“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, thankful for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”
These are the words St. Paul uses in the opening of his letter to the Philippians. Today when I am not with you I am writing in the style of one of Paul’s letters.
It is impossible to know for sure, but it is likely that Paul’s letters were read to his congregations much like we would have a sermon in worship today. Writings of those days had no punctuation, no paragraphs, no lower-case letters, and no spaces between words. Imagine reading something that was margin to margin solid capital letters. It is hard to read!
It appears as if Paul would write a letter; then give it to someone to carry to the church to which it was addressed. While traveling that person would read the letter over and over again, effectively memorizing it. That way when they arrived they could read it fluently. Such is the case with Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul dictated it. A guy named Tertius wrote it down. Then it appears that a woman named Phoebe carried it from wherever Paul wrote it, and then read it to the church in Rome. Communication was certainly more involved than sending someone a text today!
Some things, however, never change. In our gospel reading we encounter Jesus as he continues his journey to Jerusalem. He has been invited to a meal at the house of a Pharisee. Some lawyers are present too. It seems that lawyers in Jesus’ day weren’t any better than lawyers today!
It is tempting to imagine these lawyers being like the personal injury lawyers we have today who advertise with all their catchy ads and jingles. It’s then easy to point a finger at them all.
But I remember being taught not to point; especially because if you point one finger forward there are three pointing back at me!
Unfortunately, we cannot mock the Pharisee and lawyers who were eating with Jesus that day. We cannot call them villains and corrupt. I suspect the dynamics of our lives and their lives overlap.
Jesus tells both the Pharisees and the lawyers that they are being deceptive – appearing good and clean and upright on the surface, but hiding ugliness inside. I think we can all understand that intelligent well-educated people can often find ways that appear moral, and are technically legal, that benefit themselves; but at the expense of others.
I think all of us want to think of ourselves as good people who make good, moral, honorable choices. That’s good! But like the Pharisees and lawyers, we live in systems that allow us to think we are good and moral and honorable, when in reality a lot of the consequences of our actions are unseen by us.
As many of you know, I enjoy riding bicycle. I start most mornings in the summer by riding about 16 miles on the Ontario Pathways Trail. Travel by bike or on foot is very different than by car, or even by horse. A few summers ago my son Ben and I worked on his cycling merit badge for Boy Scouts. It required at least 150 miles of biking. It was a good reminder of a number of things a car driver takes for granted. When driving in car I think nothing of coming up on a hill. I just push the accelerator down more, or the cruise control does it for me. That same hill takes on a very different perspective when it’s my own body’s energy that has to get me to the top!
How much of our transportation do we really achieve by our body’s own physical strength? Do we have any idea whatsoever of how much energy our lives actually consume?
One of our bike rides was from Canandaigua to Geneva on Routes 5 & 20. Riding bike past the county landfill reminds you of another reality we often forget - the incredible cubic yardage of waste we generate.
What is my life pattern? I go to a store. I buy something. I use it. And when I’m done with it I put it in a garbage can. Every Wednesday night I put the garbage can by the curb outside my house. And every Thursday after work I come home and find the garbage can empty – it’s almost miraculous! I’m totally insulated from the before and after effects of my consumption.
And of course riding by the county landfill from Canandaigua towards Geneva on a bike brings another issue. It’s uphill! Being in the open means you smell the landfill for a lot longer that when you whisk by it in a car. But it’s more than just an unpleasant smell. Since you’re propelling your bike on a long uphill section you’re breathing heavily. You need to fill your lungs full repeatedly, except the air stinks! Minute after minute, full lungful after full lungful, you fill your body with foul-smelling air. You feel filthy inside and out! The real impact of the waste that we generate really hits you!
Few people think about what it takes to get things to us and from us.
Hot and cold water just appear from a tap.
Waste water disappears down the drain. Only when you have plumbing problems do you think about where it comes from and where it goes. And only those with wells and septic systems ever think about the water treatment facility that prepped the water in the first place and sewage treatment plant at the end of the drain.
I suppose electricity is equally magical. It just comes from the outlets in our buildings and is controlled by switches in the walls.
My point in all of this is that we have every bit as much opportunity to think we are good people – when we really aren’t – as the Pharisees and lawyers around the table with Jesus that day.
What should we do? Escape from the world and live in an off-the-grid self-supporting commune?
Hardly! It wouldn’t work, and running away from the world’s problems doesn’t actually solve anything.
I think we do well to actually pay attention to things. Think about where the water comes from and where it goes. Realize that products in stores have a past and a future. Realize that someone somewhere that you’ll probably never meet made the clothes you are wearing right now. At the risk of being too vivid, someone made the underwear that is touching you intimately yet you have no idea who it is!
Being aware of this stuff I think is an important first step. Our culture does an excellent job of keeping us blind about things that could make us feel bad. That awareness alone will keep our habits more in line with what God wants from us.
Riding bike along roads can be dangerous. It also takes a certain level of physical fitness. It’s certainly not for everyone. But I encourage everyone to make it a point to regularly travel from place to place using your body’s own energy. Feel the energy of your body being expelled to move it from place to place. It is a connection to reality that is lost when you are insulated in your travel by car.
Also, before you buy something pray about it. Before you throw something away, pray about it. Thank God every time you turn on the faucet and every time you flip a light switch. Realize how much of a bigger pattern your decisions are. You will then be living in more complete enlightenment.
Jesus said, “Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.” We are to be the light of the world!
May our God strengthen and encourage you each and every day. May God give you boldness and confidence. May God also give you kindness and empathy. And may God bring us all into his heavenly kingdom!
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