Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Buddhist
FILTHY LUCRE: A Meditation on the Divided Heart and Its Healing

FILTHY LUCRE: A Meditation on the Divided Heart and Its Healing

Last updated on: November 1, 2011 at 3:09 pm by James Ford

FILTHY LUCRE: A Meditation on the Divided Heart and Its Healing 2011-11-01T15:09:14-07:00 James Ford

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

FILTHY LUCRE

A Meditation on the Divided Heart and Its Healing

James Ishmael Ford

4 October 2009

First Unitarian Church

Providence, Rhode Island

Text

And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it. And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar’s. And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marvelled at him.

Mark 12: 13-17

Today let’s talk about money. You know filthy lucre. More deeply, let’s talk about the material and the spiritual worlds. And let’s consider whether they really are two things or one. And out of that let’s look just a little at how we might really want to live in this world. It all, I suggest, boils down to a question. But that question comes at the end.

To start let’s consider the dominant religious paradigm within our culture. I know this one pretty well. My childhood faith was a kind of fundamentalist Christianity, although with a twist. It was also a poor people’s religion. This is a variation on Christianity that has rather lost its place in American culture today. It appears to be an article of faith among many contemporary fundamentalist Christians that Jesus wanted you to be rich and more, that American capitalism is God’s plan for how to do this. Now in fact this isn’t a teaching of every Christian sect, look at Catholicism’s liberation theology, for instance. But this sense does appear to mark much of Christianity’s Protestant fundamentalist strain. The kind I was brought up within, and the form of Christianity now in our cultural driver’s seat here in America.

For people who claim they’re all about the literal, plain and unambiguous meaning of their sacred texts, this is an amazing leap from the plain sense those texts. While the scriptural condemnations of homosexuality are in fact few and vague, the passages on usury are in fact many and explicit. This is important for us here, you and me, to notice because these attitudes inform us within our culture more than we might realize. They are very much the air we breathe. So, let’s make the invisible visible. And let’s start with just a little exegesis, that critical examination of text that is a central feature of both the Jewish and Christian traditions.

In fact the term of art today, “usurious interest,” that is excessive interest, is an oxymoron* in the Bible. It is explicit throughout the Hebrew Scriptures and an assumption present in the New Testament that all interest is usury. So, not to belabor the point, any of us with a bank account earning one percent is in fact by biblical terminology, practicing usury. And, let’s be clear, that’s understood to be a bad thing. And, in case you don’t quite follow what this means without a little pointer: no usury: no interest: no capitalism.

Now I’m not preaching a diatribe against capitalism. In fact I think business can be a good thing. Rather I’m more concerned with hidden assumptions. So my mean side loves how those who want scriptural support for their romance with capitalism must slip into some amazing sophistries about how the numerous condemnations of this foundation of our modern economy were only meant to be specific to Jews who under their covenant with God were to not charge interest to their fellows. Charging interest to strangers, well, that was always okay they say. And then they go on to assert we ourselves live under a new dispensation, a new covenant, where, apparently, we’re all strangers.

My people, bless ‘em, were a bit more consistent in their literalism. The Jesus saying about how it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than it will be for a rich man to get into heaven meant that rich men weren’t going to heaven. And for poor people whose lot in this life wasn’t all that good; this knowledge was, if terribly harsh, a comfort to us. Our oppressors were all going to hell.

Then there’s that story about Jesus and the coin. Like the story of the camel and the eye of the needle, the story of Jesus being put on the spot about taxes and responding with his own bit of sophistry is recorded in all three of the synoptic gospels. Which, at least to my mind, gives it’s authenticity as a saying of Jesus a bit more weight than those one off sayings, such as “I am the way and the truth and the life,” which only occurs in one gospel, and that one written perhaps as much as eighty years after Jesus died.

