Tag Archive for: Value

Valuables and the Value of Community

Armodoxy for Today: Valuables and the Value of Community

In the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires, stories of human suffering surface in different forms. From the outside they can be graded on scales of intensity. From the inside, that is, for someone experiencing suffering, loss is loss, pain is pain.

I spoke with a man who had lost everything. His house was incinerated by the fast moving flames in an Altadena neighborhood. He and his wife, and their kids were living in a temporary shelter when we spoke, awaiting authorization to move into a rental. He was in surprisingly good spirits considering his great loss. He was thankful for his friends and his church who had called him out of concern. He broke down as he expressed his good fortune in having a community around him. We discussed his needs. He was thankful that he was insured and felt the reconstruction process might take long but he felt it was manageable and would happen. He had hope and faith in the system.

He said, “I’m fine. The losses I suffered are all replaceable. I’m very thankful that we are all together and our losses were only physical items,” repeating, “they are all replaceable.”

“But my spirit is hurting. Emotionally, I’m not well,” as he broke down a second time during our conversation.

I asked if I could help. He thanked me but said that heart was broken because all the beautiful memorabilia from his dad – every tangible thing his dad had given him – had been destroyed. These memories were gone, never to be seen again, and therefore they were now priceless.

The Gospel records that one day Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. Many who were well to do, put in much and along came a poor widow came and threw in a couple of pennies. He told his disciples that the widow had put in more into the treasury than all the others, “For they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.” (Mark 12:41-44)

The small offering of the widow was great. The small trinkets and articles a father had left to a man who survived the fire, were the greatest loss he suffered.

The fires that sprung up around Los Angeles gave everyone much to think about and learn. Life is fragile. Life is temporary. Preparedness for the unexpected is important. You can never be completely prepared. Loss of property is tragic but not as tragic as the end of life. And today’s lesson that value is not intrinsically assigned to items but defined by our memories and love.

The greatest message that reverberates in me is that of the importance of community. People came together. Neighbors discovered one another. Uber and Lyft gave free rides, AirbnB offered houses, Holiday Inn accepted pets, several restaurants offered food. The greatest mission of the Church is to create that community where the love of Christ is manifest in our daily encounters and outreach. It is the community – people coming together hand in hand – that will and can address the problems of this world.

On this weekend where we celebrate the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. we remember that he envisioned a community, what he called the “Beloved Community,” where love, justice, and solidarity would prevail.  I leave you with one of his stirring prophecies about the importance of harmony within our global community when he said, ” We must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools.”

Choices: The Lure of Riches

Armodoxy for Today: The Advent Series – Riches

To continue with the Sermon on the Mount, today’s statement from Jesus is, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24) The word mammon literally means riches, in Aramaic.

Today’s message is presented in an axiomatic manner, just as were the last two statements he about treasures in heaven and the light of the body. I would venture to say that it is because you have gone through the Advent Journey for the past month that this statement is accepted without contest. You cannot serve God and riches. Still, Jesus provides a brief argument, that given two choices, we will favor one over the other. The lure of earthly riches is so much greater than the spiritual treasures gained from serving God.

The operative word in today’s teaching is “serving.” Introspection will reveal that we often “serve” our riches, that is the creation of money for the sake of having more money.

Money only finds value in its ability to do work. A million dollars in the bank is merely a one with six zeros following it. No matter how much you serve the money and how much it grows it has no value until it is used. A million dollars in action, that is, in use, is education, books, medical care, food on the table, housing, shelter, assistance to others, etc.

To put it another way, serving money is valueless. Using money gives value to riches. Serving God gives value to your life. Using God, demeans the value of your life.

The lure of earthly riches is so much greater than the spiritual treasures gained from serving God because earthly riches are tangible and occupy our reality. Jesus has now moved the spiritual treasures into this life, so that they is tangible by the good deeds and share our reality.

For today, we pray St. Nersess Shnorhali’s 12th hour prayer as he “confesses with faith. Lord, who wills that which is good, and are the director of the will, let me not follow the inclinations of my heart, but lead me to live always according to Your good will. Amen.

 

Banquet Seating

Armodoxy for Today

Banquet Seating

The Parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14:12-24) ends with the words, “For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.” And now, you find yourself sitting at the table, and the only reason you are here is because you’ve accepted the invitation. You’re at the Banquet which was referenced as “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” You’re blessed. You’re at the feast. And now let’s take a look around.

