For over a year I have been attending the Community Presbyterian Church in Pittsburg, California with my wife Nancy. This is a small, progressive community of faith. Nancy and I were recently invited to share in the church newsletter some of our history. This is what we shared:
 Nancy and I were married at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in 1976. This was Nancy’s birth-town/hometown. 1976 was the same year I graduated from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. Nancy, a graduate of Westminster college in Pennsylvania, was working at the Combined Insurance Company in Chicago, and was serving as an elder at the Edgewater Presbyterian Church where we met. Born in Cheyenne Wyoming, living my early years in Aurora Colorado, I went to Hastings College in Nebraska before moving to Chicago. My career as a Presbyterian pastor took me to Davenport Iowa, Evanston Illinois, and 28 years in Saginaw Michigan. We are now retired and living in Rio Vista, California.
We are blessed with a beautiful daughter, Emily, born to us when we lived in Davenport,Iowa. She now lives with her family in Concord with her husband, Ken, and our fast-growing grandson, Thomas. He is ten years old.
While I was serving the church as a pastor in Saginaw, Nancy got her Masters degree in Library Science from the University of Michigan that led to her pursuing a career as a Librarian, both in Saginaw, Michigan, and as an information specialist with the Dow Chemical company in Midland Michigan. We both retired in 2013 and made our move to RioVista in 2017.
As for hobbies, I have been building with LEGOS for fifty plus years. This has always been a great way for me to relax. Nancy, is currently working with a national organization, ‘Case for Smiles’, coordinating the work of dozens of volunteers who make colorful, seasonal pillow cases for pediatric oncology patients in Sacramento hospitals. For relaxation, Nancy is always working on quilts she ‘gifts’ for family and friends. Nancy likes pineapple on her pizza and I miss snow. 😀
We’ve been blessed with 47 years of marriage, memorable experiences and a wonderful family. We have been blessed to connect our faith with ‘church’ admitting that it’s nice, in retirement and with my health issues, not having the pressure ministry has placed on both of us for half a century. I find the welcoming love of God for all creation through the Comminity Presbyterian Church. We love the people we are getting to know. May God continue to work in and through us.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. 15 As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. 16 With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
INTRODUCTION
Paul is writing from a prison in Rome so that with the shield of faith in hand we can do the hard work in withstanding evilthat has infiltrated heavenly places. This World Communion Sunday, recognizing there is evil in sacred places all around the world, this one verse stands out:
As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.
It’s a tough job to prepare ourselves to proclaim –- promote — preach peace in a violent world knowing millions of souls are hungry… suffering and oppressed, dying… searching for God’s presence, God’s embrace, God’s love, security and peace.
SHOES FOR PEACE
Some years ago, when doing Children’s Sermons, I would occasionally give a small bag to a child in the congregation. I would ask this child, along with a parent, to put an object in the bag – any object – to share with me in doing the Children’s message the following Sunday. It was my goal to find a way to talk about God with whatever object was put in the bag. This was a fun exercise we also called: ‘STUMP THE PASTOR’! I recall items put in the bag: A Flashlight, candle, a colander, a fan, a pencil, scissors, stethoscope, postage stamp….
A SHOE? I recall telling the children: let’s go out and look for God in the shoes people are wearing. Can we find God in all of the shoes
I believe God is in ALL the shoes… ALL THE SHOES, assuming the affirmation that God created everything. We are all created in the image God. It only makes sense! If you can accept this logic: God is in all of our shoes.
New shoes. Old shoes. Comfortable shoes. Casual shoes. Weird looking shoes. Scuffed shoes. Swanky shoes. Cowboy boots. Flats. Pumps. Tennis shoes. Sandals. Stilettos. Moccasins. God is with us, all around us, in us and all of our shoes.
There are some cultures where people don’t always wear shoes or moccasins—particularly in warm southern regions when going barefoot is preferred. For health reasons I’m not wearing shoes.
