Preaching and Teaching

Pastor, Western Presbyterian Church
Washington, D.C.
September 20, 2009

Text: I Corinthians 3:10-17 Luke 10:1-9

My gym is located in the basement of The Fairmont Hotel, a few blocks from here. Like many downtown D.C. hotels, they have a lot of conferences. When I walk out of the gym at 7:15 a.m., I usually see the conference participants gathering around a breakfast buffet.

This week something about the crowd struck me as different. I couldn’t figure it out at first. But after looking for a few minutes, I realized that almost all the people were thin and looked to be in good shape. At first, I wondered if they were a bunch of yoga instructors; but they were dressed too traditionally for that.

My interest piqued, I looked to see who they were. The sign said ACC. No, they weren’t athletes from the Atlantic Coast Conference. They were the American College of Cardiology—a bunch of cardiologists. I guess looking daily at America’s veins and arteries creates significant motivation to stay trim and fit! Looking at America’s lack of physical fitness, as Christians, we should have a similar motivation.

Whenever I preach on health, I offend someone. It is interesting that I can criticize wars, pieces of legislation and Presidents and offend few in our progressive congregation. But when I talk about weight, exercise and eating habits, I always manage to tick off someone.

So let me begin by saying that my goal in this sermon is not to condemn people who aren’t taking care of themselves. It isn’t to make us feel guilty. It is to help us see the connection between health and holiness, personal discipline and spiritual discipline. I want us to understand that physical fitness isn’t about looking good. It is about living as God wants us to live.

When I was in college, one of my fraternity brothers, Phillip Bale, was from a small town in rural Kentucky. His accent was so thick, I sometimes had no idea what he was saying. After graduation, Phil went to med school and then returned to the small town where he grew up to practice family medicine. Recently, he retired to concentrate on his campaign for a primary and preventive care approach to healthcare. I have tremendous admiration for his commitment to his small town and the health of our citizens.

On the occasion of his retirement, he wrote, “Americans need and deserve a healthcare system that serves all of its citizens with appropriate and timely care. By necessity, that system must embrace the principles and practice of primary care and prevention and must not view the emergency room and urgent care centers as good places to deliver that care, especially for the disenfranchised.”

In our discussions, Phil and I have agreed that any improvement of national health will require more than a government plan. It will require individual citizens like you and me taking better care of ourselves. The missing piece in the healthcare debate has been and is personal responsibility. The nation as whole isn’t solely responsible for the individual health of each of us. Each of us has a personal responsibility.

If we won’t take care of ourselves, we are going to die younger than need be. Simple as that. Doctors can help us remain healthy only if we follow their advice. They can help us get well when we are sick only if we are willing to cooperate. When we ignore their advice to be disciplined in our approach to our bodies, they can do nothing but damage control when the inevitable health crisis occurs. When we are sick and don’t follow their orders, they are robbed of their almost magical powers to heal.

One of the things that makes me angry about our refusal to take care of ourselves is the fact that we have so many good options today, options not available to our ancestors. My parents both died at age 63 from cardiovascular problems. My grandparents died young as well.

Certainly they could have extended their lives if they had taken better care of themselves. They were heavy smokers and ate in ways we wouldn’t even consider doing today. When I was a kid, our eggs were fried in bacon grease!

If my parents had lived in our generation, they would have known not to cook the way they cooked; they would have had access to medications to deal with their blood pressure and cholesterol issues; they would have known that doing strenuous exercise is not an option, it is a requirement for good health.

In other words, their bad health can be excused, in part, by them not knowing a lot of the information we know. They had an excuse. We don’t. We know what we need to do. We just don’t do it.

As a preacher, I don’t want to approach this subject from the perspective of the health section of The Washington Post. I want to approach it from the perspective of our faith. The bible is quite clear that our bodies are gifts from God. As Paul writes, our bodies are temples in which God’s Spirit resides. Too many of us are desecrating that sacred temple.

I selected the Gospel selection this morning because it talks about Jesus’ mandates to his disciples as he sent them out to expand the reach of his ministry. One of the mandates was to go and heal people; to continue the healing work that was central to Jesus’ ministry.

Think about Jesus’ ministry. We aren’t twenty verses into Mark’s Gospel and he is healing a woman with a fever. A few verses later, Mark writes, “That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick….” In Chapter 2, he tells a paralytic man to walk and he does. In Chapter 3, he enables a man with a “withered hand” to use it again. And so it goes throughout his ministry. There is a reason we call him the Great Physician.

