.
When serving on the Planning Commission of our town of Ridgecrest, CA, for a number of meetings we were dealing with the owner of a lumber yard. He didn’t want to adhere to the zoning regulations or pay the required fees for operating his business.
At the last meeting dealing with this obstreperous fellow and his refusal to pay the required fees, our city councilwoman, Florence Green, in exasperation said, “Listen we’ve got to run the city one way or another; which pocket do you want us to take it out of?”
It’s up to us. It’s our face on that coin.
And I consider it a blessing to pay taxes – it means I’m making money. Look at it that way if you don’t accept theological persuasion.
Through our common civic endeavors, sometimes amazing excellence breaks out.
I attended an inner-city high school in Long Beach, California, Poly High. “The Home of Scholars and Champions.” It was located in one of the poorest, most racially diverse parts of town.
And while our sports teams took home more than their fair share of CIF state victories, a new principal arrived on the scene who academically made all the difference.
She developed within that high school a magnet school for science and math. That endeavor allowed, and still allows, Poly to send more students to UCLA than any other school in California. This, from the poorest section of town!
This degree of academic excellence has been underwritten by our taxes and civic support. Sometimes, we get what we pay for.
Driving through the roads of Connecticut this past week, I noted that they all looked like they had been freshly paved. No potholes and the lane markings were fresh. Even on country roads way out of town. Not anything like our disastrous roads in California which are one big pothole. Yes, their taxes are a bit higher. Again, you get what you pay for.
We are Caesar in a democracy. It’s not only our face on that coin, but it’s our schools and highways, our government services from fire, police to post offices and senior citizen centers. After-school programs and decent jails, prisons and reintegration programs for those being released.
Our faces on that coin. All to be counted a blessing.
Should we pay taxes?
As one businessman has said, “I don’t mind giving fifty percent of what I make back to the American people because they give me one hundred percent of what I earn.”
But of course, we need to monitor as to how our money is spent. And sometimes we get it flat-out wrong. Like investing in a possible candidate for Speaker of the House of Representatives who has no accomplishments to his name except vituperation. A person who authored only four bills in some sixteen years and not a one of them has been enacted into law. Someone who in that brief trip from an assistant wrestling coach is now worth over $30 million. And for all that, what we got was election denial and the support of an insurrection against the U.S. government! This, the would-be leader of the Chaos Caucus. So, for weeks to come, and for weeks into the foreseeable future NOTHING GETS DONE!
A pretty poor result for his hefty congressional salary and whatever funds he can grift off his campaign coffers. We’ve got to watch the purse. It’s our head on that coin, and this man would represent us.
No more million-dollar toilets in Air Force jets, or hammers costing hundreds of dollars. The fact that the Pentagon budget has not been, and apparently cannot, be audited ought to in itself raise red flags about fiscal responsibility. As I said several Sundays ago, quoting Reagan, “Trust BUT verify.” It’s our head on that coin. It’s our money. It’s our future at stake.
Yes, there will be mistakes. I’ve made my share of them. But God’s gift to us is each other and the common endeavor we share. Always to perfect and renew.
I close with James Baldwin’s take on our responsibility to one another. That’s a Torah gift and a Gospel demand. That we can work it out together is both a Gospel gift and a Gospel obligation.
Listen to Baldwin in his essay, “Nothing Personal.” He says:
For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; The earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.[1]
As St. Paul enjoins those of us in the Jesus Movement, “Rejoice with those who rejoice” …and, to paraphrase Tom Bodet’s Motel 6 commercial, “We’ll keep the lights on for you.” Amen.
[1] James Baldwin, The Price of the Ticket (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985), 393.
October 22, 2023
21 Pentecost, Proper 24 The Rev. Dr. John C. Forney
Isaiah 45:1-7; Psalm 96:1-9
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10; Matthew 22:15-
Just Who Let You in Here?
It is uncanny how the Holy Spirit sometimes seems to be working in overdrive. This past week Jai and I flew East to Connecticut so that I might officiate at our younger son Christopher and Alexis’s wedding.
Jai and I headed out a few days early so as not to be caught in the same sort of massive airlines schedule kerfuffle as we encountered when we attempted to fly to Vancouver for our Alaskan cruise with these two.
We drove out to the venue, the Waveny House in New Canaan, a huge mansion built by the Lapham family in 1912, sited on three hundred acres.