The weight of analysis over the many years of this story about the coin with Caesar’s face on it has focused in two areas. The first is how we owe the state taxes. The second is that there is a great divide between our spiritual and our material lives. Now I have to admit I find the pay your taxes interpretation pretty boring. But the yawning gulf assertion, that’s juicy. If, I will strongly suggest, enormously wrong headed. And, I suggest, it’s something we here, at least many of us, are inclined to believe, at least in some vague and unexamined sense. It is, after all, in the air we breathe.

I consider this assertion of a fundamental divide between our lived lives and our profoundest values, our hopes, and dreams that we name sacred, a great spiritual error. It is a mistake that has terrible consequences for our lives and for the lives of everyone on this planet, indeed for the planet itself. It is possibly the greatest mistake one can make in the spiritual life, and is something we must notice, and challenge.

At this point I want to step away from the scriptural tradition of Judaism and Christianity. After all for most of us here our problems are only the unexamined assumptions we’ve inherited from our common culture. I would only assert in concluding this brief survey of one aspect of the Western spiritual tradition that this hard division of the material and spiritual isn’t the only approach to be found in Judaism and Christianity, particularly within Judaism. I even think the torturous attempts at justifying a biblical base for Capitalism is in fact an attempt at dealing with the reality on the ground that we are part of this world and need to live in it. But, let’s turn to our own tradition, to us, to you and me, to the liberal religious stance, and how it informs or can how we choose to stand in this world. Let me start with the interdependent web, our assertion of some basic unity.

Of course, we would be foolish to collapse everything that we see as distinct and different into some amorphous unity where meaning and purpose, sorrow and joy all disappear. I say foolish because that isn’t what we usually experience. The world we usually occupy is filled with distinctions. You are you. I am I. Each being rising in this world is unique. And, I for one, I celebrate these distinctions. I like being me. And I enjoy your being you. Well, almost all the time.

Perhaps you feel similarly. I, and I think most of us here would agree that in some sense each of us is precious and beautiful. In our contemporary Unitarian Universalist statement of principals, which attempts to name the wisdom we commonly hold, begins with an assertion of the preciousness and dignity of the individual person. And I think that is wisdom.

But, as they say, wait: there’s more. We also share a deep body knowing that is rarely far from our dreams. Many of us who have followed the hard disciplines of spiritual quest have found moments where our sense of separateness has fallen away. And even without those disciplines of attention, many, I think most of us have experienced some intimation of our belonging to some greater; that we are in some very real way all connected. In our liberal spiritual way this has often been noticed in a walk in the woods. But I’ve also heard reports from people of their noticing the connections while tending to a child, or eating a hot dog, or sitting on a porch and contemplating the starry night. When people stop and consider this for a moment, many had that first intimation of our intimate connection as an adolescent, some even as a child. Talk about the air we breathe.

This is the insight of how we are created, woven actually, out of each other, out of genes and environment. Of how our very existence, and certainly our individuality is the product of many, many events coming together. Everything without exception is connected. This deep knowing of our commonality has been enshrined in our contemporary Unitarian Universalist statement of principals as that assertion we all are part of an interdependent web. Let me say this knowing of connection is the sense of holiness that has called to generations of humanity, and comes to us unbidden, unearned as a free gift of the universe.

Now here’s something that took me years and years to learn. And if I have one thing to proclaim here that might actually be useful, it is this. If we don’t attend to that insight of unity, we will only see our separateness and we are in grave danger of becoming monsters. And if we don’t attend to the wisdom of our differences, we are in grave danger of becoming dreamers without power, useless in this world in which we actually live. But the good thing about our spirituality is that we are called to bring it all together here, right here.

This whole thing is not unlike a coin, perhaps the very coin that Jesus held in his hand for all to see. Besides the tax thing and the dualistic assertion, there is a third view of that story, a minority report from our ancestors. And, I suggest, a more useful one for us. Some commentators point out that every Jew present at that conversation knew that everything belongs to God, period, full-stop. Offering Caesar what is his was in fact offering him nothing.

