"The Uncomfortable View from the Top"

This fall in adult Sunday School we have focused on justice. We’ve talked about issues of public policy, including health care. We’ve talked about the lingering effects of slavery and racism, we’ve talked about issues of gender and sexual orientation, we’ve talked about environmental and economic justice, of corporate responsibility, and ethical consumerism.

We’ve talked about what it would look like if the words we prayed each Sunday in the Lord’s Prayer came true – if God’s kingdom were indeed established on earth as it is in heaven. We’ve talked about scripture’s repeated insistence that God is on the side of the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed.

Discussions have been lively, sometimes even heated. Some of the ideas presented have met with resistance. We are reluctant to admit that perhaps we are the beneficiaries of systemic racism, or that slavery abolished 150 years ago still effects the lives of many people today.

We find it difficult to admit that women and men are still not equal, not just in far off “developing” countries, but in our own. We find it uncomfortable to talk about an economy based on greed, and to examine our own habits of spending and consuming.

We become uneasy talking about how the policies and habits of our nation affect not just ourselves, but the rest of the world.

In other words, when we talk about issues of justice there is usually some tension in the air – not only among ourselves, but within ourselves.

I felt that tension within myself this week as I read the scripture lessons for today.

Before I read them, I had gone to a website that I heard about in Sunday School, www.globalrichlist.com. Go to the website, type in your income, and you will find out where you stand in material wealth compared to the rest of the world.

For example, I found out that I am the world’s 51,263,593 rd richest person. That doesn’t sound so impressive, does it?

But then I looked at the next line, and it literally took my breath away to see that I am in the top 0.85 percent of the world’s population when it comes to wealth. And I had just typed in my own salary, not our household income.

Those figures were in my mind as I read the Old Testament story of Hannah and her desperate prayer for a son, and then her song of joy when her prayer is answered, and her son, Samuel, is born.

The birth of a son has turned Hannah’s world upside down, changing her deep despair into great joy. But Hannah realizes that this birth has implications far beyond her own life, that through her son God’s work for justice continue.

“The bows of the warrior are broken,” Hannah sings, “but those who stumbled are armed with strength.

“Those who were full have hired themselves out for food, but those who were hungry hunger no more.

“She who was barren has borne seven children, but she who has had many sons pines away.

“The Lord raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap.”

In other words, in God’s reign, the social power of the world is reversed. The first become last, and the last become first; the mighty and the feeble change lots; the full and the hungry change places; the barren and the fruitful change destinies.

These are hard words to hear from the perspective of the top of the heap of the world’s riches. And I am aware that I am not the only person in this room sitting atop that heap. We all fit into that category.

Now I can hear the protests, because they have been ringing in my own mind all week. We’re not really that wealthy. You have to put things in context.

We debate whether we can really afford to send our children to private schools, we put off taking vacations or take the less expensive trip, we put off projects at the house and try to trim our expenses.

We’ve been hurt by the economic disasters of recent months – retirement savings and college funds have evaporated, jobs are shaky or gone, bills are more difficult to pay. Bankruptcies and foreclosures keep climbing, along with unemployment rates.

All of that is true, and I do not minimize the difficult financial situations many are facing now.

We also know that it is true that even the richest among us are not without problems. There is brokenness and despair and illness that no amount of money can fix.

But given all of that, we are still among the world’s richest and most privileged inhabitants.

And when I read Hannah’s song, or many other parts of scripture that call for justice, I confess that it makes me squirm a bit.

It should.

The purpose here is not to make us feel guilty for the riches and privileges with which we have been blessed. It is to make us recognize that we, all of us, are indeed blessed in so many ways.

But scripture is clear that with blessing comes responsibility. Time and time again God tells the people of Israel that the blessings they have received are intended to be used to bless the world.

Blessings are to be shared, not hoarded.

In other words, God is heavily invested in the welfare of the weak, the powerless, the poor, the hungry, the marginalized, the oppressed, the barren.

As God’s people, as God’s church, God’s concerns must be our concerns. We must identify with those who wait for God’s reversals. More than that, we must work to help those reversals become a reality.

That means it is fine for us to be concerned about the quality of our children’s education, but we also must be concerned about the quality of education offered in the inner city, or to what I’ve heard school officials euphemistically call “the apartment children” of Sandy Springs, a code word for Hispanic children.

It means that we should be concerned not only about our health care, but about the care of every person in this country, whether they are here legally or not.

As our Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in Atlanta last week, “Jesus healed people and so should we. Health care is a basic human right. The United States has not yet adopted that position.” It is the church’s obligation, she added, to advocate to make that happen.

It means we need to be aware of who makes the products we buy and consume, and what impact they have on the environment.

It means we should hold accountable Wall Street executives who, in the words of Jesus, “devour the homes of widows,” instead of bailing them out so that they can add millions to their own coffers.

It means we should take a long, hard look at how much of the earth’s resources we are consuming, and find ways to live more simply.

Scripture makes clear God’s love and concern for the poor, and God’s passion for justice.

That does not mean that God does not love us who are on top of the heap. It does mean we have an extra obligation to work for justice.

As the presiding bishop put it, “We live in the tension between the world as it is, and the dream of God for a healed world.

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Readings

1 Samuel 1:4-20

On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters; but to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year by year; as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?” After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly. She made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.” As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk. So Eli said to her, “How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.” But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.” Then Eli answered, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.” And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your sight.” Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer. They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, “I have asked him of the Lord.”

Hebrews 10:11-25

Mark 13:1-8

As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.”

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