What Are You Banking On?
Bill Barney
First United Metho=
dist
Church, Schenectady
March 15, 2009
So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm
bankrupt without love.
From 1 Cor 13:3
When I wa=
s a
child we heated our rented apartment by a wood furnace in the cellar. We were on the first floor and the=
re was
an apartment upstairs. I think my father got a rent break for tending the f=
ire
for the house. I can still re=
member
my father getting up early and running down cellar in his PJ’s to unb=
ank
the fire which he had carefully banked the night before so it wouldn’=
t go
out during the night and would keep us relatively warm.
We live i=
n a time
when there is a lot of banking and unbanking going on, and not just the fir=
e in
our furnaces. I ask the quest=
ion,
“what are you banking on?” with a real concern for what it is t=
hat
most of us in this country are going to do with our present circumstance, a
declining economy and an increase in fear.
Last Sund=
ay,
Pastor Steve shared with you an experience from his family vacation. Interestingly enough, my message t=
his
week was sparked by an experience I had last week on a short vacation to
Florida. We were in Ft Lauder=
dale
and took a 90 minute boat trip around the inland waterways. I was shaken by=
the
display of, what to me was, unbridled wealth. House after house was worth in the=
$20
million dollar range and personal yachts worth twice that.
As I trie=
d to
wrap my mind around what could ever justify having the kind of personal wor=
th I
was witnessing, I realized that my life is completely out of touch with the
kind of thinking that does justify it. I do not say this as a judgment, I simply state that it made me rea=
lize
that the spread of wealth in this world between rich and poor is far wider =
than
I had ever imagined in my relatively small world – a life pretty much
lived within a fifty mile radius from my little two bedroom house.
In my lit=
tle
world, where I often think that I have too much materially in the fa=
ce
of poverty all around me, I cannot imagine someone worth millions even havi=
ng
that thought. Otherwise, why would they allow such wealth to build up rather
than sharing it with millions who need to be fed or clothed or housed away =
from
the homeless tents of Schenectady’s Central Park or the plains of
Darfur? I ask myself all the =
time -
why don’t I do more? How dare I spend money on a five day vacation in
Florida? Ok, I admit that I’m out of my league here and admit to not
understanding why that feeding of the poor doesn’t happen and =
perhaps
systemically can’t happen.
So, what =
I am
admitting to here is that I am just as heart broken by the faces on the hap=
py
yacht riders in the Florida Intercostal waterways, as I am by the faces on
starving human beings in Darfur. Both are living so far from some middle
ground, where prime human values could be optimized, that I think the
world’s biggest problems are far greater than the state of our econom=
y or
who’s got money and who hasn’t. And, yet we are daily propagandize=
d to think
the economy is some sort of stand-alone issue that the President and our
political leadership should keep their focus on.
Living in=
a time
when financial banking – or the economy - is such an obsession for ha=
ves and
have-nots is quickly leading us toward a more dangerous society. Our appare=
nt inability
to share, even moderately(not necessarily equally), what we collectively ha=
ve, locally
and globally, seems to be prodding more folks toward criminal desperation t=
han
ever. And, it may be only the beginning of what is to come. This crime is
taking place on Wall Street and in our neighborhoods. One could easily be l=
ed
to think that more money can solve our problems. Well, it hasn’t in t=
he
past and won’t in the future.
In this
circumstance that breeds fear in large doses, we still have a faith that
invites us to fear not! In a =
world
where so many are trying to find a financial solution to what ails us, we a=
re
called to not abandon that for which we have become known as followers of J=
esus
- spreaders of compassion, spreaders of hope, spreaders of love. For two thousand years Jesus follo=
wers
have been spreading and banking compassion, hope and love.
It is tim=
e for us
to unbank the compassion, unbank the hope and unbank the love. Big doses of all of these are the b=
est
antidote for fear. We don’t have time to figure out who’s to bl=
ame
for the economic crisis. Those of us who are not the financial wizards need=
to
do what we do best – and the followers of Jesus have a role, we will =
love
rich and poor, young and old, black and white, gay and non-gay alike. In the
midst of it all, even for a person who needs what we can’t offer, we =
can
be compassionate. To be compassionate simply means to “be with”.
Our very empathetic presence can make a difference. No one is exempt from suffering &#=
8211;
no not even wealth prevents suffering. “Being with” any sufferi=
ng
person without judgment is our responsibility, IF we are to claim Je=
sus
as the one we follow.
It comes =
down to
this, living the Golden Rule. This guide for life has been incorrectly stat=
ed
as “do to others what you would have them do to you”. Correctly
stated in every major religion in the world it says, “don’t do =
to
others what you would not want them to do to you.” That’s very
different. As religious historian Karen Armstrong says, “and that mea=
ns
no exceptions”. Even when someone does something hostile to you, you
don’t return the deed. (except in cases of self defense during life
threatening hostility).
These har=
d times
call us to unbank the Golden Rule. We must put it into practice one poor pe=
rson
or one wealthy person at a time. We don’t know when the economy will
strengthen, we don’t know where we will be financially in a month or a
year, but we don’t have to wait to practice everything that Jesus has
taught us. We don’t have to wait to unbank on compassion, hope or lov=
e.
Now is th=
e time
to fly the flag that tells the world that love is in port and it will not y=
ield
its place to hate or fear or the declining economy. We will love the person=
of
wealth or criminal behavior or another religion or no religion. We will love
the haves and the have-nots, while we continue to work for a world where the
Golden Rule will be practiced, where we continue ad infinitum, if necessary=
, to
optimize the prime values that seek life in abundance for all.
So, the w=
riter of
today’s scripture must be right. Remember how it says:
I may hav=
e enough
money to own the largest sailing yacht in the world, I may be so poor that I
don’t know where my next meal is coming from, I may even belong to the
best darned congregation in Schenectady County; but if I don’t have l=
ove,
I am nothing. Well, I know fo=
r sure
that you are not nothing – so you must be love. So, it’s not so
much what we are banking on but whom. And, as for me, I’m banking =
on you
– love on! Amen.
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