Praise and exploitation

2 short talks this week as well as a short sermon on the gospel.

Gods blessings a few words on psalm 113

I wonder what you think when we say ‘Praise the Lord!’ or ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord’

This psalm is a psalm of praise, a psalm that acknowledges the mystery and power of God, the enormity of God, the care God shows to the lowly, the poor and needy.

Part of the psalm reminds me of the Magnificat – where the powerful are brought down and the lowly are raised up, the hungry are filled with good things and the rich go away empty.

Do we praise God when we are hungry? Or only when things are going well?

What does it mean to praise the Lord, to bless the name of the Lord? 

A few words on Amos

“I will never forget their evil deeds.”

I think this passage from the prophet Amos is fairly clear. God is not happy with the way that people were treating each other, especially those who ripped off the poor. This and the reading from Luke both talk about being in debt, yet the Jewish system did not allow charging interest.  The system of jubilee meant that land was to be returned to its stewards, so that the rich could not keep on getting more and more and the number of poor did not keep increasing.

“ .. it said that St. Augustine asserted that God gave us people to love and things to use, and original sin manifests itself in our penchant to confuse those two, loving things and using people.” [i]

What is the evil you see in our country?

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[i] David Lose, In the Meantime

Luke 16: 1-13

This is one of those readings I have struggled with. There are a variety of opinions amongst scholars as to the meaning or moral of this parable.

At the beginning of chapter 15, the religious leaders were grumbling because Jesus ate with the wrong people, sinners and tax collectors, and then we have 3 parables – the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son.  The first two we looked at last Sunday. In both the lost is looked for, searched for, and when found and returned, there is much celebrating. In the third of the lost stories, the ‘lost’ son returns home hoping his father will employ him, but the father celebrates, though not all the family celebrates.

Then “Jesus said to his disciples, “There was once a rich man who had a servant who managed his property. …”

The servant is the manager of the rich man’s property.  From the list of amounts owed, property included olive oil and wheat.

Here is a crash course in economics from 1^st century Galilee.

While the Jewish religion prohibited the charging of interest, many rich landlords charged high interest rates. People who were desperate would borrow to buy what they needed.  In this case the manager may have added his own cut on top of the landlord’s fees or interest.[i]

One way to look at this story is that the manager reduced the amount owed by his cut. He reduced his earnings, but he wasn’t going to see that money once he lost his job. Or maybe he reduced the debt by his cut and the boss’s interest as well. The boss can’t really complain because by Jewish teaching he should not have been charging interest in the first place. But he has made friends who will look after him, because he forgave part of their debt.  [ii]

While the boss commends the manager for being shrewd, Jesus doesn’t end this parable with ‘go and do likewise’.

He does say be clever, not in ripping people off, but in living as my disciples. Be shrewd, not at the expense of others.  Don’t be naïve about the ways of the world.

While I have been told that you shouldn’t discuss politics or religion in polite society, it seems to me that in the church we don’t talk about money.

The Gospels don’t say anything about wealth being a problem. What is a problem, and a sin, is becoming wealthy at the expense of others, particularly the poor.  Wealth also comes with responsibility, as we will see in next week’s reading. One of the problems of money, is that once people have some, we want to keep it for ourselves.

And the last part of the passage:

 “No servant can be the slave of two masters; such a slave will hate one and love the other or will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

Life can be complicated. As Christians we try and follow Jesus, yet we live in a world that at times seems incompatible with following Jesus.  

Do we serve God or money?

Money is a tool, yet so often it seems like an idol. The more wealth we have, cars, house, investments, the more time and energy is needed to look after these things. Yet life is not about money, life is about relationships. The religious leaders grumbled because of the people Jesus associated with. When we are in healthy relationship with people around us, we won’t be exploiting them, or allowing some people to be hungry or homeless.

The manager was clever, he had messed up and had to find a way out of the mess. We need to be clever with our money, our resources, our time – not so we can make more and more money for ourselves. We need to be wise to recognise the true nature of life.