MANNERS AND METHODS:
Something I didn’t know. In the Islamic world there are well defined “Manners and Methods” for wearing shoes. (Sahih Bukhari, vol. 4, pp 65, Hadees 5855 / SUH-HEE BOO-KAA-REE). This rule when putting on shoes:
“…. always put your right shoe on first, then your left. Taking them off start with the left shoe then the right so that the right shoe is always first and the left shoe last.
Do you think about which shoe you put on first? Many of us in our homes have rituals or rules when we wear shoes. In many of our homes we take off our shoes when entering our home … because bottoms of shoes are often dirty and can in some cultures represent uncleanliness.
What about hitting someone with a shoe?
In December of 2008 there was a “shoeing incident” when an Iraqi journalist threw both shoes at President George W. Bush—in protest of his policies landing this journalist in jail for nine months.]
Regardless what cultural rituals we chose to follow, can we affirm, created in the image of God there is a soul in every shoe? Forgive the pun!
Whether we put the right shoe or left shoe first? What’s really important is our contemplating the charge Paul gives us:
As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim, preach, promote the gospel of peace.
Movie: TILL
I recently re-watched a thought-provoking—a disturbing movie: TILL. This is amovie about the needless, violent murder of a 14-year-old African American boy, Emmett Louis Till…nickname, BO. This was in 1955.
The first part of this movie was when young Emmett was preparing to travel from Chicago to visit his cousins in the small town of Money, Mississippi—population 400. Emmett was filled with exuberant joy in preparing for this trip…new shirt and tie billfold and hat and wing tip shoes! For me, all the love of God, innocence and joy, were to be found in those wing tip shoes.
Emmett was enjoying his visit with his cousins in Mississippi. Until an incident in a store and the racial hatred of a clerk and this clerk’s brother and friend – common in the south in the 50’s — would end in his abduction, torture and murder. He was only 14 years old.
The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber called the death of Emmett Till one of the most heinous hate crimes in American history, “an icon of injustice”, creating a mass movement that “calls us to the cause of justice today” … our continuing to promoting finding justice for men and women and children around the world who continue today to suffer the consequences of hate-filled racism. This scripture – worth repeating:
As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.
I share this story about Emmett Louis Till, BO, for three reasons:
First: The violent murder of Emmett points us toward all that is evil/broken in this world — and this part of the world called the United States. Because way today too many children continue to die …too much poverty and hunger and disease… and violence… NEEDLESS SHOOTINGS.
Gun violence in 2022 took the lives of 28,000 souls in this country, with projections this year to surpass 38,000. Firearms (according to CDC) are the number one cause if death of children in this country.
We live in this part of a world with social cancersinfecting or nation: hate crimes, white supremacy, the beginning of a long, long list of malignant, cancerous issues that create distrust — bedlam — chaos.
+ + +
The question of HATE: I confess, personally, it’s hard to love some people I don’t know or understand. The phrase, “hate the sin not the sinner” resonates in my confessing that I find it hard to see God in the shoes of people who do monstrous things… people I probably will never fully understand.
My honest prayer: “God forgive me when I cannot find your peace in all the shoes!” YET, I MUST TRY! WE MUST TRY!
To my second point: The story of Emmett Till, for me, is more about his life than his abduction and death. I look at his picture of 14-year-old Emmett and his new shoes purchased prior to his traveling to Mississippi–shoes that symbolize the exuberant joy and love we wish for all God’s children. Every time I see a child playing and laughing, I see the love and joy and hope and peace we want for all God’s children – peace we are CALLED to pass on, promote, proclaim to future generations
Emmett Till. We need his story to live. What I want to hold in my heart is the memory of the joy-filled boy—reminding us what we must search for in our lives—love and joy—the sacred embrace of God in what this young boy experienced, exemplifies, symbolizes… what we pray for and pass on to ALL God’s children around the world. Emmett still speaks to us the need to fight for justice and peace for all the children of this world.
God isn’t about clinched fists and frowns and tears–hate. Spontaneous laughter and smiles with open hands and arms — full stomachs and safe homes and schools and streets – these are all things OF PEACE God wants for ALL children all around the world!
