Albert D. Mosley - "Citizens of a Different Nation" (September 23, 2001)
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| - | The third lesson is from | 0:06 |
| the Gospel According to St. Luke, the 16th chapter. | 0:07 | |
| Then Jesus said to the disciples: | 0:13 | |
| There was a rich man who had a manager, | 0:16 | |
| and charges were brought to him | 0:18 | |
| that this man was squandering his property, | 0:20 | |
| so he summoned him and said to him, | 0:23 | |
| "What is this that I hear about you? | 0:25 | |
| "Give me an accounting of your management, | 0:27 | |
| "because you cannot be my manager any longer." | 0:29 | |
| Then the manager said to himself, | 0:33 | |
| "What will I do now that my master | 0:35 | |
| "is taking the position away from me? | 0:38 | |
| "I'm not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. | 0:40 | |
| "I have decided what to do, | 0:44 | |
| "so that when I am dismissed as manager, | 0:46 | |
| "people may welcome me into their homes." | 0:49 | |
| So, summoning his master's debtors, one by one, | 0:52 | |
| he asked the first, | 0:56 | |
| "How much do you owe my master?" | 0:57 | |
| He answered, "A hundred jugs of olive oil." | 0:59 | |
| He said to him, "Take your bill, sit down quickly, | 1:02 | |
| and make it 50." | 1:05 | |
| Then he asked another, "How much do you owe?" | 1:07 | |
| He replied, "A hundred containers of wheat." | 1:09 | |
| He said to him, "Take your bill, and make it 80." | 1:12 | |
| And his master commended the dishonest manager, | 1:16 | |
| because he had acted shrewdly, | 1:18 | |
| for the children of this age | 1:20 | |
| are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation | 1:22 | |
| than are the children of light. | 1:24 | |
| And I tell you, make friends for yourselves | 1:26 | |
| by means of dishonest wealth, | 1:28 | |
| so when it is gone, they may welcome you | 1:30 | |
| into their eternal homes. | 1:33 | |
| Whoever is faithful in a very little, | 1:35 | |
| is faithful also in much, | 1:39 | |
| and whoever is dishonest in a very little, | 1:41 | |
| is dishonest in also in much. | 1:44 | |
| If then you have not been faithful with a dishonest wealth, | 1:46 | |
| who will entrust to you the true riches, | 1:50 | |
| and if you have not been faithful | 1:52 | |
| with what belongs to another, | 1:54 | |
| who will give you what is your own? | 1:55 | |
| No slave can serve two masters, | 1:58 | |
| for a slave will either hate the one, and love the other, | 2:01 | |
| or be devoted to the one, and despise the other. | 2:04 | |
| You cannot serve God in wealth. | 2:08 | |
| This is the Word of the Lord. | 2:11 | |
| Congregation | Praise be to God. | 2:13 |
| - | No one can serve two masters. | 2:22 |
| Either he will hate the one and love the other, | 2:27 | |
| or he will be devoted to the one, | 2:30 | |
| and despise the other. | 2:32 | |
| You cannot serve both God and mammon. | 2:36 | |
| I often wish that life were a lot simpler | 2:43 | |
| than what it actually is. | 2:46 | |
| I often wish that the decisions we all have to make | 2:49 | |
| were somewhat easier. | 2:52 | |
| I must even admit to you that there are occasions | 2:55 | |
| where I would really like to have | 2:59 | |
| fewer and simpler choices to make about life. | 3:00 | |
| It seems to me that when we are presented | 3:05 | |
| with a host of choices, a variety of options, | 3:07 | |
| numerous paths to tread, | 3:11 | |
| most of us are quite torn. | 3:13 | |
| We spend enormous energy attempting to decide. | 3:17 | |
| Once a decision is finally made, | 3:20 | |
| we then spend even more time regretting that decision, | 3:23 | |
| and thinking of what it would have been like | 3:26 | |
| had we chosen another path, another option, another way. | 3:28 | |
| This is life as we know it, | 3:35 | |
| particularly in the post-modern world in which we live. | 3:38 | |
| We live in a time of fuzzy choices. | 3:42 | |
| There simply does not appear to be | 3:45 | |
| any cut and dry solutions anymore. | 3:47 | |
| Even right and wrong are so often viewed as relative, | 3:51 | |
