15th Sunday after Pentecost (Fr. Guiliano)

I am glad to be back at Emmanuel after some time away for vacation, and it is especially good to be back to celebrate a baptism. The Church always rejoices to welcome new members of God’s family. Today, in witnessing Cameron’s baptism and in joining with her, and her parents and godparents, in confessing the creeds and renewing our covenant with God, our own faith is strengthened. We need moments like this. It is easy to despair. It is easy to think we are alone in dealing with the problems of this world. But we are not. We are one body in Christ; we are of one Spirit; we share one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father.

That said, I have to admit, when I first looked at the scripture lessons for this Sunday, I didn’t think they were great readings for a baptism. What have we got today? “Hear this, you that trample on the needy…” I’m not sure Cameron can even trample on a bug, let alone engage in acts of devilish oppression. Then we’ve got: “Make friends for ourselves by means of dishonest wealth.” Ellen and Colin would probably be happy for Cameron to make friends, but this baby can’t even carry a wallet, so how is she going to shrewdly use any dishonest wealth? Even St Paul’s Letter to Timothy and its admonition to prayer…I just don’t think Cameron has yet had a chance to form any habits of prayer. Does she have a quiet time in the morning? How do our readings relate to her?

On the other hand, maybe these are great readings for a baptism, precisely because they treat adult themes. We already make serious vows and promises on behalf of helpless infants when we baptize them. This is in character with human life. Right now, Cameron is totally dependent on her parents, her wider family, her godparents, and today on the faith of the whole Church. Cameron did not get herself out of bed today; she did not feed herself, clean herself, clothe herself. She didn’t drive to Church; I’m not sure she could even walk down the middle aisle by herself, without falling or getting distracted. She’s a baby! We do everything for our young children. And today, we are making great commitments on her behalf. 

Colin, Ellen, Jenna, and Drew will renounce Satan on her behalf, along with all evil powers and sinful desires, and they will for her sake turn again to Christ in faith, love, and obedience. And we will vow to do all we can to support Cameron. We are making a big commitment today. 

If we can do all that on behalf of Cameron, maybe we can also listen to these hard Scriptures on her behalf, too, and think about them with her in mind. Because we are preparing Cameron for the fullness of Christian life. She has the honor and gift of living in this world as a child of God. And that means certain things about her life: how she offers her prayers, how she treats the weak and poor, and how she directs all the gifts and powers God has given her.
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To begin with, we are committing as a church to teach Cameron that she should offer prayer for everyone. “This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” God’s love embraces all; God desires good for everybody, and so should we, offering “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings.” 

And just as Cameron ought to learn to pray for everyone, she should also learn to look out for those who are in special need. Our reading from Amos reminds us of this fact. It described a situation of cartoonish villainy: I imagine a man with long fingers and a curly mustache standing in some shadowy lair, as Amos ventriloquizes, 

When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.

Cartoonish or not, we all know that there is injustice and villainy in the world -- even at the grocery store. Not every increase in the price of vegetables, grain, or meat is justified. There were any number of studies a few years ago about companies taking advantage of an environment of high inflation to just bump up their prices a little more than was necessary, or (my favorite) reduce the number of chips or cookies in the bag in a practice of shrinkflation. Shrinkflation! (Isn’t the English language great?) These were small margins, of course, but we all felt them and the poor felt them most of all. 

I doubt these things will be on the mind of a little child, but one of the ways that children learn what is right and wrong is by observing what others accept or complain about -- what they value, what they fight against. And I should hope that we provide a model of a community that acts together in raising up the lowly, not trampling them. Our model of behavior is the Lord God in our Psalm: “who sits enthroned on high, but stoops to behold the heavens and the earth. He takes the weak out of the dust, and lifts up the poor from the ashes. He sets them with the princes, with the princes of his people.” This is not a vision of providing the poor with the bare necessities, but recognizing their innate dignity and making sure it is realized in time.

Cameron is more likely to believe those verses are true -- that God is good and a lifter of the poor -- if her community models the same character. So let us be good for Cameron’s sake.

And now, a few words about the Gospel. I have known a few clergy who refuse to preach on this parable of the dishonest manager, thinking it is beneath the dignity of our Christian calling to imitate such an example of shrewd but immoral stewardship. Preachers have complained about this unusual story since ancient times. But let me invite you to enter its world for a minute: imagine that you and I are stewards of someone else’s property. 

Everything around us belongs to God. We belong to God. Whatever is in our power is “on loan;” it’s only ours by divine allowance; we’re managers, not owners. And God will call us all to account for what we have done with his goods, his treasures, his people. 

Most of us will have had a moment where we recognized this truth. We suddenly knew we had squandered the gifts given to us. God’s charges rang out in our conscience, and we knew we had acted falsely.

The parable suggests that if you know this and if you know, too, that your time on this earth is limited, then you should use the means at your disposal to ease the burdens of those around you. The property on loan to you can do good for others. Your deeds and, yes, the wealth you control could do good for others. And those you help now might welcome you later, as the Gospels says; they might welcome you into their homes – not earthly homes, but the eternal heavens. 

In sermons from the early Church, preachers sometimes imagined this dynamic in direct and tangible ways, encouraging gifts to be given to the poor. Cast your coins into the hands of the needy, they’d say, lift the poor from the dust, and at the end, at the pearly gates, you’ll find those same hands stretching out to lift you. You’ll find smiling faces awaiting you, God’s angels and God’s poor ones made one and made together in heaven. A powerful thought to ponder, one that upends our typical view of the world -- an empowering thought for the needy upon whom our eternal destiny may depend.

For now, though, let us remember this little one who needs us, and ask the Lord for grace, that we may live for Cameron’s sake lives of prayer, goodness, and faith, being rich toward God and our neighbor.