Psalm 1
Matthew 13:10-17
Luke 19: 12-26
“To those who have,
much will be given and to those who have not, even what they have will be taken
away.” This seems like such a cruel
statement. Why would God do this? Take away from those who have not and give
only to those who already have? I do not
believe that this is a statement about what God does. Those sentences that say things like “God
helps those who…” and “God loves those who…” fail to see the amazing grace of
God that extends to everyone. So what
then is this about?
Statements such as “to those who have, much will be
given and to those who have not, even what they have will be taken away” are
unfortunately very accurate description of the world today. And I think when Jesus is making these
statements, he is pointing out the backwardness of human societies. Look around you. The truth is that those who have have a very
easy time getting more. And those who
have not have a very hard time getting even their basic needs met. We know that the rich are getting richer
while the poor in our country are getting poorer. We know this, we hear about it. We probably
are unaware of exactly how much this is true, but the medium family income has
significantly dropped versus the cost of living over the last few years, the
bottom 90% of the people in this country, the bottom 90% have only 23% of the
nation’s wealth. That means the top 10%
own 77% of the wealth in this country.
And that gap continues to grow.
The top .1% in this country own 25% of the country’s wealth. This is a
significant change in the last few years.
The gap is growing. And frankly,
we probably experience it in our own lives. The more you have to invest, the
higher interest you can make on what you invest. The more properties you own,
the more likely you can own “one more”.
If you have a lot of money, you get a lower percentage on loans. The more money you put down on a house, the
lower your loan interest percentage. The
faster you are able to pay off a loan, the lower the percentage of interest you
need to pay. It should be the opposite –
those who need the loans the most should get a lower percentage so they are
more able to actually pay it back, but that’s not how it works.
I’ve found myself thinking about this in terms of those
who have been traumatized by the fire. Money
has been pouring out to help those who’ve lost their homes in the fires. One website said 1.4 million dollars had been
donated just through them. Another site
I saw was a Red Cross website that actually said, “we have as much money as we
can handle to help these folk. If you
still want to give money, send it through another organization. Ironically, the other organization said the
same thing in reverse, “we have enough.
Please send it to Red Cross…” The
outpouring around this has been amazing, and a truly wonderful sign of the
caring that people can give. People
should step up and they have. But I have
found myself wondering, if we are able to raise this much money in this short a
time for the victims of the fires, why are we not able to raise the same amount
for those who struggle every day, before the fires and after the fires, to
obtain enough to eat? With the amount of
money that has come forward to help those in the fires, we could actually wipe
out homelessness in CA and more. Why are
we not doing that? Why are we not able
to eradicate homelessness for the children in our country? While 40% of the homeless population in the
United States are children, the poverty level in our country for all children
is 22%. 22% of the children in the
United States, which is a higher percentage than in any other industrialized
country, are so poor they have trouble finding enough to eat. 22%.
Why can we not raise the same amount of money and give towards programs
that target families struggling to get back on their feet as we are for those
who’ve lost their homes in these fires? I think one reason is that poverty is seen as
a chronic problem whereas the fire burning houses is seen as a one-time
problem. But also, people become afraid
that those who are poor will somehow “misuse” the money given to them whereas
we tend to trust those who are “just like us”, people who have homes. We can sympathize more easily with those who
have lost their homes to a fire than those who are on the street because they
never had homes in the first place. We
have come to believe that the poor are untrustworthy. Truthfully, most of us at some level blame
the poor for their own poverty, and we treat them as such. I doubt any of us would hesitate when out to
eat with a friend to offer to pay for their meal. And yet, how hard is it to buy a meal for a
person on the street who really needs it? And again, the biblical phrase comes
to mind once more: “To those who have,
more will be given, but to those who have little, even what they have will be
taken away.”
I admit, I became
especially aware of the reality of the “for those who have more will be given
and for those who have not even what they have will be taken away” when we were
struggling to find a house out here.
Without an address and without proof of residency I couldn’t even
register the kids for school. I found
myself thinking about this many times during the weeks that we were, in
essence, homeless. We blame the poor for
their own poverty. And yet, how do we
expect those kids who’ve been raise in homeless situations and therefore can’t
even register to go to school to somehow raise themselves out of that poverty? How, without food or resources or a network
of support or education, is that even
POSSIBLE? When we consider that 22% of
the children in our country are living in poverty, we also have to recognize
that these 22% of our children are uneducated if they are educated at all.
An example of a
different kind. I have a good friend who
struggles with clinical depression.
