Every Sunday is Homecoming

Dear Friends, October 11, 2010

Yesterday, we kicked off our Stewardship Appeal 2011 and Rev. Denise preached a great sermon on the opportunity this presents for all in the household of God. Rev Denise's sermon can be found by clicking on the link to our blogspot: http://ascensionroch.blogspot.com/ Please do visit this new weekly feature. But it is so much warmer and fulfilling to hear it in person! Because -

For those who want to serve God, every Sunday is Homecoming Sunday. Please make it a point this fall to be in church regularly; or if you are weighing whether to make God's community important in your life, try coming for several Sundays in a row...

This year's Stewardship Appeal invites everyone to open her and his heart to God's love - and to embrace God's plan for the world and this community. If we are part of God's household, we do this by venturing to a new place of love and support. Please read the available materials this week and next - and lift your voice of thanks to God! A bright future awaits us when we reach up and out!

ATTENTION ALL - Fall Fix-Up Day Alert - this Saturday, October 16 - 9AM - 3PM. All welcome to come for all or part of time and lend a hand in sprucing up our grounds and building to keep them beautiful. Want to help? - Call 746-2455. Lunch courtesy of Men's Club. Tip of the hat to Don Taylor for organizing this.

Special thanks to Rob Phillips, Mary Vasquez, our Administrative Asst, and to Rev Denise for the major updating of our website, a continuing process. Please click on the link near the top of this page for a tour.

Keep in your prayers all those in need of healing, and those who serve in our military forces. Please pray that we may have a successful clergy search. Kindly also pray for the Wardens and their work in this time of search. To assist in your spiritual life, Forward Day by Day booklets are $.85 each in the back of the Church [Tower Room].

A congregation grows organically starting in the heart of each faithful person. If we want to grow, we must love God, love our friends and then speak openly to them. God will help us share the Bread of Life.....We never know how ready a friend may be to hear a word of encouragement in faith. We never know when God will bring someone to speak to us, and enrich our own life.

We seek a new and strong clergy leader, and our strength in numbers at worship speaks volumes of our true intentions. Please see yourself in community with others and prepared to greet and share. All are needed, all are important!

Next year will be the 125th Anniversary of the founding and of the ministry of Ascension. In preparation, let us draw closer to God's Spirit in the Season of Pentecost - to remind us of the power and blessing of the Holy Spirit to counsel, energize and sustain us all.. We honor our long history, but it is our future that must command our attention and energy.

The Ascension Piecemakers Quilt Group is offering chances on a gorgeous queen-size quilt. Why? To prepare our beautiful church for the future, the Wardens and Vestry have plans to point the masonry of the Bell Tower. To help get this under way, the Quilters invite you to buy coupons. The quilt would be a handsome addition to any decor! Coupons are $2 or 3 for $5. All proceeds will go to the Bell Tower Restoration Project. You can see the quilt and get more details each Sunday at Coffee Hour.

Thanks to our teams of Chefs and Planners, we have memorable dinners and other parties to look forward to. Our first is the Annual Roast Beef Dinner on Sat., November 6th. Adults $9.00; Kids 6-12 $5.00; under 6 FREE. Please sign up in church or call 458-5423 Mon-Th 9-2.

The other Dinners will be:
Sat. March 5^th, 2011 SPAGHETTI
Sat. April 30^th, 2011 CHICKEN & BISCUIT
Fri. June 3rd, 2011 LOBSTER

PLEASE MAKE NOTE!!! Gourmets everywhere are dreaming of these dinners!!

YOU CAN HELP RESETTLE A REFUGEE FAMILY.
Please call Debbie Lanceri of Catholic Family Center 546-7220 ext 4621 for details. This is an exciting new interfaith opportunity.

Here is how to recycle all those spare calendars that come in the mail! - calendars are needed, and also Christmas cards, for our friends at Aaron Manor. Give them to Ellie Swarts or leave in Office. Thanks!

Coffee Hour is a wonderful opportunity to greet friends, old and new, and catch up on news. There are opportunities to host Coffee Hour in the weeks ahead. Won't you help this ministry? If not sure how to host the Coffee Hour, you may call Nancy Lennox at 663-5805 or Stu or Gene Denison at 663-0988. To sign up - see list in the back of the church or call 458-5423.

