"When Joy is Gone", September 21, 2025

 

When Joy is Gone
Based on Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
By Rev. Jamie Green Klopotoski
First Baptist Church, Gloucester
September 21, 2025

 

I have to warn you, in this sermon I will be talking about kids killed by guns.

It’s not a happy topic.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, 172 children under the age of 12 have been killed by gun violence so far this year.

You may have heard the news of a popular adult man who was shot and killed last week in Utah. I heard so many calls on social media to “say his name”. But what about these 172 names? Young kids all across the country shot and killed. 172 kids no longer riding their bikes, eating macaroni and cheese, playing Hide and Go Seek, dressing up as Spiderman for Halloween. In the data, 44 children have not been named. May they rest in peace, may God know their names as God knows the sparrows and counts the number of hairs on our heads. The data does list the names of the other 128 children killed by guns.

 I want to say THEIR names.

From Alabama

Adonis Kane Tucker

Alex Reese

Jayden Howell

Kinsley Smith

From Arizona

Layla Ramos

From California

Jaden Mosley

Josiah Divodi-Lessa

From Connecticut

Stacey Glasgow

From the District of Columbia

Honesty Cheadle

From Florida

Blessyn Lightner

Breon Allen

Chosen Morris

Emery and Nova McKenzie

Xion Solomon

Yanelis Munuguia

From Georgia

Bryson Murray

Dior Scott

Emily Grace Mayo

Jayce Davis

Jeremiah George

Jianna Jones

Kylen Powell

Peyton Brielle Roberts

From Illinois

Darnell Wicks

Demeir Douglas

Josiah Hooker

Kh'aden Johnson

From Indiana

Alayna, Aurorah, and Ava Payne

Harmony Anderson

Javarius Bickett

Jayvinvontae Keion-Ray Carter

From Kansas

Davion Gunter

From Louisiana

Adalynn Mae Sadler

Amy Bohne

Emouri Woodard

Leelani Brooks

Ryliee Watson

From Maine

Jasper Smith

From Maryland

E'vaa Mikel Sewell

Kimana Sharieff

Micah Comegys

From Michigan

Alonzo Mallett III

Rylee Love

Samir Grubbs

From Minnesota

Amir Lamar Atkins

Fletcher Alexander Merkel

Harper Lillian Moyski

Kinsley Prinsen

From Mississippi

Josiah Williams

Keldrick Duncan

Zameria Jones

From Missouri

Aubreeyonna Muex

Charlotte and Jeffrey Hatcher

Jordan Neal

Marshaun Futrell Jr

Ophelia Daniels

From Montana

Stellan and Heidi Idunn Olson-Hartley

Samuel Aurther Moore

From New Hampshire

Blake Byrne

Parker and Ryan Long

From New Jersey

Elijah Rodriguez

Evangelina Velasquez

Yasin Morrison

From New Mexico

Leon Garcia

From New York

Anne Mancuso

Jeremiah Huff

From North Carolina

Avah Gracelynn Bullock

Hunter Hatch

Jayce Edwards

Kamarii Patterson

Mianna Roach

From North Dakota

Lokia Jay Lee Walking Eagle

From Ohio

Gionni Jackson

Kaden Coleman

Keilub Paul

Rosalie Martin

From Oklahoma

Elizibeth Feaster

Kenari Windom

Logan Shippy

From Oregon

Grayson, Nora, and Trenton Behee

Liliana Morgan

From Pennsylvania

Connor and Evelyn Swarner

From Rhode Island

Adele and Felix Arruda

From South Carolina

Antonio Kamani Burgess II

Ashley McFarland

Brite Shalom Acoy

Colin

Lavinia Lowe

Samantha Samarel

Zymir Demarco Smith

From Tennessee

Cyprien Argueta Romero

Jamarion Payne

Jeriko Logue Luna

From Texas

Astrid Fung

Daniel Casares

Jrako Castillo

Julian Guzman

Olivia Brooks

Pranish Pradhan

Râmani Sibley

Ta-Kirus Davon Jones

From Utah

Anderson Garcia

Eli Ronan Fox Painter

From Virginia

Emani and Ermais King

King Edmonds

From Washington

Alexia Garcia

From Wisconsin

Daquell Collins

Deon Sargent

Jainadia Little

Jesus Valladares

Michael Meagher

Ralph Taylor III

From Wyoming

Brailey and Olivia Blackmer

Brooke and Jordan Harshman

My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick.

Since my people are crushed, I am crushed;
I mourn, and horror grips me.
O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears,
so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my people!

Oh Jeremiah, me too.

