Money

The scriptures referred to are Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23, Psalm 49:1-12, Colossians 3:1-11 and Luke 12:13-21.

Before the invention of money, if you, say, needed a new wheel for your oxcart, you would go to Willie the wheelwright and offer to trade him a pig for it. But if he had more than enough pigs and really needed a new chisel from Tommy the toolmaker, you would have to see if Tommy needed a pig and if he would trade you a chisel for it and then see if you could trade Willie the chisel for a wheel. If Tommy neither needed nor wanted a pig, you would have to work something else out. Money, a medium of exchange which was fungible, was so much better. But whereas someone may not have wanted to have an unlimited number of pigs, no one seems to think they can have too much money. Money can buy a lot of things and it can also buy people's favor. So money has power and it bestows power on the person who has it. Money went from something useful for buying other things to something desired for itself. It became the object of greed.

We have pointed out before that the Bible does not say “money is the root of all evil.” What Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6:10 is that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils,” as most modern translations correctly render the Greek. There are evils other than greed but here Paul is speaking of those whose main goal in life is pursuing wealth. He continues, “Some people, reaching for it [money], have been seduced away from the faith and have skewered themselves with many painful sorrows.” [my translation]

Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and money.” (Luke 16:13) Both are powerful but people are attracted to money because its impact can be more immediate. Why pray for something when you can pay for it? The difference is that when you pray for something, you are asking your loving heavenly Father for it and in his wisdom his answer to your prayer may be “Yes,” or it could be “No,” or “Not yet,” or even, “I have something else in mind for you.” The reason is just because you want something doesn't mean you should have it or that it is good for you. There's a reason why someone coined the term “buyer's remorse.” Money can get you things or into things you'll live to regret. Like an addiction. Or a “get rich quick” scheme that turns out to be a pyramid scam. On a lesser scale, I bet all of us have stuff at home we bought and never use because it turned out not to do for us what we thought it would. Like make us cool. Or sexy. Or happy.

Of course, the real problem is, as Jesus points out, that money, which was invented as a tool to serve our needs, can easily become our master instead, the thing we serve. In the HBO documentary Fake Famous director Nick Bilton found 3 people who only had a thousand followers each on social media but who wanted to be major influencers. And he helped them become that. He showed them how you can fake being at a resort by renting a fancy house for a weekend and have people photograph you seemingly enjoying luxury and being handed what looks like champagne as you relax in the pool. He showed how to use a toilet seat held up in front of a photo of the clouds to look like you are gazing out of the window of your private jet. He showed them how to buy bots to make others think you are so popular that they should be following you as well. Those things also attract companies who might send you free products to hawk on your posts and photos. But all 3 of the would-be influencers found feeding the media monster exhausting. They were slaves to their pursuit of power and influence and the good things in life. However, they were only “living the good life” online and they were not allowed to be who they really were. They realized they had sold their souls in the process. 2 dropped out and decided to do something with their lives that really mattered and actually helped others. One wants to become a therapist.

As our passages from Ecclesiastes, the psalms, and today's gospel point out, the power of wealth is only temporary. As the saying goes, you can't take it with you. Someone else will get your money and your things one day. And you will probably not be thinking about how many “Likes” you got or how many cars, houses, or boats you accumulated when you are on your deathbed. Those things aren't going to hold your hand or kiss you on the head as you leave this world. Nor will they greet you in the next.

Actually power and wealth can be even briefer than life is. We have seen many people lose their positions of power long before they were dead. Actors, comedians, politicians, CEOs, clergy, scientists and others have lost honor, power, money and followers when they finally got their comeuppance for being bullies and predators and hypocrites. Still others have lost their money or property through financial or natural disasters, or disease, or disability. Putting too much trust in the things of this world is not wise.

You could say that making money—or any earthly thing, however powerful—your top priority is a disorder. That is, you are getting it out of its proper order. It's not that money isn't important; it's just not the most important thing in life. God is. And in second place is people. That's why Jesus said the 2 greatest commandments were to love God and to love people. Those are our top priorities. Money should only come into the picture in so far as it allows us to serve God, especially through serving people. And because Jesus said we are to pray for our daily bread, that also includes taking care of our needs.

The problem is that we often confuse our needs with our desires. You need a home; you desire a mansion on the beach. You need clothes; you desire the latest fashions. You may need a car; you desire the coolest, most expensive one you've seen. There was a TV evangelist who said he needed a 4th private jet, costing $54 million! Apparently he forgot that he was following a Messiah who walked everywhere and managed to spread God's word just fine. He also forgot that Jesus said it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle—that's what the Greek says—than for a rich man to get into the kingdom of God. Yes, Jesus was teaching here that we all, rich or poor, need God's grace to be saved. As he said, “This is impossible for mere humans, but not for God; all things are possible for God.” (Mark 10:23-27) But then why did he single out the rich?

Because they are more likely to make money their god. Greed is idolatry, says our passage from Colossians. When things get bad, the rich are more likely to put their trust in their money to get them through. And from what I saw, when their money can't help them out, they despair. When I was doing private duty nursing in my hometown, I was often assigned to take care of rich men because only they could afford round-the-clock private nurses. The businesses they had built up were well-known to me. But now they were faced with something that they couldn't buy out or bribe or intimidate or out-compete. None of their business skills or their hustle or their high standing in the community could defeat their diseases. These powerful men were powerless against sickness and age. And so, instead of fighting to get better, they gave up. I never saw them pray. Their god, Mammon, the almighty dollar, had failed them.