Up until now we’ve looked at others who have refused the invitation. The Armodoxy challenge is to put yourself in the Parable. It’s easy to look at the characters in a parable and see the fault of others, but the Christian is called to see him or herself in the parable dynamics. This placement is an exercise in self-evaluation. Hence, we find one of the important reasons for the season of Advent: to be prepared emotionally and spiritually to accept the Creator of the Universe in our midst. Christ is born and revealed, is the Christmas message.

You’re now at the Table. Take it further by asking yourself, in what ways have I answered the invitation to be seated? The true invitation is to the Kingdom of Heaven. God asks us – invites us – to value life, we value our cars, our homes, our business, to the point we put our children on hold while we go chasing material wealth. God asks us – invites us – to seek peace. We build bigger and better weapons. We eliminate options of working together to find harmony and find only ways of building borders and barriers. God asks us – invites us – to love one another and care for others. We say not everyone. We set our standards so that love is not unconditional.

In other words, the invite to the Banquet is an invite to the Kingdom of God. Responding to the invite is a chance for each of us to truly listen carefully to the answers of our heart.

The Parable is to share God’s love and God’s kingdom with everyone. Everyone has equal access. Today we sit at the Table and look around, thankful that we are here and increase our awareness of the love, tolerance, peace-seeking, life-loving, that has brought us here. God’s grace and mercy have given us access to this beautiful opportunity, tomorrow we’ll look at the price for sitting at this Table. It steep but its also a lot of fun.

Join me in prayer, All benevolent and almighty refuge and hope of the weak and the troubled, my Lord and my God, who created everything from nothingness. Draw closer to me with Your unspeakable mercy, for you show compassion to those who yearn for You and heal them through Your benevolence. Make me worthy of the Table of Immortality, to join in prayer those who adore You, for to You is befitting glory, dominion and honor, now and always, Amen.

Staying on Track

Armodoxy for Today

Staying on Track

Our Advent Journey continues and our first stop is confronting the parable of the ‘Rich Fool,’ as told by Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12.

“The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.  But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then who’s will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” – Jesus (Luke 12)

Remember, Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas, to understand the holiness of the holy day. Right off, Jesus tells us the preparation is about laying treasures and uses this parable to illustrate the importance of not losing sight of the prize. We are on a journey to Christmas when we proclaim that Christ is born and revealed among us. Along the way, it will be easy to be sidetracked. The rich man of the parable begins as an entrepreneur who uses his wisdom and knowledge to bring him profit. When his work yields a bumper crop, he loses sight of the purpose of his labor and falls into the trap of losing sight of the destination. Further, Jesus gives him the designation of a “fool” because he had labored and not set aside treasures beyond himself.

St. Paul refers to the love of money as the root of all evil. Money itself is merely a tool. It has value when it is used, otherwise it is merely a figure of lines, circles, dots and dollar signs on a ledger somewhere. When money is used, an in particular to the aid and benefit of others – your children, your parents, your loved ones, your community, your church, and yes, to those who you don’t know – it picks up value because now, it can be measured by the terms that are understood by others beside yourself.

It always amazes me when I hear someone boast of himself or of his child, proudly proclaiming that they “know the value of a dollar.” In fact, a drug dealer knows the value of a dollar. So what? The parable is about finding true value for money which translates to the value of life.

We pray the prayer of St. Nersess the Gracefilled, from the 23 hour: All-merciful Lord, have mercy upon all Your faithful, on those who are mine and on those who are strangers; on those whom I know and on those whom I know not; on the living and on the dead; and forgive all my enemies, and those who hate me, the trespasses that they have committed against me; turn them from the malice which they bear towards me, that they may be worthy of Your mercy. Amen.

We continue tomorrow, on the Advent Journey. I look forward to being together to take the next steps.

How Much for Your Love?

Next Step #287 – December 5, 2013

How much do you want for your love? “I’ll buy your a Cadillac… If you just give me some of your love…” say the minstrels Burdon & Aroustamian – but what about your love? Should you have an expectation for the giving-receiving-taking dynamics? Fr. Vazken asks along and challenges listeners for some candid conversation about expectations and demands from our Church. (More to come). Also – Priests stepping out at night: Gossip? or more? The minstrels as the priests of music and the arts. Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) – some early reflections as the news of passing breaks during this recording session.
Song: “Free all the People (South Africa)” by Carlos Santana
Pope at night ministering to homeless
Cadillac by Ashot Aroustamian
Nelson Mandela Quotes
Sermon on the Apostles by Fr. Vazken
Engineered by Ken Nalik
Produced by Suzie Shatarevyan for epostle.net
Look for The Next Step on blubrry.com
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