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There
once was a family where both spouses began from very poor means. The woman’s family were Irish immigrants and
her father worked in a steel mill while the mother stayed home and raised her
family. The man’s parents were Polish
immigrants and both worked odd jobs to barely survive. After growing up in the Greaser ‘50’s and
moving into 1960’s Chicago; the man became the poster child for building an
advertising empire from the ground floor and up! He did this through surreal expectations upon
himself and a lot of blood, sweat and tears.
By the late 1970’s he would win many an award in advertising expertise
and be officially considered wealthy. He
and his wife were living the high life, they floated from house to house as
well as from car to car. Life was a blur
of acquisition, inebriation, celebration and all things consumable.
Diving
further into the couple and the notion of opposites do, indeed attract… The man you could say did initially begin and
did perhaps stay somewhat within an economy of GRACE, truthful righteousness
mindset. His wife however was in her own
world— daily baptized in wine and creature comforts gave her the upper hand in
manipulating where their lives would lead next.
Ever changing daily were the dollars, ever growing were the
acquisitions, debt and scandal… for she grew to neither love the man nor depend
upon him really any more. She simply
used him and spent his spirit.
They
are now both elderly and by some unhealthy reason, are still ‘together.’ Their children never really knowing family…
had long since been gone. Their sons on
the east coast and their daughters on the west coast… They were geographically
as well as spiritually in the middle.
They were in the vast open desert of what became their lives. They were now living outside of Chicago in a
senior high rise where they would wake to see the city skyline. It was as if they were once again immigrants
looking into the sunrise of what they long ago lost. They weren’t destitute, they had social
security and the “artifacts” of their once wealthy past… but they were in the
dust bowl.
This
is merely a slice from that large American pie so many people grasped for… Was
it hopeful expectation or purely satiated greed? Was this particular family exampled above
woven by indifference or were they victims?
These decisions are made by how your heart has built within itself a
receptivity to GRACE.
From
an excerpt of Luther’s sermon around today’s Gospel, he seems to capture the
family’s dilemma: "This godliness cannot be attained by anyone without
grace in their heart. If I am to make for myself friends by means of mammon, I
must first be godly. For compare these two statements: A corrupt tree cannot
bring forth good fruit, and again, a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit.
From which judge for yourself: if I am to do good and give away mammon, I must
indeed be first good at heart, for God looks upon the heart, and as he finds
the heart, so he estimates our works. This I say, that people should not cram
works into the heart, but let the heart first be good through faith, that the
works may flow forth, otherwise you do no one any good; for if you have before
given a person anything, it did not come from the heart. Hence the conclusion
is, that I must first be good before I can do good. You cannot build from
without inward, you do not commence at the roof, but at the foundation.
Therefore faith must first be present."
Let’s
take apart Luther’s statement in light of both the Gospel passage for this week
and the story above. The landowner in
the Gospel is more or less the unknowing honest business man who hired and
listens to his unscrupulous manager. The
hard working man, in the story I began with, has without question, lovingly
listened and heeded to his wife’s every need.
The money in both stories was used to an unprofitable end,
truthfully. There are no righteous
people here persay, for both parties could’ve worked out and realized what they
were doing was wrong. The Pharisees in
today’s Gospel you could more or less see as how we become self-righteous,
self-seeking individuals claiming to be coming from a Godly attitude but it is
the furthest thing from the truth!
In
continuing the story, those years that the man shed blood, sweat and tears into
his business in order to enable his wife’s lifestyle gave him poor health and a
blind eye. This was a blind and
unreasonably forgiving eye to his wife’s numerous affairs and neglect of their
family. The bottle was her idol as well
as the man’s money. Their children grew
into barren fruit for none of the children have chosen to marry or bring forth
grand children. Their children grew up
alone while the ways of the Kingdom of this world were woven and thinly veiled
in a love that existed for only one: the man.
To
add to the family’s dust bowl reality, they never came to know and develop a
relationship with God in their lives.
They were too much into their own lives to find God relevant and vital. They never heard St. Paul’s wishes bestowed
upon the audience of 1st Timothy in order to instruct their lives: “2First of all, then, I
urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for
everyone, 2b…, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all
godliness and dignity. 3This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our
Savior, 4who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of
the truth. 5For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and
humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human,6awho gave himself a ransom for all—.”
Would it have made a
significant difference in the family’s life together if they were grounded in
Christ? The Pharisees claimed to be the
elite religious leaders for YHWH but they were definitely unrighteous on many
an occasion. It is almost as if as Jesus claimed in another Gospel, that they
never truly heard the Psalmist speak to their hardened and indifferent hearts: “5Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on
high,6who looks far down on
the heavens and the earth? 7He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the
ash heap,8to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.”
If we are grounded in
God, we are seeing, experiencing and most truly living in the light of God’s
GRACE. Perhaps if the couple gave away
their money and lived honestly and truthfully with each other, their family
would not be divided. They would be
together where(“) in Christ there is no East or West, in him no South or North,
but one great fellowship of love (binding not only their family but everyone)
throughout the whole wide earth. In him shall true hearts everywhere their high
communion find, his service is the golden cord close-binding all mankind.(”)
Let us Pray:
Gracious and Loving
God,
You know the truthful
deeds of our hearts
For what is prized by
us is most often an abomination to you.
Let us grow together
in prayer and Thanksgiving for everyone.
Help us to be
transformed by your GRACE
May we grow in
humility, honesty, welcome, faith and Love
For we are justified
by your GRACE through our faith
AMEN
Sunday September 22nd,
2013; Lectionary 25; 18th Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 20;
SOLA
Lectionary Psalm 113; Amos 8:4-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-15; Luke
16:1-15
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