As we drove up a long drive to this massive edifice, it had its intended effect – we were most impressed. On the day of the wedding, we had arrived as the catering crew was wheeling in huge round tables and setting up chairs. We made our way upstairs to the bride’s room and the groom’s suite.
There was Christopher and some eight or nine groomsmen and one groomswoman, Erin. She and her brother had grown up in Alaska with our two boys beginning in preschool. She is part of the family.
This was shaping up to be a most joyous occasion.
The same as in Jesus’ Parable of the Wedding as told in our gospel lesson for today from Matthew. This was another story to illustrate the mysteries of the Reign of God at the end time.
All sorts were invited but many proved unworthy. They ignored the invitation. They made silly excuses. Some even mistreated and killed the messengers.
So, as all was ready and the fated lamb slaughtered, this king again sent out messengers to invite any and everyone they encountered. As the guests assembled, there was this one fellow not wearing the customary wedding robe. A party crasher perhaps?
“’Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
There’s lots of scholarly commentary on this lack of a proper wedding robe. What I take it to be is evidence of a piss-poor attitude. At such joyous celebrations no Debbie Downers or Bobby Bummers are needed, thank you. Definitely not ready to join Kool and the Gang, “Celebrate Good Times, Come On!!!” If not the outer darkness, at least the penalty box with him!
No rain needed on this parade. Though someone forgot to tell this to the weather forecaster. A tropical storm blew into New England and our rehearsal started off with a deluge.
While the outdoor site for the ceremony was a huge, covered porch able to fit the hundred or so guests, it was still cold and a bit windy. The women with their bare arms and shoulders were definitely chilled.
Finally, the moment arrived. I walked up the aisle followed by Christopher. Then Jai on the arm of our oldest, Jonathan. Then all these wonderful young men and women of the wedding party. Splendid in their formal attire. These young kids, previously in jeans and sweats, clean up real nicely!
As Alexis approached on the arm of her father, I noticed a lump already forming in my throat. Their smiles were radiant. Though the sky was overcast and still drizzly, she sparkled like the sun. Christopher’s face was incandescent.
I knew I had to keep remarks short. Days earlier when I had told Bishop John that I was given five to eight minutes, he commented, “John, I’ve never known your sermons to be anywhere that short.”
So, I began, “Friends and family, we are gathered in the Name of All that is Holy to join this man and woman in marriage.”
I was mostly keeping it together. Though I told them of my wife’s admonition about some of my sermon stories, “You can’t tell that.” “Why not?” I asked. “You’ll cry.” “They’re used to that,” I would respond.
I told them, that though they thought they knew each other pretty well – actually they had been together about five years – there would still be some surprises ahead.
I recounted that soon after Jai and I were married, asking her what she knew how to cook. After a pause, she offered, “I can make tuna salad sandwiches.”
“That’s all?” I thought. “That’s all!?”
We’re going to have tuna sandwiches until death do us part?
Meanwhile, Jai, as she gazed upon several piles of dirty clothes strewn about the floor was wondering, “What did his mother tell him?” “John, don’t put your dirty clothes in the clothes hamper! Leave them on the floor, otherwise what will your wife have to do?”
Is that what his mother taught him? No Prince Charming here! Piles of dirty clothes unto death do us part?
Surprises there will be. Count on it.
I reminded the couple that their new relationship will reveal the divine mysteries of human existence. When Martin Luther abolished the monasteries in the 1500s, the monks asked him, that without the regular hours of monastic prayer, how would they now know the will of God?”
“Go get married,” he told them. “Your wives will tell you what God wants you to know.” And likewise, we might add, your husbands. Holy insight will be born of this new relationship as in no other. That is your gift to the other.
By the time each had said their written vows to one another, we were all a bit choked up.
I followed with the traditional vows.
“Forsaking all others, Alexis, do you take this man to be your wedded husband…?” Yes, then Christopher, “Do you take this woman…?” Yes, “To love, honor, and cherish in sickness and health. For richer or poorer?”
After pronouncing them husband and wife, before I had a chance to say you may kiss the bride, they were locked in a tight embrace. John Ford Coley got it right, “Love is the Answer.”
I closed with words from 1 Corinthians on love. I told all assembled that this was for them as well, these words on love. It is patient, kind. Does not insist on its own way. Bears all. Forgives all. It is the glue to our humanity. Among all that passes away, it alone endures. I think this is what I said. By this time all three of us were quite emotional. And there was not a dry eye in the house.
