Barak to the Rescue - A Sermon

27 Pentecost 08

I hope you had a chance to listen to the Old Testament reading before assuming my sermon title was a political statement.  But, really, when I read the passage from Judges about Barak being called upon by the Judge Deborah to save Israel from the much stronger Canaanites, well, I couldn’t resist.  I bet you didn’t even know Barak was in the bible.

Everyone looked upon Barak to save the day -- and for the most part he did -- but he could not do it by himself.  He needed an army of 10,000 Israelites behind him -- and one woman, Jael, who killed the Canaanite general Sisera.  Most importantly, he knew he needed God -- which is why he refused to go into battle without Deborah as the physical sign that it was God in whom Israel should place their hope, not Barak.

Which brings us to our own Barack and our nation’s troubles. Have you noticed how a lot of people are assuming he will save the day?  Sadly, too many think one man can change everything by himself, so they have thrown the problems of our nation upon him and said “Fix it!”  He can’t.  No one can alone.  He has already warned the nation that we will have to work together.

It’s that working together that’s the hard part.  We are anxious in our time of economic crisis.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a time where people are so scared and angry that they’re utterly at a loss of what to do.  Many are virtually paralyzed by fear.

And so I will tell you what the first thing to do is.  Do like Barak -- place your hope in God.  But realize that does not mean to say, “God will fix it,” and then go hide until it’s all over.  We who believe and follow Christ know that we are called upon to be partners in making the world a better place.

I admit, sometimes it’s tempting to tell yourself, “Today’s problems are too big.  I’ll just hide and let someone else take care of it.”  But think of today’s Gospel before you decide to do that.  Think about those talents.

Now, if you thought the parable of the talents proved that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, you’re wrong.  The real point of this talent is that regardless of how much you have -- whether it be 5 talents or 3 talents (by the way, a talent is said to be equivalient to about $2,000) -- if you honestly work with it, you’ll be okay.  It’s when you are paralyzed by fear that things don’t work.

Fear is the enemy of our faith -- of our lives, really.  It was not because he made no money that the servant who buried his talent in the ground was punished -- it was because he froze.  He allowed his fear to overwhelm him.

We won’t do that.  We know it is not Barak -- or Obama -- to the rescue.  It is God.  And we are part of the rescue, part of the solution to the problems before us.  Back in Barak’s day it was an invading army.  Today it is financial crisis.  Either way, Christians know that we are called to move forward in hope and trust that Christ moves with us -- no, that Christ leads us.

And so we come to that even more difficult part -- the part of the sermon that makes us all the more anxious and that we all want to avoid -- but because God leads us, we will not avoid.  

Yes, I’m talking about Stewardship.  Pledging.  I need to talk with you about pledging today because we are at a point in our church’s life where this is a crucial conversation.  But it is one we will approach with hope and trust, not fear.

As you know, we chose the theme “PLEDGE WITH HOPE” precisely because of the economic crisis.  As Russell so succinctly put it, we are asking you to pledge this year in the face of uncertainty but also in the hope that all will be well.  We are asking you to move forward both aware of how things can change but refusing to be paralyzed by our fear.

We will not say, “I can’t pledge - I don’t know if I’m even going to have a job next month.”  We will not say, “I can’t get involved in any ministries right now -- I might get transferred or have to move in search of work.”  The parable tells us that this paralysis can’t advance the Kingdom of God.  

This doesn’t mean you destroy yourself.  It doesn’t mean you pledge money you KNOW you don’t have, or burn yourself out.  There are plenty of people in this church who can pledge enough and give enough of their time to advance our mutual ministry.  

I’m not going to go over all our many ministries at St. James’ -- and I’m not going to go over the budget.  You know we do a lot and you know we are in the red.  

Yet, sometimes we look at our endowment and assume it will save us.  It won’t.  Or we looke at wealthier parishioners and assume they’ll make it better.  They won’t.  We’re already in the process of reducing some employee hours and even considering cutting positions and ministries.

Sometimes we look at the faithful 20% of the congregation who do 80% of the work and assume they will always make things happen.  They won’t.  They are burning out.  

If we assume others will take care of our budget or our ministries, then we are waiting on Barak to fix it.  Then we have become that servant who buried his talent out of fear.  I ask you to leave your fear behind.  Move forward in hope -- in trust -- in faith that it is God who leads you.  Although you may have received your pledge cards in the mail already, I’ve asked to have more printed so you can hold one in your hands right now.  

Look at it not in fear (or disgust), but consider three things:  1)  The ministries we support are valuable and worthy.  They give us meaning.  2)  Some people may not be able to financially support those ministries -- but that doesn’t mean your or I can’t.  3)  No one knows the future.  As we move forward in hope -- as we pledge in hope -- remember that things can just as easily get better as they can get worse. 

In the parable today, it didn’t really matter how much money each servant was given.  What mattered was the attitude they approached their challenge with.  Let US leave fear behind and approach our challenge with hope and trust.  Let us PLEDGE WITH HOPE.

And remember.  Barak did not save the day.  He was allowed to play a role in Israel’s rescue, but he knew -- and we know -- our hope is in the Lord.   Amen.

