I recently went to a dealership in Staunton to get my wife’s car repaired.
When we stepped out of the service center, we caught sight of the car lot. There were maybe 8-10 new cars for sale. We drove down the road of dealerships, and it didn’t matter which car lot one looked at, there were few new cars for sale. News reports tell us computer chip shortages made in China and Taiwan have resulted in a 72% decline in the amount of new cars available. Many car plants are idled as a result. I talked with a church member the other day. They have cancelled a trip to Central America twice. Because the number of flights has declined, they were determined to book a flight, and did, at a much higher rate. Then, a few days later, airlines slashed fares because the amount of people taking flights has once again plunged. And the church member says that it’s likely the trip will be cancelled a third time, because of the spike in COVID cases in the country they want to go to. Another member talked about having to go to three Lowe’s — Lexington, Staunton and Waynesboro — to find all the pieces necessary to do a shower repair. In addition to wood shortages that have resulted in a two-fold increase in the price of building materials, apparently plastic is also in short supply, so manufacturers that use plastic are scrambling to be able to make the parts necessary for all kinds of items; including parts for a bathroom shower. I’ve even heard about a paper shortage, resulting in envelopes being in short supply. These examples could be referred to as a litany of “first world problems.” If you haven’t heard the term, it means that all the above cases have little to do with the problems a majority of the people of the world have to deal with, like having a roof over one’s head at all, or enough food for the day, or an element of safety in ones’ daily life. In a very real way this is true. However, I wonder whether there isn’t a larger issue for those of us who live in this prosperous and blessed land: the larger question of sustainability. God’s word is clear about both our part and our care of creation. “Till and keep the earth” is God’s command to humanity in Genesis (2:15). Some would point to an earlier word from God to “have dominion” over the earth, as if it is an excuse to do whatever we want to do. However, if God is “gracious, merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,” which is how God is described in the Old Testament — to say nothing of the example of Jesus’ “who did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself” (Philippians 2:6-7) — then what does that say about “dominion,” except that we do not abuse creation, but live in a way that is in harmony with God’s intentions for creation? I think about the world we live in, in comparison with my parents and grandparents. The milk I drank as a kid came from a local dairy, and the milk was dropped off in a box at my parents’ house. We put the empty glass bottles in the box, and they were collected and re-used. The church meals I attended were served on real plates with real forks and spoons. The laughter and conversation in the kitchen as they were washed, dried and put away told me people were not so much inconvenienced by the time it took to clean up as they were blessed by the fellowship. Our family of six had one car; my dad was a pastor, and so trips to the grocery, back to school shopping or dates on Friday night had to be coordinated with the times he had to have the car. Somehow we made it happen. Now, please note I am not being critical of having a second car in the driveway, or an RV or boat, or using air transportation. But all the shortages we’re hearing about, and the recent story of how a single ship stuck in the Suez Canal almost sunk the whole global economy; and the fact that if you and I were to make a count of what items are in our houses, from furniture to TV to computers, etc., that the vast majority of them traveled either through the Suez Canal, or across the Pacific … And the boxes that are piled up at my house from Amazon, where it is just convenient to order dog food, or clothes, or some neat doo dad whenever I want … What is sustainable for this world that God has made? And for you and me? A colleague and friend of mine spoke about a time not too long past when we were much more connected to one another; where the apples or produce we ate came from a farmer we knew; when we could name the city or town or area of the country where our cookware or our furniture or even our clothes came from — even from our own town. And it’s interesting to hear more people taking up gardening as a result of the pandemic. Even raising chickens for eggs (Waynesboro discussions on animals notwithstanding). Perhaps God, in the midst of these times, is asking us to think about our lives; not as an exercise in nostalgia, but as a way to think about being a better neighbor with one another. We are a part of the whole creation that God’s word says is always a part of not only our physical lives, but our religious and spiritual lives as well. That means being able to sustain “the good life” that God intends not just for me, but for all of us.
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Years ago, friends of mine went on a mission trip to Guatemala, in Central America.