In these words, Jeremiah is expressing deep sorrow, utter grief, and overwhelming despair for the people of Israel. But Jeremiah isn’t just expressing his own grief. Jeremiah, as a prophet, is the voice of God. Imagine these same words spoken by God.

God’s joy is gone, grief is upon God, God’s heart is sick.

Since God’s people are crushed, God is crushed; God mourns.
God weeps day and night for the slain of God’s people!

God has compassion for us. God is with us in our pain and suffering and grief. God holds us as we cry. God cries with us.

In addition to expressing grief, Jeremiah is trying to shake Israel of her complacency. Perhaps more than anything else, Jeremiah is trying to wake the Israelites up. They do not have to live a grief-stricken life forever. They can DO something. Let us hope that Jeremiah’s words can awaken US from OUR slumber.

According to a report from Johns Hopkins University, gun-related injuries are the leading cause of death among children ages 1 to 17.

The reality is that if you have a child between the ages of 1 and 17, if they lose their life this year, it will most likely be because of a gunshot.

Ellen Braaten is a child psychologist who has been advising communities after shootings since 2011. In a recent essay in WBUR’s Cognoscenti, she explained that over the years, as shootings have gotten more common, she has had to let go of some of the reassurances she used to share in order to comfort people, especially the one about adults doing everything they can to keep kids safe. She writes: “We haven’t. We don’t. Whether through our lack of will to elect candidates who will champion gun control or a puzzling deference to a strict interpretation of the Second Amendment, we haven’t protected kids from increased school shootings.”

Ellen’s suggestion to solve the epidemic of gun violence: “We simply take away the guns.” But since in many states, common sense gun laws have not been enacted and likely won’t be, she describes others things that we can do.

She writes, “During this impossible time, I’ve found myself drawn to less empirically driven advice and more existential concepts. How do we find meaning in life when it seems so uncertain? When we can’t control the rules, how do we create and live by our own values? We’re not powerless. We can vote. We can demand gun control, like we demanded civil rights. It won’t be easy or quick. But we can pick this issue and vote exclusively on it. We can be a source of stability. That’s the number-one suggestion I make to parents, but it applies to all of us. Do the things that help you feel stable – the old standbys like exercise, sleep and spending time with loved ones –  and the world will seem more stable. We can make the world a better place by being kind, even when kindness is hard. We can find the words that represent our experience and speak them.

I’ve learned that when the old words no longer work, the answer isn’t to give up. Or stop speaking. Or reflexively scream at the opposition. The answer is to make the language about these issues a reflection of us — our fears, our priorities, our politics and our hopes — in a way that might shape the future. I’ll keep trying.”

Me too, Ellen.

I want to end with the words of The Rev. Dr. Cheryl A. Lindsay. She writes:

“As a church, we are called to be agents of divine healing in the world, even if all we have to offer is our public, unabashed tears.

I pray for a church that is willing to cry publicly for the world’s grief.

I pray for a church that follows in the compassion of Jeremiah and claims connection and belonging with all our poor (hurt, oppressed, marginalized, silenced, discouraged, hopeless) people.

I pray for a church that acknowledges the cries of others in distress and makes them her own.

I pray for a church that processes collective trauma and prays for the capacity to grieve fully and heal within in order to be released as agents of healing in the world.

I pray for a church that responds to the lamenting question, “Is there no balm in Gilead?” with these words: “We have the balm. We bring the balm. We are the balm.””

May it be so. Amen.

"Whose Life Matters?", August 31, 2025

 

Whose Life Matters?
Based on Isaiah 61:1-3 and Matthew 5:3-10
August 31, 2025
Trinity Congregational Church, Gloucester MA

 

I recently saw a meme going around on the internet that inspired this sermon. It was a drawing of Jesus preaching his Sermon on the Mount. Jesus starts with the words “Blessed are the poor”, but then someone in the crowd interrupts him and says: “Actually Jesus, all people are blessed.”  This meme was originally designed as a response to what was happening during the Black Lives Movement. Some people insisted on correcting those who said Black Lives Matter, and instead, would interrupt the narrative with the statement All Lives Matter.

 

All lives do matter. Our faith teaches us that each person is created in the image of God, that each of us has intrinsic worth and value. But when Jesus proclaimed good news to the poor, release to the jailed, sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed, he did NOT mention the rich, the prison-owners, the sighted, or the oppressors. He said “Blessed are the poor”, not “Blessed are All Lives”.

Top of Form

 

Clearly, Jesus believes that all lives matter. But the reality in the world is that all lives are not treated as if they matter. It is a fact that certain groups of humans are valued differently and treated differently. Jesus spoke specifically to the marginalized, to those whose lives did not seem to matter. Jesus knew some people were harassed, helpless, distressed, and dispirited; kicked to the curb; lacked any solid protection from those in power; denied human rights and social dignity; viewed as disposable. So he specifically called out THOSE people as mattering to God.

