Free Sermon Illustrations For August 8, 2010 From The Immediate Word
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This week's text from the book of Hebrews speaks of Abraham and Sarah as people of strong faith, people who trusted the Lord enough to follow him into whatever future the Lord had for them. Dietrich Bonhoeffer tells us:
"They are strangers and sojourners on earth. They seek those things that are above, not the things that are on the earth. For their true life is not yet made manifest, but hidden with Christ in God.... They wander on earth and live in heaven, and although they are weak, they protect the world; they taste of peace in the midst of turmoil; they are poor, and yet they have all they want. They stand in suffering and remain in joy, they appear dead to all outward sense and lead a life of faith within. When Christ, their life shall be manifested, when once he appears in glory, they too will appear in glory with him...."
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (Macmillan, 1969), p. 304
***
Our Luke text calls us to make purses for ourselves that do not wear out. In other words, we are called to use our money, and all of our resources, in such a way that we share with those in need. Thomas Merton quotes Raissa Maritain:
"If there were fewer wars, less thirst to dominate and to exploit others, less national egoism, less egoism of class and caste, if [we] were more concerned for [all of our brothers and sisters], and really wanted to collect together, for the good of the human race, all the resources that science places at [our] disposal, especially today, there would be on earth fewer populations deprived of their necessary sustenance, there would be fewer children who die or are incurably weakened by undernourishment."
-- Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer (Doubleday, 1971), pp. 113-114
***
Malcolm Muggeridge says: "The true purpose of our existence in this world is, quite simply, to look for God, and in looking, to find Him, and having found Him, to love Him."
-- quoted in Mark Allan Powell, Loving Jesus (Fortress Press, 2004), p. vi
***
Søren Kierkegaard once told a parable about a poor old couple. Desperate to know where they would find money to live, they offered up many anxious prayers to heaven.
Then it happened: one morning, the wife found a large jewel sitting on the hearth. She showed it to her husband, and the two joyfully concluded that they would be able to sell it and live comfortably for the rest of their lives on the proceeds.
That night, the woman dreamed that she had been transported to heaven. An angel showed her around, eventually bringing her to a magnificent hall. This vast room contained long rows of ornate armchairs, each of them adorned with pearls and precious stones. These, the angel explained, were for devout believers.
Taking the woman to one particular chair, the angel explained that it was the one set aside for her. Examining it, the woman noticed an empty place where a large jewel had once been. The missing jewel, the angel explained, was the very one the woman had found that morning on her hearth. "You received it in advance," the angel said, "and so it cannot be inserted again."
When the woman awoke from her dream, she told her husband about it. The two of them resolved not to sell the precious stone, lest it be lost to them through all eternity. And so that evening they laid the stone back on the hearth and prayed to God to take it back. In the morning, it was gone.
Kierkegaard interprets his parable thusly:
"Oh, remember this well! You may perhaps be cunning enough to avoid suffering and adversity in this life, you may perhaps be clever enough to evade ruin and ridicule and instead enjoy all the earth's goods, and you may perhaps be fooled into the vain delusion that you are on the right path just because you have won worldly benefits, but beware, you will have an eternity in which to repent! An eternity in which to repent, that you failed to invest your life upon that which lasts: to love God in truth, come what may.... Therefore do not deceive yourself! Of all deceivers fear most yourself!"
***
There are many things in life that never end. There is dishwashing. There is getting the car fixed. There is cutting the grass. Unless one keeps constantly in mind the values involved -- clean dishes, a smoothly running car, a soft and neat lawn, and the like -- these "never-ending things" become wearing and wearying.
It is not alone in utilities that we find this situation. In its deeper aspects, life has "never-ending things." There is the effort to be moral. There is sacrifice for others. There is telling the truth. The list is long. Yet life becomes worthwhile in proportion to our day-to-day efforts to keep doing these "never-ending things."
-- L. Wendell Fifield, writing in Guideposts, July 1963 (reprinted in Guideposts, October 1995, p. 35)
***
In his biography of John Adams, David McCullough quotes a passage from one of his letters, in which the aging former president engages in some philosophical rumination after observing his granddaughters Susanna and Abigail blowing soap bubbles with one of his clay pipes:
"They fill the air of the room with their bubbles, their air balloons, which roll and shine reflecting the light of fire and candles, and are very beautiful. There can be no more perfect emblem of the physical and political and theological aspects of human life.
"Morality only is eternal. All the rest is balloon and bubble from the cradle to the grave."
