The Eliot Church of Newton

  Texts: Exodus 32:1-14; Matthew 22:28-32; 42-46

 As I was cruising the internet this week to see what other pastors and preachers
            were saying about the current financial mess,
      I came across this piece of investment advice from a pastor in the Midwest:
“If you had purchased $1000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago,
      it would now be worth $49.00.
With Enron, you would have $16.50 left of the original $1000.
With WorldCom, you would have less than $5.00 left.
If you had purchased $1000.00 of Delta Air Lines stock
      you would have $49.00 left.
If you had purchased United Airlines, you would have nothing left.
But, if you had purchased $1000.00 worth of beer one year ago,
      drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for recycling,
            you would have $214.00.
Based on the above, the best current investment advice
      is to drink heavily and recycle.
This is called the 401-Keg Plan”

(Well, so much for gallows humor!)
I think the Exodus story of the Golden Calf is a very fitting topic
      for our reflection this week. 
The passage starts by telling us that the people asked
      that new gods be made for them
            when they saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain. 
Moses was their spiritual leader. 
These Hebrew tribesmen, so recently delivered from poverty and slavery,
      hadn’t really had a common identity as a people in Egypt. 
So they didn’t know much yet about the God of Abraham, known as Yahweh. 
The one they knew was Moses as God’s representative,
      and they had trusted and followed him. 
So when he disappeared up on Mount Sinai, to commune with Yahweh
      and receive the tablets of the commandments and the covenant,
            and when he was gone for awhile, the people got anxious and fearful. 
Yahweh’s representative was absent. 
They needed a concrete, visible god that they could see and worship and appease,
      a tangible god who would lead and protect them,
            or at least give them the security of thinking they were protected. 
And so, in the absence of Moses, they turned away from the One God
      who had rescued them from slavery, and fed them in the wilderness,
            and quenched their thirst, and could truly provide for them and protect them.

Isn’t it ironic that the very reason that Moses was absent,
      was that he was up on Mount Sinai, receiving from Yahweh
       the very commandments and covenant that could guide the people
            on the true moral and spiritual path, and protect their common life together? 

When Moses came back down the mountain,
      the scripture says that he smashed the stone tablets
            on which God’s own finger had written the covenant
            – just as the people had shattered their covenant with God
                        in their turning to the Golden Calf?
They had put their trust in an idol made of their wealth,
      the riches of gold and precious metal that they wore as jewelry on their bodies. 
And in the presence of this false god of gold, they ate and drank and reveled.

I don’t think I have to press the metaphor too far to say that we have built
      and worshipped and served our Golden Calves for several generations
            in our society, thinking that our salvation and our prosperity
                  could rest securely in the golden stock market
                        and the endless credit stream,
      a stream that could carry us way beyond our actual worth,
            and buy us all our dreams. 

Our financial system did not forget the poor. 
Oh no. Our financial system actively exploited the poor,
      and the weak, and the most vulnerable in our society.
And I’m not just talking about sub-prime lending and adjustable rate mortgages.
Remember a few years ago, even a few months ago,
      when you’d get two or three credit card offers in the mail every week,
            inviting you and encouraging you to go deeper and deeper in debt,
                  and not pay any interest until next year? 
And it never seemed to really matter what your credit rating was,
      or even if you had a credit record.
When credit card offers started coming to my sons in the mail
      while they were still teenagers, I remember thinking,
            ‘my gosh, they’re coaxing the next generation into deep debt
                  before they ever get their first full-time job!’
I know hindsight is 20/20, but now I regret that I didn’t start publicly
      raising concerns about the predatory practices of our banks way before now. 

Many of us are angry at the corporate greed and lack of government oversight
      that got us into this mess. 
There’s plenty of blame to go around, but I think at least some of it
      has to be directed at all of us, the American consumers,
            who thought we could have it all for ourselves and our children,
                  and despite all the warnings, never considered the impact
                        of our lifestyle choices on the other 95% of the world.

So, here we are at this juncture. What will we do from here?
Many of us are probably wondering where God is in all this mess? 
We’re again feeling the absence of God, or the absence of spiritual leadership. 
Is God big enough, and real enough,
      to protect us and guide us through this wilderness?
In the face of our fears and uncertainties, I think we have a couple of choices. 

We can continue to look to the Golden Calf to deliver us,
            through bail-outs or stock market recovery strategies,
      and meanwhile try to protect ourselves by battening down the hatches
                  and hoarding every penny;
            maybe voting to eliminate the state income tax and most state services,
                  so that only those with sufficient means have access to services;
            and maybe forgetting about clean energy and climate change
                  and health care for all, and just taking care of ourselves.
OR
We can turn to the Golden Rule, and follow Jesus who said,
      “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.
We can hear in this situation Christ’s admonition,
            “Do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?'
                  or 'What will we wear?' 
             Indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 
             But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
                  and all these things will be given to you as well.”
We can hear in this situation Christ’s call to serve him in the words
“Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do to me”
            and begin to live as if we will find Christ among the poorest of the poor,
 and the community of justice that God has called us to really does exist,
      even when it seems impractical, even when it seems impossible.

Do we believe that God will provide? 
Do we believe enough to care for each other and take care of each other,
      and dare become one society, one world walking through this together?

For us, I set this in a Christian context. 
But our society, and our challenge, is bigger than that.
The Muslim season of Ramadan,
      the season of fasting and almsgiving, ended last week. 

Imam Khalid Latif at the Muslim center at New York University
      tells of a conversation he had just a few weeks ago
            with a young business student in his congregation
                  who had a theological complaint to register.
‘Why did Islam make such a big deal about “Zakat”
      the practice of collecting an equal portion each one’s means,
            and distributing it to the more needy?’  

The young man didn’t like this spiritual practice. 
What was the matter with just taking care of yourself?

About 10 days later, with the landscape marked by
      the bankruptcy, emergency sale and federal bailout
            of some of the nation’s most venerable financial companies,
                  a more abashed version of that same student returned.
He told the Imam, “Now I know why
      I can’t define security by the number of zeroes on my paycheck,”

And over these past 10 days, our Jewish neighbors observed Rosh Hashanah,
      the start of a new year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. 
Across town  in West Newton, my friend and colleague Rabbi Eric Gurvis
      said this to his congregation in Temple Shalom in his Rosh Hashanah sermon,
“In this time of great uncertainty…as our nation’s
      and perhaps the world’s economy teeters on the brink of catastrophe,
            no matter what plan our leaders in Washington ultimately adopt,
      it is likely that the solution to the current crisis will impact us
            – and our children – for years to come.
In this time of uncertainty,
      we must carefully carry and pass the baton of community.
The current crisis has already hit some in our midst
      and the rest of us still do not know whether our homes, our families
            and our futures are secure.
But this much I do know: we need one another.
We need to be each other’s safety net.
We need to demand responsible leadership from our elected officials,
      locally, on the state level and nationally.
We must demand that the rancor of partisanship be set aside.  
Our future is not about red or blue.
As Americans, it must be about red, white and blue.
For all who share this fragile planet it must be green
      and it must encompass the entire spectrum of colors.”