I introduced to the assemblage, Christopher and Alexis Forney, and we then we all smartly proceeded back down the aisle.
For my toast after dinner, I mentioned that in Greek Orthodox weddings crowns are sometimes placed over the heads of the couple to signify that they are now king and queen of a new creation.
They are joined to create a new family rooted in the love and values they bring to their marriage. They are creating a whole new reality to be a blessing to each other and to their families.
I mentioned that I had seen a coffee cup that said, “I don’t have any favorites among my children…but if I did, it would be my daughter-in-law.”
Not only are we creating a totally new reality, but the gifts and talents they bring to this relationship they bring to their community. To America. They are creating a family that looks like America.
To that agonized question, “People can’t we all get along?” I told all that the faces in this room were the answer to that plea. A resounding YES. Here is now a new family that looks like America. And I am blessed and proud to be a part of what is being created today. Right here in this room.
So off they go, “side by side, singing their song.” God bless ‘em.
Indeed, this is a foretaste of that divine “Kin-dom.” No Debbie Downers, no Bobbie Bummers, PLEASE! You come with attitude…to the penalty box with you!
Marriage is understood as a sacrament because it is through such union that we have the opportunity to grow into our fullest selves. To grow up. These days our understanding of this union is much more capacious than back in my day. With marriage equality, this blessing is extended to all.
They’re now off in the Catskill Mountains of New York enjoying a brief honeymoon. You do know what the honeymoon sandwich is, don’t you? Lettuce Alone!
I still remember the hate and vituperation at All Saints, Pasadena, when one of Jai’s best friends, Mark, was joined with his male partner, Phil, in a ceremony of commitment (same sex marriage was not yet permitted in California). Yet, despite all the outrage, their union, and later, marriage, lasted far longer than many straight marriages. Sadly, years later, it ended in “unto death do us part.”
The joy of deep human companionship, especially through marriage, is a picture of eternal life. Our congregations should reflect the same blessings. If your church does not, you’re in the wrong church.
Find a church that challenges, informs, celebrates good times, lifts your heart. I believe that’s a good part of what we do here at St. Francis Episcopal Mission Outreach. Sunday after Sunday. And often midweek.
I have been richly blessed to have shared in this transcendent moment, this taste of “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” with my wife Jai, Christopher and Alexis and a whole new family. With scattered friends across this nation. And with you here at St. Francis. Proof positive that God is Good…All the time! Amen.
The Newlyweds Toasted
The families with the newlyweds – the next day
October 15, 2023
20 Pentecost, Proper 23
The Rev. Dr. John C. Forney
Isaiah 25:1-9; Psalm 23
Philippians 4:1-9; Matthew 22:15-22
“Just Who Let You in Here?”
There is no Try
A favorite character of one of the “Star Wars” films was the diminutive gnome, Yoda. Wise beyond words as he attempted to teach Luke Skywalker how to harness the power of The Force.
At one point as Luke fails again and again, Yoda exclaims in exasperation, “There is no ‘try.’ There is only do or not do.”
This might be the message of two sons in Matthew’s gospel assigned for this Sunday. Do or not do. There is no “try.”
“A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same, and he answered, ‘I go, sir;’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of the father?”
And for this reason, the “kin-dom” is opened to all who respond to the call. That is why prostitutes and tax collectors will be received ahead of stiff-necked religious authorities who quibble over theological fine points while the world goes to rot.
A while back, actually, several years ago as chapter head of our Pomona Valley Chapter of Progressive Christians Uniting, I had championed a small group of Muslims being harassed and tormented by their white, supposedly Christian neighbors.
Their fine Christian neighbors had at points thrown pig parts onto their property to desecrate it (or so they thought). These people were besieged with one legal action after another by their neighbors. “Islam” is from the root word for “peace” – salaam — but many in the surrounding community would not have it so.
Our chapter, over several months, raised some ten thousand dollars for the legal defense fund of that Muslim congregation.
Hate, vituperation, porcine entrails? Definitely NOT what Jesus would do. But that’s another sermon.