Which leads to this third point:
Third, in promoting, preaching, proclaiming peace we cannot be complacent. We cannot allow ourselves to be inured/numb/anesthetized to the reality of violence in our world—our community. Working for love-filled justice and sustained peace is our calling, our mission.
Emmett Till’s mother, Mamie, fought this fight for peace. After the death Emmett she invested her life in fighting (according to author Timothy Tyson) the “wave of terrorism” that continues to take the lives of innocent children around the world. Mamie’s voice needs to heard today — through our peacemaking efforts…so that children like her son Emmett don’t have to suffer or die prematurely.
We support the promotion of the gospel of peacethrough various ministries of this church. It’s important that we find ways to support the work of the church ‘care team’ and ‘outreach committee’ and special offerings…
FINALLY
A STARTING POINT — Tomorrow morning when you put on your shoes. I don’t’ really care if you put on the right or left shoe first. What’s important is to put on shoes in intentionally, consciously walking for God’s peace – for all God’s children.
Consider a new ritual in consciously thinking of new ways you can promote peace throughout each day in everything you do and in all of your interactions.
A starting point: When you on your shoes tomorrow — take pause for just a moment or two—to think about your day with God in your shoes – promoting the PEACE with these words we so often say: May the peace of God be with you…. And also, with you.
A fond memory from the 1990’s was the Warren Ave Presbyterian Church in Saginaw,MI, hosting as a guest speaker the late Lula Briggs Galloway—founder of the Juneteenth Creative Cultural Center and Museum in Saginaw, MI. Ms. Galloway was an author and social activist who spent years working with congress to make Juneteenth a national holiday. Juneteenth celebrates the day America’s last slaves found out they were free. Ms. Galloway wrote the book “Juneteenth: Ring the Bell of Freedom.” She died in San Jose California in 1998.
An interesting word caught my attention when reading a congratulatory article about the election of the Reverend Dr. Andrew Pomerville to be the new President of Louisville Presbyterian Seminary in Louisville, KY. Congratulations to Andrew!
The word in the article that caught my attention. “WHOSOEVER”, according to the Board of Trustees Chair Elizabeth Clay, “….captures not who we are but who and how we want to be in this world.” (Presbyterian Weekly News June 5, 2023). I truly believe this to be a commitment that captures who and how we are to be the “CHURCH” in the world. [This word, coincidentally, is found 24 times in scripture opening doors for all people to grow “whosoever” they may be in God’s beloved world.]
Andrew Pomerville talks of his commitment to embrace becoming a “Whosoever Community” — an anchor found in the Mission focus of the seminary:
Strives to offer affordable and accessible theological education.
Continues to become an anti-racist seminary.
Continues to become a seminary that affirms people who are LGBTQIA+.
Continues to become a seminary that welcomes people who have disabilities.
Continues to become a seminary that welcomes people who are neurodivergent.
Continues to welcome students of many faiths and those who identify with no religious tradition.
My challenge is to embrace the commitment to become a “WHOSOEVER CHURCH”:
that strives to be welcoming and accessible for ALL people in ALL walks in life.
that evolves as an anti-racist church.
that accepts people who are LGBTQIA+.
that welcomes people of various ages, abilities, disabilities and those who are neurodivergent.
that accepts people of all cultures and faith traditions
A FEW SPECIFIC QUESTIONS:
“What and how” are we to be relevant as Christ’s church in the future — with friends and neighbors — those we may perceive to be different — family — strangers — enemies — people from different faith traditions?
“What and how” are we to be a loving presence in the lives of “whosoever” risks searching for a deeper relationship with God?
Personally, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, “what and how” will we embrace opening our hearts and minds and souls to “whosoever”crosses our paths in this complicated world?
These are just a few of my thoughts and questions reflecting on this magnificent word “WHOSOEVER” on this cool California day……June 8, 2023.
There is a a new anti-democracy pandemic in our nation. It is HATRED. This HATRED is a festering disease. This disease, like cancer, has been lying dormant in the souls of many in our nation for many, many years. I believe our last President triggered the outward manifestation of this disease. Let me be clear. HATRED by itself isn’t deadly.