The purpose of the trip was to introduce students to the life of Christians were living in that Central American country. As they drove along, they found themselves in the midst of field after field of strawberries, and clusters of farm hands were picking them, most of them for the U.S. market. One of my friends, looking at the laborers picking the big red clusters of strawberries growing on the plants remarked, “Wow, I bet they just love to bite into a fresh berry every once in awhile while they’re working.” The response from the trip guide was swift. “If they did that, they would be beaten, and their wages, which are about 16 cents/hour, would be docked for the week.” The guide went on to share how difficult life was as a farm laborer in that country; how the laborers lived in shacks owned by the landowner, how their low wages made it impossible to keep up with their rent plus food and other necessities of life, and that many were in such deep debt that their lives were reduced to servitude at the whim of the landowner. The shocked mission group were quick to share what they learned upon their return. I told this story during a Bible Class at the congregation I served years ago. One of the participants became quite agitated. “Well what are we supposed to do about that? There’s not a lot I can do about their lot in life.“ One of the other attendees suggested maybe there was something to do; to not buy strawberries from Guatemala, for example, or to protest the laborer’s lot by writing to the grocery store, asking them not to purchase from growers who abused their workers in such a way. The reply, if anything, made the participant even angrier: “So now, when I buy strawberries, I need to look at the package to see where they come from?!” she said incredulously. “And to try to tell the grocery store how to run their business?” What does it mean to care? We have a book study group at Grace Lutheran in Waynesboro that is reading The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. Among the many stories told in the book is one of a couple who bought their first house. Having been invited by an aggressive mortgage lender in the area in the early 2000s to refinance in order to “get a better deal,” they found, a few months after the lender had signed them into a subprime mortgage, that their “deal” charged hidden fees amounting to 12% of the loan, and had a sliding loan rate that began far below their current rate, but quickly slid up to rates much higher than what they had been paying. The loan was designed not to help the homeowner, but to earn the lender tens of thousands of dollars more for each subprime loan they sold, and then resold to other companies that would take an addition cut of profit from the homeowner. The salesperson received a substantial kickback for every subprime loan she sold. Even though the couple qualified for a much safer loan with a rate that would have actually saved them money, the salesperson made a lot of extra money by selling the harmful loan. The book goes on: “Then there was the God part.” The couple had shared that they wanted to refinance in order to free up money for their children’s Christian schooling. “She had me figured out,” the wife telling the story said. The sales rep began to talk about her Christian faith, and looking around the office, there were crosses and a picture of Jesus in the office. “I know that God must have sent you to us,” the loan agent said. So the couple, trusting this “Christian woman,” signed the papers. It took a years-long lawsuit — involving over 1,300 others who had been sold this same type of loan — to sort things out. There are numerous stories that Jesus tells, and people Jesus interacted with, that talk about how we care as followers of Christ. A blind beggar shouts by the side of the road, and the people try to shut him up when Jesus is walking past. And Jesus stops. A woman jostles the crowd she is a part of to come close enough to touch even the cloak that Jesus wore, and is healed. When Jesus stops, the woman trembles and steps forward “to tell the whole truth” about herself. The disciples wondered why in the world Jesus is asking who touched him, especially since everyone was closing in around Jesus. I think an important part of why Jesus asks is so that “the whole truth” about this invisible woman could be told. So that we care. At the end of our last book study, there were a few members who expressed being overwhelmed by this world we live in. There is so much information, there are so many new stories about this world and this nation that we are having to reckon with. What does it mean to care in such a potentially overwhelming time? We concluded that there are some things we can’t do much about. There is sometimes so much conflicting information that it’s hard to sort things out. In such cases it is tempting to “just live my life;” to tighten the circle of care to those we love, or to those we know. Of course, Jesus never taught his disciples to do that. So we talked about caring where we live. The community you and I are a part of. A group from Grace Lutheran and Christ Tabernacle met with Waynesboro police a few weeks ago. Among a full range of conversation, about race, policing, school, training, body cameras and many other topics, came a surprising fact from the police: one of the primary concerns of the police right now is mental health. You may have also read recently about the fact that Virginia’s mental health facilities are overworked, understaffed, and not taking new clients. What can you and I do about this? What does it mean to care? There don’t appear to be simple answers. I have no simple list of strawberry origin checking, newspaper reading, or specific do’s and don’ts for mental health care (I will say that no one should do harm to another by using Jesus as a tool for selfish gain!). What I do know is that when the world closed in on Jesus, he stopped to find out the truth of those who came by and into his life. And he cared. And calls us to do the same. Years ago, I accompanied my Uncle Herb on a day trip he had to make as a representative of the Missouri Dairy Farmers Association, the MDFA.
