The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 20, 22 September 2013

“The Heart of Prayer”

The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 20

22 September 2013

Saint Anne’s Episcopal Church

Fremont, California

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

Psalm 79:1-9

I Timothy 2:1-7

St. Luke 16:1-13

INI

First Reading of the Gospel and Questions

All that I heard this week from my fellow priests was the concern about preaching on the Gospel reading for this morning  - The unscrupulous steward.  Although to our ears it should not seem that strange.  A manager manipulates his boss’ accounts for his benefit, and for the benefit of others, so that he is not caught being a bad accounts manager for the man he serves.  Not so odd is it.  We read about it every day, if we dare to open the financial pages of the newspaper or follow the news feeds on our phones.  Enron, Lehman Brothers, Sallie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Vatican Bank, well I could go on and on.  The parable that Jesus uses to teach his disciples about the true value of things seems to be another example of the greed, self-interest, and indifference evident at that time and in our own time.  The questions that confront us as Christians are “what shall we learn from this?  What is Jesus really trying to communicate to us?  How can such corrupt behaviors serve as an example to us?”  Those are good questions, and ones that I am bidden to answer as we examine this text.  Before we go there, however, I want to tell you a story that can provide both background and context to Jesus’ parable.  I hope that you will find it helpful.

Walking in the World

Yesterday I presided at a funeral – actually I co-presided at a funeral.  Cris Gutierrez was a woman of our time.  I knew her because her husband, Mark, was a member of my parish.  Both of them were writers and observers of the urban scene in Northern California.  Their magazine Frighten the Horses blazed new literary, cultural, and sexual trails for the readers who had similar questions about how to live in our time.  Cris was not religious, at least not in the usual sense, although her writing revealed how indelible a Catholic upbringing can be.  Mark was a good Lutheran and then a good Episcopalian.  So the service began at St. Gregory of Nyssa Church on Potrero Hill in San Francisco, where you get to dance the liturgy.  Then it moved to Saint Francis Lutheran Church, in the Castro, where Cris’ ashes would be interred. 

To get to Saint Francis, we walked in a liturgical procession with drums, banners, crosses, and vestments, down to Seventeenth Street and then over to Church Street.  We walked in the world.  From the gentrification that surrounds St. Gregory’s we passed the transitioning design center area, moved under the raised section of Highway 101, where we greeted those who had pitched a tent to get out of the rain.  We walked past both trash and beauty.  A truck was delivering bread, and another was picking up garbage.  We walked through the industrialized zone east of Van Ness Avenue, and past the new dance venue built by the Oberlin Dance Collective.  We were greeted and ignored.  Some paused and smiled, some tried to avoid.  We walked through the heart of the Mission where we were greeted with the produce stands, tacquerias, and the new chi chi restaurants that are crowding the area.  We walked through the residential areas around Delores Park, and past people sitting in the new parklets that dot the streets.  Down Church Street we ducked under trees, and played chicken with on-coming groups of young people.  We navigated all this until we reached the memorial terrace at Saint Francis Church.

As I walked this procession, led it actually, holding high a Coptic Cross bedecked with ribbons, I realized I was walking this morning’s sermon.  How many unscrupulous managers had I passed?  How many confused and wondering Christians had I passed as well – wondering how to live the Christ life in this world?  I saw the poor and hungry, and I saw the wealthy and well fed.  I saw those who looked at our procession as a traffic problem, and those who honked their horns and saluted us.  We were in the world.

New gleanings from the Gospel

Jesus’ message, especially in Luke, is about finding the Kingdom of Heaven, and realizing its presence in midst.  Luke is carefully clear about the intentions of this Kingdom, and who are its natural citizens – the poor, the sick, the lame, the blind, and the sinner.  Jesus takes us into the heart of the problems of the world, and in the life and behaviors of this manager says to us – “find the kingdom anywhere!”  What does that mean?  It means that we can find examples of faith even in the world that seems indifferent to G-d, and G-d’s ways.  It is a world that was familiar to Jeremiah.  It is a world that both G-d and the prophet weep over in the first reading for this morning.  It is a world that is honest with us about its need, and it is a world that calls upon us to pray.

Jesus’ parable does not rejoice so much in the life of this manager, as it rejoices in the opportunities for the kingdom that are evident there.  Jesus wants the disciples, and us to ask the question again.  In the previous parables, given for the benefit of the Scribes and Pharisees, Jesus wonders what is truly of value in this world.  The lesson we learned that we value often what we lose, and we rejoice in what we find.  Now to the disciples he poses the same question – what is really valuable to you?  If it is money and things, then follow the example of the manager, and make friends for yourselves with money.  If it is more than that, then strive for heaven.  The collect for today makes this very clear.

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Prayer in the World

While walking along the street, I remembered the second lesson for today: “First of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for everyone.”  And here the author of I Timothy does not leave us stranded in an ideal of prayer, but rather enumerates the opportunities: “for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.”  How we need to pray for our leaders whom we expect to lead us in serving, well, all those people we encountered in our procession.  You see them too don’t you?  Sinners and righteous, elbow to elbow in the grocery store, or in the office – on the street – taking your parking place.  Prayer needs to be not only in the heart of our own need, but in the heart of the world as well.  If you don’t know where that is then take a walk down Fremont Avenue.  I had lunch at Dina’s Diner the other day.  “Are you a father?”  “Not Catholic?” “Episcopalian?” So many opportunities to encounter the world, to pray for it, and then to bargain with G-d – and here is Jesus’ point.  Bargain with G-d, and promise those who seek G-d, or who don’t even know G-d, promise them everything: Bread, Wine, Water for cleansing, and Words of Forgiveness.  Take their debts away and be the unscrupulous, prodigal, believer.  G-d will love it.

SDG