In this week’s lectionary gospel text, Jesus illustrates the concern God has for every one of us, no matter how wayward we are, by telling a pair of mini-parables about searching for a lost sheep and a lost coin. Both owners launch an obsessive hunt for their missing items, and when they are recovered Jesus notes in each case that the owners “call together their friends and neighbors and say to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found what I have lost.’ ”
We may emotionally identify with the owners’ distress and subsequent joy at finding what has been misplaced -- but the truth of the matter is that unless we’ve lost a family heirloom of some sort, such behavior is utterly foreign in our modern disposable society. “Planned obsolescence” is a key feature in the production model for consumer goods -- so we have been conditioned to expect that things will wear out and that it’s easy to replace them. Missing a coin? Sheep gone on the fritz? Rather than scouring the premises for a dilapidated old item, most of us just use it as an opportunity for upgrading to a shiny, “new and improved” model with all the latest bells and whistles.
But we don’t just have this approach toward inanimate objects. All too often we’ve adopted this same attitude toward human beings as well -- and in this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin points out that a particularly egregious example is those in our military who have paid the price in body and soul for our adventures abroad. Many of them have been forgotten as they cope with life-altering injuries, whether physical or mental, and their plight is so severe that some have found suicide to be the only way out. There have been so many stories about substandard medical care and bureaucratic snafus in the VA system... witness the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed hospital that caused a media firestorm several years ago, and the continuing accounts of underfunded care providers overwhelmed by the number and severity of head wounds and PTSD cases. (And that’s without considering the plight of those employed by private contractors, who if they are injured in a war zone are at the mercy of their employers’ capricious insurance coverage.) Our politicians may find it convenient to keep the human cost of war hidden away -- yet Mary suggests that Jesus demonstrates a very different attitude, one that should call each of us to account. Are we searching for every way we can to help our wounded veterans -- who are every bit as worthy of our intense concern as lost sheep and lost coins -- or are we treating them as disposable items like an old toaster or TV? It’s an issue that seems particularly worthy of our consideration as the nation debates whether or not to engage in military strikes against Syria.
Team member Leah Lonsbury offers some additional thoughts on Psalm 14, especially the verse about “the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread.” That imagery calls to mind recent news items about fast-food workers striking in an attempt to gain more of a living wage. There are many incentives in our economic system which encourage employers to treat people as replaceable when they’ve outlived their usefulness -- and it would be hard to find a more disposable labor force than those who staff our burger stands. Leah asks us to consider if we are willing to treat those fast-food employees with the same value as other workers with more specialized skills. Are they worth the same obsessive concern that God demonstrates for us? Perhaps we ought to take a long look in the mirror and think about whether our consumer-first attitude means that we are complicit in grinding these workers down with no more concern than we have for the buns in the burgers we eat on the run -- and if that means we too are “evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread” instead of disciples emulating our God who tirelessly seeks those who are lost and forgotten.
No Rejoicing Yet
by Mary Austin
Luke 15:1-10
As Congress, the President, and the international community weigh options for action in Syria -- including the unexpected possibility of a last-minute deal to place the Assad regime’s chemical weapons under international control -- the possibility (if the proffered agreement breaks down) of military strikes that could lead to another war prompts thought about those still suffering from our previous wars. Soldiers, now home from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, continue to deal with their injuries, largely out of public view -- and unable to cope, many have even taken their own lives. While we may not have lost sheep or lost coins, we do have lost veterans. The hero stories of those wars have given way to mental distress, the maze of health care options and denials, and continuing pain.
The parables of the sheep and the coin end with rejoicing when those items are found, but our celebration of the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is incomplete while so many people are still lost in the war’s pain.
In the News
According to a recent report by the Department of Veterans Affairs, each day approximately 22 veterans take their own lives, unable to bear the stresses of their physical and mental war wounds. One of those was Daniel Somers, who died in June 2013 of a war that was still going on inside him. His family is telling his story in the hope of getting help for other soldiers. In recent interviews, his parents appear with folders full of papers from the VA system, documenting delays and lapses in his search for help.
Somers felt lost in the patchwork system providing health care and benefits to veterans -- approved for one thing but denied another, moved from provider to provider, with different answers in each place and long gaps in receiving help. In the note he left his wife, he said, “I am left with basically nothing. Too trapped in a war to be at peace, too damaged to be at war.” As the Washington Post notes, “His service in Iraq, including multiple combat missions as a turret gunner, left him with severe post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.” The government, he felt, had “turned around and abandoned me.”
