September 18, 2022

First things first – glad to see that our epistle speaks of the importance of praying for kings and all in high positions, so that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives. Did some of you see that 15 minute BBC interview with King Charles, posted on our church Facebook page, although he was Prince Charles when that interview was done last year https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j1EUsGrIgMY&feature=youtu.be. I had not seen the whole interview before, but the snippet about how he modified his 50 year-old Aston Martin sportscar to run on surplus white wine and cheese instead of fossil fuels – became quite famous last year leading up to the Cop 26 climate conference in Glasgow. While this sounds like a great ecological feat, many people stopped to ask – what is surplus wine?

Okay, while that does sound somewhat silly, it’s also quite ingenious – clearly Charles inherited some of his mother’s mechanical skills, with which she served during WWII. That whole BBC interview was wonderfully filled with his passion for preserving the environment, and the lovely grove of trees in which it took place was an area he had replanted, I think, and then named for his first grandchild. Whether we are biological grandparents or just basic decent human beings who care about the wellbeing of future generations and the earth and all its creatures -- we are called upon to see how we can reduce our carbon footprint – changing various lifestyle habits we may have, to help reduce and hopefully reverse the damage done to Mother Earth.

My cousin calls it ‘italianing’ when I make posts that might be embarrassingly frugal – like when I cut open the plastic hand-cream bottles to get at the bottom portion unreachable by the short stem – which I suspect may be deliberately short for some planned obsolescence, sending you back to the store for more because nothing else comes out of the spout. Problem is that you can’t wash the plastic bottle without getting inside and removing the cream. My cousin and I, like many children of frugal immigrants who were very poor in the old country, were taught to never waste anything. Embarrassing frugality at times, but like the king’s old Aston Martin, the fact that we do not discard useful old things – turns out to have ecological benefits as well.

Speaking of poor people and skin creams, our Jeremiah reading has God and/or the prophet lamenting over the cry of poor people from far and wide. Verse 22 asks “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?” This ‘balm of Gilead has come to signify a universal cure, according to Wikipedia which details its history and occurrences in the Bible. It sounds like it’s mostly from a balsam type tree, which we have growing right here in BC. I was delighted to also come across a Cree health website that also gave a recipe for how to use balsam for healing https://www.creehealth.org/.../traditional-medicine....

This gives us yet more proof that indigenous peoples around the world, including the ancients of many human groups like the Hebrews and the Celts or Gaelic folks – all relied on knowledge of nature for its curative and other benefits. It was often the poor people who knew these benefits best, since they relied on nature’s gifts for healing, rather than expensive or unavailable physicians and pharmaceuticals. So, when Jeremiah asks: “Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?” we could say that it’s partly because we’ve forgotten or neglected the ancient remedies that the Creator built into Creation for curative and restorative purposes.

Well … I thought if I kept talking long enough about other things, there might not be time to look at this intriguing but troublesome gospel. I looked at numerous commentaries which all started by tripping over themselves to say that the message here is unclear. Duh! No kidding, eh? If this is what we can call Jesus’ teachings about ‘best business practices’ … it’s no wonder that he’s not particularly remembered for that type of wisdom. Nonetheless this story about the shrewd or wise or prudent manager presents a fascinating picture for our deeper reflections. While the rich man is angry at the manager for “squandering his property” … he later commends the manager for giving away more of his money! But this time the manager is helping people in the process. That’s how we can guess that in this Luke-only parable, the rich man Jesus describes must be God, or someone like God, who cares more about reducing the debts and burdens of the poor, than they do about maximum profits for the rich. If the manager has been filching funds for his own personal benefits, that’s a bad thing, but if he's using rather questionable methods to alleviate the burdens of the poor, then that seems to be okay. And of course, there’s a great fringe benefit to this Robin Hood kind of approach – the manager will be in the good books of these poor people who will hopefully help him when he’s in need after losing his manager’s job. The universe loves balance – whether it’s karma, or Yin Yang or rich and poor – there seems to be a heavenly force that wants things balanced out; instead of having some people with too much, while others watch their children cry of hunger every day. As Martin Luther King Jr put it: “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Change takes a long time, but it does happen.

So, we’re asked to reflect upon what we’re doing, in each of our lives, to help that arc of God’s desire for justice & peace – to bend towards greater fulfilment. An ongoing question for all of us. In this puzzling parable, Jesus portrays God as a rich man who is watching how his servants use the resources placed in their care. Given that according to the UN the richest 20% of the world’s population is consuming 86% of the world’s resources … we’ve got a ways to go -- towards equality for all. While it’s a bit outdated, I still think Gandhi’s idea applies here – that earth provides enough for everyone’s need, but not for everyone’s greed. May the Creator enlighten our path towards greater caring and sharing for the healing of the earth and all who dwell thereon, Amen.