The Hoarders: Episode 1

 Scripture    Luke 12:13-21 Common English Bible (CEB)

13 Someone from the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”  14 Jesus said to him, “Man, who appointed me as judge or referee between you and your brother?”

15 Then Jesus said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourself against all kinds of greed. After all, one’s life isn’t determined by one’s possessions, even when someone is very wealthy.”16 Then he told them a parable: “A certain rich man’s land produced a bountiful crop. 17 He said to himself, What will I do? I have no place to store my harvest! 18 Then he thought, Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. That’s where I’ll store all my grain and goods. 19 I’ll say to myself, You have stored up plenty of goods, enough for several years. Take it easy! Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool, tonight you will die. Now who will get the things you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 This is the way it will be for those who hoard things for themselves and aren’t rich toward God.”

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There were all kinds of articles along with this picture of a barn full of rice being hoarded in the Philippines.  Poor people were going hungry while merchants held out for the highest possible prices.  Jail sentences of up to 20 years were imposed on rice hoarders and profiteers.  The perfect real life example of this parable.  But . . .

At 1:49 this morning multiple alerts on my phone woke me up, and, once I read the breaking news, ended my night’s sleep.  The news alert read:  At least nine people were killed and 16 more were wounded in a shooting early Sunday morning in Dayton, Ohio, the second American mass shooting in less than 24 hours.  The shooter, who was wearing body armor, was killed by police.  

Yesterday 20 people were killed and 26 were injured in a mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart.   The shooter was a 21 year old white man, who was taken into police custody.

And last Sunday afternoon, a mass shooting occurred at the Gilroy Garlic Festival here in California, resulting in four deaths and 12 injuries.  The shooter was a 19 year old white man, who killed himself.

That’s three mass shootings this week! (A mass shooting is defined as three or more killings in a single episode.)  By that definition there have been at least 32 mass shootings in the United States this year.  But if we count those with multiple injuries but less than 3 deaths, there has been at least one incidence of mass shooting every day this year!  That's . . . there are no words. 

This isn’t about guns. And it isn’t about the mental health of the shooters. Although those are both important conversations that must continue because they certainly play a role.   But it is about who we are as a nation, as a people.  It is about what we believe.

This morning Taylor Mayberry told NBC news she was one of the last people to be let into the bathroom at that Dayton, Ohio nightclub, where ten other people were taking shelter. “We were holding the door shut and waiting until the gunshots stopped,” Mayberry said. “People were banging on the doors throughout. We weren’t sure if they were…you know…we weren’t sure if it was people getting in to shoot us or to get safe.”

“We were holding the door shut . . .people were banging on the doors throughout.”   It’s every person for themselves in a situation like this, after all.  Isn’t it?  I found this disturbing, because . . . can you imagine being on the outside of that door, listening to the gun fire, banging on it. . .?  

I mean, we do hear about heroes in the aftermath of these events - someone who has either confronted the gunman or otherwise protected others at the risk of their own lives.  We hear about them, because this is unusual behavior.  But it is Christian behavior.  It is what we are called to do - to act other than the way everyone else acts.  Christian’s are about being the Good Samaritan, not the priest who walks by the injured man in order to preserve his own purity..

So can we talk about greed?  Can we talk about doing the opposite of loving the neighbor?  Can we talk about how not to be the Good Samaritan?  Can we talk about how not to be Christian?

Because holding the bathroom door shut keeping others from safety is so much more greedy than hoarding rice.  Jesus said to those who were hearing his parable, “Watch out! Guard yourself against all kinds of greed.”  Against all kinds of greed.  The usual understanding of greed is “a selfish and excessive desire for more of something than is needed.” (Merriam-Webster.com)  However, the Greek word used in the Bible which translates into English as greed has a deeper meaning.  Biblical commentator John Ritenbaugh defines greed as  “ruthless self-seeking, and an arrogant assumption that others and things exist for one’s own benefit.”  New Testament Greek scholar William Barclay describes it as an “accursed love of having,” which “will pursue its own interests with complete disregard for the rights of others, and even for the considerations of common humanity.”  (Institute for Faith, Work and Economics. https://tifwe.org/what-is-greed/)

