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GOD’S
ECONOMY THE REV. JOHN E. KITATGAWA ____ SERMON PREACHED AT
ROCKING SHABBAT SERVICE ____ TORAH: LEVITICUS 25-27 HAFTARAH JEREMIAH 16: 19-17
& 32: 6-27
P.O. VOICE: 520-299-6421 FAX: 520-299-0712 E-MAIL: WEB SITE: WWW.STPHILIPSTUCSON.ORG |
I am so very pleased to be
here and to worship with you this evening.
St. Philip’s congregation looks forward to welcoming Rabbi Sam and any
who might also come on Sunday. I pray this
relationship will grow and deepen, and that together we can witness to the
power of God acting in and through our communities of faith. After reading the passages
from Leviticus and Jeremiah, I entitled this homily “God’s Economy”. The word
“economy” is rooted in two Greek words.
Greek, of course, is the language of Christian sacred writings. The first word is “Oikos”,
which simply means “house.” The other is
“Oikonomia,” which means the manner in which the
household is organized and managed, and how relationships within are
ordered. I see today’s texts as ways
to understand God’s desire and vision for the organization and management of
God’s creation. Even a cursory reading of
these texts leads to the conclusion that the standards and measures of God’s
economy are not the standards and measures of the world’s economies. In American society, we say things like,
“possession is nine tenths of the law”; and, we frequently litigate over
property rights. In Leviticus, God
says to Moses: The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine: with
me you are but aliens and tenants (Leviticus It is intriguing to contemplate the current debate over immigration
from the perspective of this text. For the Leviticus text clearly sets
justice and compassion as basic responsibilities of our covenanted
stewardship of the land, and of the community of people entrusted to us by
God. From God’s perspective, who is
the alien? Aware that Throughout the land that you hold, you shall provide for the
redemption of the land (Leviticus And, ending with these words: … until the year of the jubilee; in the jubilee
it shall be released, and the property shall be returned. Though I would not want to construct a legal brief for any court, I
wonder whether this text might inform and illumine how people of faith in All this is of concern for
two reasons. One is God’s passion for justice for all. The other has to do with our own spiritual
health. The blessings and curses
enunciated in the seventeenth chapter of Jeremiah speak succinctly to the
matter of our spiritual health.
Blessed are we when we value and act according to God’s economy, and
trust in God’s plan of salvation.
Cursed are we when we substitute the economies of the world for God’s
ways. You may be interested in a
Christian perspective on God’s economy.
I have selected a couple of Gospel passages to highlight a few
characteristics. First, some people
were trying to get Jesus in trouble, either with the government, or with
religious leaders. Though you may not
be familiar with the context, you may know Jesus’ famous words, Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the
things that are God’s (Luke This is Jesus’ clear recognition that faithful people can participate
in the world, but not at the expense of compromising their claim that God is
their God, and that they are God’s people. In the polarized context we
live in, please listen to a few verses from the sixth chapter of the Gospel
according to Luke, which distinguish God’s economy from the ways of the
world: |
Love
your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray
for those who abuse you. If anyone
strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away
your coat do not withhold even your shirt (Luke
This passage is fittingly read at Episcopal
celebrations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and
ministry. I often associate the passage
with a story shared by a now retired Episcopal Bishop of West Virginia. He tells about an event in
Do
you love Martin Luther King, Jr.?
And,
the congregation responded,
Yes,
Lord, I love Martin.
One
by one, the pastor proceeded to name the great figures of the Civil Rights
Movement, and each time, the congregation responded,
Yes,
Lord, I love him or her.
Then,
the pastor said,
Do
you love Jim Clark?
The
crowd was stunned and silent because Jim Clark was the sheriff who had staged
the attack on the demonstrators. So, the
pastor again asked,
Do
you love Jim Clark?
A
few responded,
Yes,
Lord, I love Jim Clark.
The pastor continued to repeat the question
until the response of love for Jim Clark was as loud as it had been for Martin
Luther King, Jr. He knew and the
congregation eventually came to recognize what God has called all of humanity
to do and be. God does not call us to
win our causes, as righteous and just as they may be. God does not call us to exact retribution
upon our enemies, no matter how evil or brutal they may be. God does not call us to use any means at our
disposal to bring others to our point of view.
God calls us to love. The pastor
knew, and the congregation eventually came recognize that God calls us to love
in such a way that Jim Clark and others will be transformed.
Listen to Jesus’ comments as recorded by Luke. I think you will hear an echo of what we
heard in the Leviticus passage:
If
you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? If you do good to those who do good to you,
what credit is that to you? For even
sinners do the same. If you lend to
those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as
much again. But, love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great (Luke
Here is a third passage from Luke. Jesus was encountering criticism because he
received and ate with sinners. Instead
of trying to influence the rich and powerful, Jesus was consorting with rejects
and misfits. In response, Jesus said:
Which
one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the
ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds
it? When he has found it, he lays it on
his shoulders and rejoices (Luke 15: 4-5).
In
what worldly economy does concern for the one warrant the risk of the ninety
nine? Most economies value people as
units of production and units of consumption.
Yet, according to Luke,
… there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance (Luke 15: 7).
This
parable does not contradict Jeremiah’s blessings and curses mentioned
earlier. Indeed, Jesus calls humankind
to discern, follow and be accountable to God and God’s ways, and to live
according to God’s economy while living in the world. The Lucan passages
recognize human capacity to lose contact with the God’s community, and to fall
from the paths of righteousness. Whether
Christian or Jew, we can join in Jeremiah’s appeal:
Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed:
save
me, and I shall be saved;
for
you are my praise (Jeremiah
According
to Episcopal priest and writer, Barbara Brown Taylor, from a Christian
perspective, the Good News is that:
God's talent for finding us proves greater than our
talent for getting lost, and there is joy in heaven as well as on earth"[2].