Bailout

A Different Kind of Bailout

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 and Matthew 25:31-46

November 23, 2008

Rev. Donna Claycomb Sokol

Mount Vernon Place UMC, Washington



Our Congress has been spending a lot of its time in the bailout business. Last month, the

Troubled Asset Relief Program provided $700 billion to shore up struggling banks and

industries. Through this legislation, over $125 billion has been given to our nation’s biggest

banks while an additional $125 billion has been given to smaller banks and other banking

programs. In addition, over $40 billion has been given to rescue the American Insurance Group.

It was believed that this money would make a difference. Many believed that the bailout of

banks on Wall Street would also help to bailout ordinary people trying to make ends meet on

Main Street. But, nothing seems to be happening yet. Stocks continue to drop. Stores continue

to close. Individuals are still losing their job or finding a hard time getting a job.

The bailout has worked to keep some businesses open, assuring that there will be plenty

of money for expensive executive trips to spas and holiday banker bonuses with more zeros on

the end than most of us make in a year, but there is still need for more.

The big three automakers want a bailout.

Individuals who are doing fine with their mortgages and individuals who have fallen

behind on their payments want a bailout.

Big banks want a bailout and little banks want a bailout.1

Where is our bailout?

Why are you helping them and not helping me?

But what have you done for me lately?

These questions have been asked since time began.

Ezekiel becomes God’s spokesperson while Israel is in exile in Babylon. The Israelites

are in a time not unlike our own – a time of great distress. Earlier, in verse 33, the people have

asked the very question many of us have asked in recent weeks, “how then can we live?”

With everything changing, how then can we live?

With the stock market dropping, how then can we live?

With our homes decreasing in value, how then can we live?

No doubt, the Israelites want a bailout. They very much want to go back to where things

were – to a place of comfort and peace – a place of steady growth and more than enough.

Gordon Matties describes the community to which Ezekiel belongs, “In Ezekiel’s world,

superpower politics and small-scale ethnic nationalism were buttressed by idolatrous practices

that legitimized military alliances, violent crimes, and oppressive economic policies.”

Ezekiel has his work cut out for him. A new day needs to dawn. And, the answer to their

question, “How then can we live?” is not exactly what they were expecting. Quick solutions

cannot be tossed to them just as billions of dollars cannot fix an auto industry that has been

behind for decades. Systemic changes are needed. The people must go back to the core – to the

heart – of who they are – a people whose “identity declares the Lord’s righteousness and justice

among the nations.”2





1

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/106192/Where-Is-Our-Bailout

2

Gordon Matties in the New Interpreter’s Bible, 1153





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Ezekiel is called to bring together that which has been torn apart. Through Ezekiel, God

seeks to bring about restoration and renewal. Exile has been anything but fun. Things have not

been going well. People are wondering where God is and why God has not protected the people.

But, part of the problem lies with the people. The people of God must be transformed so that the

community can be transformed. If the weak are going to be cared for, the spirits of the desolate

raised, and peace created in the land, then the people must change their ways.

Chapter 34 begins with Ezekiel speaking a harsh word of judgment upon the shepherds.

The shepherds have been feeding themselves. They have been taking care of themselves –

growing fat while failing to feed the sheep. They have ruled with harshness instead of caring for

people. And as a result, the sheep have scattered – the people are all over the place.

But God does not leave the sheep scattered and alone. God does not leave the Israelites

hungry and injured. Instead, God provides a plan – a plan to bring about a new kind of king – a

new kind of shepherd.

God himself is coming to search out the sheep. God is going to rescue those who have

been scattered. God is going to bring them together and feed them with the best pasture possible.

God will seek the lost, bring back the strayed, bind up the injured, and strengthen the weak. If

people are willing to obey, then what has been lost – wholeness, blessing and the covenant

relationship – will be rediscovered.

Today is Christ the King Sunday and marks an end to both ordinary time and the

liturgical year. A new year in the church’s cycle begins next Sunday with Advent, the season of

waiting and watching. The official time to get prepared – to be prepared – starts next Sunday.

And yet, our passages assigned by the lectionary this month have given us plenty of food for

thought about how best to wait.

Throughout this month, we have been taught what it takes to be a holy people – a people

set apart – a people who are becoming like Christ. Throughout the month, we have been taught

time and again that it is not about us – but it is about God. It is not about our acquiring more and

more – but it is about making sure that everyone has enough. It is not about our needs – it is

about the needs of our neighbor.

Last night, Craig and I were watching Diane Sawyer’s interview on 20/20 of the woman

who was former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer’s escort. The woman being interviewed is

the woman who Governor Spitzer was arrested for hiring at the Mayflower Hotel. She is now 23

years old, and she told a portion of her story on last night’s program. After she told about the

past, Sawyer asked about her future dreams for marriage and family and the woman said, “I

absolutely hope to be married one day. I hope that someone will come and take all of my broken

pieces and make them whole again.” The young woman is waiting for a man to come and do this

for her – for a man to come and heal all of her brokenness. But Craig immediately turned to me

and said, “She needs Jesus.”

And, Craig is exactly right.