The Bible is not against people getting rich—provided it is achieved through honest work and often hard work and it is used to help the poor and needy. The rich man in Jesus' parable is thinking only of his own wellbeing. Similarly, the rich man in another parable comes to his fiery fate in the afterlife because he didn't help poor, sick Lazarus sitting at his gate. (Luke 16:19-31) In that parable the man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers. Abraham replies that they have the law and the prophets. And, sure enough, in the Law, the Torah, it says, “If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted towards your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs.” It goes on to say that if you have ill will towards the poor and give them nothing, that you will be found guilty of sin. “Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.” (Deuteronomy 15:7-11) This is not optional; it's God's command.

The prophets frequently accuse the people of Israel and Judah of breaking the two great commandments. First, the people are either worshiping other gods or not sincerely worshiping the Lord. And secondly, they are mistreating the poor, especially the widows, the fatherless and the resident immigrant. In Isaiah God rebukes his people for going through the motions on religious fasts while engaging in “arguments, brawls and fistfights.” He says, “I want you to share your food with the hungry and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people. When you see someone naked, clothe him! Don't turn your back on your own flesh and blood!” (Isaiah 58:7) In Zechariah we read, “The Lord who rules over all said, 'Exercise true judgment and show brotherhood and compassion to each other. You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, or the poor, nor should anyone secretly plot against his fellow human being.'” (Zechariah 7:9-10) And Jesus said that whatever we do to the needy and sick, we do to him. (Matthew 25:31-46) Serving God means helping those made in his image.

There is another reason besides greed that keeps people from being generous; it is fear—fear that we won't have enough for ourselves if we give as generously as we know we ought to. Such fear is a lack of faith in God, who is gracious and generous. As it says in Proverbs, “The one who has compassion on the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay what he has given.” (Proverbs 19:17) We must trust God to provide for us as we help others. It is interesting that poor churches give proportionately more to the needy than wealthy ones. Perhaps because they know what it is like to be in need. And perhaps it is gratitude to God for giving them what they have.

Because ultimately what we have does come from God. Successful people think they accomplished what they did on their own. But they usually had advantages. Where did their good health, that allowed them to work long and hard, come from? Or the talents they employed? And let's not forget any help they got from family, friends, the schools they attended, the socioeconomic class they were born into, any lucky breaks they received or even their good looks. I was watching the HBO documentary on Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Everyone, including Paul, admitted that his wife was the better actor. Yes, he did work hard at his acting but, let's face it, if he lacked his looks and those blue eyes would he have gone so far? Would Elon Musk have been one of the first centibillionaires if his family hadn't been wealthy? Did Warren Buffet have an advantage in his father being a 4-term member of Congress? Would Bill Gates have been able to drop out of Harvard to start his computer company had his parents not been wealthy? The myth of the self-made man is just that. No one really starts with nothing. Those who make it to the very top usually had a heck of a big head start on the rest of us.

Since in the final analysis all we have comes from God, and since our lives on earth are transitory, it makes sense to see it all as on loan from God and to see our role as that of stewards of his gifts. When at dinner your host passes you bowls and platters of food, you aren't supposed to keep them for yourself. You take some and pass it on, so everyone can eat. If there is a small child or a disabled person at the table, you fill their plate for them. If there isn't enough left by the time it gets to the person at the end, you give them some of yours. It's the decent thing to do.

As Jesus said, our life doesn't consist of having lots of possessions. They can end up possessing you. We are not to worship money or hoard it or hold back from helping others with it. We must guard ourselves from greed and not give in to fear. All good things come from God. (James 1:17) We are to be grateful for them and generous with them.

Paul wrote to Timothy, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation in the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

Mercy

The scriptures referred to are Genesis 18:20-32, Psalm 138 and Luke 11:1-13.

Last week I alluded to the death tolls of two Communist nations in the 20^th century. Where did I get the data? From a website I discovered years ago called the Historical Atlas of the 20th Century by Matthew White, a librarian who loves statistics. The section of the website I used is called Necrometrics, where he has collected death counts all across history, going back to the 2^nd Persian War. White stopped updating this section in 2014 but he used the data to publish a book called Atrocities. In it he lists the top 100 multicides, or mass murders, in recorded history—major wars, massacres, persecutions, etc, which have a body count of 300,000 or more. He gives not only the number of deaths, or in ancient history the best estimates according to historians, but also a 2 or more page summary of what the event was, who participated and who usually gets the blame. His purpose was to objectively look at the part of history that gets ignored when we focus on “Great Men” and movements, namely the cost in human lives.

I was particularly interested in the chapter towards the end of the book containing his analysis of what he found. Unsurprisingly 4/5s of the multicides in history were wars, which cause by far the most deaths: 315 million. Half of the top 100 multicides took place in the last 200 years and 1/3 in the last century. 85% of the people killed in wars are civilians. And of the top 100 multicides, 13 were primarily religious. As for the number of mass deaths caused by all religions over recorded history, it came to 47 million out of the total of 455 million people killed since 480 BC. Or about 10%.

Which means 90% of the mass deaths caused by humans are motivated by other things, like institutional oppression (141 million), Communism (67 million), ethnic multicides (74 million), and economics or greed (154 million). Still the fact that anyone was killed over religion, especially when one or both sides claim to be Christian, is appalling.

Because Jesus denounced it. He told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44), to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39), and to put away the sword (Matthew 26:52). That last he said to his disciples when they tried to stop his being arrested. This is not how his followers were to act because his kingdom is not from this world. (John 18:36) And when his disciples tried to stop someone doing good in Jesus' name because he wasn't part of their group, Jesus said, “Don't forbid him, for he who is not against us is for us.” And when 2 of the disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven on a Samaritan village that refused to receive them, Jesus rebuked them. (Luke 9:49-56) It goes against the Spirit of his mission. Jesus came to save people, not destroy them. It's weird how many so-called “Christians” forget—or worse—ignore this!