His parents, Howard and Jean Somers, recently made an appearance in Washington, DC, to talk with members of Congress and VA officials about Somers’ struggles to get help from the VA system. As the Washington Post article says, “Somers felt frustrated in his efforts to get mental health and medical care from the Department of Veterans Affairs. An antiquated scheduling system at the Phoenix medical center left him waiting, often in vain, for a postcard with the date of his next mental health appointment. And he was caught in VA’s notorious disability claims backlog, which at its peak in March included more than 900,000 compensation requests from veterans, two-thirds of them waiting for more than 125 days. When Somers died, his case seeking full disability for his PTSD had been awaiting resolution for 20 months.” Somers was lost in the bureaucracy, as well as in his own torment.
His parents believe his story is far from unique, and hope to use the tragedy of his death to bring attention to the suffering of other veterans who are waiting for care. According to the Post, “It is an effort, they say, to show how the agency failed their son and a way, maybe, to help someone else.”
A recent article in The New Yorker suggests the possible scope of the problem: “If war is accidental, so is what happens afterward. Two million Americans have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of those who have come back describe themselves as physically and mentally healthy. They move forward. Their war recedes. Some are even stronger for the experience. But studies suggest that between 20 and 30 percent of returning veterans suffer, to varying degrees, from post-traumatic stress disorder, a mental-health condition triggered by some type of terror, or a traumatic brain injury, which occurs when the brain is jolted so violently that it collides with the inside of the skull, causing psychological damage. Every war has its after-war: depression, anxiety, nightmares, memory problems, personality changes, suicidal thoughts. If the studies prove correct, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created roughly 500,000 mentally wounded American veterans.”
With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan off the front pages of the news, the suffering of veterans happens out of sight for many of us. Lost from our view, we miss the places where they are adrift in their own lives, isolated from loved ones by the searing experiences of war and separated from the community around them. We all benefit from the all-volunteer army, but it means that many people don’t know anyone in the military or a recent veteran. Our divided lives add to the isolation of veterans, and to ways that suffering can get lost from our view.
In the Scriptures
These parables from Luke, leading up to the parable of the returning prodigal, are as much about searching as about being lost. The sheep and the coin don’t find themselves. The sheep doesn’t jump up on the shepherd’s shoulders, and the coin doesn’t roll back out from under the sofa. They could also be called “the diligent searcher” and “the patient shepherd,” instead of “the lost coin” and “the lost sheep.” There’s a lot of work to do when someone or something is missing, and Jesus seems to be telling us to get going -- not to rest until what’s lost has been found. If it’s true for lost objects, how much more true is it for lost people?
As Jennifer Copeland wrote about this passage in The Christian Century (September 7, 2004): “The lost sheep and the lost coin are more than prized possessions; they are also parts of a whole. The sheep belongs to the flock, and the coin to the purse; without them the whole is not complete.... All of us who are part of God’s creation should be just as anxious as God until the lost are restored and we are made whole again by their presence. Then... we can answer God’s call, ‘Rejoice with me.’ ” Nine and 99 are incomplete numbers; 10 and 100 are meant to represent completeness.
The people we miss and overlook are meant to be part of the community too. The parables call us to be searchers following the pattern of God, who doesn’t rest until everyone is home.
In the Sermon
Organizational gurus estimate that we spend six weeks a year looking for misplaced items. That’s an hour a day, as all those minutes add up. And that’s just the stuff we need to find. I certainly do my part, looking for keys, permission slips, invitations, and books to go back to the library. I suspect that I spend so much time searching that the hunt often feels trivial, while the parable suggests that our searching has a holy purpose.
Some things aren’t replaceable. If we don’t find a permission slip, box of cookies, or package of batteries, we can go out and get another one. But unlike lost homework, magazines, and toys, some things require us to search until we find them. Friends who disappear during a hard time... the neighbor who’s ill... the person who used to come to church... the person who should be in church but isn’t, because they don’t think they’re welcome.
We all know our own kind of lost people -- and veterans are certainly one group who could use our care. Others might include children in foster care... people with disabilities, whether physical or mental, who experience isolation in a culture that values physical perfection... people who do daily battle with addiction... people returning from prison... the jobless... victims of violence. Every congregation will have its own list, and its own way of looking for the lost.
Where is God calling us to be like the searchers in the parables, looking for someone who’s gotten lost in life? Where do we give up looking too easily? Where should we be more like God, rejoicing when the lost are found? The sermon might look at who’s lost, or at the divine work of searching, or at the jubilation when the search is complete. The sermon will surely remind us that we are incomplete without each other. The lost, the lonely, and the suffering are part of the whole too, and we can’t rest until everyone is found.
