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Written by Jeanne Knepper
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Saturday, 29 September 2007 |
THE CHILDREN AT THE GATE
Luke 15:1-2; 16:1-31
September 30, 2007
Today, September 30, is a very important day for the lives and well-being of about 10 million children in the United States because today is the day that the authorization for a program called SCHIP expires. SCHIP, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, was adopted in 1997 to give the states resources to provide health insurance coverage for low-income uninsured children. It has been a successful program, one that has reduced the percentage of uninsured children in families with incomes below twice the Federal Poverty level from 23% in 1997 to 14% in 2005. The program, popular with both Republican and Democratic governors, has wide-spread support. Today, the program expires.
This is not because Americans do not want to continue it. No, a bipartisan majority of 265-159 in the House of Representatives voted on Tuesday not only to continue the program, but to expand it to cover uninsured children whose families have income between twice and three times the federal poverty level, providing coverage to 5 million children who would otherwise be uninsured. President Bush has promised to veto the bill.
SCHIP currently costs $40billion for 10 years. Because of rising medical costs, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that it will require an additional $14 billion over the next five years to provide the same level of coverage to the children already covered. Congress wants to expand the number of children who are covered; President Bush is not willing to increase the authorization by more than $5 billion, an amount that will reduce the number of children covered year by year over the next five years.
There are those who will tell you that gospel has nothing to do with politics. I am not among them. And today’s lesson, from the Sixteenth Chapter of Luke, is a very conspicuous testimony that you can’t separate Gospel from politics, not then, not now.
We have two parables in today’s reading, separated by remarks that Jesus made to the Pharisees who ridiculed him. In his response to them, he quoted a passage about marriage and adultery. Were you puzzled, as I was, initially, that Jesus only picked out only one part of the law to quote to the Pharisees? Why did he chose to speak about divorce and adultery right between the story of dishonest managers and the story of Lazarus and the rich man? Why not speak about coveting, or putting God first, or stealing, all of which might seem more important, at least until we factor in the political situation of Jesus’ time. Then, it begins to make a lot of sense.
We’ve talked before about the fact that Jesus was a follower of John the Baptist, that he listened to him, was baptized by him, and, when John was killed for his political preaching, chose to pick up the mantle and go on. And, what was the political situation? Well, it functioned on two levels. On the deepest and most important level, the situation was that Rome occupied the land and had appointed the local ruler, Herod Antipas, to govern for them. Herod Antipas was one of three sons of King Herod who had ruled until 4 BC, the King referred to in Matthew’s birth narrative. That King Herod, a Samaritan by heritage, although technically a Jew, was in fact Roman in all his loyalties and thoroughly hated by the Jewish populous. When he died, in 4BC, the Jews petitioned to be put under the rule of the King of Syria, but the Roman Emperor Tiberius divided Herod’s realm into three portions, one for each of his three sons. Herod Antipas was appointed Tetrarch of Galilee. His very first act was to quell the rebellion that took place during the feast of Pentecost of 4BC, a rebellion in direct response to his assumption of rule. He acted quickly and brutally, lining the roads of Galilee with crucified rebels. Needless to say, the people of Galilee hated him.
Herod Antipas was a builder of cities, the most notable of which was Tiberius, named after the emperor, and located on the Western shore of the Sea of Galilee in an area well-known for good climate, fertile soil, tasty fish and natural hot springs. Herod Antipas took land from those who had lived upon it and gave it to retainers, who had to promise never to abandon him. As was the custom, the land grab and the building were financed by taxes levied against the Galileans farmers and fishermen. He decorated the city with busts and statues of the Roman rulers, an affront to the Jewish laws against “graven images.” He did not grow more popular with the common people as time went on.
It was in this setting that the religious rulers, Pharisees and scribes, decided that the most prudent course of action was to play down the radical, political, dangerous words of the prophets and to emphasize the legalistic forms of religion. Deciding, perhaps, that they had more influence as allies than as enemies of Herod, recognizing his Jewish ancestry even as they ignored his Roman practices, they refrained from calling him to account, as they would be entitled to do as leaders of the faith.
Things came to a political head when Herod Antipas decided to divorce his wife in order to marry his brother Philip’s wife Herodias. Here was an issue blatantly against the Law. John the Baptist, who had gathered many followers, condemned Herod’s adultery. As Herod Antipas grew nervous about the influence John might have, about the possibility that he might foment yet another rebellion, he found the occasion of a birthday party and a drunken oath to be reason enough to have John executed, presenting his head to Herodias as a token of devotion.