Every Sunday, and it should be every day, we say the prayer Jesus taught us and it clearly asks God to forgive us as we forgive others. Jesus said, “For if you forgive others their sins, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, your heavenly Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15) The whole idea behind following Jesus is to become more Christlike. And Jesus forgave people.

As C.S. Lewis said, “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have something to forgive...” And he added, “...as we had during the war.” The war he was referring to is the Second World War, the number 1 multicide of all time, with a death toll of 66 million people: 20 million solders and 46 million civilians, including 6 million Jews. Lewis noted that in the wake of what the Nazis had done, any talk of forgiveness was “greeted with howls of anger. It is not that people think this too high and difficult a virtue: it is that they think it hateful and contemptible.” Yet Jesus said we are to do it.

Lewis points out that we are to love our neighbor as we do ourselves. He says, “Well, how exactly do I love myself? Now that I come to think of it, I have not exactly got a feeling of fondness or affection for myself, and I do not even always enjoy my own society. So apparently, 'Love your neighbor' does not mean 'feel fond of him' or 'find him attractive.'” God is not commanding us to somehow change our natural emotions. Loving others is not about feelings but actions. We are to treat others the way we wish to be treated and the way we in fact treat ourselves.

We don't like everything about ourselves. We know that we have thought and said and done some bad things, and we have neglected to do things we really should have done. These are things that we would have a really hard time admitting to and telling others about. But we usually forgive ourselves. And part of loving others as ourselves is forgiving them just as we forgive ourselves.

Some people do have trouble forgiving themselves but Lewis points out that if God forgives us, we should forgive ourselves. Otherwise we are acting as if we are a higher tribunal than God. But this brings up a good point. Forgiving something is not excusing it. It is not pretending it isn't bad either. If your child does something bad, you continue to love your child, even if what they did was terrible. If your child has committed a crime to support an addiction, you should neither reject the child nor condone either the crime or the addiction. Sue Klebold, the mother of one of the Columbine shooters, has spoken and written about her struggle to understand how her son whom she loved could become a mass murderer. Contrary to popular belief it is possible to love the sinner and hate the sin. We do it all the time.

And especially when it comes to ourselves. And so we aren't being asked not to hate cruelty or betrayal or rage or other harmful things in others. But, Lewis says, we are to “hate them in the same way in which we hate things in ourselves: being sorry that the man should have done such things, and hoping, if it is anyway possible, that somehow, sometime, somewhere he can be cured and made human again.” Lewis concludes, “That is what is meant in the Bible by loving him: wishing his good, not feeling fond of him nor saying he is nice when he is not.”

Again look to Jesus. We know how strongly he felt about adultery (Matthew 5:28) but he nevertheless saved the woman caught in adultery from being stoned and said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” (John 8:3-11) To the murderer crucified next to him, who admitted he himself deserved this punishment but not Jesus and asked to be remembered, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43) He asked God to forgive those who crucified him. (Luke 23:34) When Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, “ he meant it.

But, wait a minute, you might say. In the Old Testament God doesn't always come across as merciful. What about the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah? And today's reading immediately precedes that story. We usually focus on how persistent Abraham is when pleading with God about sparing the innocent in those two towns. We often forget that God is offering no resistance to Abraham's arguments. He lets Abraham whittle down the number of righteous required for God to withhold executing justice upon the towns. God agrees that he will spare them if as few as ten righteous people live in those two places. If anything this shows how merciful God is. He will not destroy the majority who are wicked for the sake of the minority who live justly. Similarly Jesus says his followers are to save the world, very much like salt preserves meat. (Matthew 5:13)

We see this in Jesus' parable about the wheat and the weeds. When a farmer finds that an enemy has sewn weeds among his wheat, his workers want to pull them up. “But he said, 'No, since in gathering the weeds you may uproot the wheat with them.'” Jesus later explains that the wheat are the people of God's kingdom and the weeds evil people. They will be sorted at the harvest at the end of the world and not before. (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)

Our lives are so intertwined that if God wiped out every person who does evil, many a good person would lose a parent, a child, a sibling, or a spouse. And it would preclude those people repenting and changing their ways. Except the truth is we all have sinned and fall short of God's standards. (Romans 3:23) None of us are saved by our own efforts but by God's grace and our trusting response to him. Ironically, the fact that people don't just drop dead when they do evil is a sign of God's mercy.

So our passage from the very first book of the Bible demonstrates God's mercy. Unfortunately the people of Sodom were not merciful to God's messengers. In the story we see them breach the rules of hospitality to strangers, to put it mildly. And while people focus exclusively on that, the sexual component of their oppression, the initial reason they got God's attention, the reason why there was an outcry against the town, is revealed in Ezekiel, “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me.” (Ezekiel 16:49-50) Their arrogance and their neglect of the poor were the main charges against them.

Today's Psalm says, “Though the Lord be high, he cares for the lowly; he perceives the haughty from afar.” Psalm 10 says, “Lord, you have heard the request of the oppressed; you make them feel secure because you listen to their prayer. You defend the fatherless and oppressed, so that mere mortals may no longer terrorize them.” (Psalm 10:17-18) Psalm 72 says, “He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; he will crush the oppressor.” (Psalm 72:4) Which does not look good for folks like those in Sodom since, as it says in Proverbs, “The one who shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and will not be answered.” (Proverbs 21:13)

God is both just and merciful. We are to be as well. But since we have so many self-appointed righteous people, who can't wait to dole out what they define as justice, if you must err, err on the side of mercy and forgiveness. As Paul writes, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord. On the contrary: 'if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.' Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:17-21) The part about burning coals may be a reference to an Egyptian ritual where a guilty person carried a basin of glowing coals on their head to show their repentance. But the gist is that by returning good for evil you may make the person burn with shame over their conduct towards you. And in an honor/shame society that is a big motivation for them to change.

