Sermon Notes, Phil 1, Ex. 16, Mt. 20

Sept. 24-Ex. 16, God hears complaints-meant at night and manna in the morning-Moses and Aaron have difficulty with the complaints-the idea of sabbath-as slaves they had to search for straw for bricks, now they search for sustenance- Brueggemann challenges us to relearn the “lyric of abundance” that believes that there is more than enough food to go around in God’s good creation. However, vitally important for this vision of dayenu -- translated as “there is enough in God’s goodness” - This inherently Eucharistic act continues the notion of the absolute sufficient nature of God’s provision of food first evident in the story of the manna in that the twelve baskets of bread left over after feeding the multitude of people symbolizes “abundance that overrides all of the fearful anxiety of the world.” Similarly, we are called to embody God’s provision of food by feeding those near and far who are in need, precisely because we have been fed by God.Just last week, a bit of Communion bread and wine is a spiritual banquet, where everybody’s cup runneth over.

Phil 1-Eros:  it burned , and pierced the heart. It dissolves the self.   At its heart, eros is about communion. Eros seeks connection, the sharing of lives, knowing and being known face to face. We miss the depth of communion, the completeness of the sharing, and the perfection of the knowing and the being known. Love spills out over boundaries. At its best, it dissolves our search for a 50-50 split.It unites those whom it loves and doesn't keep score.

Mt. 20-EQUITY AND THE SPIRITUAL LIFE-we resent what others have-fairness is defined more from my perspective than others-we identify with the one cheated, much more than with the boss or with the lucky one at the end. Is is an example of the paucity of our spiritual imagination that we do not realize that all of us are in the position of the late chosen worker who gets a full share.This comes from the awareness at the youngest age-it’s not fair-she got more than me.Our youngest daughter could not quite count, but she tried to figure if her sister got more than she did.We assume that we work hard at our spiritual life and some latecomer gets the same benefit and we grow resentful.Put oneself at the end of the line and the delight in waiting for work and getting a full day’s apy for a short work day. We have moved past what one deserves.

Driggers- How easy it is to forget over the course of the day that every good thing comes to us as a gracious gift from God, and God is not required or compelled to create us, much less pull us out of our estranged idleness. Within the narrative, Jesus seems to be defending his inclusion of those traditionally deemed unworthy of the kingdom (e.g., tax collectors and sinners). Outside the narrative, Matthew may also be defending the recent influx of Gentile converts into a predominantly Jewish Christianity. In both cases, the point is that fewer hours clocked serving the Lord does not lessen one's status as a laborer, either now or in eternity.(see deathbed conversions)  The logic of the workers' complaint will be sure to surface anywhere God's grace disrupts our sense of just recompense Faced with God's boundless love for the world, especially when it is lavished upon others, we reveal whether we view our own labor as a gift from God or as benefit to God, as the joyful fulfillment of our created purpose or as the mere endurance of scorching heat. If Luther  stressed anything, as we approach 500, it is his insistent of grace as undeserved gift.

Thoughts for Week of Sept. 24

Sunday Sept. 24-Ps 105 returns from a couple of sundays ago, but this time with its ending for today:37-45. What precedes it is an  antithesis of Gen. 1, reversals of nature toward Egypt. For the freed ones, creation opens its arms in abundance in the most unlikely place of the desert. V. 43 has the people brought out with joy, with singing. When have you felt so delivered?

Monday-“Ritual practice keeps us doing what we should be doing (praying, working, being at table with our families, being polite) even when our feelings aren’t always onside. We need to do certain things not because we always feel like doing them, but because it’s right to do them.” - Ron Rolheiser

Tuesday-I will board the ship that shows all humankind the way to the other shore: to the kingdom of peace, justice, and perfect love. We need people who dare to set the course for this other shore, who dare to live in accordance with the ways of the land on the other side.

Wednesday-The winds that sweep through history and your life are but eddies and currents of the breath of new creation." --Robert Jenson

Thursday-Teilhard de Chardin says, grace is “the seed of resurrection” sown in our nature.

Friday-Karl Barth-God surrounds us... who is before, above, and after, and thence also with us in history: the locus of our existence. Humanity’s evil past is not merely crossed out because of its irrelevancy. Rather, it is in the good care of God.