| and dependent upon one's perspective. | 3:57 | |
| Gone, it seems, are the days when things were divided | 3:59 | |
| perfectly down the middle, | 4:03 | |
| right, wrong, good, bad, black, white. | 4:05 | |
| There's a vastness today of gray area, | 4:11 | |
| of that space in between conventional ways of viewing life. | 4:14 | |
| And it's true almost everywhere, except in the Bible. | 4:20 | |
| Jesus, in almost a tide completely against our culture, | 4:24 | |
| demands something decisive and exact from us. | 4:28 | |
| The world of the Bible is one of those few places | 4:33 | |
| where so often we are given | 4:36 | |
| a very limited number of choices or approaches to life. | 4:37 | |
| Early on in the New Testament, | 4:42 | |
| in the Gospel According to Matthew, | 4:43 | |
| Jesus offers some very clear teaching | 4:45 | |
| on a number of life's issues. | 4:47 | |
| He says very clearly how we are to govern ourselves | 4:51 | |
| in reference to anger, in reference to divorce, | 4:54 | |
| in reference to retaliation, and a number of other issues. | 4:58 | |
| The same is true for Mark, John, and Luke, | 5:03 | |
| the Gospel with which we are concerned today. | 5:07 | |
| In the chapters preceding today's scripture lesson, | 5:12 | |
| Jesus has devoted a fair amount of His ministry | 5:14 | |
| to teaching His disciples, and others, | 5:16 | |
| what they ought to do, and what they ought not to do. | 5:19 | |
| He says to those who follow Him, | 5:23 | |
| "You either repent or perish." | 5:25 | |
| He says, "The tree either bears good fruit or bad fruit." | 5:28 | |
| He even offers instructions on what one should do | 5:33 | |
| in preparation for a banquet or a dinner party. | 5:36 | |
| In the last verse of today's scripture lesson, | 5:41 | |
| Jesus once again asserts Himself as an authority, | 5:43 | |
| and basically presents to those who would be His followers | 5:47 | |
| two very simple choices, two very simple paths, | 5:50 | |
| two very simple ways to live one's life. | 5:54 | |
| Jesus says that we simply cannot serve two masters. | 5:58 | |
| We will hate one and love the other. | 6:03 | |
| We will be devoted to one, and despise the other. | 6:08 | |
| Our loyalty can only lie in one corner. | 6:12 | |
| According to Jesus, it's that simple, | 6:17 | |
| it's that cut and dry. | 6:20 | |
| It's either one way or the other. | 6:22 | |
| Jesus concludes and summarizes this parable | 6:25 | |
| by declaring that it is impossible for us | 6:28 | |
| to serve God and wealth simultaneously. | 6:30 | |
| Older versions of the Bible | 6:35 | |
| render the word wealth as mammon, | 6:36 | |
| i iss impossible to serve God and mammon. | 6:39 | |
| Mammon is a transliteration of the Aramaic word mammona, | 6:43 | |
| and it refers to any symbol of wealth, profit, or power. | 6:47 | |
| Mammona is something that is massive, | 6:53 | |
| something that is vast and great, | 6:56 | |
| and is a symbol of collective affluence and prosperity. | 6:59 | |
| It could even refer to a nation. | 7:04 | |
| Translated that way, this passage would read, | 7:08 | |
| no one can serve two masters, | 7:11 | |
| either he will hate the one or love the other, | 7:14 | |
| or be devoted to one and despise the other. | 7:16 | |
| You cannot serve both God and nation. | 7:19 | |
| But is it really that simple? | 7:24 | |
| Is the line of demarcation drawn so clearly | 7:27 | |
| that we are either on one side or the other? | 7:30 | |
| Our nation is mammon, we are the symbol of wealth, | 7:33 | |
| we are the symbol of affluence, | 7:37 | |
| we are the symbol of prosperity in the world. | 7:40 | |
| Jesus says that it is one over the other, | 7:43 | |
| either God or mammon. | 7:46 | |
| I personally struggle with this, | 7:51 | |
| and I struggle with it very hard. | 7:53 | |
| I'm just not sure whether it's that simple. | 7:56 | |
| I'm not sure if your loyalty to and service for God | 8:00 | |
| absolutely precludes one from loyalty to | 8:03 | |
| and service for other structures in our lives. | 8:06 | |
| This has been a particularly difficult struggle for me | 8:09 | |
