Adventures in Big Wheeling

My father-in-law refers to people who move in certain circles as "Big Wheels." His best friend was sort of an inveterate salesman type who could keep up the banter with just about anyone, and as he owned his own business often got in on some high society events.  My father in law would sometimes just refer to his buddy as "Big Wheel," or sometimes just "Wheel." Recently, because I have fallen into the company of some folks in the community who have been working the political game on behalf of charitable organizations, I have been invited to take part in some gatherings as a part of the faith community.  This is an interesting phenomenon to me, because my church congregation is not large, nor influential.  I am not prone to "Big Wheel," behavior myself, as "networking" or perhaps you might call it "politicking," rather pushes my introversion into the red. I have learned to get up and talk to groups of people, I have learned to listen and dialogue with people, but in a room of people with their business cards in hand and intentions on making valuable connections on their minds, I'm decidedly the "littlest wheel."
Perhaps, just perhaps, this is why I keep finding myself invited to these things, to give my little speeches, three or four minutes at most (which takes a lot of work if you know anything about how I usually preach). Maybe it's because I am sort of willing to get out of the way and put something else out there, maybe it's just because people are getting to know me and know that I will show up for these things.  I don't honestly know, and I don't really care, I just know how to keep showing up.
On Monday I had the chance to meet with a group of non-profit leaders in Charles County for an audience with US Senator Ben Cardin.  As of this writing he is the Biggest Wheel that I have ever had a meaningful interaction with.  I suppose that seeing President Bush the Elder and meeting Joe Paterno on the Mall at Penn State might be bigger, but for this one, I had an audience, he was there to listen to what we had to say. I have given politicians a bad time here on this blog at times, but I have to tell you, when you see one in full function, it is rather impressive.  He used humble humor and exuded a sense that he really cared about what was happening here. He remembered names really quickly, he picked out points from what people said and seemed to digest what their issues really were.  I was impressed, but not awestruck, I understand that a lot of what politicians do is calculated to grab a room and make people feel important, but I can see how many people come to truly believe that even bad politicians are earnest and sincere folk.  As far as it goes, I came into the meeting with a generally positive feeling about the Senior Senator from Maryland, most of what I have seen and heard from him in his professional capacity sort of jives with what I feel is important. So I was not coming to this as an adversary, but I was trying to come as a prophet, which sometimes might be the same thing, but not necessarily.
Most of the people at the table had some sort of "ask," they had some concern about funding or legislation that affected their charitable work.  They also had well scripted presentations.  I had one too, one that I had worked on for the better part of two days, sort of honing and refining, which I purposefully left on my desk when I left the office to go to the event.  My reasoning for leaving my carefully prepared, exactly four minute, speech at the office is the same reason I do not bring my written manuscripts or even my notes into the pulpit with me anymore: leaving room for the Spirit to work through me. It gives me space to read the room, and address the audience fully.  Since I was sort of coming from a different angle than the rest of the room, I decided to do what I do and preach just a little, not a full blown sermon, just something that I hope could function as a sort of prophetic injection.  Since I had been given an audience with a Big Wheel, I figured I might as well take advantage of the moment.  Here is the script of what I prepared, which is slightly different from what I actually said, but covers the major themes:

I am speaking for the “faith community,” not that I am really qualified to do that.  After all the faith community encompasses Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and more variations of Christianity than I can name. So I can’t really claim to speak for everyone, but at the simplest core of what it means to have faith is the belief that we are connected to one another and to something greater than ourselves and our self-interest. My particular faith is centered on a Palestinian Jewish Rabbi named Jesus, who was labeled a troublemaker by the authorities of his day and put to death by an Empire that bears a striking resemblance to our own nation.  The statement that Jesus, not Caesar, was Lord, and giving him the title of Christ, was a political statement that caused persecution for many of his early followers.  History’s long course has brought us to a place where even those people of faith who do not call Jesus Lord or ascribe divinity to him as Christians do, recognize this itinerant preacher, Jesus of Nazareth, as a wise teacher who spoke the truth.
Jesus talked to people in parables because often times the plain truth was just too much to handle.  I don’t have time to tell a good parable so I’m just going to blitz through one of his (Matthew 20: 1-16).  There are workers who need jobs, they’re up early they’re waiting to get hired and they do, and they agree to work for a fair day’ s wage, a denarius, which in Greek was the definition of a living wage, it was “enough.” (Which is itself an important concept that perhaps we could talk about if I had more time) They start early and they work all day.  Later there are more, who also are hired and given the same wage, still later there are even more and they all get the same wage.  The ones who worked more are angry with the landowner, because they feel he has done something unfair. The point of the parable is to show how ridiculous it is for those who are blessed with “enough” whatever that is, to be angry with those who got “enough” without working as hard as they did. You know this is the point because the vineyard owner makes a point of paying the last first, thus displaying his decision that everyone gets paid equally.
Some apply this to the idea of Salvation, and if I were to use that interpretation here, speaking to a representative of civil government, I would be out of line. I do not expect the principalities and powers to ever endorse my theology.  As with many of Jesus’ parables, there is a political as well as a spiritual component to the message.  There is a critique here of a social order that was allowing those who were already wealthy and influential to continue to take more and more, while those who were last and least literally had to starve.  That’s why Jesus hides these messages in parables, because saying what he is saying outright would get him stoned or crucified. I’m going to say this outright, because in a room full of do-gooders, I’m preaching to the choir.  Poverty is a sin, but being poor is not.  A society that simply accepts poverty as a “necessary evil,” is all the same accepting evil.  But it goes farther than that.
 I think that the habit we have of disdaining the poor and pushing them further down is a sin that we disguise as virtue.  We invent all sorts of reasons, denying the actual sociological facts, to tell ourselves that poor people can just “work harder.” I’m not asking you for anything in particular Senator, I don’t even really know what to ask for, other people in this room have better ideas than me.  I believe that when Jesus said, “the last shall be first and the first shall be last,” he was giving us a hint about how we need to treat each other here and now. I know that the other folks in this room, are working to try and help people who have fallen behind and slipped through the cracks, but we could really use some help from those who have climbed even further up the ladder to the seats of power.  Know that what Jesus was really saying about he first being last, isn’t a punishment, it is hope, that those who rise and succeed and win will not forget that those who struggle are their brothers and sisters as well.