At the annual dinner of An-Noor Mosque (the name of which translates as “the Light”), my family and I were invited to receive a token of their appreciation and friendship. In accepting the honor on behalf of our Pomona Valley Chapter, I mentioned that if one had asked me several years ago if I would have any Muslim friends, I would have been at a loss for words. No, of course not. I didn’t even know any Muslims. And now, here I was surrounded by an entire group of new friends that I had come to know and admire over the past two years of this saga. What a blessing to be found through all this struggle!
One of the things I learned about Islam is that while they don’t put quite the same emphasis on theological explication of their faith that we Christians do, there is a much deeper concern for right and righteous behavior. Doing the right thing – thus the extensive code of ethical writing and rulings. Say AND do. There is no “try.”
As I oft quote Mark Twain, “It would be a lot easier to believe in the possibility of redemption if the redeemed looked a little more redeemed.”
When I headed up Project Understanding – Temple City, our ecumenical fair housing program, we had a number of participating congregations. The three or four I could always count on were the Quakers, the Unitarians, liberal Catholics who believed in the social teachings of their church and the small band of Disciples of Christ folks who gave us office space at their church. These folks put their faith into action.
They would accompany home seekers who had been refused an apartment. They would confront apartment managers and landlords with the demands of California’s fair housing laws.
Our volunteers were the incarnation of Dr. King’s aphorism, “It is always the right time to do the right thing.”
They would help put on community education events to help these gatekeepers know the law and educate managers and owners to assuage the fear that if a person of color moved in all that the other tenants would move out. Actually, no one would leave because people hate to move – and we found that no one did. And this new tenant, if they could afford the rent, would take the same care of their unit as that older, white tenant. And that was invariably the case.
Now here’s the real irony – our very first client was an Italian man. For some reason, the owner hated Italians. Go figure!
The people in our fair housing organization walked the talk. And their work often took them far outside their comfort zone. It’s not easy listening to some racist screaming at you about ruining the neighborhood. Quick – Where’s the Pepto-Bismol?
The slogan of our movement was and is: “Good Neighbors Come in All Colors.” And that’s what we worked at day in and day out. Every passing month, the blessings of God’s Kin-dom grew by the number of new people who walked through the doors of opportunity.
I’m reminded of the fictional persona, a buxom nurse with attitude, Geraldine, played by Flip Wilson – always a memorable segment and crowd pleaser of his comedy show. Her opening lines as she strutted her stuff were, “What you see is what you get.”
When our clients looked at these church folks, what they saw was what they got – God’s open arms of welcome.
The church is indeed a door into a smidgeon of eternity when the operative ethic is, “What you see is what you get.”
These were the Christians in the past who sheltered Jews from Hitler’s extermination camps. These were the Christians who stood with Catholic priests and nuns martyred by death squads in Central American countries for siding with the poor. These were the Christians who marched with Martin Luther King in both North and South.
When it came to “Do or Not Do.” They did!
It’s sometimes difficult to put into context the work we do, which often seems more humdrum than heroic. Running the copy machine, stapling, attending a community meeting doesn’t seem so exhilarating as joining a demonstration to protect LGBTQ rights or stop the banning of books at one’s local school library. Yet, little by little it all works to make manifest God’s gracious welcome to all.
As our planet is besieged by what my friend, Katherine Hayhoe calls, “Global Weirding,” it is time to move to a more responsible stewardship of this earth. I’m told that this past Friday, New York City, where our younger son and future daughter-in-law live, received as much rain in three hours as would be normal for an entire month. Christopher reports water in their basement and flooded streets. Again, the subway was awash. I’ve been wondering if Alexis made it home from work okay.
Bill Nye, the “Science Guy,” said it’s now time for “big picture” thinking. Definitely, do not vote for any climate denier. Do not vote for any who aid, abet and fund them.
The first step may be to educate oneself on where your dollar goes in the marketplace. And while there is no salvation in purity of action, at least it’s possible to avoid giving our consumer dollar to some of the worst of these culprits. Time to educate yourself. How we spend our income is a Christian responsibility. You have the “power of the purse.”
Join an environmental group like Citizens’ Climate Lobby that has been working for a sustainable energy future. Or 350.org, Bill McKibben’s group. There is no “try,” only “do or not do.”
What future do we wish for ourselves and our children and grandchildren? What they see may not be much of a future.
Letters to the editor, a phone call to a missed friend, a welcome to a new person at Sunday Service. It is all part of the essential work of the Jesus Movement. All part of the “do” of the journey.