 

The Gospels and early church leaders demonstrated specific concern for the poor, sick, women, children, slaves, and persecuted racial and ethnic groups. When Jesus read scriptures like the one I read for you from Isaiah, Jesus heard the call for extraordinary concern for those not properly valued as human beings. At the heart of His faith, he recognized the plight of those who were not being well-treated. “Lepers Lives Matter” “Children’s Lives Matter” “Poor Lives Matter.” “Women’s Lives Matter.” “Samaritan Lives Matter.” Undoubtedly Jesus would have proudly proclaimed that “Black Lives Matter.”

 

When one’s life is treated as if it matters, they have access to the basic resources needed to survive and thrive: a warm place to live in a neighborhood with little or no violent crime; access to good, affordable healthcare and education; clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and healthy food to eat.

 

Black people in the U.S. today, just like Samaritans or Lepers in Jesus’ day, do not see evidence that their lives matter, that their perspective matters, that their flourishing matters. For example, black people are less likely to be shown apartments and homes in certain neighborhoods than white people, and more likely to be offered the highest-risk, highest-cost type of mortgage. Black people are more likely to live in segregated neighborhoods with poorer housing stock, failing schools, inadequate municipal services, lower-quality food in stores, more concentrated poverty, and more violence.

 

South African anti-apartheid activist and politician Nelson Mandela once wrote: “It cannot be denied that Black people, globally, are some of the most disenfranchised and oppressed people in the world. We must be specific in redressing that injustice and specifically note the Black Lives Matter. Saying black lives matter does not mean you do not value all lives.  Nobody is saying “only Black Lives” matter, of course all lives matter.”

 

But when Black lives are systemically devalued by society, our outrage justifiably insists that attention be focused on Black lives. When we boldly claim “Black Lives Matter” at this moment, we are intentionally standing up for people whose lives deserve more. By insisting on the intrinsic worth of all human beings, Jesus models for us how God loves justly, and how we, his disciples, can love publicly in a world of inequality. We live out the love of God justly by publicly saying Black Lives Matter.

 

What Mandala said about Black Lives Matter, saying that it does not mean you do not value all lives, got me thinking about another group of oppressed people that it has become unfashionable to support: Palestinians. A recent report published by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (or IPC) confirms a major food crisis in the region, with more than 500,000 Palestinians experiencing famine. This situation is the result of prolonged periods of supply blockades. The Israeli government disputes these accusations and Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, dismisses them as antisemitic prejudice.

 

I want to be clear: supporting the Palestinian people does NOT make you antisemitic.

 

Jewish Rabbi Alissa Wise, the founding director of Rabbis for Ceasefire, said in a statement, “All life is sacred, but Palestinian lives are not treated as such, and that is a blot on our collective humanity. We are here to insist on the sanctity of life of every Palestinian, of every Israeli, of all of us.”

 

She is one of over 1,000 rabbis worldwide who signed an open letter demanding that Israel “stop using starvation as a weapon of war.” 23,500 American Jews, including over 750 rabbis and over 100 Jewish congregations, synagogues, and organizations, have signed a statement titled “Jews for Food Aid for People in Gaza.” More than 35 US rabbis were arrested this summer in demonstrations for Gaza food aid. Jews are speaking up.

 

One of these Jews is Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders, who released this powerful statement directed towards Netanyahu’s claim that it is antisemitic to speak up against Israel in support of Palestinians. He wrote:

 

“It is not antisemitic to point out that Israel has

·        killed 62,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 159,000 – seventy percent of whom are women and children.

·        completely destroyed more than 245,000 housing units in Gaza, leaving more than 1.9 million people homeless – almost 90% of the population

·        obliterated Gaza’s civilian infrastructure including electricity, water, and sewer services

·        annihilated Gaza’s health care system by damaging or destroying 94% of all hospitals in the Gaza Strip

·        destroyed all 12 of Gaza’s universities and 118 of its schools, with hundreds more damaged, leaving 625,000 students with no access to education

It is not antisemitic to agree with virtually every humanitarian organization in saying that Israel has unreasonably blocked humanitarian aid coming into Gaza, creating the conditions in which hundreds of thousands of children face malnutrition and famine.

Antisemitism is a vile and disgusting form of bigotry that has done unspeakable harm to many millions of people. But, please, do not insult the intelligence of the American people by attempting to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies of your extremist and racist government. It is not antisemitic to hold you accountable for your actions.”