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Leah Lonsbury
Psalm 14
Another Labor Day has come and gone, and Rita Jennings, a 37-year-old McDonald’s employee in Detroit, still hasn’t received a raise...
...in 11 years.
Jennings has been working for $7.40 an hour for McDonald’s since 2002. “It’s almost impossible to get by (alone),” she said as she marched among about 100 protesters in downtown Detroit last week. “You have to live with somebody to make it.”
That’s if that “somebody” you’re living with is of working age and able to withstand the fast-food market’s often deplorable working conditions. But what if that “somebody” you’re living with is your child?
On Thursday of last week, strikers in 60 cities joined a movement that began to catch the public’s eye last November when 200 workers walked off their jobs in fast-food franchises in New York City. The picket lines have stretched from New York to Seattle and from Detroit to Memphis, but the striking workers’ demands have remained concentrated on just two essentials -- a pay raise to $15 an hour and the right to organize without fear of retaliation.
“Fifteen dollars an hour would be great ?-- we’d be able to pay our living costs,” said Christopher Drumgold, 32, who currently earns $7.40 an hour after working at a McDonald’s franchise in Detroit for a year. This striking father of two continued, “On what I’m earning right now you have to choose between paying your rent and eating the next day.”
Had Drumgold’s paycheck kept up with changes in productivity and inflation, it would reflect a minimum wage closer to $17 an hour, according to Demos policy analyst Robert Hiltonsmith. In many cases in our current low-wage workforce, Hiltonsmith adds, low pay isn’t justified by a worker’s lack of marketable skills. “Seventy percent of these fast-food workers are aged 20 or over, so they’re not teenagers, and of that 70 percent, about a third of them have college degrees,” he said. “So it’s not that they don’t have skills -- in many cases, the jobs aren’t there for them.”
In the absence of job opportunities that match workers’ educational background and financial needs, many atypical low-wage employees are finding themselves on the fast-food line working for a median pay of $8.94 an hour. The bottom line for the fast-food industry exists in a seemingly alternative universe, however. Its revenue comes in at around $200 billion annually.
It seems important to also consider that these workers’ $8.94 median pay is over $2.00 an hour less than the “poverty-wage” outlined by the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS), a non-profit “think and do tank” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that studies social problems.
COWS associate director Laura Dresser wrote recently in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, “At that wage, even with full-time, year-round employment, a worker cannot keep a family of four out of poverty.”
Dresser narrows her focus to discuss the multi-layered problems that exacerbate the struggle for poverty-wage workers in the city of Milwaukee. In doing so, she begins to peel away the multiple layers of injustice facing many fast-food workers in cities across the nation:
Food service, with two-thirds of its substantial workforce in poverty-wage jobs, is the largest contributor to Milwaukee’s poverty-wage problem....
Milwaukee's problems -- racial disparity and residential segregation, child poverty, crime and incarceration, catastrophic high school dropout rates, especially for African-Americans and Hispanics -- are not inevitable.... They are the product of trends that increasingly isolate everyone but the wealthiest from the real rewards of economic growth.
These layers of injustice mirror the “spiritual darkness” that pervades our psalm for today. Read just a few lines into this prayer, and it becomes clear that these “fools” are up to more than just dumb mischief.
Theirs is more than just foolish behavior. Their moral foolishness “impacts whole groups of people, even nations, in negative ways” (Mark A. Lomax, Feasting on the Word [Year C, Proper 19]).
This is what has got the psalmist up at arms, calling people names and hurling indictments right and left (and all over).
This kind of foolishness spreads wide and layers on injustice, “which is moral and spiritual separation from God” (Lomax, Feasting on the Word).
The hyperbolic tone the psalmist strikes communicates a vexation with the disparity in power that exists amongst God’s people. Mark A. Lomax writes about the psalmist’s prayerful response to such injustice in Feasting on the Word:
...offering a prayer both put the whole case before God and provided those who offered it, or heard it offered, some clarity about the ultimate power broker. Here, then, we have the use of a liturgical category for spiritual, social, and political purposes. Prayer becomes a way of recognizing and announcing God’s presence as both judge (v. 2) and deliverer (v. 7b). (p. 59)
The fools may be having their day in what seems like God’s absence, writes the psalmist, but God is at work bringing justice to those who are being downtrodden and consumed by injustice. Those who disregard the worth of God’s children and “eat up [God’s] people as they eat bread” (v. 4), will end up with some seriously painful indigestion... or worse.
Kind of like the indigestion devouring fast food (or fast-food workers) can bring.