Remember the quote from Augustine:

“... that God gave us people to love and things to use,” ^[iii]

I can remember many years ago making a mobile, with people and things on opposite sides of one piece of paper, and love and use on the other piece of paper, just like this.

Do we use our position in life, our resources to feather our own nests, or do use what we have to show and share the love and grace of God?

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[i] Working Preacher Barbara Rossing

[ii] Working Preacher Barbara Rossing

[iii] David Lose, In the Meantime

distractions, expectations and God's judgement

this week's newsletter column:

Our gospel reading for today is Luke 10: 38-42, Jesus is welcomed into the house by Martha, who busies herself with meal preparation. Her sister, Mary, sits with the disciples, listening to Jesus.

Being a good host requires us to listen to our guests and to provide for the needs of our guests. Being a good host finds the balance between these things. Martha fulfils the role assigned to her by her culture, proving for the physical needs of others, but she misses out on time with Jesus.

We read that “Martha was distracted by her many tasks.”

How often are we distracted by a list of things that need doing?

It could be appointments; contacting friends and family; household chores like washing and cooking and cleaning; work; study; etc.

We hear a lot about work life balance and how hard it is for some people to achieve, especially with long commute times. 

But I wonder about our faith balance?

We need to listen, to pray, to read the scriptures; but we also need to put our faith into practice, to serve, to witness. Christianity is about being loved by God and loving others.

What this might look like for our congregation as a whole? How much time and energy do we spend on looking after buildings, balancing the budget and keeping the doors open? Are these tasks a means of enabling us to participate in the life God wants for us and the people round about us and beyond us, or are they a distraction holding us back from that life?

What would life look like if we broke free from the constraints of what we ‘should’ do, and be the person God made us to be? Not as a way of avoiding responsibility and service, but living as the person God made us to be.

I encourage you to reflect this week on who God made you to be, and what distracts you from being that person. 

.....

sermon one: Amos 10: 1-18

This passage from Amos begins with another vision. Last week it was the plumb line, showing how the people of Israel had moved away from the ways of God. This week the vision is of a basket of fruit. The paraphrase we heard this morning picks up the wordplay from the Hebrew. In Hebrew the word for ‘summer fruit’ and ‘end’ sounds similar, just as quince and quits sound similar. [Blake Couey, Working Preacher]

Why is God calling it quits with Israel?

Because of the way Israel is treating people.

Sometimes we don’t see the connection between how we live and the lives of other people, or the health of creation.

While the book of Amos is dated around 750 years before the birth of Christ, the themes are ones that are familiar to us today.

This was a time of relative stability and affluence in Israel, but this was also a time of corruption.

We live in a time when coal mining is killing the Great Barrier Reef.

We live in a time when child labour means we can buy cheap clothing.

We live in a time when shops are open almost every day of the year, and some retail businesses want to be open every day.

We live in a time when truth in advertising is a joke.

We live in a time when the rich can get loans with little interest but the poor pay over 150% interest.

For example, one online lender, will loan between 150 and 2000 dollars for 9 weeks – no credit check.  “The establishment fee is 20% of the amount borrowed. The monthly fee is 4% of the amount borrowed” If you borrow $1000, you pay $1320 over 9 weeks. 184% annualised interest rate. [http://www.sunshineloans.com.au/?gclid=CMHLoNHp980CFUNvvAodw4AIWg]

“Corporate fraud, exploitation of the poor, and ecological disruption are all consequences of the drive to maximize profit at any costs. People who live on the margins often suffer disproportionately from environmental abuse.” [Blake Couey, Working Preacher]

Just as in the days of Amos, almost 3,000 years ago, so it is today.

What can we do?

I have tried and it is very time consuming to check out the manufacturing trail for each item of clothing or food or homeware.

But we can make some changes:

·                     We can support people who are harassed because of their gender or colour or religion

·                     We can buy fair trade items when we see them – it is relatively easy with tea, coffee and chocolate.

·                     We can join with groups working for a fairer society.

