Sermon 9/22/2019: Changing our circumstances


Today's lessons:  Jeremiah 8:18-9:1Psalm 79:1-91 Timothy 2:1-7Luke 16:1-13


Before the service.  St. Alban's Sanctuary, September 8, 2019




Good morning.  Your presence here this morning is a reminder as we heard in our reading from Jeremiah, that, there is a balm in Gilead.  That fragrant ointment reminds me that we are here, in community, to listen, learn and inwardly digest the Word of God, together, because we know that God is Good.  Let’s see what the Gospel might be telling us today.


As a part of our Lenten season this year a group of us read the book, A Resurrection Shaped Life, by Bishop Jake Owensby. I had learned about the book through his blog, entitled, Looking for God in Messy Places.
One of the things I like about Bishop Owensby is that he really is looking for God in messy places.  His illustrations illuminate the complexities of living in this world.  Sometimes they are shocking stories, other times, gentle, but they always have something to say about what’s coming up in the Gospel reading.
This week, Bishop Jake was with many of the other Episcopal Bishops at the House of Bishops, an annual gathering where they learn and worship and build their branch of the Jesus Movement.  I wasn’t sure he would have time to write a blog post this week.
But he did.  In his post, titled: “What Love Does,” [1] he brought to light why I have a problem with a common phrase we hear and many of us use. 
“It is what it is.”
When I hear those words, something inside me cringes and I tense up a bit.  I feel such futility and lack of hope in those five words.  Like we have no chance to change. I want to ask, “Really?”
So, when Bishop Jake followed that comment with a question, I felt enormous relief.  The question?  “So, what are you going to do about it?”
“YES!!  That’s it!”  I told the phone in my hand as I read those words from my glowing screen.
Sure, it is what it is, but … what are you – or we – or what am I going to do about it?
Of course, there are some things we can’t change.  The color of our skin, or who raised us or what decade we were born, for example.  But we have so much evidence that we can change or be a part of changing other things.
I think about the climate change strikes that occurred on Friday, where young people rallied together to express their fears that the environment has been so utterly compromised that they will not have a safe place to live as they grow up.  While many of us do things to help save the environment in our own little ways, these young people are stepping up, demanding that more is done, particularly at this week’s World Climate Summit. 
They could have said, “it is what it is,” and left it at that.  But they decided, instead, that they are going to do something about it.

Jesus was telling his disciples a story about a business owner who heard a rumor that his business manager was not properly handling the business.  The owner could have said, “it is what it is,” and let it go.  But instead, he decided to act.  He fired the manager.
Now, we don’t know what the business is or what the manager did to be fired, but it seems like someone triangulated[2] and instead of going to the manager to express their concern, they went to the owner.  As the story goes, it doesn’t seem that the owner asked the manager for his side of the story. 
The manager could have said, “it is what it is,” but he knew he needed this job.  This was what he was trained to do, and he certainly did not want to have to work a minimum wage job, or three of them, to be able to afford to live.  Instead he considered for himself, “what can I do?”
I’m going to take a guess that the business might have been an early example of a loan agency.  Because of the way the story is told, it seems like the customers might be paying for something over time, with interest.
I think that is the case, because the manager goes to the customers and negotiates deals to pay off what they owe.  And the way they barter, the two customers might have had different terms for their loans.  They could have said, “it is what it is.  I owe this debt and I will pay it off over time, as we first agreed.”  But no.  With the manager, they figured out what they could do about it.  One cuts the debt in half and the other gets to cut about 20% off his bill.
It looks like each one paid off their debt, in advance.   
If any of you have ever had a loan, you know that the interest on a loan can potentially double the original amount of your loan, sometimes, as we are learning about with student loan debt, crippling the borrower. Which can then cripple the economy. These two customers could now walk away without worrying whether they could pay the larger amount.  The manager didn’t need to worry that they might default on their loan and the owner gets what is owed.
None of them left it to circumstance.  Each one of the people in this story might have said, “It is what it is.”  But each added, “what can I do about it?”  Each one changed the end of this story.