Perhaps the psalmist’s indictment would land today with those who devour low-wage workers like the bun on some greasy dollar menu sandwich. Or to use the terms of this week’s passage from Luke, with those who don’t bother to go after the lonely sheep or coin. If we’re not sufficiently invested in seeking out and recovering those who are lost in the injustices of our economy, then what kind of fools must we be?
Ned Resnikoff of MSNBC gives us this reminder of the God-given worth and dignity of those our economic, political, and social systems are set up to devour or lose indefinitely:
When they walk the picket line, many of these strikers carry signs with expressions like “I AM A MAN,” a reference to the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike and a sign that many workers consider this campaign to be as much about human dignity as it is about wages.
And in his speech in a Memphis church during that same sanitation workers’ strike, Martin Luther King Jr. reminds us of our call to join God in holding out hope, creating refuge, and restoring the fortune of God’s people:
The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land. Confusion all around. That’s a strange statement. But I know somehow that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the 20th century in a away that men, in some strange way, are responding -- something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee -- the cry is always the same ? “We want to be free.”
...And that’s all this whole thing is about. We aren’t engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are God’s children. And that we don’t have to live like we are forced to live.
...Now we’re going to march again, and we’ve got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be. And force everybody to see that there are 1300 of God’s children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. That’s the issue. And we’ve got to say to the nation: we know it’s coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.
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And just for a little preacher fun, don’t miss Dr. King’s specific call to those of us in the pulpit:
We need all of you. And you know what’s beautiful to me, is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. It’s a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and say, “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Somehow, the preacher must say with Jesus, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor.”
And I want to commend the preachers, under the leadership of these noble men: James Lawson, one who has been in this struggle for many years; he’s been to jail for struggling, but he’s still going on, fighting for the rights of his people; Rev. Ralph Jackson; Billy Kiles; I could just go right on down the list, but time will not permit. But I want to thank them all. And I want you to thank them, because so often preachers aren’t concerned about anything but themselves. And I’m always happy to see a relevant ministry.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Chris Keating:
Luke 15:1-10
Finding What Was Lost
It’s a masterpiece -- but for 60 years its owner believed it was a fake, so he kept it hidden in his attic. This week, however, a team of art experts authenticated the painting as a long-lost work by Vincent Van Gogh, the first to be “found” since 1928. Van Gogh Museum officials in Amsterdam called it a “once in a lifetime” experience. Previous experts may have incorrectly labeled the painting a fake because the artist’s technique was slightly different than his other works. But using chemical analysis and matching the subject of the painting to Van Gogh’s letters, the museum was able to accurately authenticate the masterpiece.
Application: Just as there is much rejoicing over a “lost” painting that has been found, so Jesus promises there will be much rejoicing over the sheep that was lost, the coin that has been found, and the sinner that has repented.
*****
Luke 15:1-10
Getting Found at Dinner
Jesus’ critics were astonished that he was willing to welcome sinners and eat with them. Luke records several instances of Jesus gathering with “outsiders” for table fellowship, as powerfully indicated in today’s scripture and also in Luke 13:29: “Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God.”
The transformative power of eating together is embodied by The Family Dinner Project, a grassroots movement aimed at restoring family conversation during mealtimes. The group’s website tells stories of what families have found by emphasizing eating together. One story tells about parents Edward and Valerie, who sought to regain a family that was quickly becoming fragmented:
Most nights, their children got fast food, eating at different times in separate parts of the house. Noticing their scattered dinners, Edward began to worry that he was growing “too distant” from his kids. He and his wife wanted to reconnect with them before they left the nest and also hoped to teach them how to cook (especially one son who could “burn water”).
In the end, says Edward, “We got back some of what was lost in the family. Sitting down together, talking and laughing helped us get back a sense of closeness and family unity.”
Application: Jesus used the table as a means of restoring relationship among those who felt abandoned. In many ways, regaining the family dinner table is similar to the restoring, gathering grace of Christ.
*****
Luke 15:1-10
Fixers in a Throwaway World
In contrast to Jesus’ desire to find what was lost, we live in a time when throwing away and replacing is preferred. While Jesus went about finding, restoring, and including those he called “the lost,” we seem to prefer exchanging broken items instead of restoring them. But around the Puget Sound, Washington, area, there are a growing number of “fixer” collectives -- groups that gather for the sole purpose changing our “throw away” habits. According to Patrick Dunn of the Phinney Neighborhood Association, a sponsor of a “fixer collective,” the idea is to reverse our tendency to throw things away and discover new ways of repairing or repurposing parts.
“A lot of times there are parts that can be salvaged,” Dunn says. “We took apart a digital camera once and found a little gear that was worn down. To replace that part didn’t make financial sense, but if you look at a digital camera, it has a mini microphone, it has a video screen. It has all these different parts you can use on other projects.”
