November 19, 2023

 These Gospel readings are hard to grapple with, especially when we consider that by and large most of us are heavily invested in the world as it is.  We benefit from it and it gives us comfort.  But we’re allowing ourselves to listen to Jesus, a materially poor man who identified with the destitute.  How you hear the Gospel reading today depends on how you relate to the systems of wealth, built on the labor of the poor that reward the rich and powerful.  If you benefit from the system of wealth that rewards those who are already rich and powerful, then you might see this story as one in which God is the wealthy landowner and in which the rich are rewarded with even more riches.  But if you’ve ever stood in line at the food stamp office, been evicted or had your car repossessed, or wondered how you would pay your bills, you might see a picture of a system of wealth that is imposed by human beings to improve a few lives and keep the poor miserable.

            Once again, I caution against making the rich landowner into God.  Especially since it seems he is doing some ungodly things, like being willing to charge interest, which was completely against the Torah, and being harsh, reaping where he did not sew, etc.

            The time in which Jesus said these things, the wealthy were happy to exploit the labor of poor people to work the land to enrich the landowner.  As time went on, the landowners were very happy to extend loans to poor farmers at 40-60% interest, so they could foreclose on that land and enrich themselves.  The wealthy did not concern themselves with whether the poor would starve to death.  Long before Jesus, prophets rose up to condemn these actions and remind people that they have a responsibility to their neighbor, that God shared this land with them as stewards, and it all was meant to be a blessing for everyone to have abundant life, not hoarded.

            We have similar problems today.  We have laws and customs that make it so that the more you have, the more will be given to you.  CEO pay has no limit, it seems, while teachers can’t even afford to live in the neighborhood of the school where they work.  I pray in gratefulness everyday that I was able to buy a house almost 20 years ago so that I can afford to live near enough to my workplace and friends and the places I love to be.  I hurt for others who are always on edge about whether their rent will be raised, because that could be me and it is the case for people I love.

            So we have this story about a wealthy man.  We have to be careful not to automatically cheer him on as our culture has trained us to do.  We think he must have deserved it, that he is much to be admired.  Not necessarily, according to God’s values.  He is rich.  We know, because he can afford to travel.  He can afford to have servants watch over his land.  He has liquid assets in no small amount, like 20 years’ wages, that he distributes to his servants for them to do his dirty work for him of exploiting others to increase his wealth. And they do, in two cases, because they know their proximity to him could mean life or death, prosperity and comfort, or poverty. 

            But there is one who won’t play the game.  Instead he tells the truth to the rich man about who he is—that he doesn’t do the work, but drives others to do it, that he is harsh.  This truth teller is not about to participate in this system of oppression and he will face the consequences. 

            I can’t help but think of Jesus before Pilate, being grilled about who he thinks he is, not participating in the system that honors Pilate, that increases Pilates’ wealth and standing and power, how Jesus challenged that power, and mocked it, riding in on a donkey with no military display.  And I can’t help but think of Jesus being thrown out into Gethsemane, where he surely gnashed his teeth in suffering on the cross.

            We have so many unjust systems—of wealth, of imprisonment, of eviction, of healthcare.  The world tells us if people don’t have access it is a character flaw.  I find this infuriating, because I was a child on food stamps and my dad worked just as hard as any other dad and my mom did daycare to support us.  They were motivated and engaged and yet we were poor.  Most people are born into poverty.  It isn’t about character at all.  I didn’t deserve to be in need.  I didn’t deserve not to go to the dentist on a schedule that might mean healthier teeth now.

I live a very different life, now, as does my child.  I had privileges that other people didn’t have which allowed me to get out of poverty, including the color of my dad’s skin—which allowed him to get a VA loan not available to Black service members at the time.  I also had access to a congregation of educated people that gave me hand-me-down clothes and work babysitting and picking blueberries, housesitting.  They gave me college scholarships and paid for my books in seminary.  I had access to people with wealth and connections who knew the story of a God who isn’t tolerant of people accumulating wealth and congratulating themselves for their moral superiority.  They knew a God who shared with them and inspired them to share with others.  I got to be a recipient of that sharing and now I get to also share with people in need from my plenty.

            As for those of us who have found ourselves richly blessed, with money, time, abilities, I hope we won’t bury them in fear of an angry God or in fear of misusing it in a messed up system.  But when we find our talents used to prop up systems of oppression we will withhold them in resistance. John the Baptist was likely from the community of Essenes who renounced wealth and lived in the desert to avoid participating in the oppressive system and being drawn into hurting their neighbors.  That is certainly one way to respond to an oppressive system.

            I witnessed another response in Nicaragua.  People there live on $2 a day on average.  But that is just what can be recorded in the economy.  Most of them live free on the land.  They cultivate that land to feed themselves and their community.  The wealth of what they grow is shared rather than monetized.  If they bought and sold all that food it would be worth a lot.  Instead they share it, with God providing rain almost daily, rich soil that they can keep rich by growing shade-grown gardens so that bird droppings act as fertilizer.  I hope you’re getting the idea that the people we met in Nicaragua knew their blessings came from God and so many of them lived outside the system.  They were left out of the system because they were not seen as having anything to contribute, and yet God knows their value and their neighbor knows their value.

            Another example of resisting and influencing the systems of injustice is participating in  Interfaith Advocacy Day in February.  We all gather to talk about our values and find our talking points and stories, then we meet with our state senator and representative and share our perspective.  Anne Nesse, one of our new members testifies at the capitol all the time—you should ask her about it.  She is advocating for the environment—not to be exploited for money until it can’t recover, but to continue to be a blessing to future generations.  We decide when and how to act about the injustices and inequalities in our systems and we get to decide whether we are willing to benefit from them.

I see an example of withholding and temporarily burying talents in response to an unjust system in the teacher and nurse strikes.  Who suffers from the large class sizes and aging buildings?—our kids!  It’s not their moral failure—but they suffered for it.  So my son is out every day on the picket line and he knows a lot about unions and chants and the reasons why the teachers strike.  When the rich and powerful distribute and withhold wealth or talents to get their way, no one bats an eye.  But when a poor person does, for some reason people balk at that.

            It may seem convenient to blame systems, but systems are set up by people often with good intentions, but they benefit some and not others.  Not all systems are harmful.  Some systems work to break the cycle of poverty.  Some work to benefit the workers.  For instance, farmer’s markets are a way to support local farmers and businesses, directly.  Also churches ideally bring together people of all different socioeconomic situations so that people build relationships and share with each other.

            Jesus went about the Judea and Samaria challenging the systems which kept men and women separate, which kept lepers isolated, which kept the priests in power and the poor blamed and ignored.  Jesus refused to ignore the injustices.  Just talking to people outside his circle and giving them healing and dignity of telling their story so we even know them today, helps us be brave to hear the stories of people on the margins in our midst and to know that when we are in debt and poverty, it isn’t a moral failure.

            Let us use our voices, our talents, our gifts to point out where we could all do better and change our systems to benefit those on the margins.  We can remember that everything is a blessing from God to be shared and distributed.  Jesus was thrown out, killed, in this world’s systems and values, but we have different values as citizens of God’s Kingdom even now.  We have a choice to live differently, relate differently, and to resist, because we have a different vision where no one has to be afraid of losing everything but there is enough for everyone.