-- David McCullough, John Adams (Simon & Schuster, 2001), p. 611
***
Compared with the ravenous acquisition of assets by the likes of Rupert Murdoch, the tale of Philadelphia entrepreneur and philanthropist Hal Taussig is a useful corrective. Here's how a Philadelphia Inquirer feature article described him:
Hal Taussig wears baggy jeans and fraying work shirts that Goodwill might reject. His shoes have been resoled three times. He bought his one suit from a thrift shop for $14.
At age 81, he doesn't own a car. He performs errands and commutes to the office by bicycle.
He lives on the outskirts of Media in a narrow wood-frame house that was built for mill and factory workers.
And he has given away millions.
Given the fortune that Taussig has made through Untours, his unique travel business, and has given away through the Untours Foundation, you could call him the Un-millionaire. If he so chose, he could be living in a Main Line mansion and driving a Mercedes. But he considers money and what he calls "stuff," beyond what he needs to survive, a burden, an embarrassment.
Besides caring for his disabled wife and running his Untours business (a specialized travel agency that helps vacationers gain deep experience of foreign cultures), Taussig directs the Untours Foundation, into which he has poured $5 million worth of profits since 1992. The Foundation makes low-interest loans to businesses and non-profits that help the needy.
"If capitalism is good, it should be good for the poor," says Taussig. "I invest in entrepreneurial efforts to help poor people leverage themselves out of poverty." The Untours Foundation's motto: "a hand up, not a handout." Projects it has funded include Home Care Associates of Philadelphia, which is a business cooperative of mostly former welfare recipients who provide health care to the homebound; a shop in Hanoi that provides a market for crafts made in Vietnamese villages; and a water-bottling company in England that uses its profits to bring clean water to developing countries.
In order to plow all Untours income into the foundation, Taussig and his wife, Norma, live on Social Security and on the modest savings Norma earned as a school secretary and as an Untours bookkeeper.
"This is my way of finding meaning," says Taussig. "This is how I get joy out of life. The widening gap between the rich and poor is not sustainable. I fear there will be a violent revolution if we don't find a solution to poverty in the world."
(Source: Art Carey, "Unsung fortune: A rich man's secret: Untours' founder lives abundantly on little as his wealth aids world," Philadelphia Inquirer, March 26, 2007)
***
Last year, for the first time, everyone in the Forbes 400 index of the super-wealthy was a billionaire. Sales of 200-foot-plus yachts and other indulgences of extreme wealth are at record highs. Income for the top 1% of Americans has more than doubled in the last quarter of a century, while that of the bottom fifth barely budged. The rich, in short, are getting steadily richer, both in absolute terms and compared with the rest of society.
Yet with the sainted exception of Warren Buffett and maybe Bill Gates, virtually all of them refuse to give any meaningful fraction of their wealth to the less fortunate -- or even to give a decent fraction to such endeavors as art or medical research, which they'd benefit from.
Consider the numbers (which are based on current estimates in the recent Slate 60 index of the year's leading philanthropic donors and the net-worth estimates in the Forbes 400). The 60 leading American donors gave away $51 billion in 2006, according to Slate. They were led by Buffett, whose spectacular $44-billion donation -- mainly to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose primary cause is healthcare in the developing world -- was the largest gift anyone has ever given. These donors had an estimated combined net worth of $630 billion last year, meaning that they gave away 8% of their money, on average. Sounds magnanimous, until you consider that the Dow Jones industrial average rose 16% in 2006 -- which suggests that, as a group, the leading donors contributed less than they gained.
Now subtract Buffett and his generous gift from the group, and the rest of them begin to look downright miserly, handing to others a mere $7 billion of a combined net worth of $584 billion -- or just over 1%. Numbers from the philanthropy watch organization Giving USA show that Americans as a whole annually give away about 0.5% of their net worth. So, except for Buffett, society's top givers donate to others at only a tad higher rate than the population as a whole.
-- Gregg Easterbrook, "Cheapskate billionaires: The super-rich have more money than they can possibly spend, so why do they give so little?" Los Angeles Times, March 18, 2007
***
I think of the taxation of the wealth of our most financially successful citizens as society collecting on a chit. It is a modest repayment for the government providing the conditions and the stimulation to economic life that has made wealth possible.
And I ask this: What is the basis for a social policy that would insist that every cent of the wealth of our richest families goes to their heirs? I cannot think of a good reason for such a policy and clearly can see value to society in minimizing inherited wealth.