The fixers are trying to change habits and attitudes that have been around for almost six decades. Life magazine published an article titled “Throwaway Living” in 1955, where they first used the term “throw-away society” and described a new era of disposable living.
Application: It is a simple notion: can something be saved before it needs to be replaced? Jesus gathered the fragments of the world -- the people who had in many ways become discarded -- and welcomed them into his holy presence.
*****
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
The Hot Wind of Folly
With most polls placing New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner in fourth place, his argument last week with a heckler at a bakery may soon be forgotten. Weiner took on an Orthodox Jewish man who called him “a scumbag” in a widely-viewed clash.
“You’re my judge?” Weiner asked the man, who was wearing a yarmulke. “What rabbi taught you that you’re my judge?”
“You talk to God and work out your problems, but stay out of the public eye,” the man answered. “You’re a bad example for the people... Your behavior’s deviant, it’s not normal behavior.”
The two continued arguing, with the man reportedly making a racial slur against Weiner’s wife, who is a practicing Muslim. Weiner later dismissed the dust-up, saying it was nothing more than an enthusiastic exchange with a voter.
Application: The hot wind of politics often reflects the foolishness of humanity. Jeremiah also understood the hot wind of rhetoric, but reminded God’s people that it was a word of judgment that reflected the foolishness of people who are skilled in doing evil, but do not know how to do good.
*****
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Reconsidering Repentance
Yom Kippur -- the Jewish Day of Atonement -- will be observed on Friday, September 13 this year. As the holiest day of the Jewish year, it is a time of reflection, fasting, and repentance. The uniqueness of this holy day includes the confession of sins. Rabbi Mike Uram, campus rabbi at the University of Pennsylvania’s Hillel Center, suggests that seeking to improve one’s life by repenting could include strengthening one’s ego. He writes: “The key is that the starting point for change, however, cannot be self-loathing. Repentance and personal growth has to be an act of self-love. So we have to be humble and selfless, but not so much so that we cannot imagine a better future for ourselves.”
First Timothy calls us to consider the overflowing love and grace of Jesus Christ. Christ’s mercy frees us from the self-loathing that we so often consider necessary as part of forgiveness. Instead, Paul suggests, Christ came to seek us out -- to affirm that we are the beloved of God. As our Jewish sisters and brothers participate in a day of confession and repentance, Christians may also find it useful to consider how God’s grace comes to us.
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From team member Ron Love:
Luke 15:1-10
Diana Nyad, 64, recently completed a marathon swim from Cuba to Florida. This was her fourth attempt at a challenge which she first began at the age of 24. The feat was a matter of great celebration regarding her perseverance and patience to achieve a sought-after goal. In recognition of her endeavor that spanned decades, the Washington Post did a pictorial essay on others who patiently waited decades to succeed in sought-after goals. These are a few of the success stories the Post profiled that came with the endurance of patience:
* After decades of a dead-end Army career as a perpetual lieutenant colonel, Dwight Eisenhower was 51 when the United States entered World War II. In 11 years he had led the Allies to victory and was elected President of the United States.
* Harlan Sanders was 65 before he began his Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise.
* Anna Mary Robertson Moses (Grandma Moses) was 76 when arthritis would no longer allow her to do embroidery, so instead she began to paint.
* Frank McCourt was 66 when he wrote his first book, the autobiographical Angela’s Ashes, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize.
Application: We do rejoice whenever someone who is lost or whose life lacks fulfillment is found and restored.
*****
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Pope Francis declared that war is not only an ideological endeavor, it is also often motivated by profits. In St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, September 8, he wondered before the gathered crowd “if this war here or there is really a war, or is it a commercial war to sell these arms or to increase the illegal trade in it?” The pope then went on to urge the rejection of arms proliferation and illegal weapons sales.
Application: The heavens do grow dark above a society of immorality and war.
*****
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan recently addressed a crowd of 4,000 in Milwaukee, where he previously served as the archbishop who inherited an epidemic sex scandal. Dolan acknowledged that many former Catholics refuse to identify with the church because of “the sinful side of the church.” He also realizes that Catholics have left the church because they have been “shocked, saddened, and nauseated by the sinful behavior” of some members of the laity and clergy.
Application: The dark cloud over the church does cause disbelief and disillusionment.
*****
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Former televangelist Robert Schuller is best known for his ministry at the Crystal Cathedral and his televised Hour of Power worship service, which had 20 million viewers worldwide. He now has stage 4 cancer -- a fist-size growth in his esophagus that has spread to his lymph nodes. His daughter, Carol Schuller Milner, said to the press, “He’s closer to heaven than he is to this tangible world.”
