Luke 12.32-34
The Rev. Hal Chorpenning,
Plymouth Congregational UCC
Fort Collins, Colorado
 
Today we are experiencing a synchronicity of observances in the life of our church: it is both World Communion Sunday and the kickoff of our stewardship campaign. Initially, I thought about it as more of an eclipse, with one special Sunday covering the other, but as I thought more about it, it provides an opportunity for us to see our faith, our generosity, our giving in a global and a local context.

By a show of hands, how many of us think of ourselves as rich? A few years back the Occupy Wall Street Movement took aim at the “One Percenters” -– the people who are in the very top income bracket in our country -– and denounced the disparity of income in our country. And to be sure, even though that movement has dissipated, the problem of income inequality worsens. But it isn’t just a problem for us nationally…it’s a global issue. Let me ask you another question: By a show of hands, and looking beyond the United States, how many of think that you are not simply doing okay, but wealthy in the global scheme of things?

This may surprise you, but if your household income is $32,400 or more, you are a “One Percenter,” globally speaking. The median income for households in Fort Collins is $60,110, and the mean household income is $80,591.[1] Does that help put things in perspective?

Median household income in Italy is just over $20,000 a year (one-third of Fort Collins), and in Portugal it’s just over $16,000 a year…those are developed European economies. In Angola, it’s about $3,500 a year, and in Liberia it is only $781.[2]

Let me ask that first question again: By a show of hands, how many of us think of ourselves as rich? So, when we celebrate World Communion Sunday, perhaps it’s helpful for us to have a global perspective on our own wealth.  [Jesus interrupts…][3]

* * *
[Jesus: Hal? … Hal?]
Who is that?
[It’s Jesus, Hal.]
No, it’s not!
[Sure, it is, Hal! Let me prove it…you know this one, don’t you: “Much will be demanded from everyone who has been given much; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked.”][4]

Yeah, that’s from the end of the Parable of the Unfaithful Slave. And if you really are Jesus, are you trying to tell us that I – we – have been entrusted with a lot and that we will be asked for even more?

[You figure it out, Hal. Duh! Okay, see if this makes sense: “There was a certain rich man who clothed himself in purple and fine linen, and who feasted luxuriously every day. At his gate lay a certain poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. Lazarus longed to eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Instead, dogs would come and lick his sores. (I know it’s gross, but I’m trying to make a point here…)

“The poor man died and was carried by angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. While being tormented in the place of the dead, he looked up and saw Abraham at a distance with Lazarus at his side. He shouted, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I’m suffering in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received good things, whereas Lazarus received terrible things. Now Lazarus is being comforted and you are in great pain. Moreover, a great crevasse has been fixed between us and you. Those who wish to cross over from here to you cannot. Neither can anyone cross from there to us.’

“The rich man said, ‘Then I beg you, Father, send Lazarus to my father’s house. I have five brothers. He needs to warn them so that they don’t come to this place of agony.’ Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets. They must listen to them.’ The rich man said, ‘No, Father Abraham! But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will change their hearts and lives.’ Abraham said, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, then neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.’”][5]

Okay, Jesus, I’m feeling persuaded – since you are, after all, someone who rises from the dead. Can I ask you a question? Why is it that you are always talking about money? Are you trying to lay a guilt trip on us?

[Jesus: I talk about two things more than anything else, especially when I’m at dinner with sinners and tax collectors: love and money…both have a lot to do with you becoming a co-creator of the kingdom of God that I came to proclaim. And the reason I talked so much about love and money is that you have so much to give…sometimes you just need to be…well…prompted.]
Okay, then. Consider me prompted. And thanks for the reminder, Jesus.

[Jesus: No problem, Hal, and just remember, “I am with you always…even until the end of the age.”][6]
* * *

I know that’s a lot to think about. We’ve been showing you videos about how Plymouth is changing peoples’ lives and by extension why your financial support is so essential. And you can see all of those videos at plymouthucc.org/give. But I wonder if the reason that most of us give is that Jesus calls us to open our hearts, and that heart-journey helps us know where we should invest the money that has been entrusted to us.

When we examine ourselves, we know that we are rich by comparison to most of the world, even if Madison Avenue tells us that we are lacking and that our personal wants come before all else. And we know in our hearts that God has entrusted much to us and that we are being called to pay it forward, to go deeper, to give generously. You and I are being called by God -– and not by the advertising industry –- to put our treasure where our hearts are, to invest in the kingdom of God whose hallmarks are faithfulness, justice, peace, and freedom. That is a deeply counter-cultural message in our nation today.

I’ve thought in the past about the story of Jesus and the rich young ruler, who... [Jesus interrupts: Oh, yeah, that’s a good one!] Thank you, for that! I’ve wondered how I might respond if Jesus himself were to ask me face-to-face to give up all of my possessions and follow him. Would it make a difference if it was Jesus standing in front of you, asking you to search your soul and to use what has been entrusted to you for God’s realm? If you don’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, then you probably won’t be persuaded by someone who rises from the dead.

There are a lot of ways that you can invest in God’s realm. There are different ways to bring faith and justice and peace into God’s world. But for me, Plymouth and the United Church of Christ form the most immediate and sustainable way available. I know that all of us are in different financial situations, some have student loans, big medical bills, kids going to college, car payments, and that it isn’t as simple as saying, “Yes, Jesus, I’m going to give all that up and follow you.” But that doesn’t let us off the hook…it isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. [Jesus interrupts: “Yeah, Zacchaeus (Za-KEY-us) the tax collector to just give half of his possessions away, and…][7] Okay, thanks, Jesus. We get the idea. It’s not all or nothing; it’s do whatever you are able to do — the very best you can.

