All Kinds of Greed

A Reflection for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost August 3, 2025 St. Luke’s/ St. Anne’s Roper, and Grace, Plymouth Thomas E Wilson, Guest Presider Hosea 11:1-11 Psalm 107:1-9, 43 Colossians 3:1-11 Luke 12:13-21 All Kinds of Greed The Gospel lesson for today has Jesus warn; “"Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.” Jesus is in a situation where he is asked to make a ruling on the division of property. Jesus is a Pharisee. Pharisees were respected people who studied and immersed themselves in scripture and tradition and could be counted upon to share their knowledge to help people out to make good legal decisions based on the teachings of law and scripture. In this case, Jesus is trusted to make a decision about how the money of a family is to be split with the heirs. According to a passage in Deuteronomy, the oldest son usually gets a double portion of inheritance because younger sons would have deprived the oldest from his full share of love. It is a simple legal thing to do, but Jesus makes it more difficult. He says that the problem is not about money, but about the sin of greed. He was expected to make a decision about money, but Jesus makes a decision about the younger man’s heart. Jesus shines a light on the sin of greed. It is one of the many reasons that people wanted to kill Jesus; the people wanted legal decisions, but Jesus always wants to go deeper, deeper into our hearts. Jesus looks at the man and sees that the man has a passion, not for justice, but for money. It is passion that holds him in love with that money. It is that passion that makes him love the money and hate those who might be rivals for the money. Shakespeare has Hamlet speak of being “passion’s slave” when he speaks about his friend Horatio, “Give me a man who is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him in my heart’s core, aye, in my heart of hearts as I do thee.” When I was a kid and I would get home from the 5th and 6th grades in the afternoon, I was supposed to do my homework when I got home. Sometimes I would sneak some time off and watch the tube. I remember one show called “The Millionaire”. The premise of the show was that a fabulously wealthy person would give strangers each a Million Dollars to see what they would do and how their life would change. Most of the shows tended to show that money tended to change people, and not always for the best. After months of watching that show, I learned the message for us folk watching the show was we needed to live real life not fantasies. As I started to look at the kinds of Greed, “the passions in my heart” that could tempt me to be held in my life. The Gospel lesson tells a story about greed for money. I have been a Priest for a little over 40 years. I took a pay cut to come to the Outer Banks, because I felt called to do ministry there. All things come to an end, and I had to retire from being a Rector of any church when I reached age 72. Financially my Social Security and my Church Pension fund together is very comfortable. I also have a small TIAA - CREF retirement from the time I taught in a college before I went to Seminary in 1981. We sold the big beautiful house we had as the Rectory and made enough to pay off the mortgage and buy the Condo in which we moved into. There is no mortgage, but there are some taxes and fees. I have some investments. I fill in at some different churches like today. There is always food in the house. I have more than enough to live on. If I had a whole much more money, I am not sure what I would spend it on. Since my wife died 107 weeks ago, I have become one of those people who finds difficulty in working up lots of excitement to take trips and sight seeing alone. It is not fun to travel alone. I used to weigh more than I do now, because I really enjoyed making dinner and eating with my wife and having a couple of Martinis in the evening. I still have a whole bunch of liquor in the cabinet, but I have a low heart rate and any alcohol I imbibe tends to lower my heart rate even more and if I don’t pay attention, I will end up on the floor and from there to the Emergency Room, three miles down the road. So, the greedy sins of gluttony and drunkenness no longer have much appeal for me. When I was a teenager, “Liciviousness” was one of my most popular sins, but now that I am older, I am ruined for that. Everytime I look at a woman, I am reminded that the woman I loved and lived with since 1989; who for the last two years is no longer physically with me. She is still in my heart, and I am not taking interest in any other woman, because I understand it would still feel like adultery. I am 78 years old and do not want to find myself, by definition, in the category of being a dirty old man. I am not in the market to impress people, but my soul needs to be around people who love and forgive each other. I was not with you last month because I was filling in for the priest at St. Andrew’s in Nags Head. The Priest there, Nathan, was the Priest who came and did Pastoral Care with my wife as she was dying. He helped me through a really difficult time and I knew covering for him for a time of his Sabbatical for him to grow deeper with his family in faith was a way to thank him for his help to me and my wife. The reason I show up at churches is not because I really enjoy prancing around altars and “making with a message” in sermons; but I need to focus on something other than myself and to be useful for a community to be aware of the presence of God. And not just for the community, but for myself as well, for as Jesus tells us that when two or three are gathered in his name; He, Jesus, is here. My hope is that you are here, not to earn God’s Brownie points for showing up on Sunday worship, but you come to be part of a community that makes God’s love known in the larger community you live, and love, in. Thank you for being here with me and making me feel welcome.