It is against this background that we hear the parables of today’s reading. Doesn’t it become clear that Jesus is criticizing the dishonest managers, the religious leaders, who would so easily discount the behavior owed to God, refusing to hold Herod Antipas accountable for theft, for murder, for disregard of the poor and displaced. Oh, can you hear the sarcasm in Jesus’ story, his assertion that the master will praise the dishonest manager? Do you see how it leads so directly to the charges that the Pharisees justify themselves in the sight of others while refusing to challenge Herod even on his adulterous marriage?
What Jesus was doing was political and dangerous. He didn’t have to name the rich man, dressed in purple (the color of rule, reserved by the Romans for rulers) and fine linen, feasting and making merry. Who else would it be but Herod Antipas, ruler, thief of land and occupation, creator of poverty? When we gather for potluck, as we will do today, we usually use napkins to clean up any food that might mark our faces. The Roman rich used bread for that purpose, wiping their faces on hunks of bread and then tossing them to the dogs that lurked under the tables. So here was the rich man, here was Herod, greasy with purloined food and wealth, totally oblivious to the fate of the poor outside his gate. And here was Jesus, the prophet, proclaiming that there would be a reversal, that God would take the poor to God’s heart and leave the ones who used power to build their own riches, leave those ones outside of the realm of God, not in some magical punishment, but as the natural consequence of their choice to live as though God didn’t exist and didn’t matter, as though Moses and the prophets hadn’t already proclaimed that God desires justice and mercy, food for the poor and care for the widows and orphans.
Did you notice that the rich man didn’t do anything to harass Lazarus? He didn’t persecute him; he didn’t drive him away. He was simply oblivious to him. And that is a moral sin; that is a holy crime. Gerard Hughes, writing in his book, God of Compassion, observes:
We see ourselves as individuals struggling to live as best we can. The effort to do so can so preoccupy us that we simply do not notice what is happening to others. One political party promises a reduction in taxes, while the opposition threatens to raise them, so why not vote for the party offering the tax cut? Jesus’ thinking is different. He thinks not in terms of ‘me,’ but of ‘us,’ and ‘us’ includes all human beings. What glorious breadth of thinking, and how very awkward for those of us whose security depends upon our ability to ignore the plight of others. The gap between the rich and the poor of the world is widening rapidly, not primarily because of a lack of resources, but because of their unfair distribution.
Like Jesus, we live in a world where politics impact the lives of people, especially people on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder. What are our realities? In recent years, our country has set economic records for personal bankruptcies, people out of work, and real estate foreclosures. Now, we are looking at cutting medical coverage for the most vulnerable of poor children. Can we possibly think this is right, or good, or moral? Do we wish we could pretend it is accidental, or unpreventable? How similar are we to the rich man of Jesus’ story? And how willing are we to speak out for the reality that, so long as Lazarus finds his only solace in the dogs that lick his wounds, we are all of us living in hell.
Today, I have handed out an affirmation modified from one written by Diane E. Wendorf. I ask you now to take it out and to read it, deciding whether it is true for you or not. And then, insofar as it is true for you, would you join me in reading it aloud:
I believe it is a matter of faith to insist that God judges our nation by how we care for the poor and vulnerable.
I believe it is a matter of faith to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.
I believe it is a matter of faith to recognize equally and love all members of God’s human family whatever their race, creed, color, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, physical or mental ability.
I believe God’s creation is good, beautiful, sacred, and that to condemn any portion of God’s creation is to condemn a portion of God. This is sin.
I believe Jesus Christ came to us to free all people from sin and to make disciples—people willing to live Christ’s discipline of love and justice for all.
I believe the Holy Spirit is that power within us that gives us courage and stamina to face the truth and to live it, even to die for it, as Jesus died.
I believe that the power of life, hope, love and truth is greater than the power of death, despair, hatred, lies and greed.
Glory be to God. Amen.
I do not believe that our community of faith should ever identify itself with any political party or candidate. That does not mean, however, that religion is, or ever can be, apolitical. We live our lives of faith within a community, a state, a nation and a world. In all things, we are called to seek, and to proclaim, God’s love and justice. Today, the children, some of them children of this very congregation, are waiting at the gate. Will any but dogs lick their wounds? What does Gospel demand?
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