Fleshpots! - A Sermon

I don’t know about your week, but I’ve had my eyes on the business section of the paper.  It didn’t help that we remembered our life insurance is with a company name AIG - ever hear of it?  We’ve watched stocks take a nauseating roller coaster ride, thousands lose jobs, and uncertainty everywhere.

So, anyone a little anxious about the future?  Even churches are anxous.  After all, depend on parishioners for financial survival.  And this year more than any other we’ve had more pledging parishioners come and say, “I just don’t have the money to pay my pledge.”

Our treasurer and I were at a stewardship conference yesterday, and one of the first things they said to us was that people were hurting, so we could expect a difficult pledge campaign this year and significant belt tightening.  The next thing they said was, we are still the church, and money does not define our mission.  In fact, in times likes, we can shine.  More on that later.

So, we're in anxious times and nobody -- NOBODY -- knows how this will end.

Which makes today’s Old Testament reading from Exodus perfect for us.  Because if ever a group of people were facing an uncertain future and looking back on the “good times” they once had, this is it.  

You probably know the story of the Israelites after they left Egypt.  First God leads them out of slavery, then God saves them from the wrath of the Egyptian army, and then?  Well, then they look ahead to a vast desert with little or nothing to feed them.  They look to the future and see only certain doom.

Then they turn on Moses.  “Is this it?” they ask in anger.  “We had it good back then.  All we could eat, -- FLESHPOTS for goodness sake!”  Fleshpots.  Excess.  Luxury.  

We, of course, remember that they had lousy lives in Egypt.  Increasingly harsh treatment from their captors even before Moses showed up, less food, more work.  But we are not in that desert with them facing possible death.  

Or at least, we weren’t a couple of weeks ago.  Granted, financial uncertainty isn’t the same as dying of starvation in 120 degree temperatures.  But I bet it doesn’t feel too good, either.

It’s only natural to feel anxious and upset -- to look back on those happy days when survival wasn’t the problem.  Abuse was, but hey….

So what is the lesson?  They were in the desert - we’re in the desert.  They were anxious - we’re anxious.  

The lesson is this:  Trust the Lord.  Longing for the “good old days” may be understandable, but it won’t feed the people of Israel, and it won’t save anyone today.  Killing Moses (which they were tempted to do), would not have helped either.  What helped the Israelites was trusting God -- or at least trusting Moses who trusted God.  

That’s what we can do, too.  Trust that God is always with us -- especially in the painful times.  Trust that there is manna in our wilderness, and that we will not be left alone, either by God or by this church.  

St. James’ may not be Moses, but this congregation trusts God’s love for us.  This group of people in the vast wilderness of modern life in America is here right now, holding our arms up to God and trusting that, yes, the Lord will provide.  Anyone in this congregation who gets hit by these hard times can trust that their brothers and sisters are here to help.  

How?  I’ve used my discretionary fund over the years to help many parishioners get over bumps in their lives.  That’s what it’s for.  How else?  Well, those parishioners who are able can jump in to help cover for those who run into difficulty and can’t meet their pledges.  It’s more common than you might think.  If you’re lucky enough never to have experienced this, that’s great!  Give thanks to God and consider increasing your giving.  

You might be interested to note God’s response to those frightened and anxious (not to mention angry) Israelites.  God feeds them.  True, he only feeds them enough for the day -- God wants them to trust that he will feed them EACH day -- but the point is he feeds them.  And God will care for you.  There are people here who will see to it because like the people of Israel, we are bound to each other through the Lord.  

But I want to bring in for a  moment another story about anxiety and anger.  It’s almost the polar opposite of the Old Testament.  In the Gospel, Jesus tells the story of a landowner who hires day laborers a little at a time.  Day laborers are, of course, people who stand on the corner and wait for someone to hire them for the day.  If they don’t get hired, they don’t eat that day.  

The longer you stand, the less likely you are to be hired, and the more anxious you are about going hungry.  You get the idea.

Today’s Gospel is about the lucky ones -- the folks who get hired early in the day.  Sure, they have to work, but they do so with the knowledge that they will eat.  They work anxiety free.  But they are the angry ones at the end of the story because the landowner had mercy.  

God of course is the landowner, and this parable tells us that God cares for all alike.  Those who have -- who are enjoying the fleshpots -- and those who are anxious times.  So, how is it that those who worked all day became angry?  They got what they wanted, and there’s no way they would have traded places with the idle workers.  

That’s our problem isn’t it?  When we are eating out of the fleshpots, we resent those who aren’t, especially if God helps them.  But again, the point isn’t that we’ve earned anything.  The point is that God cares for us.  Loves us.  Has mercy on us all.  

We are the people of Israel, sometimes in bondage, sometimes in the wilderness facing an uncertain future.  We are the day laborers, some of us working hard in the knowledge that we have already been granted entrance into heaven, others still standing idle and anxious about what the future brings.

For us who are followers of Christ, the message is simple.  Trust the Lord’s love -- and share it with those who need it every bit as much as you.  Amen.