Please visit or call a friend who is not able to get out or whom you've been meaning to contact. There are many who would love a call and an invitation to church or an inquiry as to when you might pay a visit. With good weather, we can invite friends to accompany us to church - and take them out for brunch afterward!

The COFFEE CONNECTION at Ascension is changing - for your supply, please now visit the store at 681 Gregory Street [between Hickory and Gregory Sts]. Still the same wonderful blends, at great prices.

Altar flowers are an outstanding ministry of beauty and love. Will you take up this ministry to the glory of God and to our spirits? To donate altar flowers, please contact Laurie Phillips, 865-2802 or email LBP@rochester.rr.com There are openings on several Sundays upcoming.

If we wish to grow as Christians and share our love of God, we need to know the stories of the Bible. Thursday Bible Study is in the Library at 9 AM. Please 'Come and See'. In this season, the lessons confirm what we are to do as disciples. There is food for thought and often refreshments to share. The study is of the Gospel Lesson for next Sunday, found below. No Bible Thumping, just good conversation!!

The Rochester Interfaith Jail Ministry asks your ongoing help - by donating through United Way or directly by check to R I J M, 2 Riverside St., Rochester, NY 14613. This will bring books of healing and group sessions to those needing to start lives anew. Remember the Good Samaritan... Please answer this call. To volunteer, call 254-6790. The invitation to help is ongoing, so you are not late to the party! Someone recently made and ongoing United Way designation for R I J M. Many Thanks!

When we see new people on Sunday or at an event, let's introduce ourselves and make them welcome. An invitation to chat at Coffee Hour is a great ice-breaker. So is sitting with a new person and even inviting them to brunch after church. This is a part of God's work for each and every one of us.

Do you have a pocket card to hand to a friend who asks about Ascension? Cards are on the table in the back of the church. Please take a few, and be ready to share. We have pocket crosses in the table drawer to hand to those who answer the call to "Come and See"..

In the next day or two, Paul Schwartz will post this e-letter on our blogspot. http://ascensionroch.blogspot.com/

If you have a new or better email address for yourself, or know someone who might like to receive this weekly e-letter, please email me that information.

Blessings,

Dyson
D. Dyson Gay
585-317-4039

P.S. Next Sunday, we will sing a great Hymn - Holy God, We Praise Thy Name. Here is a link to a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXwpNBlpJsE&feature=related
P.P.S. Please see below for this week's recipe - a Chicken Stew by a noted television chef. Don't forget to feed a friend, too!
If you have a recipe you would like to share, please send it in!
*******************************
The Gospel for next Sunday is:
Luke 18:1-8
18:1 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.

18:2 He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people.

18:3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, 'Grant me justice against my opponent.'

18:4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone,

18:5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'"

18:6 And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says.

18:7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?

18:8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

*********************************

And, now,
Giada's Chicken Stew

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 stalks celery, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 carrot, peeled, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 small onion, chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 (14 1/2-ounce) can chopped tomatoes
• 1 (14-ounce) can low-salt chicken broth
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn into pieces
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
• 2 chicken breast with ribs (about 1 1/2 pounds total)
• 1 (15-ounce) can organic kidney beans, drained (rinsed if not organic)
• Serving suggestion: crusty bread

Directions

Heat the oil in a heavy 5 1/2-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the celery, carrot, and onion. Saute the vegetables until the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in the tomatoes with their juices, chicken broth, basil, tomato paste, bay leaf, and thyme. Add the chicken breasts; press to submerge.

Bring the cooking liquid to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer gently uncovered until the chicken is almost cooked through, turning the chicken breasts over and stirring the mixture occasionally, about 25 minutes. Using tongs, transfer the chicken breasts to a work surface and cool for 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaf. Add the kidney beans to the pot and simmer until the liquid has reduced into a stew consistency, about 10 minutes.

Discard the skin and bones from the chicken breasts. Shred or cut the chicken into bite- size pieces. Return the chicken meat to the stew. Bring the stew just to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Ladle the stew into serving bowls and serve with the bread.