Saturday-For Benedict, the act of earning one’s daily food and shelter was seen as an honorable task,m even a holy gift.  Not all work feels meaningful – some of it may feel more like drudgery.  And not everything that is considered work is paid labor.  Even if we have a job we love, we still need to do dishes and laundry and clean the bathroom.  Sometimes we have work we dread and still have to come home to the task of daily living.  Some of us take care of children or aging parents as full-time work or in addition to our day jobs. Our daily work be a place on inner transformation.  The call of the monk is to bring absolute attention to the work at hand.”--- Christine Valters Paintner, PhD

Column on Cassini Spacecraft

When I was young, I wished to become an astronomer. Every once an in a while, I look at NASA pictures and read some material on cosmology.

It is odd that I feel some sadness as a spacecraft, a machine, burned up in the atmosphere of Saturn on Friday the 15^th. It traveled around 4 billion miles. I somehow feel that it has some courage to go so far. It sent us pictures of  an enormous hurricane on the planet.

As a boy, I learned of nine moons of Saturn. As it orbited Saturn, the spacecraft found new moons of the approximately 60 that orbit the planet. Even at the end, 20 years after launch, Cassini and its instruments remained in good working shape.  Any spacecraft could carry unwanted microbes aboard. Probably the biggest unexpected discovery of the Cassini mission was the subsurface ocean on a small icy moon.  The water on this moon and the carbon compounds it contains are some of the key ingredients needed for life that did not seem likely on a moon just 313 miles wide. Planetary scientists wanted to ensure that there was zero chance of the spacecraft crashing into and contaminating the moon Enceladus. which could also be hospitable for life due to hydrothermal vents as in our oceans.  (Some wonder if life here could have been seeded from a meteor).

When I was young the best telescopes unveiled the beauty of the rings of Saturn. Cassini viewed the rings of Saturn in much more detail. It is possible that some of the rings formed relatively recently, in astronomical time, maybe a mere 100 million years.

In its last days, Cassini dove through the gap between Saturn and the planet’s innermost ring. That provided new, sharp views of the rings and allowed the craft to probe the planet’s interior. The mission was named after Cassini, a French-Italian astronomer. He discovered four major moons of Saturn — in the 1670s and 1680s. Titan, the largest moon, was spotted by a Dutch astronomer, Huygens, a couple of decades earlier. The Huygens probe — the European Space Agency portion of this collaborative mission, which landed on Titan in 2005 — was named after him.

The entire cost of a 20 year mission was 4 billion dollars.

John Calvin could see creation as the “theater of God’s glory.”   “Wherever you cast your eyes, there is no spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of his glory. You cannot in one glance survey this most vast and beautiful system of the universe, in its wide expanse, without being completely overwhelmed by the boundless force of its brightness. ...This skillful ordering of the universe is for us a sort of mirror in which we can contemplate God, who is otherwise invisible “(Inst., I. v. 1).  For some, understanding more of the cosmos seems to diminish its mystery. If one approaches it form the angle of creation, it may well serve to increase a sense of grandeur. I love a picture that spots the Earth as a tiny star- like object from Saturn, just as I was captured by Apollo 8’s picture of the Earth as a blue marble in the abyss of space. People were encouraged to smile when the photograph was being taken from so far away.

In a universe that is seemingly lifeless in so many places, life is present here, with lives capable of building a spacecraft to explore  our segment of the universe. Out of all the expanse of creation, out of a history that stretches over 10 billion years, God knows us, calls us by name, and was even incarnate as a human being, Jesus Christ.

thoughts on the play, Eurydice

This fall, a group of gentlemen meet at church on Monday morning. This term, they are looking at Christianity through the lens of other faiths. This session touches on the power of myth. They will be well-served to see the play at Jacoby Arts, Eurydice.

How do we imagine the world of the dead? The movie Flatliners has been re-made to consider that question as well. How do we regard the dead? How doe the dead regard the living.  In the myth, the dead have no memory. The myth of Orpheus (possibly relating to the dark of night) has him marry a daughter of Apollo.  When she dies, Orpheus descends into the underworld to try to capture his bride from that world back into the world of the living.  As poet and musician, he composes a song to allow him to enter the underworld. Here, we wonder if art can transmute suffering and create a community of memory and feeling for all of us who live in the shadowland of loss. After all, the language of the dead is silence, but his art moves even the stones to tears.

The playwright, Sarah Ruhl, reconstructs the myth of Orpheus by placing the bride, Eurydice (wide justice in Greek) at the center. She encounters her deceased father in the underworld. She will be torn from a new, partially reconstructed love of father and knowing that Orpheus is her husband but not recognizing him and fearing that she will not recognize him back in the world of the living either.