I know, when folks look at St. Francis what they see is indeed what they get. And while some of us might be “trying” at times, here faith is manifest in action. And Love is the ethic.
In less than a week, Jai and I head off to Connecticut to marry off our youngest son Christopher and his beloved, Alexis. We have a stake in what sort of planet we leave them. What sort of politics we leave them. What sort of commonwealth we leave them. And you, likewise, for your family.
“In the beginning God created…” Light was the first gift of this wondrous event. Let’s pray that this same Light set our imaginations and will on fire that we keep it all going. Do or Not Do is the question before us. The gift of Holy Spirit is to fortify our imaginations and steel our will: To the Glory of God. Amen.
October 1, 2023
18 Pentecost, Proper 21
The Rev. Dr. John C. Forney
Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32; Psalm 25:1-8;
Philippians 2:1-13; Matthew 21:23-32
“There is no Try”
It’s Not Fair
Back some time ago when I was running our family’s construction company, “Forney Development Co.,” we had three projects in various stages of refurbishment in Lake Arrowhead.
I would often be up there to monitor progress. One day I got up there, obviously none of the crew was expecting me as they were all standing around. When I asked as to why I heard no hammers pounding or saws cutting I was told that they were waiting a delivery of lumber.
I looked about the job site which was a mess. It hadn’t been cleaned up in some while. I told the crew that there’s not a single job site around that doesn’t need picked up and swept up. AND, I didn’t have any pay category for just standing around.
They got the message. And the lumber delivery arrived shortly after we had the place tidied up.
Employees are often a trying and tricky proposition. To get the right person in the right job is a knack developed over time. And sometimes it just doesn’t work.
Alfredo always wanted a raise but his foreman would tell him that if he couldn’t add two fractions together, he wouldn’t be able to figure the layout for roof trusses and rafters. “If you can’t do this basic math, how can I recommend to John that he give you a raise?” Alfredo never seemed interested in learning the math but also felt that Manny was unfair in not recommending him for a raise.
I now have one fellow that can be off chasing rabbits in a flash. I’ve learned that I cannot give him more than one task at a time. Otherwise, the most important task never gets accomplished.
Instead of getting a unit ready for a new tenant, this fellow’s under the box truck fiddling with the shocks and the liftgate. We don’t need the truck now. Meanwhile our tenant has paid his deposit and is ready to move in. We have tile to set, new carpet to lay, plumbing to repair, mold to eliminate and a new window to be installed. Just for starters.
I can only imagine the distressing plight of the harried landowner in Matthew’s story of harvest time at his vineyard. Everyone grousing about who got paid what! And a labor shortage to boot!
What is fair?
Matthew’s little vignette got at this issue for the legalists in his congregation. And of course, any business owner is going to bridle at the proposition that those showing up at the job site at the last hour would be paid the same as those showing up at 6:00 o’clock that morning. Owners would shout to the rooftops, “Unfair.” We can’t run any business that way. We’d be out of business!
Well, this parable is not about fair wages. It’s about God’s generous heart.
An early controversy in the growing church was whether and how the gentiles should be welcomed. Why should these new converts be exempt from the difficulty of laboring under the demands of the Law when the children of Israel have been under that burden for generations. It’s not fair!
They waltz right in at the last hour and are yet receiving the same benefits of God’s love as the ones who have had to prove themselves under the Law for generations. Not fair!
We face the same issue here in America. Our borders are besieged with immigrants seeking shelter, seeking refuge from oppressive governments, from murderous gangs, from the effects of climate change, from lack of economic opportunity. Residents in cities besieged by this influx cry, “It’s not fair. This is not sustainable.”
In New York, Mayor Adams lamented that this issue “will destroy this city.”
As the price of everything continues to climb, wage earners and their families are squeezed. Since the Age of Reagan, income disparity between the bottom eighty percent and the very top has skyrocketed.
We now have less social mobility than we had in the Gilded Age of the late 1890s through the end of that century. Labor actions and strikes are now at an all-time high as workers struggle for a fair wage, a living wage. And artificial intelligence threatens to eliminate many of the now existing jobs.
We all are hearing a collective, “It’s not fair” resonating throughout the land. A general disgruntlement.
Statistics say the economy is doing just fine. But people are not feeling it in their pocketbooks.
It’s time to take a new look at the covenant that binds us together as a people. We need to look at the economic arrangement that binds our various nations together in a common economic rule of law.