·                     We can write to politicians and retailers

·                     We can stop expecting $5 t-shirts

“I, the LORD, swear on the Bible you so proudly wave,

........that I will not forget a single one of your mongrel actions.” [©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net]

God will judge us, not on how often we hold the Bible, or quote from the Bible, but on how we live out the love of God in action. 

followed by this hymn   http://www.newhymn.com/160ChooseLife.htm


sermon two: Luke 10: 38-42

Distractions, this is something I know about. There are often multiple things going on in my mind at the same time that is one reason I ask you to write me a note rather than tell me something at the church door on a Sunday morning.

Or I jump from one thing to another and another, and then back again.

One of the problems with mobile phones is that people walk around looking at the screen instead of where they are walking.

We live in a world where it is easy to be distracted:

Distracted by latest Hollywood romance

Or the crisis in almost any team sport

Or how the floor needs washing

Look at this picture  [Mind Full or Mindful]   https://sites.google.com/site/mbct4yppcdevon/_/rsrc/1378978316924/do-you-want-to-know-about-mindfulness/Mind-Full-or-Mindful-my-web-1.jpg

Are our minds full, full to overflowing; or are we mindful, aware, of that which is going on around us.

This week there was story in the Sydney Morning Herald about a young man from Port Macquarie. At age 16 Riley Bennett was told by a high school adviser he should train as a baker. He is now in third year of Medicine at the University of New South Wales. http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/dont-sell-yourself-short-%E2%80%93-no-limits-indigenous-medical-horizons

This reminded me of the way our society puts expectations on us – to be pretty or brainy or strong or to not get ahead of ourselves.

When many of you were growing up, it was expected that after getting married a woman would not take on paid employment, at least not until the children were at school.

There is an expectation that people moving to Australia only do the jobs that no-one else wants to do. They should be grateful to be here.

We are all subject to expectations. Remember the story I told a few weeks ago, about the Wemmicks and grey dots and gold stars – these were used to label people and judge people.

Martha invited Jesus into her house – that is what Luke writes, it was Martha’s house. Even though Martha is the head of the house, she is still bound by the expectation that a woman will prepare food, and make everyone comfortable. Her sister Mary, who I can only imagine is a younger sister, sits with the disciples – but only men can be disciples,
…  well isn’t that the way it works???  

And why isn’t Mary helping in the kitchen like a good woman??

Expectations can keep us confined, to a place, or a state of mind.

I wonder what part expectations played in the high school advisor’s recommendation to Riley Bennet to be a baker, rather than look to University study. Riley Bennett is aboriginal.

We read of families where two or three generations are unable to find work – is this because people write of the family, or in the case of Mt Druitt a few years ago, a whole school?

Or is it that poverty keeps horizons low? When you are looking for how to pay the next bill, university education for your children just doesn’t seem possible. And it is increasingly difficult for people from lower socio-economic groups to go to university.

Mary broke the expectations society placed on women, she acted like a disciple. But she was also a gracious host. When you go and visit someone, you don’t want them to spend the whole time in the kitchen. Being a host means providing for the needs of your guests, but also to be with them.

Jesus saw Mary as a disciple.

Jesus said Mary has chosen the better part.

One commentator writes:

“Mary and Martha cannot be about the better thing that means who is better, who acts better, who can be better.

The better thing is the invitation to believe that you are who God sees you to be.

And that is precisely our problem. An inherent, systemic, omnipresent, ingrained, intrinsic, dysfunctional, disturbing belief that not all are worthy of God’s regard and love. The conviction, as Paul Farmer says, “That not all are not equal in God’s eyes. That all are not made in the image of God.” [Karoline, Working Preacher]

Do we really believe that everyone is created in the image of God?

Do we think that we are more worthy of God’s love and grace than someone else?

Riley Bennett told the Sydney Morning Herald:

“While students were sometimes underestimated by those around them, others limited their horizons by underestimating themselves"

http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/health/dont-sell-yourself-short-%E2%80%93-no-limits-indigenous-medical-horizons

The better thing is the invitation to believe that you are who God sees you to be.

What are our expectations of women, indigenous people, refugees, Muslims?

What are the expectations that bind us?

What happens when other people move outside of our expectations?