Sermon Sunday, October 10, 2010

“An Attitude of Gratitude, ” A Sermon preached by The Rev. Canon Dr. C. Denise Yarbrough on Sunday, October 10, 2010 at the Church of the Ascension, Rochester, New York

Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? (Luke 17:17-18)

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (Jeremiah 29:7)

Our Gospel text and our text from the Hebrew Scriptures today give us much to ponder on this, the Sunday we have chosen to launch the annual stewardship pledge campaign for Ascension. Unlike the lessons we’ve been bombarded with for many weeks now, neither of these texts deals directly with issues of financial stewardship or money management, presenting me with something of a homiletical challenge. Having prayed with these texts this week, however, I find in them words of encouragement and wisdom for Ascension that I hope will become part of your prayerful reflection on your stewardship commitment for the coming year. And since stewardship really isn’t about money, or at least it is not simply about money, to distill wisdom from texts that are not talking about money is a more fruitful path of reflection.

The words from the prophet Jeremiah were written to the ancient Israelites who were living in exile in Babylon after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the first temple in 587 BCE. These prophetic words are remarkably appropriate for Ascension at this point in her history. Jeremiah was writing to the leaders of the ancient Jewish community who had been taken into captivity in Babylon in the 6th century BCE. That community was mourning the loss of many things, including its homeland, its temple, which was the center of its religious life, and its old way of life and the comforts that went with that way of life. This ancient Jewish community was living as strangers in a strange land and struggling to find a way to remain faithful to their own religious tradition and values in a culture and country that was not their own. In Psalm 137 the Hebrews mourned their losses with the words, “By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. …For there our captors asked us for songs…How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”

In that psalm the Israelites remember their homeland and mourn all that they have lost. They curse their fate and wish they could get things back to the way they’d always been. Jeremiah, in his letter to the leaders in captivity encourages them to change their attitude to their captivity, to see in it promise and opportunity, rather than loss and devastation. “Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there and do not decrease.” Jeremiah encourages these exiles to make good lives for themselves in the circumstances in which they find themselves, however unwelcome those circumstances might be. Jeremiah also encourages them to open themselves to the good things their foreign captors and the foreign land have to give them, to see in that foreign place opportunity for enrichment and abundant life.

For you, the people and leaders of Ascension, there is much in the emotional plight of these ancient Israelites with which you may resonate. You too are in a time of exile, even though you are still right here in the building you’ve occupied for over 100 years. You are on the cusp of a new era, as you search for new clergy leadership. You are well aware that you need to grow in numbers in order to maintain yourselves as a worshipping faith community, and yet the neighborhood in which you are planted and where you have always exercised your ministry has changed significantly. The activities and programs, the culture and worship styles and traditions that used to fill the nave and sanctuary no longer work, and the new ways of being church in the 21st century do not yet come naturally. While you have stayed put, the world around you has changed significantly and suddenly you are as truly strangers in a strange land as were the Israelites in Babylon.

And what does Jeremiah ask of you? To see in the welfare of the changed world around you your own welfare. To reach out to the changed community, to embrace the neighbors who surround you who do not necessarily look like you, or worship like you or understand the ethos of our Anglican traditional religion. Both Jeremiah and the Gospel text today urge us to embrace and respect the foreigners among us, and for churches who need to grow that is a value that cannot be emphasized too strongly. Your welfare lies in meeting the needs of and seeing to the spiritual welfare of those who now populate this neighborhood. Reaching out across differences is challenging but in that endeavor lies hope for new life and transformation for everyone, both those already members of Ascension and those who might be brought into this fold through creative engagement.

The message to open oneself to the foreigner comes through again in the gospel lesson of the ten lepers healed by Jesus as he journeys from Galilee to Jerusalem. In that story, ten lepers are healed by Jesus and only one comes back to thank him and to praise God for that healing, and that one leper is a Samaritan, a foreigner. Samaritans and Jews were enemies in the ancient world. That the Samaritan is the one in the story who is praised for his faithfulness and gratitude to God would have been a surprising twist to the first century hearers of this story. Once again in this tale, we see Jesus reaching out to the stranger, the foreigner, and bringing someone who was twice cursed, as a leper and a Samaritan, into the realm of God’s mercy and embrace. Jesus not only sees him and treats him as a real person, he commends his faith and acknowledges the richness and authenticity of that faith. And he commends the gratitude shown by that tenth leper, the one who didn’t fit in even among the lepers, reminding us that the so called “outcasts” of our own culture may be the very ones whose faith and faithfulness will make us all well. At a bare minimum, this lesson reminds us that the faithfulness of those who are “outsiders” to our church community may well be the salvation of that community if we allow that faithfulness to take root here. It suggests that those who are not yet here might have valuable spiritual wisdom to offer those of us who are and therein lies the potential for transformation and growth.