One of the main themes of the play is memory. In the underworld, the dead dip in the waters of forgetting. Early in the play, Eurydice says that a memory of music is imprinted on her memory like it is wax.  (Old recording were made on wax cylinders).  If they remember, they grow sad, and no sadness is permitted in the underworld. It is a version of ignorance as bliss. Instead, we are to resemble the stones who do not weep.  A main part of forgetting there is losing names, one’s own and the names of our friends and loved ones. To mourn in the realm of the dead is considered immoderate. After all, no tears are permitted in the land of the dead. It reminds me of a Star Trek episode. For once Kirk has fallen in love, but she dies, and he is grief-stricken. Spock steals into his quarters and lays his hand on the sleeping captain, and the episode concludes with the word: forget.

In our time, we tell people to move on, to face forward only, just as in the myth. In our new name for funerals, a celebration of life, we try to dry the tears of loss prematurely.

Live like there’s no tomorrow, we are told. The play reminds us that our decisions in life always have consequences, obvious or unforeseen. Death may be timeless in the underworld, but for the living, we constantly are weaving together the strands of past, present, and future.

The Christina faith has memory as a core component.  At the Lord’s Supper, Jesus says: “do this to remember me.” Many of us have committed some rituals and prayers to memory.

We speak far too easily coming to closure with death. No, the communion of saints applies. We continue in communion with those who have gone on before us. Memory connects us to them. In my view the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead may suggest that the dead endure with their loves, their memories intact within the new life of God. Indeed, we live on within the expansive life and memory of the Eternal One. 

Reflection Points for Week of Sept. 17

Sunday Sept 17 -Ps. 114 captures our Exodus theme for this period of readings.It sounds ancient to me, with its sense of nature itself running form the power of God. At the same time, v. 2 captures my attention that Judah became God’s sanctuary. It is a step to then see each individual as a locus for the presence of God. How would you look at a people as a holy place?

Monday-"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it."- Helen Keller

Tuesday-From Heidi J. Kim,  ones who remind us of our own imperfection, because that’s what they notice and bring out in us. For those people who know my weaknesses, it is much harder to bless and not curse.If I enter with suspicion, that’s what I’ll find; so why not enter with love and happiness? Think of God’s love for you as the invisible force field that will deflect any slings and arrows, and ask not what the other person will do to you, but what you will do for them.Good and Gracious God, give me strength to remember that I will see what I expect to see. Open my eyes and heart to the good in others who challenge me. Help me to love them as you have loved me. Amen.

Wednesday-Groff- I pray for opportunities to arise and seize my imagination till by day's end I can say I lived and loved resiliently, compassionately in the confines of this morning afternoon and night.

Thursday-Painter-relish the gifts of slowness, attention, and wonder. The season immerses me in the sacramental imagination—the recognition that everything is holy, everything shimmers with the sacred presence if we only slow down enough to see."

Friday-Is anything less beautiful because it is a long time in the making? The marble? The mountains and the seas and the heavens above? Are we ourselves any less beautiful for being a long time in the making? We do well to trust in the slow work of God.-Br. Mark Brown

Saturday-Go where your best prayers take you. Unclench the fists of your spirit and take it easy. Breathe deep of the glad air and live one day at a time. Know that you are precious. Know that you can trust God.- Telling Secrets

Relective Pieces for week of Sept. 10

Sunday-Sept. 10-Ps.149-the Psalms are a clearly edited work. Different sections close with praise, and the entire psalter does so with the last prayers.  I love the festive nature of v. 3-4 but quake at the thirst for vengeance that follows. This could be a fine example of placing our lesser selves safely in prayer instead of direct action.

Monday-"As artists of life, the gatekeeper is our ally, an essential companion. We may find ourselves saying yes to so many other commitments that we never have time for our true passion. We may do this in an unconscious attempt to avoid the thing which really calls us (and really scares us) or we may simply be trying to please everyone else and forgetting about our own needs."--- Christine Valters Paintner,

Tuesday-Mother Teresa-Try to feel the need for prayer often during the day, and take the trouble to pray. Prayer makes the heart large enough until it can contain God’s gift of himself. Ask and seek, and your heart will grow big enough to receive him, and keep him as your own.

Wednesday-Wendell Berry-We must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe. We must recover the sense of the majesty of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it.

Thursday-Thoughts on Ps. 10What are the ways I deceive myself? What are the places of opposition within my own heart? How do I "murder" my own innocence? Or take advantage of that which feels helpless within? How do I fuel my own self-destruction?