| over the past 12 days or so. | 8:12 | |
| As a Christian, I've grappled with many mixed emotions | 8:15 | |
| since the day our country was besieged by terrorists. | 8:17 | |
| I've been extremely angry, | 8:21 | |
| and I've wanted to respond with retaliation, | 8:24 | |
| with retribution, with revenge. | 8:27 | |
| I've been moved by feelings of patriotism. | 8:31 | |
| There's been an overwhelming desire within | 8:34 | |
| to proclaim the greatness of our nation, | 8:36 | |
| to say that I am proud and honored | 8:39 | |
| to be a part of this magnificent land of ours. | 8:40 | |
| I've struggled with placing too much of my loyalty, | 8:44 | |
| too much of my devotion, on the side of mammon. | 8:48 | |
| In the midst of this struggle, | 8:53 | |
| I am reminded of these very clear words of Jesus, | 8:55 | |
| you cannot serve God and mammon. | 8:58 | |
| Peter Storey, a former Methodist bishop of South Africa | 9:03 | |
| and professor here in the Divinity School, | 9:06 | |
| sent a letter to some of us just after this tragedy. | 9:08 | |
| Peter wrote that it is hard for us as Christians, | 9:13 | |
| and more specifically, pastors, | 9:15 | |
| to balance both the political | 9:18 | |
| and the prophetic in this situation. | 9:19 | |
| They both exist. | 9:23 | |
| We are Christians who live in this country, | 9:25 | |
| and our response to this act | 9:28 | |
| will be one that is laden with mixed emotions, | 9:30 | |
| mixed language, and mixed loyalty. | 9:32 | |
| Father Peter says that it is our pastoral imperative | 9:36 | |
| to weep with Jesus over the pain of our nation, | 9:39 | |
| but if our weeping does not ask that much deeper question, | 9:43 | |
| the question of how do I | 9:47 | |
| as a representative of Jesus Christ, | 9:49 | |
| how do I respond in this situation, | 9:50 | |
| then we have divided our loyalty. | 9:54 | |
| We have forsaken one over the other. | 9:56 | |
| We have chosen mammon over God. | 9:59 | |
| St. Augustine, in his "City of God" | 10:03 | |
| alludes to this great divide of loyalty between God and man. | 10:05 | |
| Augustine notes that, "Of the human race, | 10:10 | |
| "there are some who live according to man, | 10:12 | |
| "and some who live according to God." | 10:14 | |
| Those who live according to man and not by fate | 10:17 | |
| seek an earthly peace, | 10:20 | |
| and they seek this peace often, | 10:23 | |
| often through means of war or force. | 10:24 | |
| For Augustine, you are either a citizen of the City of God | 10:28 | |
| or the City of Man. | 10:31 | |
| Here again, I'm not quite sure it's that simple. | 10:34 | |
| I don't think Augustine even felt it was that simple. | 10:40 | |
| Later in this same work, | 10:44 | |
| he contends that those who are citizens of the City of God, | 10:45 | |
| we live on Earth, and we have to make use | 10:49 | |
| of the means of peace available here in this City of Man. | 10:51 | |
| So while the Christian is a citizen | 10:57 | |
| of the Nation of God, | 10:58 | |
| he is by default a citizen of the City of Man. | 11:00 | |
| I believe it's hard to say for certain | 11:07 | |
| that one is a citizen of one nation and not of the other, | 11:09 | |
| particularly when the two coexist with one another. | 11:13 | |
| How can we not be loyal to nation and God at the same time? | 11:16 | |
| We have a dual citizenship, | 11:21 | |
| we carry two passports in our pockets, | 11:23 | |
| one for this country and one for God. | 11:26 | |
| Jesus lays on us a challenge | 11:31 | |
| to live in two places at the same time. | 11:33 | |
| In the Gospel of Matthew, | 11:38 | |
| Jesus told the Pharisees to render unto Caesar | 11:39 | |
| that which is Caesar's | 11:42 | |
| and unto God that which is God's. | 11:43 | |
| Unfortunately, after making this statement, | 11:46 | |
| the Bible tells us that the Pharisees | 11:51 | |
| marveled or wondered about its meaning, | 11:52 | |
| because Jesus did not make it clear enough to them. | 11:55 | |
| I don't think it's clear enough even to us. | 11:59 | |
| What is clear, however, is that we as Christians | 12:03 | |