Kindness and mercy have changed many a heart. Blues musician Daryl Davis, a black man, has collected 200 Ku Klux Klan robes. He has befriended that many Klansman and once they get to know him, they realize their hate is misguided and eventually quit the Klan and give him their robes. He often begins by saying, “How can you hate me if you don't know me?” Most of them have never sat down and talked with a black person. He says “when 2 enemies are talking, they're are not fighting.” And hopefully they are learning that the other person is a human being as well with the same needs and hopes.

Anger and revenge are the easy way out. It's easier to slam folks than to understand them. It's easier to hit them in the mouth than hear them out. It's easier to judge people and hate people than to get to know them and to show them mercy. But Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy...Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” (Matthew 5:7, 9) He never said it would be easy. He said it's what we have to do if we truly want to be like him. And that's the whole point of following Jesus: to be like the person who embodied God's love and mercy for all. 

Gods and Superheroes

The scriptures referred to are Amos 8:1-12, Psalm 52 and Colossians 1:15-28.

In the latest Marvel film, Thor: Love and Thunder, the antagonist is a man who has lost his daughter as well as his faith in his uncaring god. He dispatches him with a magical sword that can kill even gods. Then as Gor the God-Butcher, he goes on a campaign of trying to kill all the gods. Which means Thor must stop him.

But when Thor goes to the celestial palace in which the gods of all the worlds and peoples have gathered to enjoy themselves and to hide from Gor, he finds that they don't want to face the God Butcher and don't care about the children he is holding as hostages to lure Thor into a confrontation. Zeus in particular is indifferent to their plight and has no desire to face possible death to save them.

And surprisingly this comic book movie reflects the way polytheistic gods were actually viewed, especially in the Greco-Roman world. Their religions reflected the patronage system around which their society was structured. Just as people served the rich and powerful in exchange for favors that might be bestowed on them, so too people tried to appease and bribe the gods to give them rain and crops and fertility and peace and prosperity. The gods did not do these things out of the goodness of their hearts.

Missing from this movie's gathering of gods, of course, is the Christian God. You can see why in our passage from Amos. Unlike the others, The God of the Bible is not indifferent but cares about those who suffer. The Lord is outraged at those who “trample on the needy, and bring ruin upon the poor of the land...” In Psalm 82, the Lord is depicted as judging the gods of the nations for their inaction and injustice. “Defend the cause of the poor and fatherless! Vindicate the oppressed and suffering! Rescue the poor and needy! Deliver them from the power of the wicked!” (Psalm 82:3-4) God in fact liberates an entire nation of slaves, teaching them not to worship those other gods, to love their neighbor and to act with justice and mercy. He would be a poor fit in this film.

There's also the problem that film is a visual medium and Yahweh would be almost impossible to depict. The same cannot be said for Jesus. But, let's face it, Jesus would not work well in a film about indifferent, unloving or multiple gods either, nor in any film that is about good triumphing over evil by shedding the blood of others.

In contrast to these petty limited gods, in our passage from Colossians we are told, “Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things were created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn of the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”

Some critics claim this high Christology, this exalted view of Jesus, cannot have been written within a few decades of Jesus' life. They say it must have been written later and by someone other than Paul. Yet we find these words and ideas in the undisputed letters of Paul. Jesus is called “the image of God” in 2 Corinthians 4:4. In Philippians 2:6 he is said to be “existing in the form of God” and yet does not consider his “equality with God something to be clung to.” In 1 Thessalonians, Paul's earliest surviving letter, in the very first verse he calls Jesus Christ “Lord,” a word Jews used instead of saying the divine name of God. He also says Jesus died and rose from the dead in that letter (1 Thessalonians 1:10, 4:14). Colossians doesn't so much give us unique ideas about Jesus as gather them all together and state the implications.

One of the implications is that when we are dealing with Jesus, we are dealing with God, not some lesser deity. All the fullness of God dwells in Jesus. As he himself said, “I and my Father are one.” (John 10:30) So we don't have to go through various lesser beings, like humans or demigods or some celestial bureaucracy, to speak to God. We can go straight to Jesus.

And because he is the image of the invisible God, if you want to know what God is like, you only have to look at Jesus. There are a lot of distorted images of God out there, like a hate-filled, always angry bully who wants to destroy the world and throw all the sinners into hell. This isn't even a true picture of God in the Old Testament. In Ezekiel he says he takes no delight in the death of the wicked but rather in them turning from their ways and turning to him and finding life. (Ezekiel 18:23, 32) For the clearest view of God, look at Jesus. Jesus proclaims, not a declaration of war on this wicked world, but the good news that he is here to save the world. (John 3:17) He teaches, not that God can't wait to punish sinners, but that God forgives us. (Luke 18:9-14) Jesus does not wield a sword; he heals the wounded. (Luke 22:49-51) Jesus does not shed the blood of his enemies but allows them to shed his blood, thereby saving even them. On the cross Jesus prays, “Father, forgive them for they don't know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) And the centurion supervising Jesus' crucifixion afterward says, “Truly this man was God's Son!” (Mark 15:39) He saw in Christ the divine nature of God.

A persecutor of Christ's body, the church, also saw God in Jesus. Saul of Tarsus saw God's grace and love in Jesus reaching out to him. When known as Paul, he wrote to Timothy, “This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners'—and I am the worst of them.” (1 Timothy 1:15) Having received forgiveness, Paul wrote to the Romans, “But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) And because we did nothing to deserve this, this grace or favor which God shows us is not earned by our efforts. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) Unlike with those pagan gods, we cannot gain the Lord's favor through our sacrifices or anything we do; we can only accept it humbly and gratefully, by trusting in Jesus: in who he is and what he has done for us and is doing in us.

