Sermons In Time

A Crisis In Values

Scripture: Mark 8 selected Verses

A few summers back in the City of Wichita, there was a number of events which caused each of us to reflect seriously on the values we hold as persons.

During the summer, there was a continuous protest against the clinics in Wichita which give women the right to choose whether they will continue a pregnancy or not.

During the summer, there was an outbreak of violence - of fratricide, if you will among the youth of the community. There were also a number of violent acts against individuals such as rape, battery, and even death.

During the summer, there was a new formation of the city school board with obvious conflicts of goals. These in the wake of serious considerations related to the veto of the tax structure by the governor which normally gives support to the school system. It obviously has not been a time when one could speak easily of the consent of the governed with any sense of unanimity as to the direction our community was going to take.

It was in the context of this upheaval of community Gloria and I moved back to the city to assume our "retirement." It was also the time I moved into a totally new frame of reference for vocation. When we went to apply for a loan on our home, the loan officer was convinced the underwriters would not approve it, simply because clergy do not become bankers. That move did not, in and of itself, have anything to contribute to the upheaval of the city. But it did make a new focus in my life which was a firm reminder of values I have held as a pastor for many years, and which I believe still have credibility in today's world

I'd like to share with you today thoughts about a crisis of values. For one thing, I believe the loan officer was completely off base when he could not envision a clergyman working in a bank. I am reminded, for example, that in the New Testament, Jesus says more about the use of our resources than any other subject than the Kingdom of God. Money is no stranger to the minister. He may not become wealthy as a pastor instead of an entrepreneur, but wealth is an important expression of the human life. One has called our money "Congealed Personality." What is meant by that is simply that the wealth we have is a reflection of the way in which we have spent our lives vocationally, and how we have used our resources on behalf of ourselves, our family and our society. I concur In the works of John Wesley, one of his most famous adages is this, "Work as hard as you can, to earn as much as you can, to save as much as you can, to give as much as you can." There is perhaps no clearer orientation for us a persons and the use of our resources than this.

Recently, I have been preparing to teach a course in Church History. One of the outstanding features of the early leaders of our country was their emphasis on service to community. There was a strong sense of responsibility for a good society in public servants and their sense of fiduciary care for public resources. How different than the ways in which persons have functioned recently in the scandals of Savings and Loans, in Senate overdrafts and failure to pay honest debt. It has become a crisis of value when one fails to assume responsibility for the privileges of public service, whether in government, in the stock market, or simply in business with the public as customers.

In the New Testament, in the Gospel story of the morning, the question is asked, "What shall one give in exchange for one's soul? This is not just a question about life after death. It is also a question about moral accountability. When one is only interested in padding one's own pockets, one is being less than a virtuous person. Recently, I was reading about a gentleman whose income for 1990 was 78 million. Now, that's a healthy sum. I don't begrudge the man his wealth, but he was the president of a company which was laying off some 1500 employees because of a cost crunch. The amount he was taking as a "bonus" was more than enough to pay for over a year the entire group of those who were being laid off. We have reached a time when "The rich are getting richer, and the rest of society is getting poorer." We will be truly impoverished if the middle class of America cannot continue to save, and the poor are not lifted from their poverty by honest employment.

2. Which brings me to the other crisis I want to mention in this context. It is, "How much is enough?" Years ago, I had a man in my congregation say, "I'm just not big enough to make it in today's world. I have to have more land." I did not disagree. He did need to enlarge both his holdings and his operations. But the nagging question was, and still is, "How big is big enough?" Recently, I visited with a couple who were not poor. Their concern was, however, whether they would have enough to keep them if they have a debilitating illness. It is a good question. I remember once having a chaplain ask a group, "How much would you need to have to survive a major illness?" The question he was really asking was different. He was really asking, "Who of us is immune from social welfare? Even the very wealthy could conceivably be drained of all their resources if the right conditions were to prevail. Many have been concerned that Banks might fail. We do not have to have a debacle of dishonesty to have that happen. One of the reasons loans are more difficult to get today is because the lending agencies are deeply concerned there be adequate collateral to repay a loan, especially if values go down. One of the things the eighty's taught us was that we cannot expect stability from junk. We do not live in a blue sky world.

One way in which the crisis of value is structured today is simply that one cannot expect there to be "Upward and onward forever." We live in a world which may become more reality oriented in response to debt. Wouldn't it be interesting if in the wealth of America the debt obligation were taken seriously? Not only in terms of loans which are decent, but also in terms of extravagant incomes such as we mentioned earlier.

3. Which leads me to a third consideration of the crisis of value. It relates to having enough. I've always been one who said, "There is always too much month left at the end of the money." I used to think there would never be enough money to pay for all the bills we had when the kids were young. Now that they are grown, I've changed my thinking. I now know there will never be enough to pay all the bills. But I keep remembering a man whose father died many years ago. After the funeral, this man and I were visiting about the father's life. This man was saying that never had there been much money in the household of which he was a child. But there had always been enough. And there had always been a lot of caring, and there had been time together, and there had been the sharing of experiences, and there had been a large emphasis on Christian values in relation to the way people were treated. Because of the sharing of the father, the man felt very wealthy although he had received almost no monetary inheritance from his dad.

I've thought of that conversation many times recently. Some years ago I preached a sermon on stewardship in which I reminded my people that all of us were rich enough to be generous. Of that I am convinced today. Without a generous spirit, we are truly the poorest of the poor. When out of gratitude for all that life has given to us, we offer back to God our gifts of gratitude, we are truly persons of wealth. I'm convinced today that money is important, and one ought not apologize for having it, or for using it wisely. But if we are not masters of our wealth, if we are controlled by our greed or our insecurity, if we have no room in our lives for responsible sharing, we have the deepest crisis of value we can have. We do not possess, we are possessed. On the other hand, if we have learned not only to work, earn, and save, but also to spend wisely and to share, we are most blessed. amen.

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