[Propertalk] Proper 13 b rcl

[Robert P Morrison]

Needs re-checking, of course!

Bob

THE EPISCOPAL PARISH OF ST. JAMES, LINCOLN CITY        PROPER 13 b RCL
2 SAMUEL 11:26 – 12:13 a 	   THE NINTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
EPHESIANS 4:1-16	                        2nd AUGUST, 2009
JOHN 6:24-35	                        PSALM 51:1-13
	
	When does “Oops!” simply not cut it?
	While we were considering James and his witness last week, something quite nasty was going on in the pages of the RCL. Seems like there are many questions with which the Church has to continue to deal. Like the Title IV revisions, for instance. These are the Canons – the Church Laws – which govern behaviour and discipline within the life of the Church. What would the Court for the Trial of a Cleric make of David, I wonder?  Or was he a Bishop?
I don’t think it’s fair to classify this as another case of sexuality and sexual behaviour run amok. That would be too easy. It’s not difficult at all to get indignant, not to say consumed by sexuality – whether in the Church or out of it. What other folk were considering in the first reading last week, and is picked up in the continuation of the story this morning, is actually much more insidious that sex.
But then, sex IS so much easier for us to condemn, isn’t it!
No, the problem is far more basic, far deeper than that, no matter how we consider sexual relations. David fell afoul specifically of the eighth commandment, but actually also of something that runs like a thread through every command offered humans by God as a means not only to  order our lives, but to find pleasure.
At the heart of our relationship with God and everything in creation – humans, animals AND the inanimate – at the heart of all relationships is our understanding of whether or not we own someone or something – or even if we own anything.
We don’t play fast and loose with God, or God’s name, or our parents’ trust, or the neighbour’s dog – or BMW – we don’t play fast and loose with anything that hasn’t been given to us, or earned by us – and we’ve determined that it IS, indeed, an outright gift and not a loan or a matter of stewardship responsibility.
David had wives coming out of the wazoo – if you’ll pardon the expression – and that’s OK. At least, it was OK in his day. You might need to check with the Attorney General if you plan on anything rash this week! David was wealthy beyond anyone’s imagination. I’ll bet he couldn’t tell you how many wives he had, never mind concubines, or flat screen TVs, or chariots. All David would have had to do was to snap his finger, and something would have shown up to entertain him. He didn’t need another wife, no matter how good she looked, or how stimulating a conversationalist she might have been.
No; David’s problem was that he didn’t bother to honour what he readily acknowledged – that Bathsheba and Uriah were given to each other and she was, by custom, Uriah’s property. So David exercised his regal rights and set the man off to the front and had him killed. Interesting that this week we have the contrast with David’s lamentation over the death of his own son, no matter what kind of an ingrate Absalom appeared to have been.
It’s incredible how misunderstanding and abuse of power can mess up not only your entire life, but the lives of those around you. Once someone starts to assume control of another person; once someone believes she or he can do what she or he wants, no matter what local custom is, or even what’s best for the good of the entire body; once someone acts as if the laws only apply to others, and not to him or her, then chaos results.
You know, there IS a reason why the ten commandments appear, in one form or another, in every religious system’s belief structure. Now if only we would honour them, just think how much less stress and tension there would be! Workers wouldn’t have to work with one eye to what the managers or stewards might be doing. Managers and owners wouldn’t have to have to spend so much energy on monitoring others. Vestries, City Councils, General Conventions, Congresses, the U.N., the United Federation of Planets 1 – none of them would have to spend their time and energy active as policing agencies. Instead, they could celebrate the joy of creation and the building of communion; they could respond instantly to the needs of those who suffer financial reversals, or health issues, or the loss of cherished relationships. In other words, living up to an understanding of our place in God’s creation would bring us fulfillment through the exercise of responsibility – which sometimes DOES mean the exercise of restraint, but, more often than not, means rejoicing in the development and nurturing of relationships of every kind.
This makes it all the more heart-breaking when abuse enters the human picture. Take the story which has run in the local papers recently, about someone taking vacation rental bookings for non-existent rentals, stranding tourists and bursting the bubble they may have been entertaining of spending a few days away from the heat and the stress of the valley, or the job, or assorted problems back home.
Last week I heard of the repeat of an old scam. Someone gets a phone call purporting to give news about a relative or friend. The names are all correct, the voices sound genuine, the references even appear on the up-and-up. It’s an appeal for money – often sizeable sums of money – to deal with an emergency. Only the names don’t pan out, the emergency doesn’t exist, the references strangely unavailable – by which time it may be too late.