I am discovering the psalms as a beautiful gateway of awareness into my own inner

multitude.Abby of the Arts

Friday-Henri J. M. Nouwen-We have been called to be fruitful – not successful, not productive, not accomplished. Success comes from strength, stress, and human effort. Fruitfulness comes from vulnerability and the admission of our own weakness.

Saturday-God does not love us if we change; God loves us so that we can change. Only love—not duress, guilt, any form of shunning, or social pressure—effects true inner transformation." Richard Rohr

Sermon Notes Sept. 10 Ex. 12, Mt. 18, Rom 13:8

Ex. 12 God knows the system of death for what it is. Brick-quotas (Exodus 5:7-18), beaten backs (2:11), bitter lives (1:13), murdered babies (1:22): God sees the suffering and hears the cries of God’s people (3:7).(See Brueggemann)The people must let go of this past together. Letting go is the very root of the word to forgive in Greek.The third verse emphasizes the unity of the congregation of Israel at the same time that it commands action that every member will undertake (12:3; cf. 12:6). , now emphasizing the inclusion of every household (12:3). In the following verse, we learn how the smallest households will join together and support one another in the hard work of letting go (12:4). In our charged environment, we are not about the work of letting go of old pain and resentment and the forging of the bonds of community.The people are called to remember their origin and their sufferings and struggle.When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future. Bernard Meltzer

Rom. 13:8 follows a section on government.  put on Christ We are given "night vision" both to name the ways we and our world are still in darkness. In the night of hurting or being hurt, forgiveness gives us new vision.We are summoned to battle, not with other people, but with the forces of destruction that enslave and divide humanity through hurt, dislike, and fear.

We "put on" Christ, playing the role given us in baptism and sharing his destiny, just as in the incarnation Christ took on the role of all of us.. What does it mean to wear forgiveness? It is not a coverup or armor.

Forgiveness is living out Rom. 13:10   Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Eastman

Mt. 18-15 forgiveness method in church (rare use of the word, interesting that it is used for a locus of conflict)It seems to be a basic set of guidelines. In short, the steps Jesus lays out here are not a mere blueprint so much as a statement of communal values and an acknowledgment of both the frailty. Bringing in others is a check on our fallible memories and understanding. Love requires that we address the inevitable conflicts that will arise among us. It is not enough to sweep them under the rug and thus allow them to fester. Unaddressed conflicts can render a community unable to function as God hopes. But neither is rejection our first instinct. Separation is not to be taken lightly even when it proves necessary.Barreto   Jesus promises us that he is present, that his presence is real for us, when we are gathered in his name -- both in agreement, and in sin. We use the passage to speak of a small gathering at worship ro bible study, but look at it. Here it is about people learning forgiveness, of trying to resolve disputes. Mt. framed by  the promised real presence of God, in the promise of child named Emmanuel, God With Us (1:23) and in this God's parting assurance to us that he is with us always (28:20)Jacobsen

Love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Let go of our own disappointments, even in ourselves.

Our presbyterian system of courts is based on this passage to an extent. It used the civil courts and procedure as a model o over time. In our time it is little used, and most would not accept jurisdiction.

column on Evil and Natural disaster

With the horrors of recent hurricanes, two theological points come into play: creation itself and the issue of theodicy: of God and human suffering.  Theologians refer to natural evil, an arena where “free will” and evil do not fit together well. Only a few zealots see natural disasters as an act of God designed to teach us a lesson through punishment. How could a hurricane possibly be seen as a condign punishment for sins in such a sweeping natural calamity?

Natural disasters push us to consider how we view God’s power. Many of us think about God’s power as being exercised over events and individuals as distinct decisions, one at a time. We want a divine mastery and control over creation that does not seem to be operative. In other words, we make our view of power as control over events and expand it scope in the divine realm. Creation has a wide space for blessings and banes. God seems to opt for sharing power and empowering, instead of making the world some sort of cosmic theater of divine arrangements.

When it comes to creation, perhaps other views make more sense. As Terence Fretheim says of Genesis 1: “God created a world as good, not perfect.” First, creation itself seems to be better viewed as interlocking systems at play, a complex field of forces operating. Second, creation is ongoing; the divine project is not yet complete. That is why we look toward a new and different future. Third, god works through the processes of creation. Miracles are called miracles as they are exceedingly rare c occurrences in our field of vision. God’s future is an open one, full of risks and possibility within a vast array of vectors.

