Proper 13 C + A generous life + 7.31.16

(appropriation earlier in blog)

M. Campbell-Langdell

All Saints, Oxnard

(Hosea 11:1–11; Ps. 107:1–9, 43; Col. 3:1–11; Luke 12:13–21)

[The rich man said:] “’I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, `Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, `You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God ( Luke 12:18b-21)."

For a moment, in the heat of the summer, don’t you sort of relate to this man? He has worked hard, and stored a bunch of grain, and so he wants to relax. To live the good life. In these warm days, we sometimes want to take some time to rest and just enjoy this Southern California life, too. And in a way there is nothing wrong with a bit of rest.

But let us look a bit more closely at this passage. Note that the rich man is talking to himself. Does he draw any support from God or anyone else? No. Because he is self-focused. Studying this passage I learned a bit about the way folks thought in the ancient world. They tended to believe that there were limited resources. So if one person had too much grain, he was literally taking it out of someone else’s mouth.[1] Elsewhere in the gospels, we hear Jesus say that the way to love God is to love one’s neighbor. And so here Jesus is basically saying that because this man wants to use his grain as security rather than feeding his neighbors in need, he is being foolish.

Of course in our modern context we may wonder why. We have many wealthy people that have managed to believe themselves almost entirely self-sufficient. Until a personal tragedy strikes and the grain they have stored (or the gold in foreign banks) cannot save them. Because God knows that it is foolish to put material welfare ahead of our relationships.

In fact, relationships are so important to God that in the reading from the prophet Hosea today we hear of a God who is a parent to Israel, that is, to God’s people. God is like a father or a mother to us. In tender language, we hear about a God who taught Ephraim to walk. “Ephraim” is the name associated with one of the main tribes of Israel, and therefore symbolic of God’s people, the Israelites.[2] A people we all became a part of in Jesus, because as Paul says, there is no longer Greek and Jew. Christ is all and in all… of us.
So, back to the image. God taught us to walk. To walk in God’s ways. The relationship between parent and child, whether biological or adopted, as we are adopted in Christ, is one of the ways we know true safety and security, and we carry this love that we learn in those relationships into all of our relationships. We also carry our hurts from these relationships. Here in Hosea, we can see that God is sad because Israel has started to worship other Gods and not stayed true. But like a loving parent, God forgives, beause God is connected to us.

I saw a beautiful image of this connection in the movie “He Named me Malala,” (2015) about the girl named Malala Yousafsai who was shot by the Taliban because she wanted all girls to be able to go to school. In the movie, which was largely shot when she was around 15, there is a lot of focus placed on the relationship between Malala and her father. They are shown traveling together frequently, and having similar views on life. It is Malala’s father who gave her a name associated with another young woman who encouraged the Afghan people in war and paid with her life. Many people said to him that Malala’s name was sad, but he said that to him it meant bravery. One of Malala’s family describes her relationship with her father as one soul in two bodies.

In a way, this is how God feels about us. God cannot let us go, will not let us go, even when we stray from God, because God feels as close to us as if we were one soul in two bodies.

Interestingly, at one point late in the movie about Malala, she is asked if her father put her into danger, by calling her Malala, by speaking out and allowing her to speak out. And she says, “No, he called me Malala, but I made myself Malala.” Because of the strength of their relationship, she felt empowered to do what she did, what she still does, to help other girls deprived of education.
In the same way, God calls us by name as God’s beloved children but it is our choice whether or not we will live generously.

Asked by the interviewer if she was angry at the man who shot her, Malala said no, that she did not even have an atom or a quark of anger. Rather than let bitterness destroy her, she has channeled all that energy into a righteous indignation on behalf of other children around the world who need education. I believe it is her deep faith and her loving relationship with her father that have allowed her to do this.

In the scriptures for today the reader is asked to be rid of “anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive language (Col 3:8).” And I could not help but think of Malala here, and her example. How can we take those moments when we feel angry or unsafe or afraid and allow God, working through us, to show love to others?

In the prayer for today, we hear that we cannot continue in safety without God’s help, and I am struck by two things. One is that anyone who promises us safety other than God in this world is like the foolish man reliant on his barns. And another is that even the safety God promises isn’t a promise that we will never experience anything scary or bad. Malala, clearly a person of faith, has been through a lot. Many of you have been through trying times, I know. But God’s safety is the true safety. The safety of our souls. The only safety that matters, in the end. It is the safety you can only feel when you live a generous life of sharing with others, of turning the weapons of anger into the plowshares of righteous indignation that allow us to take action to make the world a better place.

We are all God’s children. Let us act like it, and inspired by the examples in our midst and others such as Malala, let us call others to their own better natures as God’s children. And in this I trust and hope that God will work through us to make the world a better and safer, more loving and generous place for all.

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[1] Bruce J. Malina, Richard L. Rohrbaugh, The Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003), 277.

[2] Michael D. Coogan, The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures (NY: Oxford UP, 2006), 318.