Because these are miraculous healings, we progressives tend to ignore them. Miracles disturb our rational, scientific approach to reality. However, in so doing, we miss and dismiss one of the core elements of Jesus’ ministry: health care. He delivered it. Every day. In every town he visited. He was like one of these mobile medical clinics that rolls into towns occasionally.

Why was health care at the core of his ministry? There is only one logical reason: Jesus knew that God wants us to be healthy. God wants us to be whole—physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Our responsibility isn’t to continue Jesus’ miraculous healing (although we should be engaged in healing work, as we are doing with our clinic expansion in Ethiopia). Our first response is to take care of our own health. To the extent that we fail to do so, we are acting contrary to God’s will.

God wants us to be healthy and yet millions of us eat a quarter pounder, medium fries and shake at McDonald’s. In the process, we consume 1300 calories and 52 grams of fat. God knows I love McDonald’s food. Driving to a meeting in Richmond this week, there was a sign for a McDonald’s at every exit on I-95. It was pure torture. But that stuff just isn’t healthy for us nor is much of what we eat.

Again, this isn’t strictly a nutritional issue. It is a discipleship issue. If we are serious about being faithful stewards of our lives, we must be faithful stewards of our health. If we’re not, 1) our lives will be shortened considerably; 2)we will have less time and energy to love our families as well as work for peace and justice

It is important to note that how we take care of our bodies also has a huge impact on our state of mind. One of the reasons I go to the gym at the beginning of the day is because the workout releases a bunch of natural anti-depressants in my system. There is a history of depression in my family system. It goes back generations. I am convinced that my workouts are one of the reasons depression hasn’t inhibited my life (except on those Sundays when the Redskins look pathetic losing).

What and how much we eat also has a huge impact on our energy level. As my primary care physician likes to tell me, “John, carrying around twenty extra pounds on your body is not a whole lot different from carrying a twenty-pound bag around with you 24/7. It saps your energy.” At age 62, I have decided to take him seriously and unload the twenty-pound bag onec and for all. It will take a while. But I should have done it decades ago.

If our energy level is low because of not taking care of ourselves, how does that affect our parenting, our relationships, our work performance, our efforts to create a just and peaceful world? In other words, how does it affect all the things Jesus called us to be and do? A lowered energy level is something we can oftentimes avoid with healthy living.

Our failure to assume responsibility for our health is another aspect of our national narcissism. We selfishly satisfy our desire to eat or our lack of desire to exercise, no matter what it means for our loved ones and colleagues at work. We don’t seem to care that our loved ones will suffer as we suffer from bad health.

Let me connect a few other dots. Because, our failure to take care of ourselves has implications beyond our own health. My guess is that everyone in this room is an environmentalist, to some degree or another. However, our eating habits create an environmental disaster. Our insatiable appetite for meat is contributing to global warming and creating enormous amounts of animal waste that pollutes surface and ground water.

In addition, animals are being treated in horrific, immoral ways. Various authors and journalists are exposing the brutality of the system that delivers us chicken, pork and beef to eat. Chickens have their wings and beaks cut so they can jam more chickens into a small space. Pigs and cattle are penned in abysmal situations. We are committing a crime against animals. And the cause of our crime is our eating habits.

Instead of participating in this kind of system, we have an increasing number of options. We can shop at farmer’s markets, featuring the output of small farms. At many stores, we can buy free range products produced by animals who live in a more natural environment. Community supported agriculture is another possibility. Each spring, my son and his family buy a share of the crops produced by farmers in the New Paltz, New York area where they live. The farmers get much needed cash up front in the spring; Adam and his family get fresh produce and meats in the summer and fall.

We are in a period of history in which we are all having to recalibrate our lives. If we are fortunate enough to have a house, it isn’t worth what it was; neither are any stocks we might own; there are no pay increases on the horizon for many of us. So while we are recalibrating, why not reconsider our lifestyles as they relate to personal health and the environment?

If we are drinking too much alcohol, why not cut back? If we are eating too much, why not eat in a more sensible manner? If we lead a sedentary lifestyle where the only things getting exercise are our fingers as we text a message or change channels on the remote, why not develop a plan for regular exercise? And while we are at it, why not consider the impact of our grocery shopping choices on animals and the environment?