Or the local woman who was struggling to make up the difference between what money she had and the move-in costs for a new apartment by holding a garage sale. She turned her back for a second, and her cash box, with $80 of her own for change and another $100 from sales, was gone.
What is it with people?
Yes, times ARE tight. No one will deny that. There’s no one who isn’t affected – whether you’re destitute or have a comfortable home with at least a modest income. But what happened to acknowledging what is mine and what is yours? What’s going on in our society that makes it necessary for someone to take, by force, if necessary, what doesn’t belong to that person? Why is it that leads individuals, and governments, and loosely formed international allies to believe that what someone else possesses belongs to them?
Could it be that we’re so mired in the muck of possessiveness that we fail to see what it is that brings true happiness and fulfillment? Could it be that we – you, and I, and agencies, and governments – simply have lost our understanding of the fact that whether or not we live in isolation from one another, we STILL have a responsibility to care for one another and to show respect for everything that exists? Could it be that the question Jesus posed to the crowd is one that should also be directed to us, right now. “What are you after – the bread and fish that will hold you for another few hours, or something that will sustain you and fill you with joy for all eternity?”
Answer that for yourselves, with your eyes open, insisted Jesus. If all you think you need is another loaf of bread, then I’m sure you’ll get it. Food pantries, meal programmes, consortia of agencies – they can get you help along that line. But Jesus suggested that our concentration on satisfaction of the immediate can often blind us not only to what is lasting, but what can give immeasurably more satisfaction.
Note, Jesus wasn’t absolving anyone of the requirement to feed the hungry and bathe the wounds of those who’re bruised and bleeding. That IS, often, where we have to start. But we must ALL look beyond that. That’s not the goal of life with Christ.
A friend whom I met through my committee work at General Convention wrote last week about stewardship. In the middle of his letter was this.
	“There are lots of reasons not to give. But that's not how stewardship 
works. My hope is that parishioners give because they are grateful for what God is doing in their lives not because they like my sermons or the music or the thrift shop. My hope is that people will not cut their gift when I fail to preach well or something else is disappointing. Likewise, dioceses must not hold back because of some perceived failure in Episcopal Church leadership or behavior. Yes, we 
should hold our leaders accountable, but our diocesan asking is not the way to do that, any more than one’s pledge is the way to ensure accountability in parish life.
	“Why (should we act this way?) Because we can, and because we need to be exemplars of generosity in a part of the country where generosity in stewardship is hard to find. 
 	“Imagine how different our church – and our world – would be if we 
all decided to live out of abundance, rather than scarcity. We can't wait for ‘reality’ to catch up; we can choose to start living that way today or tomorrow or... 
 	“Generosity, mission, and evangelism all work together.”  2
	What if David had stopped for a moment – OK, admired Bathsheba, maybe even felt sorry that her husband was in the army – what if David had acknowledged that and moved along, rejoicing in the abundance which was already his? In his joy he might even have found ways in which to share some of the resources with which God had blessed HIM.
	What if all those following Jesus around the lake had stopped to ask themselves what it was that helped Jesus remain so focused and filled with peace – as well as righteous indignation?
	So how are these readings, these thoughts, no matter how isolated they may seem – how is all those going to make a difference to you and what you’ll do this week?
	Well, start at the end of this morning’s story about David. No matter how royally he may have messed up – and completely ruined other folks’ lives – David WAS forgiven, when he admitted his mistakes. There’s nothing which is beyond the scope of God’s power to cleanse. Uriah couldn’t be brought back to life. The baby Bathsheba bore – well, that’s complicated, but it shows how someone completely innocent of an incident can be caught up in tragedy. Our Christian faith teaches that we WILL be reunited with those whom we love, and all of God’s other creatures. But we have to live with the stupidity of human behavior and speech, even when we know that God WILL forgive us.
	What’s left for us to work through is how fully we’ll recognise the incredible resources we have RIGHT NOW. What’s left for us is the task of analysing carefully how we must react to God’s blessings to us AND everyone else. What’s left to us is the very basic question – how will be honour other people, whether they be parents, family, friends, neighbours, the stubborn idiot we dread meeting; how will we honour ALL of them, and the gifts THEY have?
	Pray we don’t have to say “Oops!” too often!

NOTES:
1	Federation history - Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki  	www.memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Federation_history   
2	The Rev'd Scott Gunn   Clergy - Rhode Island http://www.sevenwholedays.org/  
 

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Robert P. Morrison
The Episcopal Parish of St James,
PO Box 789
Lincoln City, Oregon, 97367

541-994-2426 (Church)