So I find it interesting that in this superhero movie the villain is right. These petty gods are not interested in justice or helping the helpless. They are no different than the target of Psalm 52. If they are in charge of the universe, then life is meaningless. These idols deserve to be destroyed.

But I did not anticipate that a film focusing on silly and fallible pagan gods would nevertheless come to the conclusion that there is one who is eternal and is greater than them. Or that self-sacrifice and love are what saves us in the end. Or that there is resurrection and an afterlife. There is even an implied forgiveness for the one who kills a god. These are prominent Christian themes that one would not expect to see in a movie whose main purpose is to entertain. But I think the writers and director realized that without them, there is no hope. Life would ultimately be just chaos, injustice and sadness. After all, the Norse mythology from which they plucked Thor ends with the death of Thor, Odin, Loki, Heimdall, and the other major gods, a singularly bleak conclusion for any pantheon. They cheated a bit in the movie Thor:Ragnarok, because who wants to see all the heroes die? Not that superheroes stay dead.

Which is something else filched from the gospel. Jesus of Nazareth actually died, not in battle but surrendering himself to those who perpetuated injustice in the name of law and order. He was officially executed in the most cruel way possible by Pontius Pilate, whom we know existed because of an inscription on stone which archaeologists have discovered. And yet the Jesus movement, unlike other Messianic movements, did not fall apart or disappear. Because his disciples went from cowardly hiding from the authorities to courageously proclaiming his resurrection. And they continued to proclaim it despite torture and their eventual executions. Why? Because when Jesus came back from death with the promise of eternal life, they didn't fear death any more. Life was no longer a matter of “live it up while you can because one day it's all over forever.” It's a matter of trusting Jesus and following the God who is love and life incarnate.

And the message of the gospel, the good news not merely of eternal life but of a God who loves people, was compelling. The old gods took care of the rich and powerful because they were able to provide sacrifices and sponsor festivals for the individual gods, an expensive proposition. But again this was transactional. You give to the god, he gives to you. But a God who graciously loves all people, even the poor and women and slaves and tax collectors and prostitutes? (Luke 6:20-21; Matthew 21:31) That's unheard of. Paul wrote, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female—for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) In a society organized by class, where a quarter of the people were slaves, and where women were considered “unpredictable and fickle creatures” inferior to men, this was revolutionary. Christians were saying that all human beings were created in God's image and that Christ died for all. Every person has an inherent and equal value in God's eyes.

And that was one of the things that attracted people to the God revealed in Jesus Christ: a God who cares. A God who loves his creatures and is even willing to become one of them and die for them. A God who doesn't promise a shadowy half-life in Hades as we see in the Odyssey, where the ghost of Achilles says he would rather be a living slave than king of the dead, but a God who promises new life in a new creation where death and pain and mourning are no more. A God who came back to life to verify what he said.

In the movie Zeus complains that the gods have been replaced by superheroes. And he's right: they too are powerful but fallible beings, always fighting, supposedly for good but mostly to restore the status quo. In Avengers:Infinity War in response to an overpopulated universe outstripping its resources, the villain Thanos uses the Infinity Gauntlet's power to alter reality to simply eliminate half the people—rather than, say, to increase the available resources. And when the heroes get the gauntlet they use it to simply bring everyone back, and make the bad guys disappear, but not to fix the real problem Thanos points out. Like the tales of the Greek and Norse gods, these are great and entertaining stories. But they don't really change the world for the better.

Jesus didn't fight monsters or aliens or robots or gods. Or anyone really. He didn't have a magical artifact. He didn't wear a cool costume showing off his muscles. He wouldn't make a good superhero.

But then the evil Jesus fought wasn't found in costumed, superpowered beings. It doesn't come from outer space or some other dimension. Nor does evil come from belief in God. Like Gor the God-Butcher, two large nations tried to eliminate evil by eliminating, among other things, religion. And the Soviet Union and Communist China killed tens of millions more in 1 century than the abuse of religion did in 20 centuries. Erasing God from the equation doesn't erase evil. Because real evil isn't outside us; it's in us. As Jesus said, “For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from within and defile a person.” (Mark 7:21-23) We are our own worst enemies. Comic book supervillains need not apply.

Nor did Jesus deal with evil by killing bad guys, as practically all our heroes do. He did it by teaching and healing and turning bad guys into good guys. He turned an impulsive fisherman, and two hotheaded brothers, and a tax collector, and a zealous persecutor, and a woman who wrestled with her many demons, and a motley crew of ordinary people into followers of the God who is love and then ambassadors of his good news.

And he is doing that even today. Through his words and his Spirit, he is still changing lives. He calls us to be loving and forgiving and generous and to help the helpless and to give voice to the voiceless and to be peacemakers. And despite those who worship riches and power and who feel the answer to our problems is to sacrifice those who would disturb the status quo, people who actually listen to Jesus and answer his call are changing the world for the better. Followers of Jesus feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, take care of the sick, visit the imprisoned, and welcome the foreigner. They have set up schools and hospitals all over the world. They respond to disasters. Christians have hid Jews from the Nazis, set up the Underground Railroad to help escaped slaves get to freedom, worked for Civil Rights, run homeless shelters and more.