What’s fair?
The job category of just standing around and doing nothing won’t cut it anymore.
What is fair?
Last evening on PBS “News Hour” was a segment on the obstacles to people released from incarceration who are prevented from obtaining occupational licenses for many vocations – teacher, public safety officer, electrician, cosmetologist, elder care, real estate agent, nurse, doctor or attorney.
Even though they might now have acquired the education and have demonstrated the aptitude, they are denied access to appropriate employment, in many cases due to a bad decision as a teenager. Now, THAT’S not fair!
What is fair? This for starters:
These people have done their time, paid their debt. It is high time to welcome them back into civil society with all the benefits and privileges. That’s a mirror in a small way of God’s magnanimous embrace of all. It’s the reality of the Parable of the Prodigal Son come to life.
Many of these folks will be among our clients at House of Hope. A part of our two-year program will be to provide the education and employment readiness skills for such new beginnings.
Let’s not forget, many will relapse once or twice before attaining long-term sobriety. We believe in second and third…and more chances.
Yeah, you’ve still got to do some basic math to get by in life. You need to pay your bills. You need to be able to fill out a job application. Maybe, write a cogent sentence. You’ve got to be able to get your life organized.
But I’m especially most grateful for an eternal welcome for the disorganized, the ADD folks. As is our welcome at the Lord’s Table: “Whoever you are and wherever you are on your spiritual journey, you’re invited to this Table to receive the Bread and Wine made holy.” For you, my friend, even at the eleventh hour, are holy and precious in the sight of God. Amen.
September 24, 2023
17 Pentecost, Proper 20
The Rev. Dr. John C. Forney
Jonah 3:10-4:11; Psalm 145:1-8;
Philippians 1:21-39; Matthew 20:1-16 “It’s Not Fair”
Trust But Verify
My friend Susan, a priest at All Saints, says that she is never disillusioned by the church. That’s because she has no illusions about the church. Whatever else the church is, it’s a fallible human community like all others. How often have I arrived at a new parish but to be accosted by all and sundry wanting to make sure I understood their side of the various conflicts that had been roiling that congregation. Sometimes for years.
Archbishop William Temple used to say that the Church is the only institution that does not exist primarily for its own members. The poor archbishop, I fear, had far too lofty a view of our frail humanity. Church folks can be as self-centered as those of any other grouping.
When I was in college, I was a promoter of California’s new fair housing law, which so-called conservatives were wanting to repeal.
My then girlfriend’s parents owned several apartment buildings and definitely felt that they should not be forced to rent to “undesirables” – read Blacks or Mexican-Americans.
When I would attempt to make the case that we should all be able to get along and live together – isn’t this what the gospel teaches? I was told in no uncertain terms that that was religion, but apartments were about business. Two different issues. Needless to say, under that disagreement my then girlfriend and I soon parted company. And these folks were good Methodists, regular church attenders.
Unlike my friend Susan, I did have illusions about Christian community.
As Mark Twain would quip, “It would be easier to believe in the possibility of redemption if the redeemed looked a little more redeemed. He, in his day, discovered the same spiritual blindness of the Church when it came to the issue of slavery.
The prophet Ezekiel proclaims that he has been made a sentinel for the house of Israel, to warn the wicked from their ways.
“If I [the Lord] say to the wicked, ‘O wicked ones, you shall surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but you will have saved your life…I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?’”
The message is always, “Choose Life. Choose Life.”
That, AND that we are our sister’s, our brother’s keeper. We have a mutual stake in one another’s well-being.
This is a difficult proposition in our American hyper-individualistic culture. The Gospel ethic cuts straight across that stance. Hear Paul this morning: “Owe no one anything, EXCEPT to love one another.”
It’s the same ethic as that of my favorite fictional L.A. detective character in Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch novels when it comes to effort put forth to solve murders, “Everyone counts or no one counts.”
Matthew enjoins his readers to do all possible to retain a member, even in the heat of disagreement and bad behavior.
I know that I sometimes get taken advantage of because of being too trusting. I assume that most are honest, upright actors. But even in the church, especially in the church, so much is at stake, we do get crossways with one another on occasion.
In the days at the height of the Cold War, when nuclear Armageddon was a real possibility, our state department went apoplectic when it looked like Reagan and Gorbachev were on the threshold of banning all nukes.