Application: Jesus did come to save us and be with us, in this life and the next.
*****
1 Timothy 1:12-17
My home state, Pennsylvania, is known as the “Keystone State.” Several origins are listed for this nickname, but there is one I always hold prominent. A keystone is the center stone that holds an arch together. Among the thirteen original colonies, Pennsylvania’s geographic location made it the keystone of the colonies, North and South.
Application: When Jesus came into the world to save sinners, he became the keystone to living a joyful and abundant life.
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From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
Throwaway Nation
Trash is the common name for municipal solid waste -- the stuff that garbage collectors pick up and take to landfills. In most cases, municipal solid waste has more volume than it does weight. This means that it is relatively light but takes up large amounts of space. Though garbage is fairly heterogeneous, most of the garbage generated in America is made of paper products, yard trimmings, food waste, and plastic.
America produces an absolutely gargantuan amount of trash -- so much that it’s difficult to picture. But here’s a shot: According to estimates from the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2008 each person in the United States created a daily average of 4.5 pounds (2.04 kilograms) of solid waste. Since there were roughly 300 million people living in America at the time, together they were generating approximately 1.35 billion pounds of garbage every day. To put that estimate in perspective, the average blue whale -- the largest mammal on the planet -- can weigh more than 100 tons. Assuming we are dealing with only modestly sized, 100-ton specimens, the United States throws away about 6,750 blue whales worth of garbage every single day.
According to another EPA estimate, Americans create roughly 251 million tons of garbage per year. To concretize this number, imagine the RMS Titanic, which weighed 46,329 gross tons. The United States puts out more than 4,837 Titanics worth of solid waste in a normal calendar year.
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Food That Should Be Eaten
According to a study released by the Natural Resources Defense Council last year, getting food from the farm to our fork eats up 10 percent of the total U.S. energy budget, uses 50 percent of U.S. land, and swallows 80 percent of all fresh water consumed in the United States. Yet 40 percent of food in the United States today goes uneaten.
That’s about $165 billion in wasted food each year, the largest component of all American solid waste, rotting in our landfills and creating methane that pollutes our air. Just 15 percent of that wasted food would be enough to feed 25 million Americans.
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Disposing of Disposables
Disposable products are created for convenience only. They are generally more expensive than the alternatives and they pollute the environment. Yet we keep on using them. Here, according to The Learning Channel’s website, are the top five worst disposable product ideas ever:
1) Bottled Water
2) Diapers
3) Air Filters
4) Paper Towels
5) Wrapping Paper
*****
Disposable Workers
The largest private-sector employer in America doesn’t actually make anything -- but then again, it makes almost everything. Manpower Inc., with 560,000 workers, is the world’s largest temporary employment agency, and its work force dwarfs even that of such perennial giants as General Motors (367,000 workers) and IBM (330,000). Manpower and Kelly Services, its chief competitor in the temporary services industry, represent merely the most visible signs of the enormous upheaval that has -- and likely will continue to -- transform the American labor market.
From steel mill to courthouse and emergency room to savings and loans, millions of jobs are now being staffed by contingent workers. Often just as skilled as “permanent” workers next to them on the job, contingent workers -- also referred to as disposable workers -- typically earn lower wages, receive fewer fringe benefits, and enjoy almost no job security. It is not surprising that many corporations have found them attractive employees. As a result, the number of disposable workers rose by over 283 percent between 1982 and 1996, by which time even middle- and upper-level executives had joined their ranks, thus becoming “disposable bosses.” Indeed, if all part-time employees are counted as part of the disposable group, contingent workers now total more than 25 percent of the entire labor force. Some experts anticipate that this may grow to nearly 50 percent of the work force by the early years of the next decade.
*****
Garbage In, Garbage Out
The garbage disposal was invented in 1927 by Racine, Wisconsin, engineer John W. Hammes. He spent 11 years testing and perfecting his invention, each day wading into the cesspool behind his house to collect, weigh, and measure the ground-up food particles that his disposal processed. Finally, in 1935 he took out a patent and in 1938 founded the In-Sink-Erator company to manufacture his new machine. The company is still in business, manufacturing garbage disposals.
The going was not easy, however. Many communities had laws which forbade putting food waste into the sewer system, and Hammes had to prove that doing so would not cause problems as well as convince many local governments to change their laws.
Garbage disposals were not immediately popular, and did not become so until the 1970s and 1980s. They were illegal in New York City until 1997. Today about half of all American homes have garbage disposals.
