Job
is a harsh, strange story.
It
raises more questions than it answers.
But
the part in today’s lesson is a simple answer
to a complicated question: how do
relate to our stuff.
We
devote our days and nights acquiring material possessions,
cash, those abstract
numbers on accounts
that
measure our wealth,
and our status in the socio-economic
hierarchy.
Job
had done well at all of that.
He
had earned it. He had it.
Then
through no fault of his own, he lost it.
Without
his stuff, it was as if he no longer existed himself.
It
had claimed his very identity.
So
Job cried out to God for 37 long chapters of complaint.
After
all that, at Chapter 38 verse 1, we read:
“Then the Lord answered Job out of
the whirlwind.”
The
answer comes in a series of rhetorical questions:
“Where were you when I laid the
foundations of the earth?
. . . Who can tilt the wineskins of the
heavens . . .?
Can you hunt the prey for the lion .
. .?
Who provides for the raven its prey
when the young ones call
to God?”
The
point of the string of poetic questions is simple.
It
all comes from God.
“All
things come from thee O Lord.”
“For
you are the source of light and life.”
A
basic principle in philosophy of religion is contingency.
The
very existence of everything depends on the existence
of something else reaching back in
the great Chain of Being
until we get to the one Reality that
depends on itself alone – God.
Job
had made a mistake.
He
thought he had what he had because he deserved it.
That
isn’t how it works. It’s all a gift.
“But
I’ve worked hard for what I’ve got,” we want to say.
Maybe
so. But how did we get to be here in the first place?
Who
gave us the hands, the minds, the strong backs
or whatever it is we have parlayed
into acquiring stuff?
God.
It all goes back to God.
In
the 16th Century, St. Ignatius of Loyola
saw this basic point of all religion
and prayed:
“Accept
O God my memory, my will, my understanding,
my imagination.
All
that I am and all that I have, you have given me.
I
give it all back to be disposed of according to your good pleasure.
Grant
me only the comfort of your presence and the joy of your love.
With
these I shall be more than rich and shall ask for nothing more.”
In
that moment, Ignatius was set free.
It
was freedom because,
as long as we are struggling to establish our own worth
and acquire enough wealth to make
ourselves ok,
we are in bondage to the system.
We
can never be self-sufficient.
Self-sufficiency
is the carrot in front of the horse’s snout.
The
horse keeps straining toward the carrot it can never quite reach.
Some
decades ago the world’s richest man was an oil tycoon,
named J. Paul Getty.
A
young journalist once asked him,
“Mr. Getty, how much money will be
enough?”
J.
Paul Getty replied, “A little more. Always a little more.”
That
was Mr. Getty’s dealing with our stuff .
There
is another way – St. Ignatius’ way.
“All
that I am and all that I have you have given me.
I give it all back.”
Ignatius’
way is an act of acknowledgement and trust
-- acknowledgment that all we have is just on loan from God;
and trust that when we empty ourselves,
God will fill us
up again.
This,
brothers and sisters, is the way of life.
Life
breathes. We breathe in. We breathe out.
But
when it comes to our wealth, fear kicks in.
We
inhale and try to keep inhaling and inhaling,
without ever exhaling – it doesn’t
work.
Compulsive
acquisition and retention
is how we lose spiritual consciousness.
Every
time we exhale it is an act of trust that the next breath will be there.
When
we give to God, it is an act of trust that God will still be there
and that God will still be the giver of life
in whom, as Paul said, we live and move and have our being.
I am going to let you in on a spiritual secret.
The
Church needs our money.
She
can’t do God’s Mission without it.
The
Church needs to receive our money
-- but not half as much as we need to give it.
We
desperately need to exhale,
and make a party of giving.
We
need a breath of freedom.
We
need to give because our money has a
tighter hold on us
than we do on it.
A
gift is a way to claim freedom in faith.
Now
if we really want to exhale,
if we really want to let go of the
money
and get ourselves free,
we won’t fret overmuch
about whether the Church
is spending “our” money
the
way we want it spent.
That
isn’t giving. It’s buying influence.
Our
souls will be better off if we write the check and let it go.
But
most of us aren’t there yet.
So
let’s look at what the Church does.
The
Church worships God
and worship takes bread, wine, oil,
vestments,
altars, books, and a host of
material things.
The
Church isn’t an air plant.
It
is rooted in material reality so it costs money.
You
support a priest so she can be there for people
in times of joy and times of
trouble.
She
is here to baptize, marry, counsel, and bury.
When
people pass through life’s trials,
they need God to be present not as
an abstract idea
but mediated by a person
of God
trained in pastoral arts
and soaked in prayer.
The
Church’s money goes to Episcopal Migration Ministries
making new homes for Syrian
refugees.
It
goes to Episcopal Relief and Development
combatting disease and starting
economic programs
to lift people out of
severe poverty
(defined as living on
under $1 per day)
in Haiti,
Kenya, and around the world.
The
Church challenges the power brokers
to actually care for people.
For
years, human trafficking legislation in Nevada could not even
get out of committee until we
weighed in.
Then
it passed unanimously.
We
were the first to support adequate funding for public schools.
We
delivered the votes for the Care Act so families know
how to meet the needs of patients
when they come home.
We
got Medicaid to increase funding for home health care
to keep people out nursing homes.
We
build schools and safe houses in Kenya
to save girls from genital
mutilation and forced marriage.
But
most of all we proclaim a gospel of love
In a world where religion is too
often a pretext for hate
We
are the outward and visible sign of a God
who created and loves Black and
White, rich and poor,
straight and gay, Jew and Muslim –
all of us.
If
you can’t make a gift to God without strings attached,
then feel free to look at what we
do.
I
have no problem with that, because what we do is the gospel,
and as Blessed Paul said,
“I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God that brings
salvation.”
Today
we begin inviting your pledges.
We
will cherish and celebrate them whether they are large or small.
In
our church we teach proportional giving.
We
give in proportion to two things.
First,
we give in proportion to the wealth we have.
Second,
we give in proportion to our faith.
Where
each of us stands both economically and spiritually
determines what we can do.
I
wish you all well economically but more importantly
I wish you well spiritually.
There
is no pressure. No guilt. No blame.
We
must each do what we can at this point on our journey.
The
standard is there in 2nd Corinthians chapter 9:
“Each of you should give what you
have decided
in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion,
for the Lord
loves a cheerful giver.”