-- Bill Gates Sr., "Reinstate 'the grateful heirs' tax," Seattle Press-Intelligencer, April 1, 2005 (Bill Gates Sr. is the father of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. He was instrumental in convincing his son to establish the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.)
"They are strangers and sojourners on earth. They seek those things that are above, not the things that are on the earth. For their true life is not yet made manifest, but hidden with Christ in God.... They wander on earth and live in heaven, and although they are weak, they protect the world; they taste of peace in the midst of turmoil; they are poor, and yet they have all they want. They stand in suffering and remain in joy, they appear dead to all outward sense and lead a life of faith within. When Christ, their life shall be manifested, when once he appears in glory, they too will appear in glory with him...."
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (Macmillan, 1969), p. 304
***
Our Luke text calls us to make purses for ourselves that do not wear out. In other words, we are called to use our money, and all of our resources, in such a way that we share with those in need. Thomas Merton quotes Raissa Maritain:
"If there were fewer wars, less thirst to dominate and to exploit others, less national egoism, less egoism of class and caste, if [we] were more concerned for [all of our brothers and sisters], and really wanted to collect together, for the good of the human race, all the resources that science places at [our] disposal, especially today, there would be on earth fewer populations deprived of their necessary sustenance, there would be fewer children who die or are incurably weakened by undernourishment."
-- Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer (Doubleday, 1971), pp. 113-114
***
Malcolm Muggeridge says: "The true purpose of our existence in this world is, quite simply, to look for God, and in looking, to find Him, and having found Him, to love Him."
-- quoted in Mark Allan Powell, Loving Jesus (Fortress Press, 2004), p. vi
***
Søren Kierkegaard once told a parable about a poor old couple. Desperate to know where they would find money to live, they offered up many anxious prayers to heaven.
Then it happened: one morning, the wife found a large jewel sitting on the hearth. She showed it to her husband, and the two joyfully concluded that they would be able to sell it and live comfortably for the rest of their lives on the proceeds.
That night, the woman dreamed that she had been transported to heaven. An angel showed her around, eventually bringing her to a magnificent hall. This vast room contained long rows of ornate armchairs, each of them adorned with pearls and precious stones. These, the angel explained, were for devout believers.
Taking the woman to one particular chair, the angel explained that it was the one set aside for her. Examining it, the woman noticed an empty place where a large jewel had once been. The missing jewel, the angel explained, was the very one the woman had found that morning on her hearth. "You received it in advance," the angel said, "and so it cannot be inserted again."
When the woman awoke from her dream, she told her husband about it. The two of them resolved not to sell the precious stone, lest it be lost to them through all eternity. And so that evening they laid the stone back on the hearth and prayed to God to take it back. In the morning, it was gone.
Kierkegaard interprets his parable thusly:
"Oh, remember this well! You may perhaps be cunning enough to avoid suffering and adversity in this life, you may perhaps be clever enough to evade ruin and ridicule and instead enjoy all the earth's goods, and you may perhaps be fooled into the vain delusion that you are on the right path just because you have won worldly benefits, but beware, you will have an eternity in which to repent! An eternity in which to repent, that you failed to invest your life upon that which lasts: to love God in truth, come what may.... Therefore do not deceive yourself! Of all deceivers fear most yourself!"
***
There are many things in life that never end. There is dishwashing. There is getting the car fixed. There is cutting the grass. Unless one keeps constantly in mind the values involved -- clean dishes, a smoothly running car, a soft and neat lawn, and the like -- these "never-ending things" become wearing and wearying.
It is not alone in utilities that we find this situation. In its deeper aspects, life has "never-ending things." There is the effort to be moral. There is sacrifice for others. There is telling the truth. The list is long. Yet life becomes worthwhile in proportion to our day-to-day efforts to keep doing these "never-ending things."
-- L. Wendell Fifield, writing in Guideposts, July 1963 (reprinted in Guideposts, October 1995, p. 35)
***
In his biography of John Adams, David McCullough quotes a passage from one of his letters, in which the aging former president engages in some philosophical rumination after observing his granddaughters Susanna and Abigail blowing soap bubbles with one of his clay pipes:
"They fill the air of the room with their bubbles, their air balloons, which roll and shine reflecting the light of fire and candles, and are very beautiful. There can be no more perfect emblem of the physical and political and theological aspects of human life.
"Morality only is eternal. All the rest is balloon and bubble from the cradle to the grave."
