It's not business; it's only personal!

I took a week off from "regular" preaching last week to bless the pets and then jump in the pond (sure, you can email me and ask!). We're back at the church this week for worship and wonder!

4th Sunday after Pentecost

I Kings 21:1-21a

Acts 7:36-8:3

It’s not personal; it’s strictly business.

Michael Corleone didn’t take it personally when killing Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo.

Did anyone ask Sollozzo? Or his family?

In today’s reading, Ahab wanted to expand his holdings. It wasn’t enough that he had placed his palace on a very large plot of land in Jezreel, one of the most fertile valleys in the Middle East. He wanted more, and thought that the world would simply give it to him.

Land was simply a birthright, only changing hand among family members. There was no real estate market—you’re family’s land was your family’s land. No questions asked.

So just Ahab asking was somewhat offensive. But Ahab was the king and thought that everyone would bow to his every whim, because when Naboth tells him, “no,” he goes off and has the king of all temper tantrums. He is so distraught he can’t function, can’t even get out of bed.

And then we learn who really wears the pants in the family—the ruler behind the throne: Jezebel. It’s not a far stretch to imagine Jezebel as the Michael Corleone of Elijah’s time.

Determined to get what Ahab desperately wanted, she sets up Naboth, promising favor to others if they’ll do her bidding. A series of lies are told and Naboth is found guilty, none too surprising for Ahab (and therefore Jezebel) controls the courts. And so as Naboth is stoned, Jezebel makes sure to send representatives making sure the property is hers, I mean HIS!

And what a plan, a set up! One can only imagine how proud the Godfather would have been with such a sneaky, deceitful, cunning story.

Be careful not to get caught up in the fact that Jezebel is a woman. Because at least for this story, the actions are despicable whether a male or female had planned the atrocities.

After all, for Jezebel it’s not personal, it’s strictly business.

Did anyone ask Naboth? Or his family?

This may not be a culture changing story for us, but it’s the very story the people of Palestine cling to when Israel takes away some land to complete their conquest today. I know we don’t want to take sides, and many good things have come out of our close relationship to Israel.

And besides, it’s not personal, it’s strictly business!

Tell that to the Palestinian family who just lost their land so the Israelis can build a settlement. 

Even in today’s gospel, the Pharisee, the religious insider is incensed when Jesus dare let a sinful woman do so much as humbly anoint Jesus’ feet, drying them with her own hair. How dare he not send her away!

All of the people who are shunned and put aside in our stories today are the poorest, least influential, powerless ones. They are the outsiders, the alien, the maligned and despised.

Might makes right! Doesn’t it?

But then Jesus comes along and says to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Her faith saved her—not her might, not her power, not her beauty, not her strength.

Jezebel would be a hero today, we’d lift her up as an example of the American dream, making gains for herself at any cost. Always reaching for the next acquisition for her empire. Squashing the little guy in the pursuit of wealth, fame, and fortune.

It’s a far cry from an earlier day. Perhaps we would be better to keep in mind the words of Emma Lazarus etched at the base of the Statue of Liberty:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-[tossed] to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Our own ancestors were among those huddled masses, coming here with nothing but the clothes on their back by the boatloads in search of something better. Of course there were thieves and criminals among those numbers, but the majority just wanted something a little better.

God’s reminds the chosen people in Exodus 23 that they too were once aliens; foreigners in a strange land.

In Leviticus 19:33 we hear the law: “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself.”

I’m not going to tell you that there are easy answers to some of the immigration questions of today. What I am telling you is that love MUST be part of the equation.

Because who is our neighbor? Our neighbor isn’t just the one who thinks like us, talks like us, and believes like us. Our neighbor is also the alcoholic with no hope, the crack head in the continuing downward spiral, the non-traditional family doing their best to be loving and responsible, the illegal alien who just wants to be able to feed his family, the abuser who continues the lessons she learned from her parents, the abused whose silent cries we don’t hear. 

                    

We may just walk on by, turn a blind eye, let someone else take care of it. But really, we’d go to those neighbors if we had more time, knew the right words to say, had the proper training. When we ignore them it’s not personal, it’s only business. There are so many other things to do. Maybe someday we will help.

But for God, it’s not business, it’s strictly personal.

It’s always personal for God. Good thing too, because maybe in a quest for quantity over quality, God might have skipped over you. But God doesn’t do that, instead he gives us the power to become the children of God. What is this power? It’s not the ability to dominate. It’s not ignoring the needs of others to simply reward ourselves with more and more. It’s the ability God gives us to love one another and care for one another.

God’s power isn’t to be collected, making sure we have more. God’s power is ours to give away—to lift others needs above our own. God gives us the ultimate example of this power. He shared his only Son with us, even letting him die for us on the cross. Power, given away to us that we might live forever.

And if so, are we ready to put ourselves on the line, step out of our comfort zones, sacrifice a little pride or probably more accurately get beyond our stubbornness? These are the things we must do to properly share resurrection power.

Because someone, somewhere, either directly or indirectly, shared the power with you. It’s important to remember those who shared God’s love with us, awkwardly telling us the best and most important story of their life. It’s important to think of the model given by that parent or neighbor or friend who was alongside you as you were washed in the waters of baptism, teaching you the story of a brother named Jesus who loved you so much that he died for you. A brother who cares for you so deeply that one day he will return to claim you. Because only when we recognize that Jesus shared the power of the cross with us are we then ready to share it with others.

Remember, for God, it’s not business, it’s strictly personal.

So now we too have the ability to open eyes and hearts to the loving God who so lovingly created us and continues to care for us. You know the last chapter of Matthew, “Go and make disciples of all nations…” And for the amazing opportunity we have to share God’s love, how else can we respond except to go in peace and serve the Lord?

THANKS BE TO GOD!