Jon Levenson seizes on the idea of chaos and creation at continuing odds. Creation is still untamed often. St Paul called death the last enemy (Rom. 8:18-25, I Cor. 15:26.) Death and life continue to collide within the great scope of creation (Job 38-41). God’s creation is full of risk and uncertainty, given the myriad of forces that impinge on its sustaining through time.  We are not the measure of all things, as God continues to be hard at work for all creation. Human beings are not the sole measure of creation.

At the same time, is God impassive, somehow above what happens in this creation called good? While the orthodox answer has been yes, others have challenged it. Bonheoffer wrote: “only the suffering “God can help.” If God is love (I John 4) then is that a love beyond what we would know as sympathy? Abraham Heschel reiterated that God’s relationship to us and to all creation includes a passionate commitment. That passionate commitment is seen in sympathy and compassion. For Christians it reaches both its nadir and exemplar in the crucifixion. Yet, in the resurrection, life, not death has the last word.

In the end, the Christian hope is not inevitable progress. It is the horizon of a new creation where the forces of chaos and death are finally placed under God’s as yet unrealized goal of life. Of course, that horizon serves to make our present condition even worse by comparison.

In the face of natural evil, we are called to the work of compassion, healing, and recovery. We neither blame victims for their plight, nor celebrate those who survive as meriting special divine favor.  The NFL player JJ Watt demonstrates the gospel more than Jim Bakker finding divine judgment and shilling for his own emergency products on his program. We are made not only as co-creators with God; we too are called to help heal this world. The brave offering help to the stricken are doing the work of God.

Notes for Sermon on Sept. 3

Sept. 3 Ex.3-holy place but perhaps an offer of desert hospitality- Janzen-alien shepherd on the run for manslaughter now at home with “god- as a guest- connects with the past-God is concerned and then it dawns Moses of his role in the concern.deliverance by the inadequate Moses will lead to worship at the same spot mysterious name of time, of no limit,creator i cause to be- a i am who/what i am, a name of commitment and solidarity-Willis-But unlike human commitments that can waver and fade, God's identity will be constant. God will be known in God's future faithfulness to Moses and the people -- "I will be with you," God promises (3:12).God will be with them in the path of totality, in good times and bad, without consuming the Moses nor the people. Again, God’s presence is one that can be grasped, in a bush, before the theophany at the mountain of Sinai. You stand on holy ground. With the advent of Jesus Christ, is not all ground, holy ground, special ground? The present One, the Living One-the eternal now-the bush is a vehicle of presence, but it is not consumed, not burnt up.

Rom. 12:9 concentric circles of care and intimacy-Paul pushes the christian to see our engagements, our encounters as holy moments. I like to read this as part of a wedding ceremony. Some churches use it as the charge every week. Paul gives quite a list of practices for christian life. Here is christian life in action propelled by worship.Each practice, each virtue deserves careful reflection. Here is a classic demonstration of love in relationship to care as much for the other as one does for oneself-that permits that mourning with those who mourn in, but it is much more difficult to rejoice with those who rejoice.Even with all of its internal praise, look at how much of it is directed at beings agents of peace, even to the point of blessing those who persecute and taking taking revenge into one’s own hands.Return no one evil for evil. Only with the spirit’s power can one absorb evil without lashing out and having it infect oneself.

Mt. 16:21-8-schmid (WP) They had seen crosses and knew how life-crushing . For the Christian, the cross is a holy site, a place where divine holiness is revealed in a stark, new way.For them, the thought of carrying a cross was a life and death matter. In the end, many of them did die because they followed the Messiah.  No one really expects to die in the process. But, even to deny ourselves seems too much to ask. We aren't much good at that either…. Yet, in all our weakness and human mindedness, it is Jesus' own death on the cross that enables us to do what we cannot.

God's power is revealed not in walks through the porticos of power, but through the dusty alleys of weakness and misery. That is where he strengthens us to bear the burdens of discipleship. It is his burden we take upon our shoulders. It is his strength that bears the weight. We do nothing on our own, but he can do much through us. Without him, Peter was no rock, but a stumbling block. With him, Peter was the church. With him, we are not powerless to deny ourselves but able to bear all he may give us.For Claudia’s family, I went to Jefferson Barracks. I am moved by its pageant of history there. I am also torn by how many markers are there as they answered the call of their country in war. Row after row after row of white markers.

Reflections for Week of Sept. 3

Sunday-Ps. 105:1-6,23-26- V.26 speaks of dealing craftily or shrewdly with enemies. When has an enemy dealt with you so? How did you manage such an assault? Do you get help?  Does evil seem to have more cunning than the good have wisdom?