And please, let’s not think about these decisions from a totally secular perspective. I hope I have made the case that the questions I have posed are filled with profound theological/discipleship implications. If our bodies are temples, as Paul said, shouldn’t we be caring for the temple? If we are stewards of the environment, as mandated in Genesis, shouldn’t we be treating the environment as respectfully as we treat our loved ones? If we love our pets as a precious gift from God, how can we so brutally mistreat animals in the food supply chain?

Our health choices are not just about high blood pressure and diabetes; about how we look and feel. They are about our personal futures and the very future of the planet. They must reflect our commitment to leading faithful lives.

Knowing this congregation as well as I do, my guess is that you and I are much more likely to make the changes we need to make, personally and collectively, if we see them as loaded with spiritual and ethical significance. May God give us the wisdom to use our faith to reflect on how we are living and the strength to make the changes in our lifestyles we need to make.

Let us pray: God of our lives, too often, we live as though nothing but our personal, existential pleasure matters. We don’t think about the future implications of our actions as they relate to our loved ones, our society or the planet itself. Help each of us to do what we can do to live in more healthy and environmentally friendly ways. As we do so, may we channel our newfound energy into enjoying all life offers. All this we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Pastor, Western Presbyterian Church
Washington, D.C.
September 13, 2009

Text: Proverbs 1:20-33

One of my favorite authors is Haruki Murakami from Japan. I read every word he publishes. Like many great authors, he is both funny and profound. In one of his early books, entitled A Wild Sheep Chase, a character comments on his inability to change his behavior, “My biggest fault is that the faults I was born with grow bigger each year. It’s like I was raising chickens inside me. The chickens lay eggs and the eggs hatch into other chickens, which then lay eggs. Is this any way to live a life?”

The image of our flaws reproducing within us like chickens is a funny description of a reality Paul described. Paul frequently talked about the frustration that comes with trying to do the right thing only to be foiled by our own internal foibles.

Certainly addicts of all types know the reality Murakami describes. They talk about dealing with the same challenge one day at a time, every day.

Once a family system gives birth to domestic violence, it is very difficult to remove it. Domestic violence has a well-documented pattern of reappearing again and again in family systems.

Entire cultures do the same. Attacks on Muslims in Europe, verbal and physical, are frighteningly similar to attacks against generations of Jews in Europe. The sin of xenophobia seems to have hatched again in the dark corners of Europe’s soul.

To a human race troubled and frustrated by its own behavior comes this morning’s lesson from Proverbs. Biblical scholars classify Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, Song of Solomon and Psalms as wisdom literature. It is a specific genre of biblical literature offering critiques of and advice about the human condition. At times, as in this morning’s lesson, wisdom becomes personified in the female character Sofia.

The Hebrew Scriptures view wisdom as a good unto itself. We pursue goodness for no other reason than it is good. If we choose not to pursue goodness (and it is a choice), we suffer the consequences. In magnificent prose, the author of this morning’s proverb says that those who ignore goodness, “shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices.”

Certainly, many generations of Americans have relished wisdom. Ben Franklin was revered as a font of wisdom. Sojourner Truth’s wisdom is quoted to this day. Native American culture is studied for the deep wisdom found within it. Dr. King’s activism was rooted in the profound wisdom of the African American church.

But our generation seems to have turned our back on wisdom. As a nation, we have chosen to pursue things other than goodness. We have been pursuing empire, power, and self- aggrandizement. We seem to be insatiable because none of the things we pursue so obsessively, compulsively satisfy us the way wisdom does.

Our insatiability is on display everywhere we look. We weren’t content to fight one war. The war in Afghanistan was over too quickly. Bu a little violence is never enough. So we decided to fight two. We have an insatiable appetite for stuff—clothes, house furnishings, the latest cell phone or laptop. When we ran out of money and couldn’t buy any more stuff, we voted in politicians who promised cut our taxes. That worked for a while. But when that wasn’t enough money, to continue our buying binge unabated, we racked up credit card and home equity debt.

One year ago, our nation began, to use the language of Proverbs, to “eat the fruit of (our) way.” We became “sated” by our own “devices.” Or as they say in the Midwest, we began to reap what we had sown.

Since this is a congregation with a lot of progressives, let me say that it is a mistake of major proportions to hang on the Bush-Cheney administration all the greed, out-of-control materialism and institutional corruption that blew up in our faces last fall. It started a long time before George Bush occupied the White House.

I just finished an excellent book, “The Myth of the Rational Market,” in which the author tracks the roots of our current crisis from the beginning of the 20^th century to the present. By the 1980s, some of our most brilliant, Nobel-prizing winning minds, using quantum mathematics and evermore powerful computers, convinced us that we were could beat the markets. We arrogantly decided that we could manipulate risk in ways that made risk evaporate. Or so we thought. George Bush wasn’t President when that process started.