Put a weapon, like a gun, in the hands of a hater and there is the potential of DEADLY VIOLENCE. Put millions of guns in the hands of HATERS and the potential for deadly results that can become explosive. HATRED by itself doesn’t kill. A gun by itself is not the cause of this pandemic. The gun in the hand of a HATER alone is only part of the pandemic. Put a gun in the hand of a HATER who also has some mental challenges and there is an extreme potential for gun violence — and death. HATRED without weaponization doesn’t kill. GUNS without hatred doesn’t kill.
What cures HATRED? Love is at the top of my list and the need for more blogging!
I know there will be those who will find many holes in this logic. What I know for sure is that there are many ways we can CONTROL the violence that causes the high rate of gun related deaths.
Consider this short list of gun related safeguards. This list does not violate the second amendment right to bare arms.
Background checks
Age restrictions on gun ownership
Eliminate manufacturers’ immunity from liability
Ban assault weapons
Ban high-capacity magazines
Ban ghost guns
Gun liability insurance (not unlike car insurance requirements)
I’ll never forget the Holy Saturday night, many years ago, receiving a late night call that my mother had a stroke. She was in Lincoln, Nebraska, 800 miles away from where I lived in Saginaw, Michigan. Easter worship in the church where I was pastor was just a few hours away.
How could I lead worship and preach on Easter? I held in my heart both my mom and my family and the congregation I was called to serve. Words can’t describe the emotion, the pain, the questions. Seminary didn’t teach us how to live through personal crisis like these! God leads us through these experiences. What I remember:
1) I did my best to lead Easter worship. I was numb. God did most of the work!
2) I was honest with the congregation sharing my situation.
3) I asked for prayers.
Following worship I got into my car and drove to Nebraska—easier for me to drive than fly. My family couldn’t join me. Driving was good. I had time on the road with my thoughts and prayers and God.
Finally, with my mom and sister we talked and prayed. All mom could do is look at me with searching eyes and very slight movement with her hand. I had not seen her for several years. I could only try to imagine what she was trying to say. I thank God I had this time with mom before her death. My sister was also with me.
I remained in Lincoln several days, along with my sister and her family, to conduct memorial service in the nursing home where she lived. I remember asking my church secretary to fax materials from Saginaw that I would need to conduct this service. In the service I sang a favorite, “His Eye is on the Sparrow”. We had ice cream and cake—something mom would have enjoyed.
My wife and brother and other family members couldn’t be with me. Another service would be planned so other members of the family could attend.
My point in writing this:
I thank God, through the RISEN CHRIST, for the strength to get me through what all families in a host of contexts in our congregations, experience every day. With all the painful things that befall us, God is always with us! With Gods help, through faith, we can get through anything. Jesus lives! God is with us! ALL THE TIME!
“We belong to God” – An Ash Wednesday message in preparing for a journey through Lent 2023. This blog is an update of what I originally delivered to the Presbytery of Lake Huron in 2011.
Reflecting on first words of the Brief Statement of Faith, guiding me in preparing this message—from the Heidelberg Catechism:
“I belong—body and soul, in life and death—not to myself but to my faithful savior Jesus Christ”
I. THE PHOENIX—MY PERSONAL STORY
First, a glimpse into my personal story. Before moving to California, I went to the same family doctor for over 30 years. Dr. Caroline Scott is an active Episcopalian worshipping in a church just a few blocks from the church I served. When I went in for an office visit, we would typically spend time talking about our common interest in doing Christ’s work, personally and as a church, in downtown Saginaw Michigan. I am fortunate to have found this doctor who is as passionate about God’s work in the city as in taking care of her patients. I recall she used to provide free health screenings and counsel to members of her inner-city parish.
I mention Dr. Scott because her medical practice has been appropriately named the PHOENIX FAMILY PHYSICIANS. The Phoenix is a majestic mythical bird, a fire spirit that can live for 500 to a 1000 years. Near the end of life the Phoenix builds a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn and are reduced to ashes, from which a new young Phoenix emerges, reborn, to live again.