And that's another thing: in a superhero universe, ordinary people have no power to help. They can only scream and run while the defenders of the city destroy half of it to save it from the monsters. Here again this movie surprised me by having a god share his power with those who are not divine, just as Jesus shares his power with us, through his Holy Spirit. Not that we are to be warriors like in the film but rather witnesses to Jesus as well as “his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.” (Ephesians 2:10) Jesus even said that those who trust in him would do greater works than he. (John 14:12) Nor do we have to worry that this is more than we can handle. Instead he “by the power that is working within us is able to do far beyond all that we can ask or conceive of.” (Ephesians 3:20) Working together as the body of Christ, through the power of the Spirit, we can do wonders.

And we don't need magical hammers or axes or lightning bolts. We don't need to become like Thor. But we can become like Jesus. Will we be perfect at it? No. Which is why real followers of Jesus do self-examination and confess their sins and ask for forgiveness and for help. And with the power of the Spirit we can do better and become more Christlike, day by day. Besides, as we've seen, if you wait for what is perfect to come along, in the meantime things will get worse. If you don't have a doctor on hand, you do first aid: stop the bleeding, splint the leg, give the Narcan. In her book on pastoral care, Barbara J. McClure wrote, “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” And neither are we alone in doing this. We have our heavenly Father, we have Jesus, we have the Spirit: the one and only God who is love. And we can do all things through the one who strengthens us. (Philippians 4:13) 

How is My Neighbor?

The scriptures referred to are Luke 10:25-37.

It's been a crappy couple of years, hasn't it? The pandemic, which is still not quite over, has killed more than 6 million people worldwide, 1/6 of those in the US alone. And of the 500 million who got it and survived nearly half—49%—are struggling with long Covid, which strongly resembles ME/CFS, 4 months after their “recovery.” Considering the million who died and more than 200 million who have long Covid that might explain all the people not coming back to work.

In addition, mass shootings are now a regular feature of the news, with an average of more than 1 each day. We've had over 300 in the first 6 months of this year so far. A mass shooting is defined as one in which 4 or more people die. Far more frequent are suicides by firearms which make up more than half of the 45,000 gun deaths in this country annually.

Meanwhile, California is on fire, the Colorado River which provides water to the southwestern US is drying up, the ice caps are melting, the oceans are rising and global warming is an undeniable fact.

My point is we are all suffering. And if we aren't at present, others are. The question is: how will we respond?

The original question in our gospel is: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” It's asked by an expert in the law, the Torah. And Jesus does something typical. He responds to the question with a question. In the gospels Jesus is asked 183 questions. He only answers 3. However, he asks 301 questions. Jesus obviously favors the Socratic method of teaching.

In this case Jesus asks, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” And since the person making the inquiry is an expert in that area, it's a fair question. And he makes a good answer: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

You will notice that unlike in Matthew and Mark, in Luke it is the lawyer who says this, not Jesus. There are 2 possible explanations for this. First, the idea that, out of the 613 commandments in the Torah, there must be one or more that are absolutely key was not a new one. Indeed, the first commandment given here is part of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), the Jewish confession of faith, said daily in their prayers and on every Sabbath in the synagogue. So it is not surprising that either Jesus or any other pious Jew would choose it as the primary commandment. And the second commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself from Leviticus 19:18, is not a startling choice either. In fact you can see the first 4 of the Ten Commandments as being ways of showing your love for God and the remaining 6 as ways to show your love for your neighbor. Indeed in Matthew 22:40, Jesus says that all of the Law and the prophets are dependent on these two commandments. That is, they are derived from them. Ultimately the whole Bible is concerned with how we act towards God and how we act towards other human beings.

Which brings us to the second possibility for the lawyer choosing these two commandments: he could have heard Jesus say it before and is merely repeating it to get Jesus to agree. Again, the lawyer could have come up with these commandments independently but his follow-up question to Jesus makes this sound like this was a set-up. After Jesus commends his answer, we are told that the man asks his next question, “And who is my neighbor?”, in order to justify himself. How?

You could interpret the word “neighbor” in a narrow way. It could mean your fellow countryman, or fellow religious believer or simply the person living next door to you. And that leaves you open to treat people outside that narrow definition of neighbor badly. The Nazis could justify themselves as being good to their fellow “Aryan” Germans. But since they didn't consider the Jews, or gypsies, or Slavs or a lot of other people as being human, much less neighbors, they could do whatever they wanted to them. We see this in racists and nationalists and even certain so-called “Christians” who are good to their own kind but not to other people. The lawyer was probably thinking that as long as he treated his fellow Jews well, he was in the clear. He deserved eternal life.

But there is also a narrow way of defining the right way to act towards others. Most of the Ten Commandments are negative: do not have other gods, do not make idols, do not misuse God's name, do not murder, do not have sex with someone other than your spouse, do not steal, do not give false testimony against your neighbor, do not put your desire on what your neighbor has. Aside from keeping the Sabbath and honoring your parents, everything else is about refraining from bad actions and intentions. And indeed when asked to summarize the law, the great rabbi Hillel said, “What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor. That is the entire Torah. The rest is commentary.” Notice that his version of the Golden Rule is also negative. It is akin to the part of the oath doctors and nurses take which goes “First, do no harm.” Which is a good start for any ethical system.

But if not followed up by positive commandments, it could lead to benign neglect. Or outright neglect. If you see a person suffering but you don't add to it by murdering him or stealing from him or doing him further harm, you could say that technically you did not violate the Ten Commandments. There isn't a specific obligation there to help him.

Except that is just how most people act. On You Tube, in a segment from the ABC show What Would You Do? they had stunt people fall and lie seemingly unconscious on the pavement. When it was an attractive well-dressed woman, people responded in seconds. When it was an apparently homeless guy, it took minutes before anyone even called 911. And when it was a homeless guy clutching a beer, 88 people just walked by.