Another example. In response to the abuses that led to the Great Depression, Congress passed the Glass-Steagall Act. It prohibited banks from owning other financial companies. Bill Clinton, not George Bush, was the President who signed the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act two months before he left office. I remember preaching against the repeal of that bill at the time. Without the restrictions and regulations of Glass-Steagall, banks were able to move into previously banned brokerage and finance activities such as sub-prime mortgages and credit default swaps. Is it any wonder that many bank executives made generous contributions to the Clinton Foundation in the years following Glass-Steagall’s repeal?

Proverbs states, “Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice. At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks.” Wisdom cried out against the repeal of Glass-Steagal through the voices of eight courageous United States Senators. At one of the busiest corners of our society, Congress, they cried out. They were ignored.

I heard Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the IMF and current professor at MIT, speak last week at a symposium. He wonders why we are surprised by the abuses in the banking sector. They happen regularly throughout history.

Dr. Johnson noted that Andrew Jackson had to take on the power of the all-powerful Second National of the United States in the 1830s, Teddy Roosevelt had to take on J.P. Morgan and others at the beginning of the 20^th century, and FDR had to take on the securities industry in the 1930s.

Over time, financial power accumulates political power. As it accumulates power, it abuses it. However, as Dr. Johnson explains, wise, courageous political leadership can tame it. The question is: are there politicians today who will challenge this power?

I talk about economics and finance in a sermon about wisdom because this country is all about money. Always has been. Always will be. It is one of our defining characteristics as a people. Although many hate to admit it, the business of America is business. In this country, taxi drivers and bartenders follow the stock market as closely as financial analysts do.

In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with our orientation toward the world of commerce. Business creates jobs. Jobs create salaries and benefits. Salaries and benefits feed, educate and pay doctor bills for families. Go to a country without a thriving business community and it instantly becomes clear how important business is. We should celebrate our business community.

However, when we don’t apply wisdom to our economic thinking and financial practices, we get in trouble. Big trouble. Because some of the eggs hatching inside us, generation after generation, give birth to greed, ever larger amounts of greed, causing us to become insatiable in our desire for more—more money, more possessions, more power.

Wisdom teaches us about the presence and pitfalls of dysfunctional human behavior. It reminds us how greed, lust, violence, intolerance can ruin our lives and those of others. It teaches us what is to be avoided in life; what is to be embraced.

Where do we find this wisdom of which Proverbs speaks? Well, to quote Proverbs, “in the streets, on the busiest corners of the city, at the entrance to the city.” In other words, just about everywhere. Some sources where I have found wisdom:

The homeless. When we started Miriam’s Kitchen for the Homeless 26 years ago, it was my first significant interaction with the homeless. What I discovered was not only the world of problems they face, but a world filled with wisdom. I can’t begin to tell you how much wisdom I have learned from the good folks at Miriam’s.

People who are chronically ill or dying. Sitting with these folks, I have been taught so much. Many of these individuals are filled with a unique wisdom that is discovered as one stares death in the eye or faces a lifetime of suffering. I don’t recommend that one acquire wisdom in this manner. But acquire it one will.

Older folks. When I came to this congregation, it was primarily filled with retired people. After coping with a Great Depression, World War and lots of personal problems, the wisdom they possessed was simply astounding. I loved devoting an afternoon to visiting and listening to these folks. Pearls of wisdom flowed from them like the clearest, most refreshing of spring waters.

Young people. As we age, it is easy to see things through the lens of one generation—our generation. Young people see an entirely different world. There is a wisdom in the young that oftentimes goes unappreciated by their elders.

Great literature. I started this sermon on wisdom with a quote from Murakami. Whether it be contemporary writers such as Murakami and Toni Morrison or older classics such as Shakespeare and Joyce, wisdom is found in great books.

Experienced people. Experience is not wisdom per se. Experience can teach us the wrong things as well as the right things. However, with experience can come wisdom. Any young person is smart to find a wise older person in her or his field and learn as much as is possible from her or him. Most of what I know came from other, more experienced clergy who either shared their wisdom or I learned just by getting close to them and watching them in action.

Nature. Some of the things we learn are encouraging. Seasons come and go; the sun rises and sets. So do problems in our lives. Some of the things are warnings. In nature, the fittest survive. The unfit disappear. If we don’t have a strong social safety net with everything from unemployment benefits to health care for every person in this country (legal or illegal), then we will watch the unfit disappear from our midst.