 

Palestinian lives matter. The people of Gaza today want life. They want a night without bombing. They want medicine and surgical operations with anesthesia. They want the simplest of life’s necessities: food, clean water, and electricity. They want freedom and life with dignity.

 

Black lives matter. They want equal access to fair housing, well-paying jobs, safe neighborhoods, and good schools. They want to stop being disproportionately stopped by police and killed in the streets.

 

Those of us who are white Christians in America mostly have the luxury of ignoring the realities that Palestinians and black people experience. Over and over, the message is hammered into their heads: You don’t matter. Your well-being doesn’t matter. Your life doesn’t matter. Until we who are white acknowledge these realities, our effectiveness as change agents is limited.

 

We must admit that there are people in this world who are treated as though their lives don’t matter as much as our lives, and then we must focus on changing the equation.

 

Some specific things we can do: we can educate ourselves about both history and present-day reality through reading and other forms of learning. We can be in solidarity with people who are different than us and believe them when they tell us what their lives are like. We can donate money to organizations that support people who live on the margins of society. We can write letters to the editor that get people thinking. We can vote for politicians who acknowledge the reality of the world, are not afraid of talking about it, and are committed to doing something about it. We can join organizations that address these issues. We can say out that Black Lives Matter, that Palestinian Lives Matter, and we can encourage others to do so.

Anything we do that invites more people to be part of the solution is an act of living on the side of love.

 

If you are already doing this work, may you be blessed in it. If you are ready to do it, may patience and courage be yours. May we all be part of the building of a future in which black lives matter, and Palestinian lives matter, and transgender lives matter, and immigrant lives matter.

 

Blessed are those who lives are not treated as if they matter, for they will be loved and cared for and included in God’s kingdom. And one day, may that kingdom be here on earth.

 

Amen.

 

 

"Kill Them with Kindness", August 10, 2025

 

Kill Them with Kindness
Rev. Jamie Green Klopotoski
Luke 6:27-36
August 10, 2025
First Baptist Church Gloucester

 

I just got back from a three-day, two-night tour with the Gloucester Student Band. 33 student musicians in grades 4-12 and 17 adults just barely packed into a carpool bright and early Tuesday morning and headed off to the Worcester Area for 4 performances. I have been planning this trip for months. But something I have learned from doing trips like these over the years is that no matter how much planning you do, inevitably something will come up and plans will have to change. Usually, it’s like one or two unforeseen circumstances that make you have to pivot. But I felt like on this trip, all I did was pivot!

A few examples:

We were supposed to play at an outdoor venue called the Pappas Recreation Complex in Auburn on Tuesday night at 6pm. All summer, they also host free outdoor concerts on Thursday nights. Well last Thursday it rained, and the rain date for the Thursday concert… was Tuesday. The band that was booked was completely inflexible and unwilling to work with us, so the best we could do was play at 4pm instead of 6pm. But that meant our 3pm concert at the Overlook Retirement Community would have to be pushed back as well. They were able to squeeze us in, though sadly not in their gorgeous auditorium as originally planned but instead in their dining hall, at 11am, but that meant we would have to leave Gloucester an hour earlier than originally planned. Because all the time changes were so last minute, both of our Tuesday concerts had very small audiences. Also, the sound guys setting up for the 6pm concert in Auburn were upset with us for being there at 4pm and were honestly kind of mean. But my students took the high road, handled it all beautifully, with no complaining, and they played their absolute best. We all focused on being kind. Saying please and thank you and being super polite and respectful, even if others around us were not.

We were also booked to play the National Anthem at Thursday’s WooSox game. The original plan was to meet in their third-floor board room to put together our instruments, leave our cases, and warm up a little. But that room ended up getting booked last minute for another group, so they had to squeeze us into this other space… a very small conference room in the middle of a sea of cubicles full of people trying to get their work done. The kids had to be super quiet, not talk or play their instruments, and we had no place to warm up or practice. Again, we focused on being polite and respectful, saying excuse me, and sorry, and thank you. When we finally got on to the baseball field, the band played the National Anthem without having played anything that day, and it was the best they have ever sounded. It all worked out. Even with all the twists and turns and hiccups and last-minute pivots, our 2^nd annual GSB summer tour was a huge success.

And I really think that kindness was the key to our success. It would have been really easy for me to get angry and yell at the mean people in Auburn, or get upset about the room change at the WooSox game. But that wouldn’t have gotten us anywhere. In fact, it would have make matters worse. Kindness helped us pivot and go with the flow. It really makes a huge difference to walk around in our world with a smile on your face, kind thoughts on your heart, and kind words from your mouth. Even in the midst of the most difficult situations with the most difficult people, kindness is key.

