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         The French modernist Alfred Loisy declared, “Jesus proclaimed the kingdom, but the church came in its place.”  There is an inevitable tension between the idealism of the kingdom and the down-to-earth policies of the church, which adapts itself to the practical realities of the society in which it has to function. 
            The diocesan slogan may be “Creating communities of hope and compassion,”  but a closer look might suggest that the operative principle is “Follow the money!”  When a struggling parish such as ours, which depends on rental income in order to stay open, has its diocesan assessment doubled, whereas thriving parishes in the suburbs have their assessment reduced, is this not precisely what Jesus predicted: the person who is well off will receive a bonus, whereas the person who is not well off will lose the little that he has? 
            Jesus knew the ways of the world.  Today’s parable of the talents reflects the harsh realism of the market economy, but the threat that failure to invest will be punished by losing everything is ironic today, with the stomach-churning volatility of the stock market. 
            The servant who had received one talent says to his master, “I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed” (v. 24).  The master agrees with this assessment (v.26), and it is demonstrated in the cruel punishment with which the story concludes (v.30).  No more mister nice guy!
            Two years ago I wrote a letter to Bishop Poole, which included the following:

“I have heard it said that when a neighborhood goes downhill, other churches may leave but the Anglican church will stay. I hope this is still true.”

The letter was never answered, but we have an implicit answer in the fact that we are still here: You can stay open as long as you pay your bills.  For this mercy we should thank God. 
            The Old Testament lesson (Judges 4:4-9) also has a contemporary relevance, as we see Israel withholding food supplies from the Gaza strip, in retaliation for the rockets fired into Israel.  Once again, the mantra is: No more mister nice guy!  With the hope for a Palestinian state and a Jewish state living side together in peace as remote as ever, I wonder whether the situation will have changed by the time Bishop Poole takes his clergy to the Holy Land in 2010.
            The President-Elect of the United States has written a book entitled The Audacity of Hope.  Hoping against hope would seem to be all we can do in the harsh environment in which we live. 

November 16, 2008

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