My family and friends and church have helped me rise like a Phoenix from the flames of a heart attack over 30 years ago. Take note, my young friends and family, you can have a heart attack at the age of 35! At the age of 50 I had double knee replacement that ended with a septic infection that almost took my life. My family and friends gathered thinking this might be the end. It took me more weeks to recover than I can remember. The Phoenix rose again just a few years later when another infection shut down my kidneys…..I escaped meeting St. Peter one more time! My wife Nancy was out of town. The Lake Huron Presbytery Executive got me to the Emergency Room. The church and Lake Huron Presbytery had my back! Through the years I’ve had to deal with arthritis, heart disease, lymphedema — now retired and disabled often using a walker or wheel chair. Like the Phoenix, I have been given several opportunities to emerge from the ashes.
I have been blessed. Good things have come from these experiences. Retirement and moving with my always supportive wife Nancy to California to live close to our daughter and her family has been good. I have a collection of excellent doctors and many-many good friends.
II. A LOCAL CHURCH STORY
On a church level, the congregation I served from 1985-2013 has become a major part of my story. I can’t avoid knitting my personal health experiences with the experiences of this congregation. We lived through these experiences together. Just as I walked with members of the congregation as a pastor through challenging times, this congregation walked with me through my health challenges. We struggled, together, to emerge from the flames of crisis and ashes to discover again and again and again, as Joel says, that the “Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
Literally, the church established in 1867 burned on January 2, 1898. Ten months later the church emerged from the ashes, rebuilt and rededicated under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. Joseph Tewell. This pastor then died a few years later from a heart-attack at a relatively young.
Throughout the years the church has had to adapt and change and re-tool how it did ministry. The church grew to 1400 members in the 1950’s and closed in 2018 with around 60 faithful members — always and consistently pouring resources into the community. As pastor and congregation, we spent many years re-inventing ourselves in how we did things—as a spiritual island in a city devastated with crime and blight and poverty—always focused on ways we could share God’s “abounding and steadfast love” with others—always striving to rise like a Phoenix.
Some of our re-tooling through the years of my pastorate involved discovering that we couldn’t do ministry alone. We ran our own in-house programs for children and youth. We ran a summer program for inner-city youth called “Summer Magic”. In recent years we had partnered with the East Side Soup Kitchen, that used the church gym and professional kitchen, to serve the homeless and hungry poor. The church also had a mobile health clinic, the Naussau Clinic and converted a garage into a huge walk-in freezer for food rescue program called Hidden Harvest. Creating a playground for neighborhood children was another major church development. The Soup Kitchen and Hidden Harvest eventually moved into a new building called the Hunger Solution Center.
Also, after several years of intense planning in partnership with Healthy Community Partners, St. Mary’s Hospital, Neighborhood Renewal Services and the First Ward Community Center….the church opened its doors, rent free, to the Mark Neumeyer Cathdral District Youth Center. The late Mark Neumeyer was the man who called up one day and said: ‘Let’s talk about ways we can partner together in serving children in the community, As many as 40-50 children would come to this after-school program every day. It didn’t hurt that the church had a gymnasium. Women of Colors working specifically with neighborhood women and children came into the church and evolved into a huge community program. I absolutely LOVE sharing stories filled with these programs evolving from a church helping people rise from ashes of poverty and despair.
III. CONCLUSION
There is one short sentence in the Presbyterian Church Constitution that has been central in helping the church rise from ashes of inner city despair in defining her mission: “The church is called to undertake this mission even at the risk of losing its life, trusting in God alone as the author and giver of life….” A similar affirmation is found in the church constitutional, “Christ gives to the Church all the gifts necessary to be his body……..a community of faith, entrusting itself to God alone, even at the risk of losing its life.”
When I have been ill, there is no denying my fear in not knowing about the future. The same is true in the church. In various different contexts, we fear what is going to happen to us if we continue to do things the ways we have always done them before. The church did her work until she had no more resources to maintain programs in a huge and expensive building. I invested as much as I could until health and disability took me into retirement. Yet we still search for ways to rise from the ashes in new contexts as the vibrant, living body of Christ.
So this question: Post COVID, in what new ways is God leading? What is going to emerge from the flames of all the “unknowns” before the church in discerning God’s calling?
