title:Proper 18b -- Sept. 5, 2021 author: Fr. Dale date: Sept 5, 2021
Unofficial end of summer
When I was young I didn't think about Labor Day as anything but associated with the school year starting. Later of course when I began working in the church I was the one typically responsible for overseeing the beginning of Christian education. So it was the beginning of work after a few weeks at least of vacation.
Labor Day weekend. And we've been waiting so long for things to get back to normal, but it never seems to quite get there. We're not ready to start Sunday school here at Saint Pauls, getting there perhaps, but not there yet. We are going to make an effort to begin scheduling to Sunday
morning Eucharist services.
I have tried to encourage open feedback as we begin to try to emerge from our time of pandemic. I'm really serious about that. You see that we have different bulletins from the second service. They are different but I hope equal in some other fundamental ways. I welcome feedback, and it may be only that they're different.
Different isn't the same as -- well, it isn't the same as same. My sincere aim is to do justice to both services even while there is difference between them.
Justice and equality
It wasn't until graduate school that anyone tried to teach me in a systematic sort of way about what justice was all about. It was something of a shock to me to think of it in the context of equality.
It was actually a mathematical example that began to give me a sense of what justice might look like. It was making the connection between that old fashion symbol of justice, a scale with a measuring cup on each side. It suddenly made sense to me that justice was like those two cups on either side of the scale. Each one could hold something different but if the scale balanced there was justice.
It's an entirely fair question to ask me what does this have to do with the gospel? What does Labor Day have to do with the reason that we are here? Labor Day after all was a more or less political gesture beginning in the late 19th century with a focus on supporting unions in the labor movement as it grew. It's interesting to me that labor unions in this country at this time are almost as much a fighting issue as a number of other things, like, not necessarily in order of importance: abortion, wearing a mask, getting a vaccine, paying taxes, getting assistance from the government, ... and so on.
Proverbs
It turns out I think that justice and equality have to do with the gospel in major ways. Jesus had a deep concern for justice. As did the prophets who came before him. We hear about justice in today’s reading from the book of Proverbs. It is a book whose content is about wisdom and in some places is about the personification of wisdom. Wisdom from that rich tradition is something to be gained and sought for its own sake. Something of value, value beyond measuring.
The rich and poor are both alike, God has made them both. Whoever causes injustice will reap calamity it says. And whoever is generous is blessed. It really couldn’t be any plainer put. Truly God has a special love for the poor. But as the book The Shack puts it God has a special love for everyone also.
But that means that God has a special love for equality, equality of the kind I pointed to above. Not equal as in the same, but equal as in just.
James
As we continue reading from the letter of James, this special book in the New Testament speaks directly and pointedly about justice as well. It starts off by criticizing favoritism.
I had a priest friend in Honolulu, one of my "elders", whom I respected deeply. When he was just a young priest and willing to try all kinds of daring things, he did something I wish I had thought of doing at some point. He acted out dramatically the point he wanted to make in his preaching. In effect, he illustrated the saying: "Preach the good news. Use words if you have to." Fr. Tom showed up in church that day dressed as a homeless person. He stayed long enough to see lots of examples of the way we habitually treat the poor and the outcast. The people avoided him as much as possible and didn't recognize him as their priest. Just another homeless person. He left and quickly changed back into vestments and had himself an illustration for his sermon.
Really we cannot help it, judging one thing to be better than another, and another person more valuable for certain purposes than another. But the gospel that we have received seems clear to me to say that the God who created us, who created all of us, rich and poor alike, has created all of us equally and with the same love and care.
"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?" Consider where we are and compare that to God. James has written his letter from the perspective of a deep and committed faith in the God of all. He understands that the great commandment that Jesus formulated, built as it is on the faith of our Jewish forebears, requires that we "love our neighbor." That requires of us that we put it into action.
Good News. Gospel. It seems clear to me that the gospel has much to do with justice.
Mark
Our gospel reading today seems predominantly to feature miracles of deliverance. These are signs of the Messiah as Mark presents it. A daughter possessed by a demon is miraculously freed by Jesus. A deaf man is cured of his impediment. Ears are opened and tongues released. Miracles to be sure and signs of Jesus' identity as Messiah.
But for me, the dramatic image in today’s reading is a woman. A Syro-Phoenician woman. A mother who will stop at nothing to seek healing for her child. A mother who will go up against a wandering healing prophet -- a prophet whose religious faith she does not share.
Some have observed that in her response to Jesus she levels an argument about justice that Jesus himself is persuaded by. One might put it with some accuracy that a woman has argued with Jesus and won the debate.
"Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs."
Church and labor
It turns out that the church has a long history of recognizing the connection between the gospel and workers, the working poor.1 The early church was looked down upon by the classic Roman culture around it because of its concern for the outcast, the widows and orphans. One of the things that drew me to Christian faith was learning about the writings of Pope Leo the 13th in the latter part of the 19th century. He notably argued in favor of labor unions and understood it to be a fundamental part of the Christian faith to alleviate the poverty of the working class.
That teaching continues up to the present day. Pope John Paul II published an encyclical reaffirming the earlier teaching and updating the concerns to that of the late 20th century.
The Anglican church2 has just as strongly affirmed the same teaching, the same support for labor unions, and the need of Christians to reach out with support and genuine help to those in need.
My own call to ministry was founded in no small measure by the witness of the worker priest movement of the 1950's. Priests especially in France chose to live among the working class.
Labor Day and the Gospel have a lot to do with one another. Lord, help us to understand what that means.
Justice Not Charity
I have thought for a while that much of the debate and acrimony in the church would have a different focus if we consistently put it in terms of the question, "What would Jesus do?" In my day to day living it's an appropriate question to keep before me. Issues about what to do in any particular occasion might well look different if we asked that question.
Love the Lord with your whole heart, soul, and might? How would Jesus do that today?
Love your neighbor as yourself? How would Jesus do that today?
Centuries ago a major figure in Judaism, Maimonides, proposed an eight-fold hierarchy of giving and assisting those in need. The highest form of giving is to give a gift, loan, or partnership that will result in the recipient becoming self-sufficient instead of living upon others. The second highest form of tzedakah, (or "charity") is to give donations anonymously to unknown recipients. Giving out of pity is the lowest form of helping another in need3.
That might give us some clue about what Jesus would do today. As I try that question on, it occurs to me that the greatest heroes around us today are first responders. They are the essential workers who are paid the least and fired firstborn. Let us praise them, the often anonymous care-givers, the servers who serve us every day, the laborers who are essential to putting food on our plates. There are so many. We are here because of the labor of so many. Let us give thanks.
Footnotes
Leo 13 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rerum_novarum John Paul 2 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laborem_exercens↩
https://www.google.com/amp/s/atribecalledanglican.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/labor-day-an-anglican-theology-of-work/amp/ and http://anglicanhistory.org/asia/lk/christian\_worker1976.html↩
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