By the Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, RectorThe Presidential campaign was put on the back burner this week as our attention was riveted to the stock market. Historic declines terrified millions and set off domino effects around the world. Attempts to bail out the major companies and hopefully the small investor and homeowners are being sought and frantically put in place with prayers for deliverance. Deliverance from what? Or whom?
Many years ago a cartoon character named Pogo made famous a saying: "We have met the enemy and he is us." It was a take off on the previously famous quote from Naval Commander Oliver Hazard Perry who after a battle in the War of 1812 said, "We have me the enemy and he is ours."
Commander Perry’s quote was the succinct report of his success against British ships in the Battle of Lake Erie, while Pogo became the voice of his cartoonist Walt Kelly in a Poster made for Earth Day in 1970 talking about preserving the environment.
In 2008, we know there’s an enemy, but it seems we don’t quite know who it is or what to do about it. It’s certainly tempting to look outside, but more often the truth lies inside. While searching for others to blame for our misfortunes we cannot overlook the probability that our own past actions have consequences coming home to roost. And just as the causes usually begin from within, so the solutions can be found from within. It starts with honesty from top to bottom and side to side. As this crisis continues the stakes are high and all the more reason to look within as well as without to find the causes and solutions.
The first lesson today is the continued story of Exodus with the children of Israel having escaped from the Egyptians and now wandering in the desert. Given this week’s activity, the desert metaphor seems entirely appropriate. In literature and story the desert is a time in between the certainty of the past and the confidence of the future. It’s a time of not knowing, a time of venturing into new territory not necessarily drawn by the promise of what lies ahead, but motivated more by the knowledge that the past was unacceptable. When the Israelites left Egypt, they had been miserable under the intolerable conditions of slavery they endured. They had to get out and they decided to follow Moses based on his assurance that God would lead them to a better place. Since they believed things couldn’t be any worse, they decided to follow him and put their trust in a God they didn’t know and a leader who had no experience. They were indeed desperate.
After the excitement of escape they face the long period in the desert of unknowing. Their faith was tested and they frequently complained. They began to wonder if they made the right decision by leaving Egypt. It was bad, but at least they had food. They discovered at each step that God provided what they needed. It was a long, difficult trip, but God did not abandon them and there were signs of hope along the way.
In the Gospel lesson, Jesus tells a parable in which the characters complain also. Those that worked all day complained that they made the same amount of money as those that had only worked one hour. Frankly, it doesn’t seem fair to me either and I would have complained myself, had I been one who had started in the early morning. That is, if the parable was about work. And that is, if the parable was about salary. It may have complaining in it, but it’s about God’s love. God’s abundant love is extended to all people regardless of when they show up. Even more than that, I believe the parable captures the joy of people who reach a point of clarity in their lives and start to live in a way that makes sense and offers wholeness.
I heard a story not too long ago told by a man about his mother who had been an active alcoholic her whole life. Somewhere in her early 80's she stopped drinking. Others hearing the story, rather insensitively asked, Why bother at that age? I heard it differently. I thought the woman was incredibly blessed to have finally found a sense of peace which had so long eluded her. Yes, it would have been wonderful had she stopped drinking decades before but what an amazing gift that she stopped at all. At the end of her day, her reward was equal to that of others who had stopped long ago. Spiritually, her gift was as priceless as that received by others.
Yesterday I attended the funeral of Walter Seward. He’s the father of our fellow member Marymae Henley. He was 111 years and 11 months old at the time of his death. The eulogies were long, they had a lot of ground to cover! The funeral was held in the chapel at Rutgers University from which Walter was graduated in 1917. We were told he was the president of the class of 1917 until he was the class of 1917. There were a lot of wonderful and poignant stories, but one of the most moving parts of the funeral for me was during the Rutgers alma mater sung by the glee club which easily had 100 young men singing. I looked around and noticed that all through out the chapel men and women of all ages were mouthing the words as the young men sang. There was a shared love of that university that has to transcend the buildings and classes. That place which watched each person transition from youth to adult, from naive freshman and wise fool sophomore to confidant senior taking a place in the world. Relationships and discoveries within their minds, hearts and spirits reverberated in that song as did the gratitude for a substance that fed them like the manna in the wilderness. The Israelites looked at this stuff that Moses called bread from heaven. It didn’t look like any bread they’d ever had, but it did the trick. Who knows what the substance is that feeds us in the institutions and societies that capture our allegiance but whatever it is works. I also belong to groups that make me sing with pride and love with people who have born the heat of different days and yet receive the same gift of a powerful knowing inside that God’s love is good, that I am loved, and I am so grateful.
Walter’s day was a long one and out of the billions of people in the world only 29 had a longer one. But according to the parable, the kingdom of heaven guarantees that 111 years or simply a day, we are loved by God with an equal and powerful love that is not earned but given.
The work in the parable is presented as a burden. It doesn’t have to be. The flight of the Israelites is presented as an escape and a time of fear. It doesn’t have to be. To be sure, there are times that are trying and fearful, but our lives can also be thrilling, adventurous and opportunities for unlocking mysteries, having fun and building relationships that make our hearts sing. When it’s like that, a long day is good to have. It’s the ones who showed up late that seemed to have missed out.
The parable means to us that it’s never to late to heal, never too late to try again, never too late to let go of something harmful and pick up something healthy. It’s never too late look for ourselves and find the best that’s inside us and never to late offer a hand to someone who’s lost. The gift of grace, the gift of love, the gift of joy is just as powerful for the late comer as it is for the early riser. We needn’t complain about that, we should be happy that another person has been surprised by joy, there’s plenty to share, there’s more than enough .there’s an infinite supply.
The ebbs and flows of our economics are often based on fear that there will not be enough, or that others will get more. There is a real world out there in which we live and work that plays by rules of fear and intimidation, greed and arrogance. But thank God there is a real world in here that sustains us with bread from heaven that heals us from within so that we can offer healing to the world without. Amen.
© 2008 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ
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