In our personal lives, what are we going to change in discerning ways we can be more faithful to God in sharing our lives with others?
We must re-set this Lent in carrying with us this affirmation: Whatever happens in our respective contexts, personally or as families or communities and a church, there must always be knowledge that we are not alone. God binds is together and builds us up in love. God is always with us. God has our back.
As we enter into another season called Lent: rise from the ashes of change to experience, again: WE BELONG TO GOD. IN LIFE AND IN DEATH….I BELONG TO GOD….WE BELONG TO GOD!
🙏
Joel 2: 1-2, 12-17
2Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain!Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near— 2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes;their like has never been from of old, nor will be again after them in ages to come.
12 Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart,with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 rend your hearts and not your clothing.Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful,slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing. 14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him,a grain-offering and a drink-offering for the Lord, your God?
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast;call a solemn assembly; 16 gather the people.Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged;gather the children, even infants at the breast.Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy.
17 Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep.Let them say, ‘Spare your people, O Lord, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations.Why should it be said among the peoples, “Where is their God?” ’
Matthew 6: 1-4 NRVS CONCERNING ALMSGIVING
Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
In grieving the needless death of five souls in Colorado Springs on November 20, 2022.
It is reported that there have been over 600 mass shootings in this country this year (2022). This doesn’t include ‘single victim’ shooting victims! There are more guns in this country than citizens.
I don’t want to take away the constitutional right to own guns. For me, background checks, red tag laws and restrictions on high power assault weapon ownership sound rational and constitutionally allowable. Personally, I think ‘open carry laws’, without proper training or insurance on high powered weapons are dangerous and can potentially put law enforcement officers at risk in responding to shooting incidents. Speaking as a non gun owner-novice, two or more people holding a gun on each other in a shooting incident? Does a law enforcement officer always know how to distinguish between a victim and citizen lawfully garnishing a gun?
Yes, these are my thoughts as a non-gun owner! One more thought: why is it so easy for some government entities in some states to create laws against certain books, than creating laws to protect innocent citizens who become, along with families and friends, victims of gun violence?
To whom much is given much will be required Luke 12:48
This scripture from the gospel of Luke came to my attention after seeing a FaceBook post about a ‘members only luxury club’ opening in the Transamerica Pyramid in downtown San Francisco. To join this exclusive club will cost roughly $100,000. See below:
A friend and colleague, shared this scriptural text in response to a comment reminding readers that a lot of growth in our nation and around the world come from the minds and within the hearts of the wealthiest of people. This creates for me images of the disparity between the haves and have-nots in this world—with extreme wealth for some and agonizing poverty for others. The point of one of the comments on the Facebook page: Haven’t the wealthy in our world earned the right to enjoy the luxuries life offers, ie expensive mansions, yachts — even trips into space?
Wouldn’t it be neat to rent the Royal Suite in the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalif in Dubai at $24,000+ a night?
There is no arguing the fact that the wealthy of the world have earned the right to use the ‘fruits of the vines’ they have planted? This is where the scriptural text from the gospel of Luke comes in:
To whom much is given
much will be required. Luke 12:48
Who am I to judge the wealthiest people in the world? Many if not most of those we call wealthy do a lot of really good things to make this a better world in which to live. I’m thinking specifically of people like Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Opra Winfrey, Mark Zuckerberg…to mention a few—all who do good things with their wealth. There is no doubt in my mind that many of the super wealthy in our world are doing significant things with their wealth—also deserving of upscale clubs and huge castles. Much is required of these wealthy people. How much is enough for a billionaire? and who am i to judge the person who chooses space travel over anything else.
I consider myself wealthy—more spiritual than financial. I am blessed with what I need to support my family. I know I can’t afford to join the club that just opened in the San Francisco Transamerica Pyramid. I can, however, afford to live in a reasonably priced 55+ gated community in Northern California using what my wife and I have earned doing normal things with better than average jobs for the last 40 years.
But am I doing enough to support the food pantry
just down the road from where we live?
There is ‘much required’ from all of us with what God has entrusted our care.