Both of these stories are stories of exile and return from exile. The Samaritan leper was exiled from human society on two counts, his leprosy and his foreignness. The ancient Israelites were captives in Babylon for several generations and had to contend with being outsiders in a world that was not of their making. Their world had changed, things were not going their way, and yet they were called by God to bear fruit, to make a good life where they were, and to recognize that in the welfare of the city in which they were held captive, their welfare rested too. If they would open themselves to that foreign culture and decide to make good lives there, they would prosper and multiply. It was important for their future that they not clam up and withdraw from the strange environment in which they found themselves, but rather move into it with an attitude of excited expectancy and generosity. Jeremiah urges them to bear children, build homes, make investments, give freely to that foreign place because in so doing they too would prosper.

For churches in transition like Ascension, an attitude of expectancy and hopefulness and gratitude is crucial to the ability to survive the transition and thrive through the changes that accompany transition. The ability to look to the unknown future with an air of hopeful excitement is crucial to identifying new leadership, both lay and ordained, and discerning where the community is called to do its ministry in the coming years. The faithfulness of those who remain here and who are building that new thing in the new strange land is crucial to the salvation of the community as a whole. The tenth leper was the only one who exercised the virtue of gratitude when Jesus offered healing to the ten and it was that gratitude that Jesus praised so highly. For Ascension in these latter days of 2010 one important way to show gratitude of the sort that tenth leper demonstrated is to make a pledge to Ascension and remain faithful in financial support as the community transitions to new leadership and new ministries. The Episcopal Church has always maintained that the tithe is the standard of giving, while recognizing that many people have to get to that tithe by proportional giving, increasing the amount by small percentages each year. An important way to show gratitude in these days is to put your money where your mouth is and make a pledge to Ascension so that the wardens and vestry know what kind of budget they will have going forward as they look for new leadership and explore and discern new ministries.

Gratitude is an absolutely foundational Christian virtue. Our entire Eucharistic liturgy is about gratitude- giving thanks to God for all the blessings of our lives, with “ourselves, our souls and bodies” offered back to God. In our materialistic, money driven culture that old adage, “follow the money” applies to measuring gratitude! If people are truly grateful, they will give back out of the gifts they have received. If not, they won’t. So your pledge is truly a marker of your gratitude to God for all the blessings you enjoy through Ascension, and of your hope for Ascension’s future. As you consider your pledge over the next days and weeks, remember that tenth leper – the Samaritan – who joyfully and enthusiastically gave thanks. Heed the counsel of the prophet Jeremiah and make an investment in the new world in which Ascension is now living and the new ministries towards which she is moving. An attitude of gratitude will empower Ascension to move into an exciting and fruitful future, grounded on the solid foundation of its past and its rich tradition. When the pledge cards are in I pray that Jesus will not have to ask, “But the other nine, where are they?”

Amen.

Feast of St. Francis, Sermon

"Francis, A Saint for the 21st Century," A Homily Preached by The Rev. Canon Dr. C. Denise Yarbrough on Sunday, October 3, 2010, celebrating the Feast of St. Francis at Church of the Ascension, Rochester, New York

Today we are celebrating the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, which falls tomorrow on October 4. In honor of this famous and much beloved saint, we have invited our pets to church today, which certainly livens up the place and brings a whole different dimension to our worship experience. While it is easy to reduce St. Francis to “the saint who loved animals” to do so does not do this amazing saint justice. Francis lived in the 12th century, in Italy, but his ministry and his legacy continue to be important models for our ministry in the 21st century in many ways.