Our family vacationed at Uncle Herb’s farm every summer. My grandmother on my mother’s side lived on the farm, and between chores like milking the cows and putting up hay, my brothers and cousins and I played ball, fished and went into town to watch the men’s fast pitch softball league games. I don’t know why I was selected to go with Uncle Herb to his meeting, but I do remember talking about how MDFA milk was used in the new product (at that time) by Frito-Lay, Nacho Cheese Doritos. Herb then talked a bit about the trips he had to make as the MDFA representative that took him away from the farm, and how he had to rely on my nephews and nieces to take up the slack while he was gone. He also talked about his travels to various cities, and how such travel meant he had to stay in motels and hotels. Then he said he always left a few extra dollars on the dresser for the people who cleaned the rooms. I can’t remember exactly what I said, other than trying to be funny in some way, but my Uncle used it as an opportunity to teach me something I have never forgotten: “I give them something extra because their work allows me to do mine. If my room is nice and clean, I can simply settle in and review what I need to look over for tomorrow’s meeting, not having to worry about a mess, or whether items like towels and everything else I need are at hand. So in a very real way, their work is just as important as mine.” And he added something that Martin Luther wrote about 500 years ago: that everyone has a calling from God. Not only a pastor, or a bishop, or a missionary, but the doctor, or the motel housekeeper, or, as Luther is somewhat famous for saying, the brewmaster of a brewery! I have never forgotten my Uncle’s wisdom, but was reminded of it freshly a few weeks ago when I read an editorial about the importance of valuing all types of work. The writer spoke about fast food and other restaurant workers, CNA’s at senior care facilities, home health aides, childcare providers, custodial workers, farmworkers, a checkout clerk at a grocery or “big box” store, and yes, the housekeeper at a motel. He also spoke of how there seems to be a tendency in our society to poke fun at certain jobs, or perhaps worse yet, to consider entry level work as something less than other work. Without people to work at these and many other tasks, the writer noted, millions of people would not be cared for, travel would become more difficult, and our food distribution chain would be severely disrupted, just to name a few examples. I wonder whether much of the discussions and debates about minimum wage, and profit and prices and the bottom line would become less of an issue if we recognized the call and the value of each one of us; to God, and to one another. And beyond these issues, what would our communities look like if we slowed our pace enough to consider the necessary and wonderful work and service that so many people are quietly providing in our midst. Would it be odd to offer a random thank you to a CNA at one of our senior care facilities; to stop for a moment at the local fast food restaurant if the order is incorrect not to focus on how we have been wronged, but to bear with one another and offer a spiritual gift of kindness instead in our response? To thank the housekeeper as we leave the motel building for their work in helping us in our own preparation for work, or for the sake of our own rest and relaxation? The Holy Scriptures are filled with reminders and encouragements that regard for one another, patience for each other, valuing one another, caring for one another, not thinking of ourselves more highly that we ought, are all parts of our daily life of faith as children of God. I am thankful for my Uncle Herb, one of my forebears in faith, for passing on the faith that he learned, to me. |
AuthorPastor Paul came to Grace to serve as our Pastor in October 2012. After a first career in product and graphic design, he was ordained in 1993, and has served as a parish pastor in Virginia and South Carolina. He is married to Jill and they have two daughters, one at Roanoke College and one at James Madison University. Archives
December 2021
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