Back to billionaires:
I wonder how many billionaires there are in the world? Google says we have over 2700 billionaires worth over 13 Trillion dollars.
Question: how many billions would it take to solve the issue of homelessness in a city like San Francisco. I honestly believe this problem could be solved by all of us who live in the Bay Area if we had the gumption and resolve to pool our many resources (not just money) into the solving of this complex issue. The problem as I see it is the reality that the combined wealth of the rich and poor will not solve this problem if there isn’t a significant amount of collective resolve. Do we have to wait for the homeless to show up on the doorsteps of our homes in order to take this issue seriously? the homeless are already on the streets all around us. Or can we isolate ourselves from facing difficult issues like homelessness by living in gated communities that help separate us from the poverty that exists outside the walls. Having lived my entire life in a city house, now livng in retirement in a gated community is a bit uncomfortable. At the same time I know my family is safe.
We don’t live in a a perfect world. i am not perfect with my stewardship of what I have been blessed to recieve. And I believe collective use of resources (time, talents, money, advocacy) used to solve some of these complex issues is within our reach — especially if there was more fairness in the distribution of wealth.
A good first step would be for zillionaires to place more resolve and non-monetary resources into programs/policies that would help the bottom tier people of in earning higher life-sustaining wages or reasonable social benefits. A good second step would be to require the super-wealthy to pay taxes at the same rate as lower tier tax payers.
This gets into a topic I love to preach. I believe we are called to place our wealth next to things we truly value. Does our use of time and talent and resources and advocacy reflect this aspiration? I believe that God calls us to pin our resources next to those things we personally value —and this is always going to be a personal choice. I assume there are many wealthy people who do just that — serve others by placing their wealth next to what they value.
Unfortunately getting wealthier is a value held by some. Getting wealthier is enough. Thus the need for equitable taxes.
Simply, this is a scriptural text that needs to be proclaimed globally from many platforms:
To whom much is given
much will be required. Luke 12:48
This is a text that requires serious reflection.
This is a text that needs a faithful response from those who wish to share their wealth with the helpless and poor.
(I don’t usually post political statements. I felt the need to go public with this journal entry)
There is no denying the fact that former President Donald Trump finds himself in the news almost every day. I find it amazing that most of the news portrays Donald Trump as a man who has a lot of STUFF going on in his life that is being investigated by congress, courts, or a host of political and non-political institutions — entities that suggest much of what Trump has and is doing is (allegedly) criminal. In short I don’t see a lot of people giving Donald Trump awards for being a model citizen or a champion in business. For many he is a popular politician. He is also known globally as a twice-impeached former lover of golf-President. So why does the GOP continue to support him? why do thousands love him? Because he is all they have? Do people really long to be like him? For me, Donald Trump divides us. He creates CHAOS wherever he goes. He has a militant, vocal following. He wants to be President again — but why? WHY? WHY?
There is no denying that Joseph Biden finds himself in the news almost every day. He has a lot of STUFF going on with COVID, inflation, crisis, natural disasters, global warming, a host of domestic and global issues. As far as I can tell Joseph Biden doesn’t spend a lot of time golfing. He is not being investigated for any crimes. He is a popular, loved life-long politician. FACT: he won the last election! Joseph Biden has devoted his life in defending the constitution without the need to be announcing in every speech — “I am the greatest, smartest, richest leader America (or world) has ever seen!” Bidens love for this nation is palpable. He has a dozen major projects designed to improve the lives of all Americans—rich or poor regardless of race or creed or social standing. He isn’t building walls. He longs to heal divisions between people and nations. He works for unity and peace…even with those in whom he disagrees…even trying to work with republicans and democrats.
These are some of my thoughts as a citizen and Democrat. While I don’t know who I will support the next time we have a Presidential election, I know for a fact I will be looking for a woman or man who governs with a smile and outstretched arms and open hands longing to embody the great affirmation that “WE ARE ONE NATION UNDER GOD”. I don’t need or want a divisive, authoritarian King. I want a President who will help me once again proud to be an American.
Bound and Nurtured in God's Love 