Environmentalists discourage their use in favor of composting organic waste, but the disposal is a popular alternative, especially in urban areas where composting is usually considered too difficult.
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Waste Not, Want Not
The Daily Green, a website that offers simple ways to be more earth-friendly, provides these ten quick suggestions on how to reduce food waste in our households:
2. Stick to the list! Take your list with you and stick to it when you’re in the store. Don’t be tempted by offers and don’t shop when you’re hungry ? you’ll come back with more than you need.
3. Keep a healthy fridge. Check that the seals on your fridge are good and check the fridge temperature too. Food needs to be stored between 1 and 5 degrees Celsius for maximum freshness and longevity.
4. Don’t throw it away! Fruit that is just going soft can be made into smoothies or fruit pies. Vegetables that are starting to wilt can be made into soup.
5. Use up your leftovers. Instead of scraping leftovers into the bin, why not use them for tomorrow’s ingredients? A bit of tuna could be added to pasta and made into a pasta bake. A tablespoon of cooked vegetables can be the base for a crockpot meal.
6. Rotate. When you buy new food from the store, bring all the older items in your cupboards and fridge to the front. Put the new food towards the back and you run less risk of finding something moldy at the back of your food stores!
7. Serve small amounts. Serve small amounts of food, with the understanding that everybody can come back for more once they’ve cleared their plate. This is especially helpful for children, who rarely estimate how much they can eat at once. Any leftovers can be cooled, stored in the fridge, and used another day.
8. Buy what you need. Buy loose fruits and vegetables instead of pre-packed; then you can buy exactly the amount you need. Choose meats and cheese from a deli so that you can buy what you want.
9. Freeze! If you only eat a small amount of bread, then freeze it when you get home and take out a few slices a couple of hours before you need them. Likewise, batch-cook foods so that you have meals ready for those evenings when you are too tired to cook.
10. Turn it into garden food. Some food waste is unavoidable, so why not set up a compost bin for fruit and vegetable peelings? In a few months you will end up with rich, valuable compost for your plants. If you have cooked food waste, then a kitchen composter (bokashi bin) will do the trick. Just feed it with your scraps (you can even put fish and meat in it), sprinkle over a layer of special microbes, and leave to ferment. The resulting product can be used on houseplants and in the garden.
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Thrown Away By Accident
Whenever I try to delete something from my computer, it stops me and asks if I’m sure I want to do this. When they designed the software, the folks at Microsoft were smart enough to know that, in our hurry to clear the clutter from our lives and our computers, we often throw away important things by accident.
When the website “The Nest” asked its readers to share some of the things they have thrown away by accident, they offered some very interesting stories.
One reader’s significant other had a habit of placing the pizza cutter in the box with the pizza. At the time of her writing, he had thrown away two pizza cutters and one knife that was used when the pizza cutters were all gone.
Numerous parents wrote about their children throwing away their retainers when they forgot to retrieve them from the lunch tray at school.
Automated addressing machines tend to make a lot of mail look alike. Consequently, readers told about checks, gift cards, business communications, and other important mail being mistaken for junk mail and tossed in the trash by well-meaning spouses.
Due to our penchant for clearing up clutter and throwing things away, the list goes on and on. Passports, rings, tax returns, money, homework?.
Perhaps a brief moment of congregational sharing would be an interesting way to introduce this subject.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: God looks down from heaven on humankind.
People: God looks to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God.
Leader: They have all gone astray; there is no one who does good, no, not one.
People: O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion!
Leader: When God restores the fortunes of the people,
People: Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.
OR
Leader: We are called to enter fully into God’s realm.
People: We enter God’s reign with joy and thanksgiving.
Leader: There is much that God expects of us here.
People: We offer ourselves fully to God’s service.
Leader: As God’s people, we are servants to all.
