September 23, 2007
(Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 20)

Stretching

By The Very Rev. Terry White, Dean

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1  •  Psalm 79:1-9  •  1 Timothy 2:1-7  •  Luke 16:1-13
(From The Lectionary Page)

I am now eight weeks post shoulder surgery and have completed a couple of sessions of physical therapy.  At this stage, I am greatly limited in what I am allowed to try, and I am not allowed yet to do any strengthening exercises.

I still must shake hands with my left hand so I keep something in my right hand. On this great Chiefs Sunday, someone commented that by rolling up a bulletin and holding it in my right hand, it reminded them of Coach Hank Stram. It also reminded them of the days when the Chiefs could find the end zone.

So these first few sessions are about stretching.  I stretch my muscles first, and then a therapist stretches them a bit further. And I wince as she does so.

Last Thursday I learned a phrase I never again want to hear my therapist say. Moving my right arm farther than I can move it at this point, she said, “Oh, we just had the most infuriating meeting. I am really upset.”

“Oh really?” I said through gritted teeth!

The stretching is necessary to get me back to a normal range of movement so I can live my life more fully.  Today’s Gospel certainly has the potential to stretch each of us and the Church. Painful at times, but it just might give us a fuller range of motion.

This parable is complex and confusing. . .and that can be a sign that we are missing the forest for the trees. Jesus employed parables because they had a simple message.  And the blunt truth of this parable is an unpopular message: one cannot serve both God and wealth.

Jesus is most likely preparing his followers to be shrewd managers of their communal resources. In jargon common to some of us this parable may have served as a management model for the disciples. In this parable the disciples, and all of us, are challenged to manage wealth in the role of justice.  [Proclamation Yr C 2004 pp 209-210]

By the end of this parable, it becomes clear that the steward/manager who was being fired was righting an injustice created by the owner who overcharged his debtors. Formally, the manager was content to be apart of the unjust system. He benefited from dishonesty and profited from the unfair burden borne by those who could not afford it.  The manager breaks the cycle. It seems he is motivated by the loss of his job and his own need for financial stability, but nonetheless, he breaks the system. He does not perpetuate the well-established practice of the rich getting richer at the expense of the poor.  This is Jesus’ new economy.

And by virtue of our baptism, we buy into this vision. When we are asked in the baptismal covenant if we will strive for justice among all people and respect the dignity of every human being, we respond, “I will, with God’s help.”  Our stewardship theme claims this commitment proclaiming: “We can and we will!”

We must be willing to be stretched if we are to expand our mission and have a fuller range of motion as we live out our faith here in Kansas City.  There are systems in need of changing, so that more can be done. There are injustices that can be exposed and corrected because of the honest acts of just a few. The Lord’s economy calls us to be generous in meeting the needs of others, and this economy is based on the message of this parable: Serving God means to use wealth in the cause of justice, in order to reduce poverty, and so that the least among us are restored to their God-given dignity.

The prophet Jeremiah cries out, pleading for a physician to heal, for balm in Gilead to soothe and restore. The prophet’s plea echoes all around us in the city. The fact remains, money makes a huge difference.  It can soothe, feed, clothe, educate, disarm, and help build peace.   Jesus knew that, and calls us to be shrewd and use our money for all the good it can produce.

At the end of my thirty-minute physical therapy stretching sessions, I can feel it.  A few hours later I can feel it. Sometimes I feel it the next morning, too.  There may be some discomfort, but mostly what I feel is change, growing, added range of motion and increased strength. And all that means I am healing and getting better.

May the Gospel of Christ stretch us in exactly the same was. We must change and grow if we are to be more healthy and more committed to God’s economy.  Stretch your financial commitment this year, that the cathedral’s mission might stretch, too.  And feel your parish and yourself getting stronger.  Fell your parish and yourself stretching in order to love more and serve more.  We can, and we will.