| are citizens of a different nation. | 12:05 | |
| Physically and geographically, | 12:09 | |
| we are located in the here and now. | 12:10 | |
| We are citizens of this nation, | 12:13 | |
| but mentally and spiritually, | 12:16 | |
| we are called to be citizens of a different nation. | 12:18 | |
| We are called to be citizens of a nation | 12:22 | |
| where our response to an attack | 12:24 | |
| like the one of September 11th | 12:25 | |
| does not resemble the response of those | 12:27 | |
| who perpetrated this gruesome act. | 12:30 | |
| Somewhere between 1904 and 1905, | 12:35 | |
| Mark Twain dictated a poem called, "The War Prayer." | 12:38 | |
| This poem, according to Twain, | 12:42 | |
| contained the words of truth, | 12:44 | |
| and could only be published after his death, | 12:47 | |
| because as he said, no one can speak the truth | 12:50 | |
| while they are still alive. | 12:52 | |
| In this poem, in churches across the land | 12:58 | |
| pastors preach devotion to flag and country, | 13:00 | |
| and they invoke the God of battles | 13:03 | |
| to help the country in its good cause. | 13:05 | |
| On the Sunday just before the war, | 13:09 | |
| churches were filled, and the particular church | 13:11 | |
| that Twain writes about, | 13:15 | |
| there was an eloquent rendering | 13:17 | |
| of a passage from the Old Testament, | 13:18 | |
| followed by a wonderful organ piece | 13:20 | |
| that shook the sanctuary. | 13:22 | |
| After this came a tremendous invocation, | 13:25 | |
| a prayer of the likes that none had heard before | 13:28 | |
| because of its moving and beautiful language. | 13:30 | |
| The pastor pleaded with God to help their soldiers, | 13:34 | |
| aid, comfort and encourage them in their patriotic work, | 13:37 | |
| bless them, shield them in the day of battle, | 13:41 | |
| bear them in his mighty hand, | 13:44 | |
| make them strong and confident, | 13:47 | |
| make them invincible to the bloody onset. | 13:49 | |
| Help them to crush the foe, | 13:52 | |
| grant to them, and to their flag and country, | 13:54 | |
| honor and glory. | 13:57 | |
| As the pastor was concluding his prayer, | 13:59 | |
| an old stranger walked very slowly and quietly | 14:02 | |
| down the aisles of the church, | 14:05 | |
| and made his way next to the pastor on the platform. | 14:07 | |
| The pastor, even though his eyes were shut, | 14:11 | |
| could feel the presence of the old man next to him. | 14:13 | |
| The pastor finished his prayer by asking God | 14:18 | |
| to bless our arms, grant us victory, oh Lord our God, | 14:20 | |
| Father and Protector of our land and flag. | 14:23 | |
| The old man then touched the pastor's arm | 14:28 | |
| and asked if he could also offer a prayer. | 14:31 | |
| The old man told the congregation | 14:34 | |
| that he was commissioned of God | 14:36 | |
| to speak the unspoken part of the pastor's prayer. | 14:38 | |
| He said that the pastor's prayer | 14:42 | |
| was actually two prayers, | 14:43 | |
| one uttered, the other not. | 14:45 | |
| Both of them, he said, had reached the ear of God. | 14:48 | |
| The old man then shared with the congregation | 14:53 | |
| the unspoken part of the pastor's prayer. | 14:55 | |
| He started praying and said, | 14:57 | |
| "Oh Lord our God, help us to tear | 14:58 | |
| "our enemy soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells. | 15:00 | |
| "Help us to cover their smiling fields | 15:05 | |
| "with the pale forms of their patriotic dead. | 15:07 | |
| "Help us to lay waste their humble homes | 15:10 | |
| "with a hurricane of fire. | 15:12 | |
| "Help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows | 15:14 | |
| "with unavailing grief. | 15:17 | |
| "Help us to turn them out ruthless | 15:20 | |
| "with little children to wonder, befriended. | 15:22 | |
| "Blast their hopes, blight their lives, | 15:26 | |
| "protract their bitter pilgrimage, | 15:30 | |
| "make heavy their steps. | 15:32 | |
| "Water their way with their tears, | 15:34 | |
| "stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet." | 15:37 | |