And more important, most important, our ability to know this one thing, this unity, whether as a vague but recurring dream or with work and grace, always with us as our continuing background, this insight informs how we can gracefully relate in the world. It makes the judgments we must make more in tune, more useful, more likely to be for the good. And in this universe in which we live and breathe and take our being, there is no falling out of it. There is no place that isn’t part of the whole. The real coin is a bit magical. On one side it reads me. On the other side it reads we. And knowing this is that famous turning from greed to giving. It is the discovery of love, the love that will guide us through the hard night.

There has been much made in the last few years about finding a purpose driven life. I’m all for that. I think we need to find our purpose in life. And our tradition gives us some signposts on the way, if we want to avail ourselves of the possibilities. And I hope we do. I hope you do. So much depends upon this.

Here’s a bit of what I’ve gleaned. I suggest we are about an ordinary wisdom. At the foundation of it all for us is the knowing that we, you and I and everything is precious, but also is temporary. However, that’s not the end of it. We belong to something big, vast as the sky. I have no problem with those who call it god, although I would caution against projecting our own human personalities onto that whole of which we are a part. Rather, I suggest, we can most healthily approach it, this big, this vast, this interdependent web of existence, by naming the human emotion we find in seeing the connections: as love. We are called to stand on the side of love.

And something more. You and I, we are the eyes of this love. We see the connections, or we can, if we stop for a moment and look. We can look at each other. We can look at the children. We can look at the lovely and the terrible and the sad. And we can know love. And, most importantly, we are the hands of love. Here’s the conundrum of real life. The universe is perfect as it is. And it can use some improvement. We, you and I, the beings that can see the connections, we have the task of doing the improving. We should start with ourselves, but quickly, to bring that work into how we choose to live in the world.

We started all this by talking about money. Let’s return to that. I suggest a very good place to start the improving is to look at your check register. That casts light on what we’re about more than almost anything. It reveals an embarrassingly detailed account of what we actually are in this world. It can be a harsh self-assessment. But I hope we do not turn away. Use that check register. Make it something holy.

And, more, more: give a little attention to the doing of this world. Help bring that love each of us has experienced in some manner into manifestation. Help to make that invisible, visible. The ways are many, but they all are about what happens in this lived life. Here. Now. No place else.

By coincidence today is our Development and Finance Ministry faire. There’s a bouquet of spiritual practices for you to consider. There’ll be tables where people will explain aspects of our common life you might not immediately see as spiritual practice, as ministry. We still breathe that air which suggests the spiritual is someplace other than here, than in our checkbooks, than in what we choose to do. But here we proclaim a new spirit, a new breath, a new life that shows us how the care of this building and grounds, how our finances and investments, how our Stewardship program, all are actually at the heart of the matter. They are at one with the contemplative practices we offer. They are at one with the social justice ministries we offer. They are, we are, about bringing the wisdom of interconnection into individual lives. I particularly suggest participating in the Stewardship committee as a juicy way to reflect on the meeting of the material and spiritual, of how money and spirit can and should be one thing.

I want to also hold up one other possibility. At 12:15 our Neighborhood Social Justice Committee is sponsoring a forum on Eviction and Foreclosure facilitated by the good folk from Direct Action for Rights and Equality. If you just want to know a little more about this terrible and important issue it will be worth attending. And they’ll offer some opportunities to be involved particularly with the hardest hit in our larger community.

That is also very much what I’m trying to share today.

The bottom line is this: This life is not a dress rehearsal. What you see is what you get. We are called by the love at the center of things to fully engage, to engage with reckless abandon, our deepest selves, each other and this precious, sweet and hurt world. Now I began saying this all boils down to a question. Dear Mary Oliver sings this question right into our dreams. “Tell me,” she whispers into our heart’s ear, “what is it you plan to do/with your one wild and precious life?”

What a question. What will you do with this one, one wild and precious life?

A question worth contemplating.

Amen.