Lawyer's Question

A Reflection for 5th Sunday after Pentecost St. Andrew’s , Nags Head, NC July 13, 2025 Thomas Wilson, Guest Celebrant Amos 7:7-17 Psalm 82 Colossians 1:1-14 Luke 10:25-37 Lawyer’s Question A scribe asks Jesus a question: “What must I do to inherit Eternal Life?” A scribe is a member of a group of gifted people who were chosen to be trusted enough to be able to write the scriptures and to interpret them. In the first century, the scribes were people who were counted upon to preserve the traditions, especially during this time when Greek and Roman legal traditions were threatening to over take the place of Hebrew traditions. Scribes were lawyers of the Hebrew tradition. Jesus had this habit of reinterpreting the law, which made him suspect by the lawyers and scribes. Lawyers are used to drawing up wills. So when this scribe, lawyer, asks Jesus about a legal matter about what tradition upholds in the giving of eternal life, as the party of the 1st part, so it seems like a nice question. The Hebrew word for life is “Chaim”, which is a plural rather than a singular word, meaning that life, which is a gift from God, means what happens before birth, during life and after death. The lawyer, scribe, wants to nail Jesus down what does this part of “life”, after this physical life, looks like? Are there rewards and punishments? So, Jesus starts off by telling a story about a man who is accosted by robbers and left for dead. Two, very respected men, a Priest and a Levite, come by the body and assume that the body is dead or dying, in which case if they touch the bloody body, they will become unclean and unable to do their work at the places where their important work takes them. They cross to the other side of the road, to avoid being contaminated by this tragedy. If they become contaminated by the blood, their journey would need to be interrupted by a cleansing ritual bath. They both make a solid and respected business decision. No one could blame them; people die all the time. Life must go on, even in the face of death. It is a little like when I agree to do a wedding of the daughter of some leaders of the church and find an impediment in my schedule and have to cancel my commitment at the last minute. If ever that would happen, my resume would need to be in the mail that afternoon to any church Rector openings. In the days that I was researching and writing this reflection, I received four, count them four, phone calls from spam numbers asking me if “Patricia”, my wife, “was there”? She died two years ago and I said, “No”, and their response was to switch to a pre-recorded sales pitch. Life must go on. I finally called their number and found it was from a political party, that she would not have voted for on a bet, and I asked them to remove her name. You know the rest of the Biblical story, that a Samaritan comes upon the scene. Let me see if I can give you a metaphor for the identity that would resonate with the reaction to the man being a Samaritan. How about when a member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party comes by a body washed up on the beach across the street from this church? The Communist would be the only one who ministers to the victim while the members of this church would find lots of excuses not to get their hands dirty., because it is Sunday morning after all. For those of you who used to watch the “Rocky and Bullwinkle” Cartoons; it would be as if the villains, Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, suddenly turn into heroes and Rocky and Bullwinkle into disappointments. During the time of Jesus, if you were a good Jew and you had to even say the word “Samaritan”, you would be expected to spit to show your displeasure about the whole race. But, in this story, the Samaritan is the only character who shows mercy and love to this broken person. Jesus had this habit of telling stories that were rough to be heard by good religious folk. It is one of the reasons that when the crowd gathers outside for the trial of Jesus, to join in with the call to crucify the Nazarene trouble maker, who just didn’t leave well enough alone. One of the things about religious folk like me is that we like to make prayers that tell that “Old Boy up in the sky”, what “WE” want. In conversations with the Almighty, we tend to do most of the talking and very little of the listening. But in this story for today, the lawyer/scribe does the listening and it seems to dawn on him that the standard villain of Jewish stories, the Samaritan, (BOO -Hiss), is the only one who acts as if he hears God’s call to grace filled ministry. I like to think that the lawyer goes home that evening and sits down to dinner with his wife and tells her about what he learned about love that day and how he needed to tell her about his love for her, and show what that means in the days ahead, when they help people together as outward and visible signs of God’s love. What Jesus likes to do in telling stories, is to turn everything upside down, where we are no longer the centers of our universe. And perhaps that says a lot about what should be happening in this creation. What stories do you need to tell; especially those stories without words, yet full of action? Lawyer’s Question Lawyer wants a way out of neighbor care, Getting too close to the life we want to live, Closed to outsiders; refusing our help to give And sharing it only, when it’s really our affair. Jesus’ response was we reap what we sow Suggesting we sow forgiveness and graces Before it is needed, not just in holy places, But on the roads where all our enemies go. Not just to people we’d invite to the house But those your friends tell to take a hike, Especially those they won’t even try to like. And to people not approved by your spouse. Moral is more than inviting Samaritans to lunch, But to treat all people as part of family bunch.

