Carla Bailey, Senior Pastor
October 19, 2008
On Friday evening, Warren and I went to the Dartmouth bonfire. As we stood out in the cold, listening to the speeches and a chorus of Dartmouth Undying, as we watched the first-year students run around in circles, and the flames leap up, I thought about my years in college which did not resemble, in any way, the experiences of a Dartmouth Homecoming weekend. Still, Friday night made me nostalgic. Of all the things I regret from my college years, and believe me, there are quite a few, not paying closer attention in Intro to Economics has been the regret most on my mind recently. I do not have a working knowledge or facility in the language of economics. I cannot speak intelligently about the economic chaos we are currently undergoing in our country. Last Friday, I was party to an email exchange between our church treasurer Andy Bernard and our financial secretary Doug Erhard. Doug had some questions about the security of some of our church funds. By the second sentence of his questions and Andy’s response, I was lost. I was, however, reassured that Andy’s reply to Doug contained not once but twice the words, I’m not worried. I like that confidence in an economist of Andy’s experience and renown.
These Election Reflection sermons are not intended to address the particular issues that may determine the outcome of the election. Rather, I am attempting to frame some of those most significant issues in a theological way – more specifically, in a Christian way. My ignorance of economics notwithstanding, the easiest of the four is this one about money, largely because Jesus said so much about money and he said it clearly and to different kinds of people and in different contexts. In fact, it could be said that Jesus spoke more about money than almost any other issue, at least according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. That’s why our gospel readings today were so plentiful. Jesus understood the relationship between people and money at its most elemental level.
When I was young and saving money in a large, pink ceramic pig, my parents introduced me to the concept of opening a savings account in the local bank. I didn’t like the idea very much, especially because I simply didn’t believe the bank would add to my savings for no apparent reason. I was just sure there was a trick. That cynicism would serve me well in this economic climate, wouldn’t it? Too many people have been teased and tricked into getting quite a bit of something for nothing and the shadows, tricks, and crazy sounding words have made it all seem just as nefarious as it apparently has been.
I have been noticing that both candidates for president have been speaking about the economic crisis as if its entire impact will be on the middle class and since Warren and I are firmly in that constituency, I have been especially interested. Will our retirement savings disappear completely? And what will it mean for our children that they will assume the incomprehensively large national debt? They have friends who are now leaving college or deferring graduate school because they cannot borrow the money they need for education and living expenses. Warren and I do not need anything. I had my annual experience again yesterday of cleaning out a stuffed closet, filling bags with jackets, scarves and hats to take to LISTEN, only to realize that my closet is still packed full. So how should I think about the economic crisis and what am I hoping to hear from candidates about its resolution? And further, what am I looking for in a national leader when it comes to money in general?
It seems to me that everything Jesus said about money could fall into one of two broad categories. The first has to do with how individuals relate to their money and the second has to do with how we prioritize the spending of money. The second, prioritizing the spending of money, is actually so easy, it almost doesn’t need explication, so let me start with it.
No one should be without sufficient food to live. No one should be homeless. Everyone should have access to appropriate healthcare. I’m guessing we can all agree on these things. But one step beyond these basic assertions and we begin to part company. Who and what cause hunger, homelessness, and denial of healthcare? Whose responsibility is it to see to it that everyone has these things? What if the person him or herself has made stupid decisions? Our American culture tells us that any individual can “make it” with enough hard work, determination, and grit. Money spent on cigarettes instead of groceries is irresponsible. The third or fourth pregnancy of a single mother is irresponsible. Gambling away rent money is irresponsible. Accumulating thousands of dollars of personal debt on consumer credit cards is irresponsible. Attaining a mortgage that exceeds the value of the house is irresponsible. Seeking treatment in an emergency room for bronchitis is irresponsible.
Recently I read an essay by John Dolan, a well-educated, white, young man with a wife and a dog. In the essay, he described what it is like to descend into serious poverty in America. He wrote of being cold all the time, of having a love-hate relationship with a car, of getting groceries at a food bank and antidepressants in an emergency room. He wrote of shame and odor and his own aggressiveness and slightly manic talk that made prospective employers wary of him. He wrote, giving advice to those who are on their way to the same poverty he and his wife experienced before he was able to borrow money from a relative to rent a basement apartment and keep the heat on high for several months until he could recover sufficiently to job hunt again.
Did John Dolan make mistakes along the way down? Probably. Was there a threshold moment for him both on the way down and on the way back? Undoubtedly. I believe our Christian faith does not require us to understand those threshold moments before coming to his aid. Nor does discipleship to Jesus expect him to demonstrate that he has learned from his mistakes before we come to his aid. We may place those conditions upon him but Jesus does not. Caring for the poor really is as simple as that.
So let’s move on to the more difficult financial issue Jesus places before us – our relationship to our own money. All of us have a level of financial security we believe is necessary to survive. Of course, for most of us, that level of security far exceeds what we actually need and is determined, rather, by what we believe we deserve – compensation for our labor, for the burden of our responsibility, for our shrewd investing, for the agony of graduate school. We plan our spending around what we want, rather than what we need.
We may be good at searching out bargains and we may feel some relief in down-sizing, but, in general, we want for nothing. It’s been a long time since we’ve thought about what is sufficient to our needs. Money can buy us relief from boredom, stress, house-cleaning, even child-rearing. And we work hard, don’t we? And we have a right to retire from our labor with money enough to do the things we couldn’t do while we were working or raising children.
If we are smart, we think we deserve the money we receive. Am I speaking to any professional athletes this morning? If not, I don’t have to say anything about our athletic ability being the thing that deserves the millions of dollars we get for a few years of slogging it out on a football field, baseball diamond or tennis court.
We are so judgmental about the way others spend money or do not save money, it’s almost laughable. We resent the numbers of people who go to bankruptcy court because of consumer debt. We question one another’s decisions about cars, houses, money given to children, clothes, and on and on and on. We disbelieve that the numbers of people going to community dinners has doubled or that the higher numbers represent actual need. If we think we could have stood beneath Jesus’ scrutiny, we are wrong. We are just plain wrong. Jesus was critical, harsh, and judging of the wealthy. And, to borrow a phrase from Senator McCain, my friends, that’s all of us.
The economic crisis gives us plenty to challenge our Christian discipleship but let me give you one thing more. The impact of this crisis on the middle class may become severe, but the impact of this crisis on those who were already poor will be catastrophic. People in this country are going to die of poverty. They are going to be killed because they are poor. What are the candidates for president going to do about that? What are we going to do about that? If we haven’t yet asked those questions of ourselves, it’s past time we do. The answer we hear may influence our vote, but the answer we come up with ourselves is the one that concerns me more. It’s the answer to that question I believe concerned Jesus more too. Amen.