Sermon June 21, 2009
“What Do You Value?
Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 and Luke 12: 32-38 

Let us pray.

           The old cliché is that “we are what we eat” and in the biological sense that is quite correct. But it really misses the more important point that Jesus was making in today’s passage from Luke – that “where [our] treasure is, there [our] heart will be also.” To know what we value speaks volumes about who we are. Each year Lynn and I have an auction of values with the confirmands. It is a great way to challenge the young people to think about what matters most to them.  It also enforces the reality that it is not possible to have everything that we might want. Each time we have done this I thought that it was something that would be fun to do with the congregation as a whole and today’s the day. So pull out you money from the bulletin -- all ten thousand FCC dollars -- and the auction list. The items on it will go to the highest bidder. In the event more than one of you is willing to pay the winning bid – you too can receive the value but you will have to pay our cashiers, leaving less money to bid on subsequent items. I now want to turn this over to our auctioneer extraordinaire Bill Harden.

X                    X                    X

(The congregation members each with $10, 000 FCC dollars were now invited to bid on the following items: Auction Items

1.  Have a circle of close, supportive friends
2.  Enjoy lifelong good health

3.   Have a high paying job with long hours and lots

 of responsibility

     4.   Have an interesting job that doesn’t pay well but

           helps those in need.

5.        Have a loving, supportive life partner

6.         Have children and grandchildren who are happy and content 

7.         Be honest and trustworthy

8.         Work to right the wrongs in our society

9.         Help people who are in trouble

10.     Develop and practice a strong sustaining faith.

11.   Be a talented and recognized artist (actor,

      musician, painter, photographer

12.   Develop a product, procedure or program

  that saves many, many lives.}

     13.  Be recognized in one’s work/profession as

            accomplished and successful

X                    X                      X

Well, the auction is over. I hope you got what you wanted.  What do you think of the results? Of course this is a game. But seriously isn’t the challenge in life and in this auction to choose between desirable values. I remember some years ago the EPA sent a notice to a paper mill that they were polluting the local river with carcinogenic chemicals and had to put in scrubbers within the year or close. A pretty straight forward order -- for who could argue with eliminating pollution that was likely increasing the cancer rate in the community. But there was a flip side. The local company didn’t have the money for the needed corrective devices. That meant that the largest and oldest employer in this small town would have to close. 

Or think of another situation.  Suppose you learn you are a perfect match for that first cousin who needs a kidney. But you have a chronic condition that puts you -- the potential donor -- at greater risk for renal failure at some point in your life. Isn’t life full of such situations?

Important values and interests come in conflict. The great commandment says that “we are to love God and our neighbors as ourselves”.  These words are so wonderfully succinct and seemingly so straight forward. The prophet Isaiah says, we should “seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Aren’t those all simply manifestations of loving ones neighbor. The part of the great commandment that we sometimes overlook is loving ourselves. Our faith does not ask us to ignore our own needs, our own joy or our own satisfaction. They are all things to be valued too.

But again values sometimes come in conflict.  I know men and women -- and I suspect you do too –   torn between their own needs and the needs of others. How about the person who feels an obligation to earn a lot of money to provide their family with the best of everything and yet yearns to do work that he or she loves but which pays very little.  Think of that person who longs to create new forms of pottery but who trades bonds.  Or the man who loves to fix engines who but sells real estate.

In 1984 my son JJ was playing in a youth soccer game. He is a wonderful athlete and was very good at soccer at age 8. But he couldn’t do one thing – he could not punt a soccer ball. His team’s goalie got hurt toward the end of the game when JJ’s team was ahead one to nothing. The coach came to JJ and said “I want you to be the goalie. But if you save a shot do not try to punt it – just throw it out.” So the game continued with the other team putting pressure on and a shot was made and JJ stopped it. In the heat of the moment he forgot and attempted to punt the ball; he shanked it to an opposing player who kicked in the tying goal. The game ended 1 to 1.

JJ was discouraged by his mistake so like a good father I offered to take him to McDonalds for lunch. On our way I tried to cheer him up. And so I said, “you know everyone has a bad day even I do and sometimes I think about quitting being a lawyer and becoming a lobsterman.” He thought for a moment, turned toward me in the front seat, and then said “Ok, Dad but why don’t you wait until Amanda, Abby and I are through college.’ Sometimes values – things we care about conflict. And there are not always easy choices to be made.

But to follow-up on my exchange with JJ – truth is that those who love you want what is best for you. What if you asked your child “would you rather have a Dad who was able to spend more time with you or a Dad who made lots of money?”   -- do you really think they would say keep that demanding, high paying job so I can go to the south of France for vacation. Values do come in conflict but seldom are they irreconcilable. That paper company cut a deal with the EPA to put in the equipment over 5 years and jobs were saved and eventually the river cleaned up.  Not a perfect solution but a good one. Choosing between values requires balancing and at times deferral always guided by that reality that both our own well-being and that of our loved ones and neighbors are important. 

So what role does faith have in these -- our complicated and often conflicted -- lives. How much was it worth in the auction? Now it may sound clichéd but I would submit that it is priceless. To explain why I say that let me offer an analogy.  Life is indeed a journey the beginning of which we do not control and the time and place of the end we cannot predict. Without values our journey is aimless. What we hold important – that is what guides our journey and makes it more than mere random stumbling. The journey is often a challenge. The values that are important are not always consistent and sometimes come in conflict. In that journey of life, faith is that lighthouse on the high cliff. It is the thing which gives us the illumination to pursue those things that are important if not popular or always easy. It shines its revealing and warming light on us when we struggle to sort out the important from the unimportant -- the critical from the simply valuable.     

One final reminder is in order. While I might wish to have played in the NBA and still secretly think I would have if I had been 6 inches taller – the truth is some things I might want and value I can’t have or be. In the middle ages two friends Rabbi Akiba and Rabbi Zusyu meet as Rabbi Zusyu approached the end of life. He lamented over what God would say to him when he died. Zusyu worried that God would ask, “Why he had not been more like Moses”.  Zusyu was despondent – believing that his life had not measured up. Rabbi Akiba after a long pause said “my friend you have it wrong, he will not ask you why you haven’t been like Moses but why you haven’t been like Zusya.”  No one can bid for you in the auction of life. Good luck and Godspeed.  Amen