Episode 29

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For Sunday, September 22
Say “No!” to Bombs in Gilead 
Proper 20C / Ordinary 25C / Pentecost +18

• Luke 16:1-13
• Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

Show Notes after the break (click read more) 

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SHOW NOTES -  9/22/2013

Say “No!” to Bombs in Gilead

Opening Music: There is a Balm in Gilead by the Clark Sisters

For Sunday, September 22
Episode 29 - Proper 20C / Ordinary 25C / Pentecost +18
Luke 16:1-13
Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

 Introduce Show and self

Check-in

• Syria Resources
  
  

Primary Scripture -– Luke 16:1-13  - Parable of the Dishonest Manager, Wealth & God

• Between Prodigal Son and Rich Man and Lazarus (Lois Malcolm)
  
• • Manager “squandered” what was entrusted to him like the Prodigal Son
    
  • “There was a rich man” - same beginning as Lazarus story
    
  • No repentance (prodigal son) and no virtue (Lazarus), but there is a reversal of status (see Luke 6:20-25)
    
• Three interpretations of “shrewdness”
  
• • Jesus’ Disciples (children of light) could learn from “children of this age”
    
  • • What could the church learn from the unchurched?
      
    • “Why Millennials Are Leaving the Church” by Rachel Held Evans
      
  • Use “dishonest wealth” to make friends - DON’T EXPLOIT THEM
    
  • • how? by forgiving debt!
      
    • moves us to new and true relationship, but a relationship of debt and debtor (think Lord’s Prayer- only once we give and accept forgiveness can we begin to be real relationship with God and one another)
      
    • • Give Directly
        
  • How we use our “dishonest” riches of this life is a reflection of how we will use the true gift of God
    
  • • Every budget is a theological and ethical statement.
      
    • In other words- the MEANS (dishonest economics, oppressive lending practices) DO NOT JUSTIFY THE ENDS (whenever we convince ourselves those ends are)
      
    • • Fair Trade movement.
        
      • Equal Exchange
        
      • Planet Money T-Shirt Blog
        
    • John Wesley: “Earn all you can. Save all you can. Give all you can.”
      
• Fortells the Kingdom of God - where old debts and hierarchies are replaced with new relationships
  
• Resources we mentioned:
  
• • When Christians Get It Wrong by Adam Hamilton
    
    

Secondary scripture - Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 - Is There No Balm in Gilead?

• Lament - hard to know who is Lamenting - Jeremiah or God
  
• • v.19 is definitely God - “Why have they provoked me...?
    
  • Suffering of God by Terence Fretheim=
    
  • A Blue Note Gospel by Rev. Otis Moss III
    
• Idolatry = infidelity = broken relationship
  
• • The people are suffering
    
  • • Physical drought - no water
      
    • Spiritual drought - no presence of God
      
  • God is suffering
    
  • • Prophet’s words are also God’s words.  “Much of the power of this text lies in the fact that, as we read the words that convey the prophet’s hurt, we suddenly realize that these same words are describing the hurt of Israel’s God.”  (James Newsome, Texts for Preaching, Year C
      
• Brokenness - day of salvation (summer and harvest is past) - do we now need to learn to live with brokenness?
  
• • When relationship is broken- when anyone is hurting, we all hurt- even God cannot thrive in brokenness
    
  • Is there no Balm in Gilead?
    
  • • Not for the Syrians killed in the chemical weapons attacks
      
    • Not for the 6 million who died in the Holocaust
      
    • Not for the ½ to 1 million Tutsis in Rwanda
      
    • Not for the countless Native Americans
      
  • The Balm of Gilead is the transformation of the world- of ourselves
    
  • • Refuse to be ignorant
      
    • Refuse to justify discrimination
      
    • Refuse to be apathetic
      
    • Refuse to be passive as neighbors are led to the slaughter of inequitable employment, education and healthcare
      
    • WE ARE THE BALM - or we can be content with brokenness
      
    • Example: Democratic Republic of the Congo
      
    • • over 6 million people have been killed in the last decade
        
      • Over 1000 women are raped daily
        
      • Why? For minerals: tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold which are found in almost every cell phone, computer or personal electronic device
        
      • 43000 children are working in these mines and 4000 children have been recruited to into militias as child soldiers
        
      • Resources:
        
      • • Raise Hope for Congo
          
        • UCC/DOC Global Ministries Congo Initiative
          
        • End Genocide
          
        • Fat Pastor’s Liberia Page
          
    • "Sometimes I would like to ask God why he allows poverty, famine and injustice in the world, when He could do something about it...but I'm afraid He may ask me the same question." Anonymous
  • Being prophetic is a matter of speaking truth to power, but it is much more than that. It is also a matter of speaking truth to suffering, to weakness, to laziness, and to failure to take responsibility. The list does not stop there. - “Homiletical Perspective”, Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary - Feasting on the Word – Year C, Volume 4: Season After Pentecost 2 (Propers 17-Reign of Christ).
    
    

Closing - Sinner’s Prayer by BB King and Ray Charles
TY: listeners, Opening music, Dick Dale and the Deltones “Misirlou”
TY: Closing music,Paul and Storm, “Oh No”

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