It reminds me of the proverb: "Kill them with kindness." Instead of using aggression, violence, or negativity to defeat your enemies, you should use kindness, compassion, and empathy to overcome them. Kindness can be a powerful tool to neutralize conflicts and overcome adversaries. Tenderness can motivate people to do things that toughness never can.

The phrase “kill them with kindness” dates back to 1590 from William Shakespeare's “The Taming of the Shrew” but the sentiment has been around since at least the time of Jesus. Truly great leaders like Jesus, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, do not drive people with the crack of a whip. They lead people with the warmth of a kind word.

In 1957 at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr preached a sermon called "Loving Your Enemies” with exactly this theme. Here is some of what he had to say:

“” Jesus says, “Love your enemy.” It’s significant that he does not say, “Like your enemy.” There are a lot of people that I find difficult to like. I don’t like what they do to me. I don’t like what they say about me and other people. I don’t like their attitudes. I don’t like some of the things they’re doing. I don’t like them. But Jesus says love them. And love is greater than like. You love everybody, because God loves them.

Hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and so on, it just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love.

Sometime ago my brother and I were driving one evening from Atlanta to Chattanooga. He was driving the car. And for some reason the drivers were very discourteous that night. Hardly any driver that passed by dimmed his lights. And I remember very vividly, my brother looked over and in a tone of anger said: “The next car that comes along here and refuses to dim the lights, I’m going to fail to dim mine and pour them on in all of their power.” I looked at him right quick and said: “Oh no, don’t do that. There’d be too much light on this highway, and it will end up in mutual destruction for all. Somebody’s got to have some sense on this highway.”

Somebody must have sense enough to dim the lights, and that’s the trouble, isn’t it? As all of the civilizations of the world move up the highway of history, looking at other civilizations that refused to dim the lights, they also decide to refuse to dim theirs. And if somebody doesn’t have sense enough to turn on the dim and beautiful and powerful lights of love in this world, the whole of our civilization will be plunged into the abyss of destruction. We will all end up destroyed because nobody had any sense on the highway of history. Somewhere somebody must have some sense. We must see that force begets force, hate begets hate, toughness begets toughness. It is all a descending spiral, ultimately ending in destruction for everybody. Somebody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate.

There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. But there’s something about love that builds up and is creative. If you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem or transform them. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption. You just keep loving people and keep loving them, even though they’re mistreating you. Even if a person is doing something wrong to you. Just keep being friendly. Keep loving them. By the power of your love, they will break down under the load.

I’m foolish enough to believe that through the power of love, people of the most recalcitrant bent will be transformed. We will be able to make humanity better. We will be able to make of this old world a new world. And then we will be in God’s kingdom. We must discover the redemptive power of love, and have the power to love our enemies, to bless those who curse us, to be good to those who hate us, and to pray for those who despitefully use us. Love is the only way. “” Amen Dr. King!

---

With the Gloucester Student Band, I teach music. But I also teach kindness. Even when people are mean to us. Even when things go the wrong way. Even when people make mistakes. Even when we don’t like someone. Kindness is the way.

Sometimes it feels like we live in a mean world. People are harsh, quarrelsome, impatient, shrill, nasty. It’s only human to respond in kind. But Christ requires something different: respond in kindness.

Our enemies might never love us back, they might never show us an ounce of kindness, yet we are called to love them, with no strings attached, with no response expected. We do it because it is the right thing to do. We do it with the faith and hope that our love will make a difference

Dr. King gives some good in advice in his sermon about how to love your enemies.

He says, the truth is that “within the best of us, there is some evil, and within the worst of us, there is some good. When we come to see this, we take a different attitude toward individuals. The person who hates you most has some good in him. Discover the element of good in your enemy. Every time you begin to hate that person, realize that there is some good there. Find the center of goodness and place your attention there and you will take a new attitude. No matter what he does, see the image of God within him, and love him.”

I wish that I had harbored more feelings love toward those guys in Auburn who were mean to us. I didn’t lash out or yell, and I made sure no one else did either, but I definitely was angry and thought some very mean thoughts. It is not easy to share God’s love with mean people. But it is the right thing to do, and it is the only thing that will change the world. When we open the doors of love to even THOSE people, we begin to comprehend how deep and how wide the love of Jesus truly is. I will try harder next time, and I hope you will too.

 

May God give us the strength, courage, and patience to love our enemies, to bless those who curse us, to be good to those who hate us, to show kindness to those who are mean to us. Love is the only way.

Amen.