Francis was born in 1182 to a wealthy cloth merchant. He grew up with privilege and wealth and considerable material comfort. As a young man he suffered a severe illness, during which time he had his religious awakening. His years in military service, where he experienced the violence and destruction of war were formative in his spiritual journey as well. One day while praying in the church of San Damiano he heard Christ say to him, “Francis, repair my falling house.” Francis took this literally to mean repair the church at San Damiano, and in order to do so he sold an expensive bale of silk cloth belonging to his father to acquire the funds to repair the dilapidated church. His father was outraged. They had a significant confrontation during which his father disinherited and disowned him. He, in response, renounced his father’s business and material wealth, gave back to his father the purse containing the money he had acquired for the San Damiano repairs, stripped himself naked and placed the clothes at his father’s feet in front of the crowd that had gathered as the two men argued and walked away, leaving his father dumbstruck and bewildered, not to mention outraged.

Francis then declared himself wed to “Lady Poverty,” renounced all material possessions and devoted himself to caring for the poor. He also devoted himself to caring for those stricken with leprosy, a disease much feared in his time because of its contagion and the fact that it caused severe disability and disfigurement to its victims. Lepers were shunned by society and separated off from healthy people so as not to contaminate them. Francis ministered to the lepers in the most personal and intimate way, kissing them, touching their sores and their diseased bodies and treating them with gentleness, kindness and love. He repaired the church at San Damiano with his own labor, digging stones and painstakingly repairing the church. He moved in with the priest and scrounged food from trash bins. He worked as a day laborer asking only for food as pay while he worked on the church. Francis was nothing if not dedicated and passionate about his ministry and his calling. Over time, he attracted followers and in 1210 the Pope authorized the founding of the Friars Minor, the order we now know as the Franciscans. They were devoted to poverty and would own no property or money, either individually or collectively. They wore simple burlap robes, they travelled around the countryside ministering to the poor and the sick, living as the poor lived. Francis is famous for the advice, “at all times preach the gospel. If necessary, use words.”

Francis is the subject of numerous legends, including the story that he loved animals and was known to preach to the birds and creatures of the field who apparently listened to him. He is also believed to have tamed a wolf that was threatening a village in Gubbio where he was living. The wolf had been killing animals and people so Francis went to the woods where he tamed the wolf, made a peace pact with it and led it back to the town where it lived peaceably with the townspeople and the dogs of the town, having been blessed by Francis.

Francis is also known for his engagement in interfaith dialogue, at a time when interfaith encounter took the form of brutal Crusades with Christians and Muslims killing one another in bloody battles. Francis went to the Holy Land, then ruled by the Muslims, and preached to the Sultan Melek-el-Kamel. While he was not able to convert the Sultan or his followers to Christianity, he did negotiate a peace agreement which he then took back to Italy. Unfortunately, the Christian pope did not accept the peace pact and Francis was deeply disappointed that his own religious brethren would not make peace with the Muslims. As a result of his work with the Muslim Sultan in the Holy Land, the Franciscans were given authority over all Christian shrines in the Holy Land after the fall of the Christian Crusaders. Francis goes down in history as a pioneer in Christian Muslim dialogue.

And here we are eight centuries later and the issues that captured Francis’ passion are still issues today. Concern for the earth and reverence for all of the creatures of the earth is as critical in these days of global warming, environmental disasters like the Gulf Oil Spill, the extinction of many species of plant and animal life on the planet as was Francis’ concern for the birds, the flowers, the animals and stars. We have advanced greatly since Francis’ day in our understanding of the interconnectedness of all of creation and we have managed to do infinitely more damage to the earth than Francis could ever have imagined possible. To take on issues of ecology and environmental sustainability is to engage in very Franciscan spirituality.

Poverty continues to plague millions of people throughout the world, with many people in the developing world suffering from diseases that those of us in the developed world do not encounter at all. HIV/AIDS is the leprosy of our time, and those who choose to work with those populations most affected by that disease, both in this country and abroad follow in the footsteps of St. Francis whether they know it or not. To choose to embrace those affected by HIV/AIDS, not to mention other diseases considerably easier to cure such as malaria and water borne diseases that kill millions in the developing world is to follow in the footsteps of St. Francis.

As Thomas Friedman wrote several years ago, “The World is Flat.” Today we live in an interconnected global society, where we encounter people of different world religious traditions and cultures, right here in our own city and across the globe. For the past 100 years, religious leaders throughout the world have undertaken interfaith dialogue, not for the purpose of converting others to their particular faith tradition, but for the purpose of building cooperation, mutual respect and understanding in the hope of fostering a more peaceful and just world. Francis was an early pioneer in interfaith dialogue, and I suspect he would be at the forefront of efforts to educate Christians in the 21st century about their Muslim brothers and sisters in order to dispel myths and misconceptions and to promote peace. Francis was all about peace, alleviating poverty, respecting every human being however humble, and caring for the beautiful creation God has made so that future generations may enjoy it in good health and comfort.