-- David McCullough, John Adams (Simon & Schuster, 2001), p. 611
***
Compared with the ravenous acquisition of assets by the likes of Rupert Murdoch, the tale of Philadelphia entrepreneur and philanthropist Hal Taussig is a useful corrective. Here's how a Philadelphia Inquirer feature article described him:
Hal Taussig wears baggy jeans and fraying work shirts that Goodwill might reject. His shoes have been resoled three times. He bought his one suit from a thrift shop for $14.
At age 81, he doesn't own a car. He performs errands and commutes to the office by bicycle.
He lives on the outskirts of Media in a narrow wood-frame house that was built for mill and factory workers.
And he has given away millions.
Given the fortune that Taussig has made through Untours, his unique travel business, and has given away through the Untours Foundation, you could call him the Un-millionaire. If he so chose, he could be living in a Main Line mansion and driving a Mercedes. But he considers money and what he calls "stuff," beyond what he needs to survive, a burden, an embarrassment.
Besides caring for his disabled wife and running his Untours business (a specialized travel agency that helps vacationers gain deep experience of foreign cultures), Taussig directs the Untours Foundation, into which he has poured $5 million worth of profits since 1992. The Foundation makes low-interest loans to businesses and non-profits that help the needy.
"If capitalism is good, it should be good for the poor," says Taussig. "I invest in entrepreneurial efforts to help poor people leverage themselves out of poverty." The Untours Foundation's motto: "a hand up, not a handout." Projects it has funded include Home Care Associates of Philadelphia, which is a business cooperative of mostly former welfare recipients who provide health care to the homebound; a shop in Hanoi that provides a market for crafts made in Vietnamese villages; and a water-bottling company in England that uses its profits to bring clean water to developing countries.
In order to plow all Untours income into the foundation, Taussig and his wife, Norma, live on Social Security and on the modest savings Norma earned as a school secretary and as an Untours bookkeeper.
"This is my way of finding meaning," says Taussig. "This is how I get joy out of life. The widening gap between the rich and poor is not sustainable. I fear there will be a violent revolution if we don't find a solution to poverty in the world."
(Source: Art Carey, "Unsung fortune: A rich man's secret: Untours' founder lives abundantly on little as his wealth aids world," Philadelphia Inquirer, March 26, 2007)
***
Last year, for the first time, everyone in the Forbes 400 index of the super-wealthy was a billionaire. Sales of 200-foot-plus yachts and other indulgences of extreme wealth are at record highs. Income for the top 1% of Americans has more than doubled in the last quarter of a century, while that of the bottom fifth barely budged. The rich, in short, are getting steadily richer, both in absolute terms and compared with the rest of society.
Yet with the sainted exception of Warren Buffett and maybe Bill Gates, virtually all of them refuse to give any meaningful fraction of their wealth to the less fortunate -- or even to give a decent fraction to such endeavors as art or medical research, which they'd benefit from.
Consider the numbers (which are based on current estimates in the recent Slate 60 index of the year's leading philanthropic donors and the net-worth estimates in the Forbes 400). The 60 leading American donors gave away $51 billion in 2006, according to Slate. They were led by Buffett, whose spectacular $44-billion donation -- mainly to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, whose primary cause is healthcare in the developing world -- was the largest gift anyone has ever given. These donors had an estimated combined net worth of $630 billion last year, meaning that they gave away 8% of their money, on average. Sounds magnanimous, until you consider that the Dow Jones industrial average rose 16% in 2006 -- which suggests that, as a group, the leading donors contributed less than they gained.
Now subtract Buffett and his generous gift from the group, and the rest of them begin to look downright miserly, handing to others a mere $7 billion of a combined net worth of $584 billion -- or just over 1%. Numbers from the philanthropy watch organization Giving USA show that Americans as a whole annually give away about 0.5% of their net worth. So, except for Buffett, society's top givers donate to others at only a tad higher rate than the population as a whole.
-- Gregg Easterbrook, "Cheapskate billionaires: The super-rich have more money than they can possibly spend, so why do they give so little?" Los Angeles Times, March 18, 2007
***
I think of the taxation of the wealth of our most financially successful citizens as society collecting on a chit. It is a modest repayment for the government providing the conditions and the stimulation to economic life that has made wealth possible.
And I ask this: What is the basis for a social policy that would insist that every cent of the wealth of our richest families goes to their heirs? I cannot think of a good reason for such a policy and clearly can see value to society in minimizing inherited wealth.
-- Bill Gates Sr., "Reinstate 'the grateful heirs' tax," Seattle Press-Intelligencer, April 1, 2005 (Bill Gates Sr. is the father of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. He was instrumental in convincing his son to establish the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.)