People: We come to worship God and serve others.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“The God of Abraham Praise”
found in:
UMH: 116
H82: 401
NCH: 24
CH: 24
LBW: 544
ELA: 831
W&P: 16
Renew: 51
“God of Grace and God of Glory”
found in:
UMH: 577
H82: 594, 595
PH: 420
NCH: 436
CH: 464
LBW: 415
ELA: 705
W&P: 569
AMEC: 62
STLT: 115
Renew: 301
“O Worship the King”
found in:
UMH: 73
H82: 388
PH: 476
NNBH: 6
NCH: 26
CH: 17
LBW: 548
ELA: 842
W&P: 2
AMEC: 12
“I Surrender All”
found in:
UMH: 354
AAHH: 396
NNBH: 198
W&P: 474
AMEC: 251
“A Charge to Keep I Have”
found in:
UMH: 413
AAHH: 467, 468
NNBH: 436
ELA: 340
AMEC: 242
“I Am Thine, O Lord”
found in:
UMH: 419
AAHH: 387
NNBH: 202
NCH: 455
CH: 601
W&P: 408
AMEC: 283
“Are Ye Able”
found in:
UMH: 530
NNBH: 223
CH: 621
AMEC: 291
“Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone”
found in:
UMH: 424
AAHH: 554
NNBH: 221
AMEC: 155
“Humble Yourself in the Sight of the Lord”
found in:
CCB: 72
Renew: 188
“I Call You Faithful”
found in:
CCB: 70
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who calls us to a total commitment to your reign: Grant us the grace to address the issues that confront us with all our heart, mind, and spirit, that we may make decisions that give glory to you and bring your reign to a fuller expression; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We come to worship you, O God, knowing that you have given yourself to us and to your creation. Help us to hear you speak to us about our commitments and our choices. Help us to not make half-hearted or half-minded decisions. Help us to fully enter into every situation as your children. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, and especially our reluctance to commit ourselves fully to God’s realm.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We want to be known as disciples of Jesus, but we do not want to make a full commitment to a lifestyle that may be different than others around us. We want to be known as “nice” people, and sometimes even “good” people, but we don’t want to be known as being “different.” We want to stand with Jesus, unless it means taking an unpopular stance on an issue. Forgive us our lukewarm response to your call to discipleship. Turn us around so that we may face you unashamedly. So fill us with your Spirit that we may follow Jesus wherever the path takes us. Amen.
Leader: God calls us to repent so that we can know forgiveness and another chance. Receive God’s forgiveness and God’s Spirit so that you may live fully into your discipleship.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We praise and glorify your Name, O God, for you have called us to enter into your reign.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We want to be known as disciples of Jesus, but we do not want to make a full commitment to a lifestyle that may be different than others around us. We want to be known as “nice” people, and sometimes even “good” people, but we don’t want to be known as being “different.” We want to stand with Jesus, unless it means taking an unpopular stance on an issue. Forgive us our lukewarm response to your call to discipleship. Turn us around so that we may face you unashamedly. So fill us with your Spirit that we may follow Jesus wherever the path takes us.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have demonstrated your care for us and your dedication to our wholeness and salvation. We thank you for family and friends and for your Church which nurtures and sustains us.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for all your children in their need. We pray for those who suffer in body, mind, or spirit. We pray for those who find that their relationships do not bring them closer to others but are scenes of bitterness and strife. We pray for those who have been denied the good things of creation that they need to sustain their lives.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Talk about a time when you wanted to buy something and then found out you couldn’t afford it. That can be embarrassing. Jesus told us to always find out the cost. When people suggest we do things we know we shouldn’t, we should count the cost. We also need to know that sometimes even doing the good thing can be costly.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
God Looks for You
Luke 15:1-10
In today’s scripture reading, Jesus tells us two short stories. In the first, a man has 100 sheep. One day, one of the sheep gets lost. The man still has 99 sheep, but he really misses the one that’s gone. So he leaves the 99 that he has to go in search of the one that’s lost. When he finds his sheep, he calls all his friends to come and celebrate with him.
In the second story, a woman has 10 silver coins. When one gets misplaced, she turns the house upside-down looking for it. She looks everywhere. When she finally finds it, she does the same thing the man did. She calls all her friends and neighbors to come and celebrate with her.
Now, what was the big deal about the missing sheep and the lost coin? What was Jesus trying to teach by telling these stories? At first it may seem like no big deal that the man lost a sheep. He still had 99, didn’t he? That’s still a lot. What about the woman? Nine silver coins is still a lot. Back then, silver coins were worth a lot of money. Sure, she lost one, but she still had nine left.
Here’s what Jesus was trying to teach: we are like the lost sheep and the lost coin. Each of us is so special to God that nothing could ever replace us. If one of us gets lost in some way, God will not stop searching until he finds us again and brings us safely back home to him. And, like in the stories, God loves us so much that he wants to have a big party when we finally come home! You and I are just like the sheep and the coin. We are precious to God, and he is really sad when we aren’t with him.
There are a lot of reasons we might get separated from God. Maybe we don’t talk to him, so we don’t really know him. Maybe we’ve gotten into some kind of trouble and we aren’t close to him anymore. Or, like the sheep, maybe we’ve just wandered away. What we need to know and remember is that God wants to be near us. He loves us and wants to care for us.
Prayer: God, you love us so much. Thank you that each of us is special and precious to you. Help us stay with you always. Amen.
The Immediate Word, September 15, 2013, issue.
Copyright 2013 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