Oscar Romero-The church, with its message, and with its word, will meet a thousand obstacles, just as the river encounters boulders, rocks, and chasms. No matter; the river carries a promise: “I will be with you to the end of the ages” and “The gates of hell shall not prevail” against the will of the Lord (Matt. 28:20, Matt. 16:18)

"Sometimes you don't fully see where you were until you leave it. Sometimes you don't see the value of what you've done until you let it go. A Ghanaian proverb says, 'The living close the eyes of the dead, and the dead open the eyes of the living.'"~Dr. Claudette Copeland

"One of the great gifts to me in the act of discernment, which is making decisions rooted in a sense of calling through Spirit, is to recognize how I can’t think my way through life decisions. Body sensations, nudges, intuition, and felt senses all offer me valuable information as well."--- Christine Valters Paintner,

-Br. Luke Ditewig-Much of how we hurt each other stems from taking offense at change. We easily cling to sticky memories, trapping people in the past. We also resist change in ourselves. Complacency, dejection, and fear can hold us back. Yet such changes may be exactly what we need and what God enables.

Friday-Comparisons always leave us in a bad place. We either judge ourselves better than someone, which is the toxin of pride; or we judge ourselves worse than someone else, which tarnishes our own dignity and may affect theirs. God gives each one of us a story line, and our story is our story, like none other.-Br. Curtis Almquist

Saturday- "O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams."— St. Augustine

Column on Labor Day

Last Sunday the church readings moved from Genesis to Exodus. There the Hebrew people are oppressed in their labor. Pharaoh orders-more bricks-more produce.

My maternal grandfather immigrated and became a coal miner. He and his family were kicked out of the company town during the coal strike of 1922. My uncles were attacked in trying to work with the United Mine Workers in the 1930s as young men. My uncles and almost every middle-aged man I knew who worked in the mines suffered from black lung.

I remember when labor union officials were national figures and were guests on Meet the Press. When I was young, old men would be delighted to find out that I liked history and show where John L. Lewis gave a speech.

All of my life, unions have been criticized. Years ago, people my age saw them as sclerotic examples of the establishment. Labor unions seemed helpless as industry declined or was shipped overseas. They are no longer a counterweight to global mobile capitalism.  Private sector workers are represented by unions at a 6.4% level.

When unions were at their height in industrial America, wages and working conditions improved. As we shifted or were forced to shift to a service-sector economy, we have seen the opposite happened. Since the oil shock of the early seventies, the American economy has not served the American Dream of doing better than one’s parents. The Economic Policy Institute shows that productivity gains have been good, but it does not reflect a stagnant wage base. Indeed for my entire adult life, wages have basically been stagnant for the middle class and have decreased for the lower income groups. Young college education workers are faring worse than they did in the 1990s. Most salaried workers do not receive overtime pay.

Walter Brueggemann is a distinguished Biblical scholar who graduated from  Eden Seminary across the river and taught there for a quarter century. His angle of vision continues to be Scripture. He looks at the story of Israel in Egypt as paradigmatic.  Labor Day closes the summer and its promise of abundance and freedom. It is no accident that the school year traditionally started after Labor Day. One of education’s latent goals is to make not only citizens but producers and consumers.

Here is a synopsis of his thought. Pharaoh’s kingdom of anxiety is alive and well today. People who live in anxiety and fear have no time or energy for the common good. It takes an immense act of generosity to break the grip of anxiety. Those who receive generosity can care about their neighbors. To those wrapped up in the ideology of anxiety, they must be able to receive generosity. Second, there is an alternative to the kingdom of scarcity, an awareness of abundance. The journey to being good neighbors to one another is entrusted to the church and its allies. Brueggemann refers to both manna and the feedings of the 5000 and 4000. With these signs, Jesus says that wherever he is, the world of scarcity is transformed into the world of overwhelming abundance. In Mark 8:14-21, the disciples didn’t understand because their hearts were hardened – just like Pharaoh. But those who receive the bread of abundance, Brueggemann says, have energy beyond themselves for the sake of the world.

It is good that we take some time off on Labor Day. It is secular Sabbath. Brueggemann again: “In our own contemporary context of the rat race of anxiety, the celebration of Sabbath is an act of both resistance and alternative. It is resistance because it is a visible insistence that our lives are not defined by the production and consumption of commodity goods.” We our creatures of labor, but we are not only our labor.