Sadly in real life, it's often worse. A homeless man was attacked on a busy sidewalk and hit his head and it took 19 minutes for anyone to do something about it. And when an elderly woman rolled off her chair onto the floor in an ER waiting room, it took 45 minutes for nursing personnel— who were aware of her lying there—to go to help her. In both of those cases, it was too late. And of course we all saw what happened recently when police stood around outside a school for more than an hour rather than go after a gunman or rescue wounded and traumatized children. And the Supreme Court has previously ruled that police are under no legal obligation to help people. These cops did, however, arrest a mother who tried to enter the school to rescue her children. Once she talked police into uncuffing her, she jumped a fence and got her kids. But then her children were more than neighbors to her.

To combat this limited idea of who is our neighbor and what constitutes loving them, Jesus tells the parable of the good Samaritan. And rather than going into the reason as to why the priest and the Levite didn't help the man who was beaten and left for dead—which as we have seen was not at all out of the ordinary—let's look at the focus of the story: the man who helped.

First off, Jesus explodes the idea that your neighbor has to have any connection to you. The injured man is presumably a Jew like the priest and Levite. The Samaritan is not. He would be considered a half-breed heretic by Jesus' audience. In fact the lawyer will not even mention what he is when Jesus asks who was a neighbor to the victim. He simply says, “The one who showed him mercy.” Which, oddly enough, is more relevant. Being a neighbor has nothing to do with race or religion or any other relationship to the other person, or even how you feel about him. It has to do with how you act: with mercy.

Secondly, Jesus blows up the idea that loving is merely not being harmful to someone. Love means actively helping them. It means doing what you can to make them better. As the Paul McCartney song says, it's a short step from “Live and let live” to “Live and let die.” Studies show that, as damaging as abuse is to children, what does the most damage is neglect. Love is not a luxury but a need. It's not enough simply not to harm people. That's only the first step. To love someone is to make their well-being a top priority.

So what does the good Samaritan do to show his love for his neighbor? First he goes to him. He doesn't act as a bystander. He doesn't send thoughts and prayers. He makes a move. In first aid classes, they recognize that the hardest thing to get people to do is to get them involved. Once someone goes to the person in distress, others are more likely to join in. We were actually taught to go to the person having an apparent heart attack and then start pointing at bystanders and telling them, “You: call 911! You: do you know CPR? What about you?” Once you act, others will, too.

And, sure enough, the next thing the Samaritan does is give first aid. He cleans the wounds with oil and wine, the antiseptics of the day, and bandages them. Every person, and especially every Christian, should take first aid classes. They are offered for free by the Red Cross and others. I just took a refresher in Marathon offered by the Islamorada fire chief. As a nurse I need to get my first aid and CPR certification renewed and every time I do I learn something new that first responders have come up with. And it's come in handy, especially with the number of car wrecks and bicyclists hit by cars I've stopped to attend to here in the Keys. And I've never been alone in helping the injured. There are always off-duty cops and firefighters and nurses who stop and help.

There are other kinds of first aid, though. As I mentioned earlier, suicide is a major problem today. One person dies by suicide every 11 minutes and the number of people who think about it or attempt it is even higher. It is among the top 9 leading causes of death for people from ages 10 to 64. It is the second leading cause of death between the ages of 10 and 14 and between the ages of 25 and 34. It is higher than average for non-Hispanic Native Americans as well as for older white men. Veterans, people who live in rural areas and people in physically demanding jobs like construction and mining and emotionally demanding jobs like doctors and police officers have higher suicide rates. LGBTQ youth also are at a higher risk for suicide. And there is suicide first aid, ways of helping a person who is thinking of killing themselves. It consists of listening to and not arguing with them about their feelings but finding out if they have a plan and the means to kill themselves, and then getting them to agree to a safety plan that specifies who will do what and when in regards to getting them help. Again there are courses you can take. And you can find the steps to take online.

Next the Samaritan gets additional help by putting the man on his animal and taking him to an inn. Today we would call 911 and an ambulance would come and take him to a hospital. But that wasn't a possibility in 1^st century Judea. So after giving first aid, instead of saying, “That's all I can do for you,” the Samaritan remains pro-active. He takes the man to an inn and takes care of the injured man himself. He no doubt gets him water and something to eat. He makes him as comfortable as he can. He watches over him. Unlike what you see on TV or in movies, anyone who has gone unconscious, even for a few seconds, is not all right if they awaken. They could relapse and die from an intracranial bleed. They should go to the hospital. But without that option, the Samaritan watches the man overnight so he doesn't die on him.

The next day the Samaritan, who has to go, gives the innkeeper the equivalent of 2 days' wages and tells him to take care of the man. And he promises to pay him back if he spends more. The Samaritan takes the cost of helping the man recover upon himself. And most industrialized countries do make sure everyone gets healthcare. Unfortunately more than 20,000 people die each year in the US because they lack health insurance. That's an average of 1 death every 24 minutes. The death rate for the uninsured is 18.4%, nearly double the 9.6% death rate of the insured.

The Samaritan shows his love by actively doing what he can to help restore the well-being of a stranger in distress whom he merely came upon. He does specific practical things and he does them despite the cost to himself in time, effort and even money. He wasn't a doctor nor had he taken a first aid course. He did what he could with what he had. He is Jesus' example of what loving your neighbor looks like and what every Christian should do.

We have greater resources today. We have hospitals and ambulances and Trauma Star to whisk people away to Ryder Trauma Center in Miami. And I think that makes us complacent and unable to see what we still lack. The US spends nearly twice the percentage of its GDP on healthcare as the average country in the 35 member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. And yet the US comes in last in the top 11 high-income countries in health outcomes. We have the highest infant mortality rate and the lowest life expectancy at age 60. Our rate of preventable deaths is more than double that of Switzerland. You would think the richest country in the world, which is also the most religious country among wealthy nations, would do better.