There are times when she is so down that she cannot get out of bed. It is during those hard times that she is
least likely to get the support she needs from her friends. She has a harder time reaching out during
those times. But additionally, when she
is depressed her friends get tired and depressed being around her. With mental illness too we tend to blame the
victims, not recognizing their need or the ways we could support and help them
through it.
When we look at the
international situation, the refugees, those most in need around the world are
the ones who again have the hardest time getting what they need. People and countries become afraid of what
the presence of these strangers will do to us, to me, to you and I and they
close their doors to those in need.
Where is the Good News in that?
Well, as I said before, the God that I know is not a God
who makes the poor poorer and the rich richer.
The God I meet in scripture, through Jesus and through those around me
is a God who points out this reality in order to change it. The God I know does not go away, leaving us
to use our resources however we will, nor does this God celebrate or even
condone the fact that to those who have more is given and to those who have not
even what they have is taken away.
Instead the God
I know is a God of love. The God I meet
in Jesus is one who gives and gives, especially to those who lack and are poor.
This God does not ask if you are worthy or trustworthy. This is a God of grace who continues to give
and love despite the fact that ALL of us fall short, and ALL of us have areas
in which we “have not” or are lacking. The God Jesus talks about never leaves,
but is with us always, guiding, holding, comforting us along our paths. And the God of the Gospels is selfless, even
to the point of risking and experiencing death because of us. And even then that same God’s love does not
stop but grows to the point at which it overcomes even death and returns again
and again with open arms still full of love, hope, and grace. The God we worship and trust is the God who
invites us and calls us to become a part of creating God’s reign on earth.
And this is where the gospel stories returns. Because in order to be a part of bringing
heaven to earth, we do have to be willing to listen, even when the words are
hard, to hear the truth in the parables and stories Jesus shares with us. In order to be a piece of God’s kingdom, we have
to trust God, depend on God, use what we have been given to serve in gratitude
the God who gave us everything! God’s
kingdom is here and now. But we are
called to be part of ushering that in.
When we choose, like the slave with the one talent in
Luke’s story, to see God as greedy and punishing, we exclude ourselves from the
life God offers us. Fearing that we will lose all, we take no risks. We imprison ourselves when we choose not to
see God’s light, God’s miracles, God’s beauteous renewing of creation every
day.
The slaves with the ten pounds and five pounds saw and
believed in a master who was loving and good.
They risked because they trusted.
And in return, they found the love they expected, they were met by a
generous master, and they shared in God’s kingdom. The slave with the one talent didn’t just
have less. He chose to see and believe
in a harsh master and in fear he lost everything.
As loving and merciful as God is, this is a choice we
make. Do we choose to hide and protect
what we have, believing in an angry, jealous, harsh God? Or do we see the God of love who has given us
everything we have and out of gratitude do we then help bring about the kingdom
of God for ourselves and those around us?
Do we offer those in need the things they need, giving more to those who
have not than those who have? From a
place of trust and faith then we can risk offering a homeless person food, we
can stop and say a kind word to someone who is alone, we can take a few minutes
to listen to someone’s story. Out of our
abundance, we can be part of creating a world of abundance, even out of
nothing.
That’s not to say it’s easy. From those who have, much is expected. We who have are expected to give more in
order to fully be part of God’s kingdom.
It is also not to say that bad things won’t happen. God is not a magic fairy whom you can pray to
and expect to have your wishes granted.
God is generous, but God doesn’t stop the world from playing out, often
with bad things. But God is present with
us, holding us, loving us in the midst of those challenging times and
situations. And God calls us to be part
of creating the kingdom on earth with the resources and gifts we have: God
calls us, invites us to be part of this no matter what is going on in our
lives.
A young boy and his grandmother were walking along the
sea shore when a huge wave appeared out of nowhere, sweeping the child out to
sea. The horrified woman fell to her
knees, raised her eyes to the heavens and begged God to return her beloved
grandson. Amazingly, another wave reared
up and deposited the stunned child on the sand before her. The grandmother looked the boy over
carefully. He was fine. But still she stared up angrily towards the
heavens. “When we came,” she snapped
indignantly, “he had a hat!”
Which God do we see?
The God who saved the child? Or
the God who did not rescue the boy’s hat?
Which world do we choose to be a part of? A world in which everyone else is out to get
us and we just have to hold on and take care of our own? Or a world in which, when we share and give
and love, God gives back ten fold? God
invites us to be part of God’s new and glorious creation. God hopes for us to trust, and love and live
and be joyful. God calls us to be God’s
heaven on earth and to share it with others.
We pray, God, that a little at a time, you would lead us
to risk and enter the kingdom which you have prepared for us and which is, by
your great grace and love, all around us, all the time. Amen.
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