* a friend points out this is not an oxymoron, but rather a pleonasm…

Uncategorized

Previous Post

October 1, 2009

Daido Loori Retires

Next Post

October 5, 2009 Remembering Chief Joseph

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Christmas Carol Abolitionist African-American Ahmadiyya Alan Watts Aldous Huxley Allen Ginsberg Amedkar Jayanti American politics American Zen Anaheim Zen Sangha Anglican Annie Besant April Fool Armageddon Art and Religion artificial intellegence Atheist Awakening B R Ambedkar Barlaam & Josaphat Beatnik Between Bhagavad Gita Bible biography birthday bodhisattva Bodhisattva Precepts Book burning Book of Common Prayer Book of Mormon Brahmo Samaj Buddha Buddhism Buddhist Buddhist Lord's Prayer Butterflies Calendars cartoons cat ChatGPT Chicken Tortilla Soup choices Christian atheism Christian mysticism Christian origins Christian Science Christian Zen Christianity Christianity and Buddhism christmas Christmas Truce Christopher Isherwood Church of Later Day Saints Cinco de Mayo circus covenant critical thinking culture D. T. Suzuki Dalit Buddhism Daniel Defoe Desert Fathers and Mothers dharma talk Dogen Donald Trump Dongshan's Five Ranks Dorothy Day dream Duty Easter ecology Edwin Arnold emptiness Empty Moon Zen Network Episcopal Church Eternal Now Ethics evolution existentialism Faith fantasy Fathers Day film film review fire Five Ranks Folk music food Form and emptiness Four Seals Francis of Assisi Francis Xavier Free thinker friendship George MacDonald Gerald Heard Glenn Taylor Webb God Good Friday Gospel of Gospel of Mark Gospel of Thomas grace Graduate Theological Unioin Graduate Theological Union Guanyin H R Blyth Hakuin Ekaku Hanamatsuri Hanukkah Harada Yasutani Zen Heart Sutra Henry David Thoreau Hermann Hesse Hinduism History and Religion history of religion Holy Spirit home Hospitality Icon Ides of March Isaac Newton Islam Islamic mysticism Jack Kerouac James Luther Adams Jiddu Krishnamurti Joan of Arc Johannes Gutenberg John Donne joke Judaism justice karma kensho King James Bible koan Koun Yamada Kyoto School Lewis Carrol Liberal Christianity Liberal Religion Life Plan Community Liminal literature Literature and Religion Liturgy Lord's Prayer Love Mahatma Gandhi Mahayana Martin Luther King Jr Mary Baker Eddy Mary Magdelene Mary Oliver Mayflower Compact Meditation memories memory metaphor money money and religioin Mormons Mother's Day movie review mysticism mythic Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church New Thought Nichiren Buddhism Nonduality not knowing Omar Khayyam Pacific School of Religion pagan Palm Sunday Passover peace Pentecost perennialism Phantastes Philip Kapleau philosophy Pilgrimage poetry Poetry and Religion politics Prayer Precepts Printing Press prophecy prophetic spirituality psychology Pure Land Queer religion queering religion Quietism Ram Mohan Roy rebirth recipe Relationships and religion religion religion and history Religious syncretism Resistance Retirement Retreat review Rissho Kosei Kai Ritual Robert Aitken Roshi Robert Ingersoll Rohatsu Romani religion Rosie the Riveter saints samadhi SanboZen Sangha Satyagraha science science and reigion science and religion science fiction seminary sermon Sesshin Sex and Religion Shinran Sikh Sikh tradition silence Social Justice Socially Engaged Buddhism Society and religion Soto Zen soul spiritual community spiritual practice Spirituality Sufism Suicide superstition Taoism Television Teresa of Avila Thanksgiving theological schools Theosophy Thomas Merton Time Transcendentalism Transcendentalist Trinitarian Trinity Uncategorized unitarian Unitarian Christianity Unitarian Universalist Universalism Vajrayana Vedanta Walking war Willa Cather William Ellery Channing wisdom women and religion women in religion World Teacher Writing zazen Zen Zen Center Zen inspired retriement zen meditation Zen Precepts Zen women

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does "Malachi" mean in Hebrew?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Strength of the Lord My messenger Holy one The anointed one