I need to tell you something.  When I began working with this Gospel, I was uncomfortable with the story.  I am not alone.  Over and over scholars and clergy folk were commenting on how difficult this story is.  It doesn’t seem to fit in the ways other parables fit.
Each character in this story is who they are.  None of them is a representative for Jesus or God or any of us.  That’s a little different.  And yet, there is something to be said about changing up the narrative to grab our attention. For me, when Bishop Owensby posted his commentary on his blog, I felt like I finally found something we needed to hear:
We are all creatures of habit, and we all can change.
That completely changed the way I saw this Gospel.  Because there is hope when we realize we can change our circumstances.

About two weeks ago, the vestry sent a letter to all of you to let you know what our financial situation is.  And it isn’t very pretty.  We shared with you that it is highly likely we will live into our projected deficit budget, realizing that we will be about $20,000 short at year end.
It’s been this way for longer than I have been here.  And oftentimes an unexpected gift might arrive that narrows that gap.  We live with hope each year for that kind of thing.  What it can mean is that someone died!  I must tell you, that’s not sustainable.
For years we’ve lived with the “it is what it is” attitude.  Passively hoping that something will happen.  Well, this year we got active and asked, “what should we do about it?”
And the letter was written.  And hopefully you all have read the letter that tells you that we need your help. 
You could say, “it is what it is,” and set the letter and pledge card aside. 
On the other hand, you can say, “what should I do about it?” and act.
So far, that’s what seven of you have done.  Over $3,600 has been promised or has already been given to help us narrow the gap between our income and our expenses.  That’s amazing.  Thank you, so very much.
If you forgot your card or you are just now deciding to make a promise to help us in 2019, we have extra cards in the narthex.  Just fill one out and give it to Robin after the service.  Or mail one in.  Or simply, give more.
However, the reality is, we are coming up on our annual giving campaign and we are going to need you to consider increasing your gifts or making new promises to your church for 2020, too.  We’ll begin that campaign late in October.
I think it’s important to remind you that since before I arrived in 2016 the people in charge of this facility have been fiscally responsible.  Reviewing service contracts, changing lighting, keeping the temperature stable, managing payroll, maintaining the property, adding renters, changing rental fees, seeking grants…all these things have been happening to ensure that we can keep doing all the good things we do here.
The Diocesan Office supports all these things by giving us money to help, too.  But they are asking us to try harder to become more self-sufficient, and each year, their support will decrease, which means we must come up with the difference.
We could say, “it is what it is,” and leave it at that.  Or we can look at all we do here, all the lives we touch, all the community activities we welcome, all the people we feed: spiritually and physically, all the ways we show God’s love to the world, and we can ask, “so what are we going to do about it?”
As Jake Owensby’s blog post title reminds us, that’s What Love Does.  Love challenges us to look at the futility of the statement, “it is what it is” and act because there often is something we can do about it. 
That’s the Gospel.  That’s the HOPE.  We do not need to sit idly by thinking we are incapable of changing the world.  God gives us all we need to turn the world upside down for God’s glory.
We might not be those young people who gathered this week seeking behavior and policy changes regarding climate change.  We might not be the business owner or his manager or their clients. 
But we are us.  We are Jesus Followers, who will seek out new ways to show how God has changed our lives and has taught us to pay attention to all of creation and to not settle for the world as it stands because “it is what it is.”  No.  God teaches us to go further and to ask, “Now, what do we do about it?”

Let us pray. 
O Jesus, you are the teacher who reminds us that we have the gifts, talent and treasure, in other words, the ability, to make a difference in the world.  That we do not have to sit idly by, accepting that “it is what it is.”  You teach us that with your help, with the help of your Father, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can step out in faith and ask, “what do we do about it?”  Give us courage to live as your people, ever hopeful that we can be beacons of your love and that your love can transform, can change, the world.  Amen.