September 19th

Twenty-fifth Sunday Cycle C

Amos 8:4-7: Psalm 15:2-4b,5: 1 Timothy 2:1-8: Luke 16:1-13

 

 

The final set of primary elections have been decided and the candidates for the mid-term election in November are known.

 In the seven weeks between now and the November election we will be bombarded by television and radio ads, direct mail campaigns, robo-calls, get-out-the-vote efforts, and plain old-fashioned hand-shaking as candidates show up at every conceivable venue in an effort to court the vote.

Candidates in the United States, and their respective parties, will spend millions and millions of dollars on campaigns.

Outside special interest groups often may spend more than the candidates themselves in support of or in opposition to a particular candidate.

While we may dislike the proliferation of attack ads, and wish they didn't exist, the fact is that from the candidates point of view, these ads are effective—which is why we see so many of them.

 

What is often described as anger in the electorate this year puts incumbents at risk and propels newly minted candidates through the primaries.

The anti-incumbency feelings are equal opportunity players, engulfing both Democrats (like Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania) and Republicans (such as Lisa Murkowski of Alaska).

Like the steward who loses his position in this week's Gospel, no one is safe!

And like the steward in this week's Gospel, each side is looking for the right bargaining chips that will ensure their future success.

Each party weighs its options imagining that an attack ad against President Obama or one against Rep. John Boehner will win the day for their side.

In the meantime, projects like FactCheck.org, part of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, try to uncover the truths and the untruths in each party's political advertising.

 Even their nonpartisan work meets with criticism and attacks.

Jesus' words in the Gospel point to the problems inherent for the Christian in trying to determine how to respond when it is time to vote:

"For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light" (Lk 16:8).

But that doesn't mean that we Christians should abandon the political process or even suggest that it is so corrupt that it should be scrapped.

We must be part of it and we must approach it with as much integrity as we can muster.

Our Church tells us it is a moral imperative that we participate.

No one would ever accuse Amos of being a soft and cuddly prophet.

 He was among the most brash and uncompromising.

His sense of justice and of faithfulness to the Lord was unyielding, and he did not hesitate to call out the leaders of ancient Israel for their idolatry and their oppression of the poor.

From his perspective, the leaders were unjust stewards because they had turned away from God's path and sought their own comfort.

Christians may not have all the money that political parties are ready to spend in an attempt to access power—whether to keep it or to get it—at the local, state, and national levels.

But we do have our faith, and our commitment to love.

As we decide how to vote in the weeks to come, we must first be guided by that, and not by the ads that seek to sway us.

We must not be bought off with promises one way or the other in the same way that the unjust steward bought off his master's creditors with new promissory notes.

We must first be true to God.

And that means being part of the process.