As we bless our pets this morning, let us do so remembering the depth and breadth of the ministries of the saint in whose name we do it. Francis was not just an animal lover – he was a true lover of God and with that love of God came love for all that God has made, human, plant and animal. Francis would delight in our care for our pets but I suspect he would want us to show the same love and devotion and respect for the poor of our society, for our brothers and sisters of different world religious traditions, and for our environment, as we do for our cats, dogs, fish and turtles. May the blessings we bestow on our pets today be a symbol of our intentions to bless all of God’s creation with our stewardship, care, compassion and love. In the name of blessed Francis we pray. Amen.

Sermon on Sunday, September 26, 2010

Bridge Over Troubled Waters, A Sermon preached by The Rev. Canon Dr. C. Denise Yarbrough on Sunday, September 26, 2010 at Church of the Ascension, Rochester, New York

Between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so. (Luke 16:26 )

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered far away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. (1 Timothy 6: 10 )

You know how sometimes the passages we have to reflect upon from Holy Scripture seem obtuse and confusing and we look at them and say, “What on earth are we to make of this?” Well, this week we certainly don’t have that problem! The theme of this week’s lections is so consistent that I wondered why I needed to preach at all. The words speak for themselves. In the pastoral letter to Timothy we have classical Greco-Roman ethical maxims about money and its potentially destructive spiritual force, and in Luke, Jesus gives us yet another parable about the same topic. You will notice that Jesus has been preaching and teaching about wealth, possessions, money and their destructive force with numbing consistency for many weeks now. Luke’s gospel, in particular, is deeply concerned with economic issues and the theme that in God’s kingdom the privileges and comforts of this world will be overturned. It began as early as when Mary sang her Magnificat at the beginning of the gospel, where she envisioned a time when the lowly would be lifted up and the mighty brought low. The message hasn’t changed at all as we’ve proceeded on through 16 chapters of the gospel. The call to care for the poor, the warnings to the rich to be careful not to be corrupted by their wealth, exhortations to hold wealth lightly and put God and God’s kingdom first in one’s life priorities are all themes that Jesus hammers home again and again.

It is probably no accident that all major world religious traditions sound this same theme. The call to care for the poor, for the rich to be generous with their wealth and to give it away to further the work of God and God’s people is a hallmark of every world religious tradition. One of the five pillars of Islam is “zakat”, the requirement that all Muslims must give away 2.5% of all their assets and wealth to charity every year as part of their obedience to God and their relationship with God. Jews are expected to give alms to the poor and Buddhists are called to detach from material possessions and give freely as part of living a compassionate life. From time immemorial, in places as diverse as the mountains of Tibet, the streets of Chicago or the deserts of Saudi Arabia, religious and spiritual gurus have identified money as something with potentially lethal destructive force in the human psyche and in the conduct of human community. Of course, despite the persistence with which religious leaders and spiritual giants have preached about the dangers of wealth, our human societies have marched on pursuing wealth and material comforts as the key to “the good life” and the gap between rich and poor has always been and continues today to be enormous. That chasm about which Father Abraham spoke in today’s parable is as large today as at any time in history.

One problem in reading today’s parable for most of us middle class Americans, is that we probably don’t completely identify with either the rich man or with Lazarus. Fortunately for most of us in this room, we have never experienced the kind of grinding and degrading poverty that Lazarus experienced, although many of us have seen it in our cities. I couldn’t help but remember all those years that I emerged from the Path trains in midtown Manhattan to walk to my law job on Madison Avenue, clad in my business suit and sporting my briefcase, stepping over and around the homeless men sleeping in the station. The stark contrast between the wealth and power concentrated in those midtown office buildings and the abject poverty of the homeless people huddled over the subway vents right in front of them was horrendous.

