The Unjust Steward: Wealth, Poverty, and the Church Today

The following post is a draft chapter of a larger project focusing on all the times money is referenced in the events surrounding Jesus' arrest, crucifixion, death and resurrection. From Jesus' driving out the money changers from the Temple, to Judas' betrayal, and even the way the resurrection is later understood as a release from debt, money - and economic metaphors - are interwoven throughout the Gospel accounts of these cataclysmic events. My hope is to re-read the passion and resurrection as "a money story." The last week of Jesus’ life began with fanfare and songs of praise.  At the small, Spanish-speaking Episcopal church I attend in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Palm Sunday typically looks a bit like this : on that morning, a group of parishioners gather on the front steps of the church to hear the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We have to strain our ears to understand the Gospel readers over the traffic sounds of 4th avenue Brooklyn. Fr. Francis

This sermon was preached at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Fairfield, CT on October 22, 2023.  Good morning, St. Paul’s. First and foremost, I want to say ‘thank you’ to you and to Fr. Curtis for this invitation to preach and speak today. It is always an honor and joy to get to go and be with a community of Episcopalians and share - or, rather, try to share - a word of Good News, particularly in the midst of challenging days. And, to be sure, these are very challenging days. If you are at all like me, you probably spent this past week listening to news of violence and war. You may have listened to first-person accounts of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel, or interviews with Palestinian civilians trying to escape Gaza, and you likely saw images and videos of violence and destruction that are hard to forget. Just yesterday, for instance, as I was packing for this visit, I listened to an interview with an Israeli mother desperately searching for her 23 year old son / and I recalled t

This sermon was preached at St. Mary's in West Harlem on June 25, 2023.  Good morning, St. Mary’s. Thank you for this invitation. It is truly an honor to be back here in this holy sanctuary and especially to be back on Pride Sunday. St. Mary’s holds a special place in my heart as it is the parish through which I joined The Episcopal Church back in 2005 and I carry a lot with me from this place. Or at least I thought I did. Coming here this morning, I realized that I’ve been misremembering St. Mary’s mission statement for some time now. Whereas St. Mary’s mission statement is the “be not afraid” church, at some point over the past twenty years I refashioned it in my mind into the “We are not afraid church.” A small but crucial difference. Either way, what I’ve always liked about St. Mary’s mission is that it has never claimed to be the “I am not afraid” church. If you know me, you know that I could never actually live into such a mission statement. I listen to way too much news and

This bilingual homily was preached at the joint Easter Vigil for San Andres and All Saints Park Slope on April 8, 2023.  Easter began in darkness. It began first with Jesus’ mother and his friends experiencing sorrow, bewilderment, and grief. The events that led up to Easter morning are as familiar as they are tragic: a friend betrayed another for thirty pieces of silver; the political and religious authorities scapegoated a rising leader; an innocent man was blamed and crucified, and his friends and family were left to suffer in silence. These events occurred two millennia ago but they also happen still today. We know this is the way the world works. We know this is how people work. But this is not the way that God works. And so tonight, on this Easter vigil, we gather first in darkness, to retell some of the most ancient stories about the way that God moves in the world. In the beginning, we hear how God created light out of darkness, bringing forth life and hope from nothing. We t

Homily preached at Holy Apostles NYC on March 26, 2023 .  It is an honor to be here this morning at the Church of the Holy Apostles. Holy Apostles is a place with a long history of living out Jesus’ call to ministry at the margins and, of course, of feeding the hungry.  As someone who has lived in New York since 2004, I have had the privilege of visiting Holy Apostles on multiple occasions. Around 2008, I attended Wednesday evening Bible study sessions here led by the Reverend Liz Maxwell. A few years later, during an especially stressful period in my life, I would quietly stop in for the Friday night Shabbat services held by Congregation Beit Simhat Torah, where I listened to the cantor’s beautifully sung prayers and felt the Spirit of God’s peace fill this space. While I haven’t been here in some time, Reverend Hill has shared with me how Holy Apostles’ feeding ministry has grown exponentially since the pandemic. Truly, Holy Apostles is a special place, a beacon of hope in a city whe