Every Person is Important

4th Sunday after Pentecost Reflection St Andrew’s, Nags Head Thomas E Wilson, Guest Officiant July 6, 2025 Every Person Is Important 2 Kings 5:1-14 Psalm 30 Galatians 6:(1-6)7-16 Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 First of all, I need to tell you that this old man has made some mistakes. My standard practice is to look at the lessons and come up with a poem that forms the outline of what I need to say in a reflection. I was working in an empty office and I didn't really feel comfortable. So I chose to work out of my condo where I feel comfortable. So what follows is basically two poems, a ¾ reflection and a ¼ glimpse. In my decades of being an Episcopal Clergy I have heard a particular phrase scores of times; “He (or She) does (or doesn’t) deserve it.” It is usually used when I am asked to visit someone who is unwell, physically or emotionally. It either means that person is a good person who is unfairly suffering, or a bad person who should be paying for their sins. In my theology “Stuff happens!” It doesn’t matter if you are good or bad. Often when I visit someone, they may even ask me: “What have I done to deserve this!” I got a call from my dermatologist this week that told me that I need to come in next month to get rid of some small cancerous cells. I probably deserve that because of my sloth in going out into the Outer Banks sunshine without slathering myself with sunscreen, or at least wearing a hat. Or, I could take the theological route and find plenty of sins that would cause me to suffer. In today’s Hebrew Testament Lesson for today, Naaman,an arrogant enemy general, has come down with a grievous skin condition. He has a young girl in his household whom he captured in a raid and kept her as a slave, who tells him about a Prophet, Elisha who can bring healing to his enemy. In any Hebrew mind, leprosy was seen as a punishment from God, and Naaman deserves what he gets by holding her as a prisoner of war. Naaman’s boss, the King of Aran, an area of northern Syria, orders the King of Israel, whose predecessor, Ahab, had been killed by the forces of Aran, to allow Naaman, the great Warrior of Aran, to visit Elisha and try to be healed. The King of Israel is not stupid, and he knows that if Naaman is not cured, it will be seen by the King of Aram as an insult. Naaman comes with all of his prejudices and arrogance in full view. He did not deserve to be healed. Yet, he comes to himself and enters the water as a humble supplicant and when he comes out of the water, he is healed. Elisha sends him, his enemy, his gracious best wishes and refuses to accept any payment. If you read further than this lesson in this Book of Kings, the servant of Elisha, the scoundrel Gahazi, tries to shake down Naaman for a lot of money. But that is another story of the graciousness of the enemy, because every person is important. Naaman has been changed, fully healed and he enters his new life. As the writer of the Epistle to the Galatians would write centuries later where a New Creation is everything. A New Creation is to open our eyes and see our neighbor, and even our enemy, as the beloved Of God. There also should be an opening of my eyes, because I wrote a poem on the Hebrew Testament lesson before I wrote this reflection and I had forgotten that I had already written a poem for this Sunday based on the Gospel lesson and put it in the office to be placed in the bulletin, So here is the poem for the Hebrew Testament lesson: Every Person is Important Elisha said, “Don’t worry, he’s only just a man.” Naaman came riding up in chariots and horses, Strutting; putting underlings through courses, Making them all grovel, just because he can. He is so used to be in command and feared, That it doesn't occur to him, that he’s asking, To go beyond his own power and be tasking To empty himself before the prophet revered. Control is something he wants to hold on to, But, now finds his pride needs to be set free, Becomes a supplicant, and not a warrior be, As he prepares to go into the water through, To trust in a power greater than himself Being freed from all wounds themself.. In the Gospel lesson for today, Jesus sends seventy of his followers, his disciples, out to bring healing and good news to the surrounding towns and villages. As followers of Jesus, that is our job, to bring healing, peace and good news to these communities of the Outer Banks. We are fortunate, there are thousands of new people who come to visit these Outer Banks every week. How do we treat them? I am not asking you to hand out Chrisitian literature at street corners, rather to treat visitors with respect and dignity. Yes, the roads are more crowded, the lines at the stores are longer, the restaurant parking lots are filled with other than local license plates; but these people are our neighbors, even from far off. I am asking that you treat the visitors as people who need to find a welcome here in this corner of God’s creation. Here is the Poem for the Gospel lesson. The Disciples Return “Your names are written in the Heaven” He said after they had all done work, They were looking for a grading clerk, Using a ten-point scale; at least seven. Always looking for some passing marks, Telling them they’d made a good grade, That they’d earned honor for efforts made, Their lamps of honor are lit by the sparks Of hope that they so need to daily see, Of making small differences in their life, That their works would not end in strife, But being a great way of pleasing Thee. They are no different from any of us When we want out glories to discuss.