Defeat. Nothing teaches wisdom like failure. A divorce, not getting a promotion, not getting into the graduate school one desires, from such defeats can come immense wisdom. For a faithful, joyful life is ultimately not about winning. It is about retaining our integrity in the face of defeat.

Indeed, wisdom is “in the streets, on the busiest corners of the city, at the entrance to the city.” However, it rarely comes up, grabs us by the neck and says, “Listen to me.” No, it tends to sit there on a stoop, waiting for us to approach and ask it for advice.

If we are wise enough to sit down with wisdom and ask her for advice, we won’t get a lot of words, a lecture, an op-ed piece in the Post, or a book on wisdom. Wisdom’s advice will probably sound something more like this:

• The perfection of wisdom… is to proportion our wants to our possessions, our ambitions to our capacities…. (Mark Twain)
• The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. (Lao Tzu)
• Dogs bark but the caravan moves on (Arab Proverb)
• Civility costs nothing and buys everything. (Lady Montagu)
• By crawling, a child learns to walk (West African)
• Froth is not beer (Dutch)
• Happiness isn’t a goal, it is a by-product (Eleanor Roosevelt)
• Turn the other cheek (Jesus of Nazareth)

May God bless each of us with a love of wisdom and the desire to grow it in our lives.

Let us pray: Gracious God, you place so many wise people in our midst. Help us to listen to them. As we do so, may wisdom grow in us. All this we pray in the name of Wisdom Incarnate, Jesus of Nazareth. Amen.

Western Presbyterian Church

Washington, DC

September 6, 2009

Text: Mark 7:24-37

I don’t think my mother always approves of the way that we are raising our daughter, Calla. In some ways, it is just so different from the way that I grew up.

The main difference is that my mother always thought that the number one thing that a parent needed was consistency. Once my mother made up her mind about something, she would not change it. She would not be moved. No amount of tantrums, or crying, or pleading would make the answer different. Mom definitely got her intended result—I was not a whiny child.

There are many things that I learned while growing up, and many things that I am thankful that my parents gave me. I learned how to be compliant and respectful, but my mom and dad’s style of parenting did not allow me to develop the art of negotiating. That was something I had to learn as an adult.

As a parent, though, I am more flexible. People might even call me a softie. That’s okay, because I’ve made a conscious decision to allow my daughter to negotiate. Respectfully, without whining, I let her change my mind at times. I made this decision because I’m hoping that she will be able to have the confidence to argue. I am hoping that she will have the skills to challenge people who have authority over her.

I first realized my lack of skills in graduate school, when I noticed that one of my classmates was always handing in papers later than the due date. I resented the fact that he were able to get more time. My papers were always turned in the day that they were due. No matter what. It made me red-hot furious that he could get extra days to complete his assignments.

But I didn’t need to resent my classmate. If I had a legitimate conflict, needed more time to get a seminary paper done, I needed to ask for more time. It never occurred to me to request it, because I didn’t know how to ask.

Speaking of seminary papers, I’m sure there are a lot of them on what Jesus thought about women. It’s so interesting to look at these gospel stories, and try to figure it out. What I love about Jesus’ stories about women and his conversations with women, is that he seems to have respect for the woman who can overcome great adversity, and with her persistence, she gets what she needs.

The same sort of woman often shows up in the gospel stories over and over again. Throughout the parables, there is often a persistent woman. A woman who will not quit looking for her coin until she finds it. Another women will not quit knocking on the judge’s door until she gets the answer that she wants.

Jesus told about his interactions with real-life determined women as well. Like the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years who reached out and touched the hem of his garment, even though she was not supposed to be touching any man. Or the woman whose back was bent for eighteen years. She asked for healing, even though it was the Sabbath. It was not lawful for them either one of them to be healed, but they still did what they needed to do to make sure that it happened.

This morning, our passage is no exception. We have here, a woman who is not Jewish, asking Jesus to cast a demon out of her daughter. Jesus says no. And he’s even really rude about it. He says he’s not going to heal her, because that would be like taking the children’s food off of the table and giving it to the dogs.

And this woman, swallows the insult, but she doesn’t walk off offended by his words. She knows that her daughter is suffering, and she knows that Jesus can heal her. She is not deterred. Instead, she negotiates with him. She reminds him that even the dogs under the table get the children’s crumbs.