 

"Greed and Stuff", August 3, 2025

 

Greed and Stuff
By Rev. Jamie Green Klopotoski
Based on Luke
St Paul Lutheran Church, Gloucester
August 3, 2025

 

As soon as I read today’s scripture reading, I knew exactly what I wanted to preach about. Storage facilities. So I set about on a google journey to learn more about them, and I found some interesting facts:

 

Americans spend $44 billion a year just to pay someone to store their extra stuff.

There are more storage facilities than there are McDonalds Restaurants: there are only 13000 McDonalds but over 52,000 self-storage facilities. That’s 2.1 billion square feet of space for people to store their stuff.

 

Then I stumbled upon this great bit by comedian George Carlin, whose comedy I usually don’t like, so I was surprised when I really enjoyed what he had to say about stuff. This was a performance at a charity fundraiser called Comic Relief in 1987. He came out on stage a little late and started his routine by explaining:

 

“I would have been out here a little sooner, but they gave me the wrong dressing room and I couldn’t find any place to put my stuff. And I don’t know how you are, but I need a place to put my stuff. That’s the whole meaning of life, isn’t it? Trying to find a place for your stuff. That’s all your house is. A place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff. Sometimes you’ve got to move. You got to get a bigger house. Why? Too much stuff. You’ve got to move all your stuff, and maybe put some of your stuff in storage. Imagine that. There’s a whole industry based on keeping an eye of your stuff.”

Definitely a funny bit, but it’s also a little depressing to think about. What is our obsession with stuff? I think our culture may have a problem. We are told that to be happy, we need more and more and more stuff, and then we need more and more space to store all this stuff. It’s a never-ending cycle of consumption.

 

Our houses today are larger than ever before. Just after World War II, in 1949, the average new single-family home measured just 909 square feet. Now it averages 2,480 square feet. 100 years ago, most homes didn’t have a garage. But now the trend is, to build two, three, or even four car garages. But many of those garages are not used to park cars, they are used as storage spaces for extra stuff.

 

When our houses run out of room to store our stuff, and our garages run out of room to store our stuff, then we rent units at storage facilities to store more stuff. Even the president, who has a 126-room, 62,500-square-foot mansion with gold-plated sinks at Mar-a-lago, has a storage unit in West Palm Beach.

 

Now, I’m not here to make you feel guilty if you pay to rent a storage unit or if you have an attic or closets full of stuff or if you have so much stuff in your garage that you can no longer park your car. But I am here to get us to think about what Jesus was trying to tell us in today’s parable about greed and stuff. 

 

The sequence of events leading up to the telling of this particular parable are important. After preaching to the crowds about love and acceptance and forgiveness, through stories like the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus was invited to eat dinner at the home of a Pharisee. Jesus sat down at the table, and the Pharisee was surprised that Jesus did not rcomplete the ritual washing of hands before the meal. Jesus uses the opportunity to point out the hypocrisy of the Pharisees: they religiously clean the outside of their bodies while inside they are full of greed and wickedness. In modern vernacular, that was a sick burn!

 

After this encounter, Jesus returned to the crowds, which had been increasing, and then shared a private word with his disciples to warn them about the Pharisee’s hypocrisy and abuse of power. Jesus gives them a lovely set of instructions about how they are to rely on the Holy Spirit when they face opposition and he encourages them not to be afraid.

 

Then all of a sudden, a stranger from the crowd interrupts them. The unnamed “someone” says, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

 

I don’t think this stranger had been listening to Jesus at all! He didn’t hear any of Jesus’s messages of love and generosity and peace, instead he had been ruminating on his own financial woes, and the moment there was a lull in Jesus’ speech, he burst in with this inheritance question. Jesus recognized what was going on here and immediately offers a warning about greed. “Watch out!” He says. “Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have.” and then he tells what we now call the parable of the Rich Fool. 

 

“The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop. He said to himself: ‘What can I do? My barn isn’t big enough for this harvest. Oh I know: I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll gather in all my grain and goods, and I’ll say to myself, Self, you’ve done well! You’ve got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!’ Just then God showed up and said, ‘Fool! Tonight you will die. And your barnful of goods—who will enjoy it now?’

 

And then comes the moral of the story. Here are three different translations of it that I really love:

From The Message translation: That’s what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God.

From The Voice translation: This is how it will be for people who accumulate huge assets for themselves but have no assets in relation to God.

From the New Living Translation: A person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.

 

Biblically speaking, the word ”fool” refers to anyone who fails to notice how the world works. A fool is someone who ignores the reality that there is a world that exists outside themselves and that God exists within and among this world: that in the face of your neighbor is the face of God; in the face of the poor is the face of God; in the face of humanity is the face of God.  

 

The rich man is Jesus’s parable is a fool because he is interested in no one but himself.