God created us and made us good – each one of us and every living thing. But then we

messed up. We went our own way. We fed ourselves and took care of our own needs. We

became broken people living in a broken world. Things were in dire straights. But God did not

leave us alone. Instead, God sent a bailout. God rescued us from darkness through the gift of

God’s son – one who came and taught us how to live and how to love. He lived a life of binding

up the broken – of reaching out to people who no one else wanted to touch. He brought together

the broken pieces of life and made them whole. And, because of his life, death and resurrection,

he is still binding up our brokenness. Jesus is the only one who can bail us out – bail us out of







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sin, bail us out of brokenness, bail us out of death, and bail us out of darkness. Jesus is the only

one who sees all of our brokenness as something beautiful because it has been redeemed.

So far, the government bailout has impacted those who have much. The government

bailout has been given to big banks, big companies, and big power players. Last week, the

person who was asking for more was an executive who is paid $28 million a year to run one of

our car companies.

What is described in today’s passage is a very different scenario.

In Ezekiel, God, the ultimate shepherd, tells us that he will seek the lost, bring back the

strayed, bind up the injured, and strengthen the weak while destroying the fat and the strong,

feeding them with justice.

But in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus makes it clear that we are needed for this work – that the

work of God is made manifest through our hands, our minds, our hearts and our actions. We are

called to seek out and help people – not the people who are losing their millions but people who

are hungry, thirsty, naked, alone, sick and in prison. How we treat these people determines not

only whether we are disciples of Christ but also whether we are granted access to the eternal

kingdom. The people who are given access to eternal life are those who have bailed out the

people at the bottom – the hungry, the homeless, the prisoner, the stranger, the lonely and the

sick.

Both of our scripture passages today challenge and convict me. They tell me that

discipleship is not something to be taken lightly. There are expectations placed upon those who

follow Christ – big expectations.

We have plenty of people longing to be our leader. Our current President wants to lead

us. Our new President yearns for us to follow. The Congress believes it has a plan to bail us out;

we simply need to trust them. Plenty of people, businesses and leaders are longing for our

allegiance. But on this day, we hail Christ as King. We proclaim that Christ is the one who is in

control – that Christ’s ways are high above the earth and worth following – that Christ is lord of

all.

But what would it mean for us to not just say that Christ is King – but to really live as

though he is Lord of our lives?

And what would it look like for us as the church to not only proclaim with our lips that

Christ is King but to make sure that everything that we do and say hails Christ as King?

If Christ is King, then we want to be like Christ. And if we want to be like Christ, then

the bailout business belongs not to Congress and those with money but to us – the people of God.

We, too, are in the investment business – we’re in the business of investing ourselves in

the brokenness of this world, trusting that God can use us to make things whole. We are in the

business of investing ourselves in the work of bringing food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty

– recognizing that there are some who are physically hungry and thirsty – people with empty

stomachs that need to be filled – while there are others who are hungering and thirsting for

something that their hefty bank accounts will never satisfy.

We are in the business of visiting the sick and welcoming the stranger – we have the

capacity to bind up one’s brokenness by the ways in which we extend radical hospitality –

recognizing that some of the people who we welcome have been turned away by so many other

people – their jobs, their friends and sometimes even their family.

We are in the business of clothing the naked – just last week we invited you to bring size

large and extra large sweatshirts and sweatpants so that the women at Rachael’s Women’s Center

can be clothed. A portion of what we give to this place goes to clothe young children through







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the Board of Childcare. We also clothe those who have been stripped of their dignity – again,

bringing together the broken pieces until they are whole once more.

We make commitments today – pledging to give of ourselves and our resources so that

Christ’s mercy, love and grace might be shared through this place. We commit ourselves,

offering our specific gifts so that this church might become more like the body of Christ - going

out and visiting the sick, welcoming the stranger, feeding the hungry, giving the thirsty a drink

and seeking out the prisoner. We offer our talents, trusting that the gifts God has given to us can

bring about healing and wholeness through the ministries of this church. We offer our time,

trusting that God can use our willingness to serve – to serve in this place doing work that can be

seen and work that is so often unseen but when not done, leaves gaps that are very noticeable.

We give – because God has given us so much and we are called to let our lights shine.

And, we give financially to this place – believing that if Christ is King of this church then

this church will continue the struggle of trying to faithfully discern how best to play a role in

meeting the needs of this community, this city and this world. If Christ is King of this church,

then what we put in the plate Sunday after Sunday will enable us to feed the hungry, clothe the

naked, welcome the stranger, visit the sick, and go to the prison because followers of Christ

naturally do these things – these things are at the heart of who we are as children of the King.

And, if Christ is King of our lives, then Christ is also king of our homes, our families, our

resources and our checkbooks.

Thanks be to God for the church’s willingness to invest in people – to see through our

brokenness and journey with us to wholeness.

Thanks be to God for the church’s willingness to bail people out – to welcome those who

no one else would welcome and to forgive those who no one else would forgive.

Thanks be to God for the ways in which we are fed in this place – at a table where we

remember and give thanks for the bailout provided through the life, death and resurrection of

Jesus – and at tables down the street and in our community where we realize that we are all

hungry – whether we live in a shelter or a home that is our own.

Thanks be to God for God’s bailout – a different kind of bailout.

Amen.









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