Greed.   The El Paso shooter is thought to have written a manifesto that begins “This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”  (Just  want to point out that Texas used to be part of Mexico.  The national language used to be Spanish.  It was invaded by white Americans.  Just sayin’.)   The words of the manifesto, which included the “great replacement” theory, (that white Christian Americans are being deliberately replaced by “others”) echo the slogan that was chanted during a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017: “Jews will not replace us.”  Other mass shooters have talked about killing people - non-white or non-Christian - who pose a threat to their “American" way of life.

Preaching passive love doesn’t cut it in situations like these. Preaching obedience to God doesn’t either, because many of these shooters truly believe that it is God’s will they do these things, that they are superior to the people they are killing, that our Christian nation would be better off without gay people or black people or brown people or asian people or transgender people or Jewish people or Muslim people or even Native Americans.   They will take the Bible and twist it to make what they are doing ok.  We have churches teaching hatred in the name of Jesus. I spend hours talking with people who have been abused by their churches, who have been taught to believe that God is disappointed in them at best, or hates them entirely and that they will burn in hell forever.  They have been taught that by their churches!  The Klan and other white supremacist groups and survivalist groups regularly quote scripture to justify their beliefs and behaviors.  The cross of Jesus often features in their logos.  They proclaim their Christianity loudly.

We cannot sit back and say “well, if we just go out and show other people what Christians are really like, that will be enough.  If we are kind and good and nice that will change people’s hearts.”  Because just being nice and loving and kind will not change people’s hearts.  We absolutely do need to be nice, and loving, and kind.  But we also need to actively love our neighbor.  We need to stand up and say something when we see or hear hatred and prejudice, when we hear someone talk about Christianity as hypocritical, hateful, or judgmental.   We need to make our voices heard when such immoral behavior is right in our faces.  In some communities, Christians have stood guard around synagogues or mosques to protect their Jewish and Muslim neighbors against threats from hate groups.   

Someone on Facebook posted that it is sad that we say “Today’s Mass Shooting.”  It is beyond sad - it is terrible that we must use the phrase “Today’s mass shooting.”  There should not be any mass shootings!   And while it is true that not all of these terrible events have been hate crimes, or domestic terrorism, many have.  No one in America, and especially no Christian in America, should be targeting groups to be killed because they are different.  There is that pesky commandment after all, the one that says “Thou shalt not murder.”  That one is hard to get around, but let me tell you clearly - they try.  They will tell you it’s not murder - it’s the extermination of pests, because all those “others” aren’t really human, don’t you know?  But I tell you, all of those “others” are also created by and beloved of God, so they’re really not “other”.  Not in God’s eyes. 

I really wish you all could have been at General Assembly on that last morning to hear the Reverend Dr. William M. Barber preach.  He had us on our feet, clapping and shouting more than once during his message.  He exhorted us to be passionate about our beliefs - to take them out and use them on days other than Sunday.  If we believe that it is immoral to allow babies to be shot in Walmart . . . if we believe it is immoral to target people for death because of their color or ethnicity or religion or orientation or gender identity . . . if we believe it is immoral to stand by and allow hatred to take over our nation. . . .then we must stand up for what is right and good.  We must lift our voices against hatred, against violence, against passive acceptance of the unacceptable, against greed.  Because this hatred is all about greed.  It is all about people pursuing their own interests with complete disregard for the rights of others, and even for the considerations of common humanity. We must stand for our siblings who are also God’s beloved children. 

Family, do not be silent.  Write letters. Sign petitions.  Speak out loud when you witness any one acting on one of the isms that separate us, one from another. Join in demonstrations.  Do whatever it is you can best do to change hatred into love, to beat swords into plowshares.  Let us work together to end greed and hatred, so that we may be rich in God.  Let us work together to actively love our neighbor, in Jesus’ name.