Every year I listen to the podcasts of the sermons from Memphis' Calvary Episcopal Church's midweek Lenten services. The speakers tend to be excellent. (I consider it the second best preaching series next to Foundry's Summer in the City July series.)
Walking home last evening I listened to the podcast of a sermon by Marcus Borg, the author of such books as "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time."
In his March 17th sermon on the temptations of Jesus (see http://www.calvarymemphis.org/news/lentenseries.htm), he talks about the United States having the highest percentage of people who self identify as Christian -- somewhere around 80 percent.
Then he gently talks about two ironies -- that the most Christian nation in the world depends so radically on military strength (as I recall, he says the US's military is equal to the next 17 countries' militaries combined) and that the most Christian nation in the world has the largest income inequality of any of the developed nations of the world. He says that, in comparison to other developed nations, our income inequality is off the charts. And, he says, the gap is growing.
How does this happen in the most Christian nation on earth? he asks.
So while I am paying attention to how often I buy tea at Starbucks or magazines at Busboys and Poets in preparation for my money fast April 3-24, Marcus Borg reminds me that I am called to be an agent of justice, not only to practice personal morality in the way I spend money.
It made me think of Jesus' pointed reprimand to the religious folk of his time from Matthew 23:23 -- "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others."
Personal responsibility in the way I spend the money that I am a steward of is no substitute for working on behalf of justice.
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