They did not trust Reagan’s over-optimistic assessment of Gorbachev as an honest broker. How could we possibly believe those “dirty, rotten Commie so-and-sos?”
Reagan’s answer? “Trust but verify.”
That’s the one thing he said that I believe carried weight. And hope. I confess, I was not a fan, considering how he eviscerated our mental health establishment in California. But as I said, this response resonates as true.
About eighty percent of folks will behave in ethical upright ways. Another fifteen percent might be ethically squishy. And maybe five percent or fewer are of a larcenous heart and will rob you blind.
A welcome respite and antidote to our hyper-partisan culture comes in Elizabeth Currid-Halkett’s book on the middle of our nation, The Overlooked Americans.[1] To get an assessment of the country, the author interviewed hundreds of people – all sorts, from all parts of the nation and of all political stripes.
What she discovered is that we have much more in common than the pundits and radio shock-jocks would lead us to believe. A key question the author asked of all interviewees was what democracy meant to them.
What she found was an affirmative answer to Rodney King’s tormented question, “Can we all get along?” A definite “yes” was the overwhelming answer of almost all respondents.
As a whole, we citizens had a capacious and generous understanding of the national covenant that binds us together as a people. Some of our answers:
“…everybody has a choice, everybody has a vote, everyone mattering” – this from a single mom in Appalachia.
“Where everyone gets a fair say with decision-making, to some extent…People should help make decisions for the country and to have the freedom to have free speech and practice any religion, without being persecuted” – a neurologist from Memphis.
Despite differences in age and section of the country, most answers seemed similar. Maybe we can all get along. And where we have differences, “trust but verify.” Cut each other a bit of slack.
It all takes a bit of tending. In a discussion between Marilynne Robinson and President Obama, quoted by the author, Robinson remarked on our national experiment with self-rule: “[Democracy] was something that people collectively made and that they understood they held it together by valuing it.” “We cannot take it for granted…It is a main thing that we remake continuously.”[2] It is based on our valuing one another.
When going through some of my brother’s things, in his workshop – a very large space – I came across one huge safe. Then another. And yet another. These things weighed hundreds of pounds and were almost six feet tall by four feet wide and two feet deep. One after another until I counted at least six of them. Two of which were still in their shipping containers. He had a forklift to move them.
My friend wondered what was going on with his thinking. The answer? Paranoia. Tom didn’t trust much of anybody. The world was obviously out to rob him blind. I offered to loan my friend my psych textbook on paranoia. It explains everything we were seeing.
The Gospel answer? Life’s too short to live in continual distrust of one’s fellows. Bad for the heart also.
The ethic of the Jesus movement is that of a generous spirit. Most of us, even in the church, will do the right thing. Our differences? “We can work it out,” to quote the Beatles. “We can work it out.”
The church is like a big family. We are not just a random assortment of individuals who happened to stumble in off the street. We belong to one another. And that’s the reality I witness every Sunday here at St. Francis.
Yes, like any family we have our differences, but there’s no evil intent implied or expressed – like any family.
I can still remember our late controversy here at St. Francis over the Thanksgiving gravy. On one hand we had the giblet’s faction and opposed was the giblets-free opinion. In my mind’s eye I could envision schism over gravy of all things. Giblets were essential. Giblets were an atrocity. Which would it be? As my grandmother would often exclaim in disgust, “Oh, good gravy!”
The problem was solved by having two gravy selections. You choose. Would that all church controversies could be worked out so amicably. Maybe this solution comes under the category of WWJD. Or at least, it’s as close as we could get.
As one of my favorite hymns puts it: “Blest be the tie that binds/Our hearts in Christian love:/The fellowship of kindred minds/Is like to that above. We share each other’s woes,/Our mutual burdens bear,/And often for each other flows/The sympathizing tear…When we asunder part,/It gives us inward pain.”
This is indeed a journey where everyone counts, where everyone is precious in the Lord’s sight. Let us continually pray for the grace to live out this vision. Amen.
[1] Elizabeth Currid-Hacket, The Overlooked Americans: The Resilience of Our Rural Towns and What that Means for Our Country (New York: Basic Books, 2023).
[2] Op cit, 29-30.
September 10, 2023
15 Pentecost, Proper 18
The Rev. Dr. John C. Forney
Ezekiel 33:7-11; Psalm 119:33-40;
Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 18:15-20 “Trust But Verify