I started looking at that Graduated Giving Chart that was in the bulletin last week, and I did some math and figured out that Jane Anne and I should increase what we are giving, and both of us feel as though we need to put our money where our hearts are, and our hearts are here with Plymouth and the United Church of Christ. So, Jane Anne and I have decided to increase our pledge to Plymouth next year to $10,000. I don’t say that because I think you should give exactly the same, but because I don’t believe in asking you to do something that we ourselves are not doing. We’re trying to set an example and to encourage you to stretch. And it will mean some sacrifices on our part, which is not all bad…it makes us more intentional about our giving.

Plymouth is at a crossroads with great opportunities for ministry and mission ahead of us. I know that many of you find tremendous value in what we are doing here, in our community, and around the world. As you consider your pledge for 2020, please use the Graduated Giving Chart, be prayerful, and also put your treasure where your heart is.

Amen.
 
© 2019 Hal Chorpenning, all rights reserved. Please contact hal@plymouthucc.org for permission to reprint, which will typically be granted for non-profit uses.
 
[1] http://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/fort-collins-population/
[2] http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/median-income-by-country/
[3] Thanks to Bill Tucker, who was the “off-stage” voice of Jesus.
[4] Luke 12.48 (CEB)
[5] Luke 16.19-31 (CEB)
[6] Matthew 28.20 (my translation)
[7] Luke 19

Isaiah 40.1-5
The Rev. Hal Chorpenning,
Plymouth Congregational UCC
Fort Collins, Colorado
 
You and I are not the first people to live in difficult political times. We are not the first people to feel as though our world might be at an end. We are not the first people who need the cycle of lament, comfort, and hope. We are not the first people to turn to God in a vexing, unstable time.

About 540 BC, when this middle section of Isaiah was written, some of the best and brightest in Jerusalem had been taken into captivity in Babylon, an abduction that lasted for nearly 60 years. Can you imagine what kind of fear and hopelessness you would feel if your favorite political and religious leaders were banished from your nation for two generations – so for us that is going back to the Kennedy Administration. What if all of the best and brightest minds in America had been taken away, and their children and grandchildren were only now returning?

You and I are not the first people to live in difficult political times. And the treasure of Isaiah is that we get to hear the fresh words of God’s comfort…words that may be 2,500 years old, but that speak to us in a nation where leaders no longer value truth, where gun violence is accepted as inevitable, where income disparity grows wider, where immigrant children are separated from their parents and detained, where many deny their own racism, and where morality and justice are absent from the national dialogue. This dismal situation is not God’s final word. There is a reason that Martin Luther King, Jr., used this passage in his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech. Dr. King knew that the evils of segregation and racism were not God’s final word.

Singing is a way that God’s people have worked through tragedy across the millennia. The songs of the Civil Rights struggle are familiar to many of us, and the words of the prophet and captured in this one, short refrain: “Comfort, comfort, O my people! Tell of peace, thus says our God!” Will you sing it with me? “Comfort, comfort, O my people! Tell of peace, thus says our God!”

These words of comfort are driven into our souls when we sing them. They become part of us, part of who we are and what we believe in the marrow of our being. That short refrain can be part of your spiritual toolkit that you bring with you everywhere.

So, when you are watching the evening news and you hear about another school shooting, go ahead and sing: “Comfort, comfort, O my people! Tell of peace, thus says our God!” And when you are listening to NPR in your car and you hear of another strings of untruths that have been released over Twitter, “Comfort, comfort, O my people! Tell of peace, thus says our God!” And when you hear of the devastation of a hurricane, “Comfort, comfort, O my people! Tell of peace, thus says our God!”

Now, that refrain is yours to bring with you wherever you go. Not that it is going to fix everything – it won’t – but it may provide enough of God’s energy – spiritual juice – for you to keep you going when things seem grim.

It is a hard time that we live in, my friends. And if you and I don’t keep our spiritual batteries charged, we are not going to be able to engage the challenge and rise up to be co-creators of the realm of God here and now. It takes spiritual energy to go to the border with Mexico and bear witness. It takes spiritual energy to meet with Cory Gardner’s staff and witness that sane gun controls are essential for our nation. It takes spiritual energy to work toward the end of homelessness in our community. If we don’t lean into our faith, we will lose hope and wither. The good news is that we have a very deep well to draw from: the words of the prophets, the teachings of Jesus, and the presence of God in this very hour.

Hope is a muscle that needs a workout to grow and develop. And like our forebears in the faith, we are being given an opportunity to do some spiritual weightlifting, to build hope, and to flex the muscles of our faith. I know that we are an accomplished, self-reliant bunch of folks, but as I told you a few weeks back, you are not alone, and you don’t have to do this on your own. We need hope and we need to rely on our God. And things will change if we work together. “Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low.”

It takes courage to have hope in the face of evil. People of faith have been doing it for millennia, and now the hour has come for us to know that God has our backs…that we must have hope and rely on the God who is with us, and on Jesus who proclaimed God’s realm of justice and peace that we pray for every Sunday.

“Comfort, comfort, O my people! Tell of peace, thus says our God!” Amen.
 
© 2019 Hal Chorpenning, all rights reserved. Please contact hal@plymouthucc.org for permission to reprint, which will typically be granted for non-profit uses.