Editors Note:
This is an edited sermon delivered by Rev. David Hansen August 28, 2016.
Luke 14:1-14
Creating
an Economy of Care
It was a long
reading today from the Gospel of Luke but I wanted to read the whole
passage because what happens in the first part—healing the man with
dropsy—holds the key to understanding the second part—and the
question of seating at the banquet illustrates the first part. In
order to get the full picture, we need the full story.
Dropsy is not a
word we use anymore. Today we talk about edema, which is the medical
term for what used to be called dropsy. Edema refers to retention of
fluid in the body. It is a condition that might have any number of
causes and the medical community has a specific name for each type of
edema. It can be a very painful condition and may be even life
threatening. It is a serious condition.
Tradition teaches
us that Luke was a physician. And it may be that he is diagnosing and
describing a physical condition that Jesus healed. It could also be
that he is diagnosing a spiritual disease.
In ancient times
dropsy was a metaphor for greed. Dropsy referred to this insatiable
desire to own everything. Perhaps the man’s ailment was spiritual
dropsy. The poet e. e. Cummings has a powerful little poem entitled
“more,” which describes the condition of dropsy. He says in this
poem, “nobody wants much, not to say most, all anybody ever wants
is more, and more, and more. What are we all, morticians.” That’s
a description of dropsy. It is a deadly disease.
St. Augustine
said that God has created the world so that there is enough to
satisfy everyone’s need, but not enough to satisfy one person’s
greed.
I am suggesting
that the man was consumed by an insatiable desire to own more, and
more, and more. He was greedy. He had forgotten the 10th
commandment, “Thou shalt not covet anything that belongs to thy
neighbor.” The man in the gospel thought everybody was his
neighbor, and he was entitled to everything they owned.
In a world that
is increasingly divided between the have-gots and the have-nots, we
are familiar with this condition. Two scholars, Jacob Hacker and Paul
Pierson wrote a book a few years ago entitled Winner-Take-All
Politics (Simon & Schuster, 2010) in which they document why
there is this growing chasm between the one-percent and the
ninety-nine percent. We are aware of the problem. It has real
consequences. One in five children in Kansas, the breadbasket of the
United States, the wealthiest country in the history of the world,
one child in five, a total of 135,000 children in Kansas, live below
the poverty line.
I know that
poverty is a complex issue and there is no single answer or simple
solution. If there were we would have eradicated poverty long ago.
But I am thankful that the World Council of Churches has been
wrestling in a very serious and intense way with the global economy
and questions about poverty and wealth for the last 30 years. The
Council has convened meetings with economists, church leaders,
scholars, and people from all walks of life in conferences and study
groups and they have released a number of studies. In the last few
years one of these groups has published what they call “the greed
line.” The authors say that if we are comfortable talking about the
poverty line, we should also start talking about the greed line. If
we are going to put the greed line study in the context of today’s
gospel reading, we would talk about global dropsy. Those who have the
most have an insatiable appetite to have more.
Like any disease,
if you are going to cure it, you need to know how to identify it and
diagnose it. The study group came up with four criteria to identify
what Luke calls “dropsy:”
The first
criteria is when the objective to maximize returns becomes an end in
itself. The second is when the social and ecological consequences of
maximizing returns are deliberately disregarded. The third criteria
is when the pursuit of wealth results in withholding land, goods and
capital from the community, and the fourth, when excessive inequality
undermines social cohesion and respect for human dignity.
These criteria
get played out at the banquet in the second half of the reading for
today. The guest arrives with a sense of entitlement that disregards
the intent of the host, undermines respect for others in attendance,
and usurps the place of honor. The guest has an insatiable desire to
be recognized, to the exclusion of everyone else.
Unstated, but I
think implied in this parable, is the lesson of Jesus when he told
the disciples, “I am sending you like sheep among the wolves. You
must be wise as serpents, and as innocent as doves” (Mt.10: 16).
Understand the ways of the world, but do not be seduced by the
glitter and glamor of the world. Don’t sit at the head table. Don’t
take the place of honor. Find another table and sit there.

The good news is
that Jesus healed the man with dropsy in an instant, and the guest
who came to the banquet found another table. It’s going to take us
a little longer. We cannot disengage from the world so quickly or
easily. It is hard work and it takes time and dedication and
commitment. But the love of God is here, and so are the opportunities
for us to explore how we can create and expand what I called this
morning “an economy of care,” a growing community that values the
well-being of everyone who is created in the image of God. The table
is set. The invitation has been made. Come, and eat this bread and
drink this cup and give thanks to God.
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