Paul said that the “thorn in his flesh” that afflicted him was to keep him humble and to realize how dependent he was on God's strength. (2 Corinthians 12:7-9) And I think the healthy and well-off find it easy to ignore those who are suffering because they doing fine—at present. In that What Would You Do? segment, 88 people pass by what looks like a homeless man lying on the ground unconscious and clutching a beer. The 89^th person is Linda Hamilton, a black homeless woman walking with a crutch. She sees the prone man and stops and pleads for people to call 911. She picks up and throws away the beer can and calls the man “Billy,” personalizing him. And the 26^th person to come by after Linda stopped to help does respond to her pleas and call 911. It took a woman who knew what it was to suffer to show compassion to another person suffering.

C.S. Lewis said, “Pain insists on being listened to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Perhaps what we have been going through is our “thorn in the flesh.” Perhaps in the pains we have been suffering God is shouting, “LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR. THEY'RE HURTING TOO.” Are we listening? Are we really, finally going to love our neighbor as we do ourselves? How many times does Jesus need to ask the question?

For Leanne

There are people who draw attention to themselves. They are flashy or loud or do big things that can't be ignored. And because of that, folks are convinced that such people are more important than the rest. But there are lots of people who are none of those things but who keep things running or who otherwise make the world a better place. Leanne was not flamboyant or noisy or given to grandiose gestures. She was sweet and down to earth with a wry sense of humor. And she made the world a better place.

And while she was not one to make a spectacle of herself, she did have an eye for, well, not so much spectacle as beauty. She loved beauty and she tried to capture it in her art. She even saw beauty in dead trees. She painted live ones too, and landscapes. Several of us have her paintings.

And she sought beauty through travel. She went to Alaska with her parents. She went to Europe with her mother. She went to Mexico with her nephews. She went to New York with her daughter and her choir. She went to Australia by herself. To look at a big rock: Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, over 1000 feet high. And she saw in it the same raw beauty she saw in dead trees. And she painted it.

She was also fortunate to be one of those people who loved her job, not only as a librarian but as a storyteller. She loved going to conferences for storytellers. She loved sharing stories and sharing her love of books with children at the story hour and igniting their imaginations.

One day her little nephew was crying about an orangutan who was run over by a Volkswagen. At least in his imagination. She entered into his imagination and they expanded the story and gave his imaginary friend a proper burial.

She entered into the worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling. She read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy often. Its page count is roughly that of the Bible and she could read the whole saga in a weekend!

Stories are the main way that we humans make sense of the world. Stories give everything meaning and our actions purpose. And this is why we have problems when someone like Leanne endures suffering and tragedy without a final triumph.

12 years ago Leanne had a stroke in the middle of the night. She was not discovered till morning. Doctors operated on her brain and stopped a life-threatening bleed. Ultimately their efforts left her alive but unfortunately they did not leave her intact. She lost control of much of her body. Nevertheless gradually her brain healed to a greater degree than we had hoped and her personality asserted itself and her wry sense of humor returned. She couldn't do much of what she had previously but she was still Leanne.

She lived the rest of her life in nursing homes. Her family watched over her and helped her and visited her and took her out for holidays and special occasions. They mastered ordering and driving vans for the disabled and securing her in them and in her wheelchair and built a ramp for the house her daughter and son-in-law  and niece lived so she could be brought there. We all talked with her over the phone...when she didn't call us during work or in the middle of the night. Leanne retained her love of travel, planning trips for her and for her friend. She wanted to visit my wife and me in Florida and go fishing with her brother. The logistics were often unworkable but she never stopped dreaming of travel.

What happens to our unfulfilled dreams? We spend a lot of time and energy and creativity on them. Is it all for naught? Since science tells us that energy cannot be destroyed, what happens to the energy we expend in dreaming, planning and creating?

There is another story that Leanne used to give her life meaning and purpose. It is the story we find in that book that is just about as long as Lord of the Rings. It is the gospel. Leanne put her trust in the good news that our Creator loves his creation and love us his creatures. That he does not desire that our stories end in disease, disability and death. That he entered into his creation in the person of his Son to tell and show us his love and healing. He too suffered pain and death. But that was not the end of his story. He rose and promises to all who follow him that death is not the end of their story, either. As we read in Revelation, just as God resurrected his Son, he will resurrect his creation. Though we have taken the paradise God gave us and done our best to turn it into hell on earth, he will restore it and renew it and recreate it and repopulate it. He will make us into what he created us to be: his children reflecting the God whom we experience as our heavenly Father, who is the very idea of love, and his Son, the incarnation of that love and his Spirit, the one who instills that love in us. As we read, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more—nor mourning, nor crying, nor pain, for the former things have ceased to exist. And the one seated on the throne said, 'Look! I am making all things new!'” That's good news.

If Leanne's story ended for good a week ago, if there is no sequel, then this is an unjust world. If there is no afterlife and no God who is love, there is no justice and no hope in this universe. But if there is another chapter to her story, one of restoration and renewal and healing and triumph, then this is just the part of the story where Gandalf faces the Balrog and falls into the abyss. And we know that one day we will seem him again in splendor.

And I can't think of a better way to paint the picture of our hope than the way Tolkien's good friend C.S. Lewis, without whose encouragement we would not have the Lord of the Rings, brought his own epic The Narnia Chronicles to an end: “But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All of their life in this world and all of their adventures...had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

See you again one day, Leanne. Can't wait to see the new paintings and hear all your new stories.