\u201cA penny saved is a penny earned.\u201d Is this in the Bible? I hope everyone is thinking\u2014no! It\u2019s a proverb, of course, but one of Benjamin Franklin\u2019s, not from the Old Testament. However, it could have been one as the book of Proverbs is full of earthly and spiritual wisdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We may think of proverbs as clever sayings thought up by people like Ben Franklin, who was a master at crafting these sayings. Parents have a million of these sayings at their disposal. It must come with becoming a parent. Sayings such as, \u201cDon\u2019t make that face, it will stick that way.\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t go out with a wet head, you\u2019ll catch cold.\u201d \u201cLittle pitchers have big ears.\u201d I\u2019m sure you could add many, many more, and aren\u2019t they fun! For the next three weeks we will be treated to a different type of proverb, these are focused on wisdom \u2013 words that are not just clever clich\u00e9s, but rather those that make us think seriously about how we live in our world and interrelate with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, in a very concise and clear set of verses, we consider justice and poverty, which is very topical considering what\u2019s happening in the world around us. As with most proverbs, these get quickly to the point, which makes them very memorable. \u201cWhoever sows injustice will reap calamity\u2026\u201d \u201cThose who are generous are blessed \u2026\u201d When we think about the former, we should be reminded that not only do those who sow injustice eventually reap the punishment of calamity upon themselves, but sadly, they also reap calamity immediately upon those they persecute. We might usually think about the justice that will be dealt upon those who do wrong when we read scripture verses like these. But don\u2019t we also wonder sometimes why punishment doesn\u2019t seem to come quickly enough (according to us!) to those who deliberately do evil to others. It doesn\u2019t seem fair that those who are unjust seem to get away with their crime against God\u2019s people. People often say things like, \u201cWhy did God allow those young girls in Nigeria get kidnapped and tortured by the Boko Haram?\u201d We may even say things like that ourselves. Why isn\u2019t God\u2019s justice immediate and complete?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why, indeed, but we must remember one of the great gifts God gave to us as human beings is free will. If God had a finger in everything we do, if God pushed and manipulated us as a puppet maker can manipulate the strings of a wooden puppet, then perhaps the world would be full of nice people going about their business like \u2013 well, like puppets. We wouldn\u2019t have to think. God would never cause us to do evil if God was the puppet maker. So we have to remember that we live in a very natural world. We live in a world full of human beings who are all made in God\u2019s image and likeness, but all with the free will to behave as they choose. Too many people today forget that most wonderful section of Genesis where God says, \u201cLet us make humankind in our image and likeness.\u201d Part of that is remembering that within God is ultimate and perfect freedom and so we have the freedom to choose to do good or do evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Justice will come, but we may not know how those who do evil will be judged or what the outcome will be. It must be enough that we trust God and know that God loves all of us, good, bad, or indifferent. God also hopes that we who try to do good will pray for those who do evil. We will work however we can to show the world that love can overcome hate, generosity can overcome greed, the mystery of prayer can overcome evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, it\u2019s not all grim. We aren\u2019t always faced with evil that we must suffer under or overcome. There is a very positive side to the proverbs. Parents also have those positive proverbs like, \u201cYou will always be my baby\u201d or \u201cYou\u2019ll understand when you\u2019re older.\u201d In our reading today, we find the proverb that says, \u201cThose who are generous are blessed\u2026\u201d Yes, the generous themselves are blessed by grace, but also those who are the recipients of our generosity are blessed. There is a beautiful interaction there of blessedness. A woman therapist wrote in a blog that as she was waiting in a grocery checkout line one day, she made eye contact with another woman. They didn\u2019t know each other, but they both smiled and, in that moment, the therapist wrote, \u201cI felt such love for her as a fellow human being. There was something beautiful in our acknowledgement of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We also must know many people who have touched our own lives with love and blessing. So many people touch our lives with their kindness, with the little things that have \u201cmade our day\u201d as we so often say. Teachers often are the ones who help us change our lives. Many fall in love with those who have kindled a spark of something special within us. There is so much good in the world if we can only turn away from the news headlines and look into the eyes of our fellow human beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Jewish people use the word mitzvah, which is often translated good deed. And rabbis will tell you that it means more\u2014it comes from the root word tzavta, which means connection or commandment. Connection is a lovely translation. Whenever we share with the poor, speak out against injustice (especially when the injustice is right in front of our eyes), or respond with love to another, we are establishing a connection. That connection is not only between us and another person, but also between ourselves and God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Lord is the maker of us all\u2026\u201d We dare not forget this, but isn\u2019t it a much better mitzvah for us all to look on each other with the same love with which God looks on each one of us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA penny saved is a penny earned.\u201d Is this in the Bible? I hope everyone is thinking\u2014no! It\u2019s a proverb, of course, but one of Benjamin Franklin\u2019s, not from the Old Testament. However, it could have been one as the book of Proverbs is full of earthly and spiritual wisdom. We may think of proverbs…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":201212,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[43,52,33,3],"tags":[130],"class_list":["post-512363","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sermons","category-sermons-that-work","category-the-season-after-pentecost","category-worship-and-prayer-menu","tag-proper-18b"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":43,"label":"Sermons"},{"value":52,"label":"Sermons That Work"},{"value":33,"label":"The Season After Pentecost"},{"value":3,"label":"worship_and_prayer_menu"}],"post_tag":[{"value":130,"label":"Proper 18B"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":[],"comment_info":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/sermon"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":950018,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sermon\/512363\/revisions\/950018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}