| There was silence throughout the sanctuary | 15:43 | |
| as the old man concluded the prayer. | 15:46 | |
| I believe this old man was a citizen of a different nation. | 15:50 | |
| Mark Twain ends his poem by noting | 15:54 | |
| that those who filled the church that day, | 15:56 | |
| including the pastor, | 15:59 | |
| thought this old man was a lunatic, | 16:01 | |
| because there was no sense in what he had said. | 16:04 | |
| As citizens of a different nation, | 16:07 | |
| the things we may say make no sense to the world, | 16:10 | |
| and people may even think we're lunatics, | 16:14 | |
| they thought the same about Jesus. | 16:17 | |
| I saw a story just the other day on MSNBC. | 16:21 | |
| They were devoting a portion of the broadcast | 16:25 | |
| in memory of some of those who lost their lives | 16:27 | |
| in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. | 16:29 | |
| They were focusing on two women, | 16:33 | |
| best friends out of Boston. | 16:35 | |
| These women, along with the little girl of one of them, | 16:38 | |
| had planned a vacation to Los Angeles. | 16:40 | |
| Initially, all three of them were to be on the same flight, | 16:43 | |
| but one of the women decided | 16:46 | |
| to use her husband's frequent flier miles, | 16:47 | |
| and she was placed on a different flight. | 16:50 | |
| As it turns out, the woman with the little girl | 16:54 | |
| was on the first plane that hit the World Trade Center, | 16:56 | |
| and her best friend was on that second plane. | 16:59 | |
| Their families, in response to this tragedy, | 17:03 | |
| exhibited to the world where their citizenship lies. | 17:06 | |
| I'm sure those families were extremely hurt, | 17:10 | |
| I'm sure they were extremely angry, | 17:12 | |
| but they rose above those feelings. | 17:15 | |
| The two families came together | 17:18 | |
| and decided to establish a foundation | 17:19 | |
| in the little girl's name | 17:21 | |
| that would foster and teach peace, | 17:23 | |
| tolerance, and understanding | 17:25 | |
| to children here in our country. | 17:28 | |
| Those two families are citizens of a different nation. | 17:30 | |
| While walking through the chapel quad on Friday, | 17:36 | |
| a student stopped me, | 17:39 | |
| and began to share with me some of her frustrations | 17:41 | |
| of her conversations she's been holding with her parents. | 17:44 | |
| Both her mother and father are of the mindset | 17:49 | |
| that the Unites States should strike, | 17:51 | |
| and strike very hard, at any and all | 17:53 | |
| who may be connected with this act of terror. | 17:56 | |
| She went on to tell me of an incident | 17:59 | |
| that occurred Thursday night, | 18:01 | |
| just prior to the President's address | 18:02 | |
| to the joint session of Congress and the nation. | 18:04 | |
| Her father, along with her five year old brother | 18:08 | |
| and seven year old sister, | 18:10 | |
| were gathered in the living room of their house. | 18:12 | |
| Her father turned to the smaller children, | 18:15 | |
| and told them that in a few moments, | 18:17 | |
| they would have to be very quiet. | 18:19 | |
| Her father said to her siblings, | 18:21 | |
| "The most important person in the whole world | 18:24 | |
| "is about to speak to us, | 18:27 | |
| "and he's going to tell us all what we need to do. | 18:29 | |
| "He's going to give us guidance on this whole situation. | 18:32 | |
| "So you have to be very quiet, and I really mean it." | 18:36 | |
| The small children sat there staring at their father, | 18:40 | |
| and they became very quiet according to his decree. | 18:43 | |
| A few moments later, the mother walked in the room, | 18:48 | |
| and she began chatting about her day, and so on. | 18:52 | |
| The five year old boy turned to his mother, | 18:57 | |
| and said, "Shh, mom you have to be very quiet, | 18:59 | |
| "God's about to come on TV." | 19:04 | |
| This little boy, perhaps unlike his father, | 19:09 | |
| is a citizen of a different nation. | 19:14 | |
| Amen. | 19:17 |
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