I imagine Jesus laughing, and Jesus changes his mind. Jesus heals the daughter.

We can learn a lot from these persistent women. Women who reach out, women who are perservere, women who are not afraid to state what they need, women who negotiate. Still, in our modern day, we can learn from them. (pause)

There is a congregation in Atlanta, a large Presbyterian Church, in the middle of the Bible belt. They are a growing congregation, and in the past decade they expanded in size, but also in wealth, as the economic make-up in Atlanta expanded. On the staff, they had one male Head of Staff, one female associate, and one male associate. Out of the two associates, the woman had much more experience than the man, and yet, when he was hired straight out of seminary, he was paid about thirty percent more than the woman.

This is the sort of story that always burns me up. In fact, when we look at statistics in our denomination, we see that, in some categories, men can be paid $21,000 more than women. Bill Saint is part of denominational committee that looks at these sort of comparisons. He gave me the report, and as I perused the pages, I found that women pastors are like most professionals.

Over all, women make 75 cents to every dollar that a man makes. The wage gap has stayed the same for the last 13 years.

The more prestigious the position, the larger the congregation, the more the disparity there is between men and women. Just as when women acquire more education or move up the corporate ladder, they are more likely to make much less than their male counterparts.

I am really frustrated about this trend in our denomination, after all I think that we should not mirror the injustice of our society, but we should transform it.

But let me get back to that church in Atlanta. I became friends with the male pastor, the one with less experience and a much higher salary. He said that when he entered the job, he negotiated his salary. He knew what he needed, and he asked for that amount. It was far above what the church was offering, but they found a way to give it to him.

He had no idea what his female colleague made, and he didn’t realize that she never negotiated her salary. She accepted exactly what was offered. Then, when he was hired, she was furious. She was angry at the church, angry at the Head of Staff, and really angry at him.

He negotiated, she did not.

Am I blaming the female pastor for the inequities? No. It would have been fair, wise, and just for the church leaders to step back and take inventory of all of the salaries, and see how they compared, before they allowed the injustice. If the church leadership thought that the male pastor was worth a certain amount of money, then it would have made sense to make sure that the female pastor was paid more than that, based on the fact that she had the same amount of education and more experience. But that was not how it worked. And, over and over again, we see that the church reflects the business world in its inequities, and I’m sure that the church was just happy that they got a bargain with their female staff person. (Of course, it wasn’t a bargain in the long run. It caused so much tension within the staff that the church had to replace all three pastors within two years.)

I’ve heard women say that they don’t like negotiating. I certainly don’t. One businesswoman, Pat Heim, has a theory about this. She wrote that women are socialized to play games that are fair and equal—games like dolls or house—while men are encouraged to play competitive sports. She says that men like to negotiate because they are used to playing football and soccer, and because of that, they are socialized to win, while women are socialized to build relationships. (That’s why Title IX, the Equal Opportunity in Education Act, which encouraged so many women’s sports programs, was so important. It allowed a whole generation of girls to compete.)

I have also talked to women who do like to negotiate, and this is what they tell me. First, find out what other people in your field and in your office are making. That may seem impossible, but try. If the company wants to keep you, then it is standard that they should pay ten percent above the median salary.

When you make your case, try not to make it personal by saying how much you need the money, because that is such an easy argument to brush aside. I mean, everyone needs just a little bit more money. Plus, it could backfire, so that people think that you’re irresponsible with your household budget.

Instead, base your plea on data, things like comparison salaries, education and experience, and how much growth and worth you bring to the company.

Now… we are in the middle of a major economic meltdown. I know. So it may not be the time to be thinking about negotiating a raise when a person might be barely hanging on to her job. But, I also realize that this is a time when a lot of people are looking for jobs as well.

I guess, I just want to say that the words of Jesus usually remind us to be peaceful and content. But it is also fascinating that even in such a different time and culture, Jesus upheld these women who broke all the rules, who were persistent, who reached out when they were supposed to keep their arms to their sides, who gave their last dime, who knocked until the door was finally open. I think there’s a message for us here, in this woman who taught Jesus.

She gave in a bit, but she was not willing to take no for an answer. She was clever in her answer. It was almost like a game for her. And it seemed that she taught Jesus something. He changed his mind.

May we go out, with a longing to do justice. As bosses, as employees, as men, and as women, let us remember the persistence of these women that Jesus upholds, and let us live in their example.

To the glory of God our Creator,

            God our Liberator,

                        and God our sustainer. Amen.