Notice how he talks to himself, he plans for himself, he congratulates himself. His favorite adjective is “my.” My grain, my barns, my crops. He is not interested in sharing with those who have less. He doesn’t even see or acknowledge that there are people who have less. He has lost sight of both God and God’s  face amongst the least of these. By hoarding the excess of grain the fields have produced, this man was not a life-sharer or life-giver but someone who deprived others of life.

 

He is also a fool because he did not realize that he didn’t grow all that grain by himself. He needed God to send down the rain to water the plants. He most certainly had works or servants to help him harvest the crops. And he relied upon many others in his community – blacksmiths, woodworkers, and farmers of other crops to provide for all his needs. There is no such thing as a self-made man. 2000 years ago and especially today, we rely on others to survive and thrive, which makes it even worse when people are selfish.

 

This parable is about the selfish pursuit of wealth and hoarding of resources at the expense of and exclusion of others. But it doesn’t just apply to billionaires. It applies to all of us, it warns all of us about greed. One does not have to be rich to have a propensity to use first person singular pronouns: Me, My, MINE! When we close ourselves off and lock our doors due to fear, disinterest, or disdain; when we support policies that hurt the poor or impose a litmus test for compassion, we follow in the rich man’s direction.

 

Jesus offers another path. Be rich toward God. Live a life of gratitude and generosity. Seek the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness. Love God, self, AND neighbor. Share, not hoard, your abundance in order to meet the needs of all of God’s creation–material, physical, social, spiritual, mental, and emotional. Because God has been so generous to us, the proper response is to be grateful to God and generous to others. As writer Anne Lamott puts it, “You can tell if people are following Jesus, because they are feeding the poor, sharing their wealth, and trying to get everyone medical insurance.”

 

Jesus provides a cautionary tale to the crowd that resonates especially today in our culture that measures life through the lens of the financial security, that ranks our personal desires over every other consideration,  that expresses outrage and concern over the price of eggs but is largely silent over the building of a de facto concentration camp in Florida, and endless war around the planet, and the continuing abuse of God’s good creation. Jesus’ parable speaks to us in our self-centered, consumer-driven society where there is more stuff available for purchase than at any other time in human history.

Is there a new way of living waiting for us beyond stuff? A place where we can engage in learning, growing, and living with a lesser impact on our planet and more impact on our souls?

Life is more than our possessions. We aren’t taking any of it with us. 100 years from now, either someone else will have your stuff, or it will be rotting in an overflowing landfill of trash. Your stuff doesn’t give meaning to your life. Your life with Jesus gives new meaning to your stuff. It’s not all about me me me, but serving the person next to me. We are called to use what God has given to us- whether comparatively little or a lot - in service to others – providing for families, supporting the work of the gospel, being a blessing to someone who needs help.

 

If you are guilty, as I think we all are, of having too much stuff, here are a few words of advice. First, try to stop accumulating more stuff. Consider what you need and what you actually use, versus what you simply want or desire. Second, try to help others not accumulate more stuff. When you give a gift, consider giving an experience instead of more stuff. And third, as you look around at all the stuff you already have, consider giving some of it away. Declutter your house, declutter your soul.

 

As a dearly beloved child of God, you are rich toward God, you are filled with all of the good things that God gives you in Christ. Let’s not hoard these gifts. Let’s give them all away. Amen.

"Wake Up and Smell the Coffee", July 20, 2025

 

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
By Rev. Jamie Green Klopotoski
Based on 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
First Baptist Church, Gloucester
July 20, 2025

 

Have you ever stopped to think about the number of people it requires to get a cup of coffee like this into your hands? The answer is: a lot! Here’s a short list.

 

Farmers who plant, harvest, pick, and sort the coffee beans. Workers who process, dry, mill, and roast the beans. Artists who design the packaging. Captains and the crew of planes, trains, ships, and trucks for distribution, and logistics companies to plan all the routes. Business owners, CEOs, HR staff, Marketing professionals, and store managers to run coffee shops. Baristas and cashiers to serve and sell the final product. Health inspectors and food safety specialists to make sure the coffee is safe to drink. Mechanics, engineers, and factory workers who make the trucks for the truck drivers, the farming equipment for the farmers, the roasting and brewing equipment to turn coffee beans into coffee, and the packaging supplies like cups, lids, and labels for serving the coffee. Software engineers who design the point of sale systems.