Most of us don’t identify with the rich man either, because we who are comfortably middle class don’t feel “rich” in the way that this man is described. The parable gives us an image of a man dressed opulently in fine purple garments who feasts sumptuously every day. We don’t think of ourselves in that category, as we carefully budget our money and go without some things while we save for other things, or worry about having enough money to pay for a child’s education, or to fund our retirement or pay for prescriptions and uncovered medical costs. What is truly shocking is that despite our concept of ourselves as only moderately comfortable financially, virtually every one of us in this room is in the top 4-5% of wealthy people in the world. There is a website in which you can enter your annual income and the site will compare you to all the people in the world in terms of wealth. (www.globalrichlist.com) Believe it or not, on my clergy salary, I came out in the top .001% of rich people in the world. According to their statistics I am the 107,565th richest person in the world! Suddenly, the rich man in the parable became a whole lot more like me!

Between you and us a great chasm has been fixed …The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil…

There is a great chasm between the haves and have-nots in our world, one that does seem almost unbridgeable. And the love of money, and the pursuit of money and material gain is a root of all kinds of evil and corruption. In recent years we’ve watched as giants of industry and banking have toppled as a result of their unbridled greed, saddling taxpayers with the burden of their bailouts as the government attempted to forestall economic devastation by pumping millions of dollars into those institutions when their executives had driven them to the brink of collapse. The song from the musical Cabaret really nails it – “Money makes the world go around…that clinking, clanging sound…Money makes the world go around. Money, money, money, money…” And money corrupts not only at the corporate, societal and international relations level, but even in the context of individual and family lives.

As a lawyer I had occasion to be involved in innumerable disputes in divorce cases and trusts and estates matters where families were fighting bitterly over money and wealth and distribution of assets. So often those emotionally charged family squabbles are inflamed and magnified as money becomes the driving force in what then devolves into bitter and protracted battles in which almost no one is ever happy with the outcome. In family conflicts, whether they be between parents and children, or spouses, or siblings money is so often used as a weapon by one upon the other, obscuring the emotional, psychological and spiritual importance of the human relationship and destroying it in many cases. The corrosive force of love of money on the human soul was no more graphically illustrated than when the stock market fell in 1929 and people who had lost all their money jumped out of windows on Wall Street to their death.

The old adage, “you can’t take it with you” is another way of saying what the author of the letter to Timothy reminds us today. “We brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it.” “If we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.” Spiritual advice that is not unique to our Christian tradition, but universal in all religious writings. Contentment is not found in vast wealth but rather in enjoying the necessities of life and sharing what we have with those who have less. In all religious traditions you will notice that the monastic persons within those traditions renounce worldly wealth and live in communities where all receive the basic necessities of life but none are rich. Timothy has sound advice for those of us who are rich. “As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves a good foundation for the future.”

As we enter the time of the year when our church, like all others, begins to prepare for our annual pledge campaign the lessons of Timothy and the parable of the rich man and Lazarus are important to keep in mind. While it is absolutely true that the church encourages tithing because it is only through the generosity of the members of the faith community that we can do the ministry to which we are called here, it is also true that the spiritual discipline of tithing, of giving back to God from the abundance God has first given us is the best way to guard against the corrosive and spiritually damaging potential of the great wealth that we all do enjoy. If we are incapable of being generous in our charitable giving then we run the risk of widening the chasm between God and us created by our reliance upon wealth for our sense of security and comfort. The chasm that is created by that misplaced trust is between us and God as much as between us and our fellow human beings. If we want to draw closer to God, we will give generously of the abundance we have been given so that the chasm so easily widened by increasing wealth will not separate us entirely from God.

I am reminded of the song “Bridge Over Troubled Water” when I think about that chasm to which Father Abraham refers in today’s parable. God is the one who will “lay me down like a bridge over troubled water” when life gets us down, when we need a friend, when we need sustenance. That chasm so easily created and widened when we rely upon our own resources and wealth for comfort and security can be bridged so easily by God and is bridged every time we are ready to let go of our wealth, to give some of it away for the furtherance of God’s kingdom. We are very accustomed to thinking about our own needs as we go about our earthly life and we are careful to use our money to meet those needs. The one need we can too easily forget is our need to give- our soul’s need to be generous and to give our resources away for the good of humanity so that our souls will draw closer to God rather than inch slowly but surely over the chasm to the place where God is not.