Lent 1 2008
Jesus, after his baptism by John in the Jordan River, was led into the wilderness and tempted by the devil. Having fasted for 40 days and 40 nights he was hungry so the first temptation was to turn stones into bread: a temptation to use his power over the physical world. Secondly, Jesus was led to the pinnacle of the temple and to throw himself off to test whether or not angels would rescue him: power to test divine intervention; and thirdly, Jesus was tempted by the devil to take power over all the kingdoms of this world. In miniature, the temptations Jesus faced reflect the abuse of power over the physical world, the personal world, and the political world. The lesson offered to us is that by knowing who we are in relationship with God, we have the power to resist temptations that abuse our power.
The video production inconvenient truth by Al Gore presents data about global warming. The film and a panel discussion will be the subject of a special event at Hood this spring. The environmental biology faculty in our department will argue that global warming is really a threat to life, as we know it on the planet. Others strongly disagree, saying that this is nothing more than a natural cycle. This week I received in the mail a letter with a publication containing a lot of graphs showing the cycling of earth’s temperature. Politicians and scientists argue about whether the warming trends are part of the natural cycle or something more ominous. If advocates for global warming are correct and we ignore their admonition, it may be too late to reverse the effects of overpopulation and excess use of natural resources.
Johnathon, my younger grandson did a paper in school about the subject of global warming. His conclusion is that it is people who are at fault. People, Johnathon says abuse the privilege of living in harmony with nature. People use too much energy, waste natural resources and don’t care enough about the earth or each other to ensure that the planet is able to sustain life for generations to come. Johnathon insists that his parents recycle cans, plastic, and shop in reusable net bags. Johnathon saw the way the glaciers in Alaska were melting rapidly with huge chunks of ice falling into the ocean. He remembers this scene and thinks we are ignoring a very serious problem. If Johnathon is right, we need to act now. If Johnathon is wrong, we may not need to be more conservative about how we act but would any harm be done if we did take more care to preserve species and natural resources? Johnathon reminds me that we do have a duty to care for nature as well as people who live on our planet…. This space our Eucharistic prayer C calls this fragile earth our island home.
Genesis and the gospel reading today remind us that we are stewards of the earth and of our individual lives. Regardless of where you are with respect to Global Warming, we recognize that we are responsible for how we live in this world. Stewardship is not only about how we spend our money or how much we give to the church. Stewardship is about being responsible and accountable as creative beings. We live on a planet with 6 billion people. The caring capacity of our planet is 9 billion. Everyday we read in news accounts about wars, conflicts, riots, rebellions, and famine, disease, which takes life. Less often we see reports of how we preserve life and respect human dignity.
What we do matters. How we care for our own bodies and minds and spirits also matters.
We are pretty good at claiming our independence: the right to do x, y, z but less good at seeing that the rights of all human beings are respected and protected. Each day most of us get up, dress, go to work in our cars, eat what we want, and return home to do what we want. We are free to decide whether to eat too much, to spend more than we make, and to enjoy whatever entertainment we like. We may give some fraction away appeasing our inner awareness of our collective responsibility but generally that is only a token. We fail to see that we are members of communities small and large and that what we do with our personal time and finances affect other people.
I received a call on my cell phone Friday afternoon from a woman who wanted help paying her bills. I referred her to Mt. Airy Net where people are screened for need and given help accordingly. This is the arrangement we have made to ensure that what we offer for community assistance is used responsibly. Every time I get a call like this one, I feel badly if I don’t do more to help and each time I wonder if the system we have is the best we can do. I know that some problems are from a lack of responsibility and that some people use and abuse the generosity of others. In terms of my discretionary account I feel an obligation to use the money you entrust to that account carefully. At the same time, I know there are people in our community that need and deserve our help. We do a lot and what we do matters.
As co-chair of compensation and benefits for the diocese one of our responsibilities is to prepare a resolution about fair and equitable salaries for clergy and lay employees in parishes. At our monthly meeting we worked on the resolution for Diocesan Convention in May. The committee recognized last year that clergy in our diocese are compensated below other neighboring diocesan employees and so last year the resolution recommended a 2.5% COLA + 1% raise to begin a process of achieving equity. Based on the regional data for 2007 the COLA this year is 4.1%. If we recommend clergy salaries on the basis of the same formula this year the increase will be 4.1% + 1% and we know that small parishes will find it hard if not fiscally impossible to meet the resolution. We know that recommendations from the committee in the form of resolutions once adopted by convention are still only norms to which we hope parishes will adhere but we also know that individual parishes negotiate with clergy about salaries and benefits. What should we do? Post the real figures using the same formula from year to year, or change it in fear that we will impose hardship?
Part of the problem is that individuals find their cost of living increasing: higher costs for gasoline, healing oil, firewood, groceries, and unless the salaries are adjusted upward, there is less left to give to the parish or any charity. The problem is that most of us give what is left to support the church and our community. We construct our budget around essential living expenses and give some small part of the remainder. Long ago, I learned that if I was serious about tithing, the first check of the month had to be my pledge, otherwise, there was always other ways to spend my money. Thinking it is my money, my life, my family is the temptation Matthew brings into focus for us. Jesus did not yield to the temptation to throw himself off the temple spire to see if the angels would catch him and we should not test God to make ends meet when we spend money, time, and energy without restraint. If we would resist the temptation to claim sole authority over our lives we would recognize our duty to God and neighbor as equal to our duty to provide for ourselves and our families.
Beyond the individual and solitary family is the community – beginning here in this parish and reaching out to the world. I believe that God loves every man, woman, and child on this planet. I do not think God plays favorites, nor do I think God chooses to bless a few and punish the many. A quick survey of conditions in our world reveals a lot of inequality. Pick your topic: globally, HIV treatment reaches 20% of those who need it; health care by way of insurance in this country excludes 47 million of our own citizens; housing situation with numerous foreclosures is affecting the stock market around the world; war costs more than money – it destroys infrastructure, lives of innocent civilians along with military combatants; billions of dollars are spent on political campaigns; trillions of dollars of debt in our country is our legacy for our children's children. Pick your topic, add the one that keeps you awake at night, and join me in reflecting on how seriously we take our own baptismal promise to respect the dignity of every human being. Jesus remembered the words at his baptism: you are my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.
If we take our own baptism seriously we will use our time, talent, energy to resist evil at the individual and global level. WE will pray for peace. We will work for justice. We will seek to serve all people loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Jesus was tempted in everyway as we are; yet Jesus did not sin. I am a sinner, in Adam’s line, but I am also a member of the body of Christ. In Christ, I can strive for justice and peace, be sincerely repentant for the sins I have done by thought word and deed, and for the evil done on my behalf. In Christ, I can find the strength and courage to resist the temptation to use my power and freedom in ways that protect nature, promote my personal well being, and contribute to the well being of others. The secret to Jesus’ resistance of these temptations was his sense of identity: Jesus was the Son of God. You and I have an identity too: we are in Christ. In Christ we live and move and have our being. In Christ we are not alone, we are members of a vast communion led by the spirit of the living God!