 

Zooming out, we need schools and teachers to educate all these people. School committees, city councils, mayors, other politicians who help run and fund the schools and the cities. Daycare centers to take care of everyone’s children. More factories and retailers and tons of other workers to make everyone’s clothing, furniture, food, refrigerators, and cars. Architects and construction workers to build factories and everyone’s houses. Building inspectors to make sure all the buildings are safe. Road crews to pave the roads. Mechanics to fix the cars. Electricians and plumbers to enable electricity and running water. Miners, refineries, utility companies, and solar panel factories to create fuel to run everything, whether solar or electric or gas or oil. Material scientists to help manufacture steel, wood, iron, rubber, and plastic. Banks, credit card companies, economists, payroll companies, the U.S. Mint, and the Federal Reserve to make sure people have a way to purchase coffee and that workers get paid. Doctors and nurses and medical staff to take care of everyone. Sanitation workers to clean up after everyone.

 

All those people (and more!) just for this one cup of coffee. And if you like cream and sugar in your coffee, that requires even more ingredients, farms, equipment, and workers. Without all of these people, this cup of coffee would not exist.

 

And it’s not just coffee. It’s absolutely everything in our entire lives. I’ve tried thinking of things that I have made all by myself, that needed absolutely no one else, and there are none! I got close with gardening – but even if you harvested your own seeds and collected your own rainwater - you certainly didn’t make the plastic bucket used to collect the water or your metal gardening tools to till the land.

 

There is no such thing as a completely independent self-made person. No matter how successful we are as individuals, we need to realize that we did not become successful by ourselves. Anyone who claims they worked their way to the top all by themselves is mistaken; our entire interconnected and interdependent society was required to get them where they are today. The richest among us didn’t get rich by themselves; they didn’t make the cars they used to drive to work, or pave the roads they took, they didn’t manufacture the computers or phones they used, they didn’t drive the garbage trucks that disposed of their company’s waste, or pump their building’s septic tanks. They didn’t even make the cup of the coffee they picked up on their way to work.

 

Our very lives depend on each other. We are interconnected and interdependent. We cannot and do not do this thing called life by ourselves. If we could begin to understand this interconnectedness and how much we rely on other people to do anything, then maybe we could start to break down the huge divides that exist in our society. If we truly started to think of each other as interconnected with everyone else whom we live with on this planet, then maybe we would love one another and look out for one another. We need all of the individual parts of God’s interconnected creation to work together in order to do anything, in order to function as a society, in order to survive and thrive.  

 

That was the Apostle Paul’s message in his letter to the Corinthians that we read this morning. Paul had gotten word that the community in Corinth was basically falling apart. People were no longer working together, no longer seeing other as equally valuable. They were separating themselves into categories; groups seen as superior were treated like kings and queens, and groups seen as weak were neglected, despised, shamed, and mistreated. The Corinthians were failing to acknowledge that they were dependent upon each other, that they needed each other to prevent their community from falling apart. So Paul wrote them a letter to remind them that each individual in their society was just as important as every other individual, that all members of the community were needed and were equally valued by God.

 

In order to teach them this lesson, Paul used a metaphor, comparing the human body to the body of Christ. Even before the advent of modern science, the Corinthians would have understood that the human body is made up of different parts that all rely on each other and need each other to function. Without an ear, the body couldn’t hear; without an eye, the body couldn’t see. All of the individual parts of the body have a special and important role in making the body work, and all parts should be equally valued, respected, and cared for. It’s the same with the body of Christ, made up of different individual humans with unique gifts, abilities, personalities, languages, and cultures. All of the individual parts of the body of the Christ have a special and important role in making the body work, and all parts should be equally valued, respected, and cared for. Despite our obvious and many differences, we are called to work together in unity, as one body. We are not just individuals living alone in the world, just like the body isn’t one giant ear or eye; we are a part of a complex interconnected system. At the heart of Paul’s message is our interconnectedness: Christ is in all of us and we need all of us, in order to be who we are.

 

South Africans have a word for this: UBUNTU. Ubuntu is a Bantu word used to describe the universal bond that connects all humanity. It is sometimes translated as “I am what I am because of who we all are.” South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu used the idea of ubuntu in his fight against apartheid, which was a law that divided people into groups by race: white, black, colored, and Indian, with whites being the superior group who reigned over the other groups, very similar to what was happening in Corinth. Paul used the metaphor of the body to teach interconnectedness; Desmond Tutu used the concept of ubuntu. 

 

Both Paul and Desmond Tutu wrote that if we realized we were interconnected with everyone else on the planet, then our actions would change. We would bless others if we realized we have also been blessed. We would be more giving to others if we realized how much we have been given by others. We would care more about each other and treat everyone with dignity and respect if we realized how much we needed each other. We would always look out for one another, because, as Paul wrote, “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it” but “If one part is honored, every part shares in its joy.” Desmond Tutu wrote, “What you do affects the whole world. We are diminished when others are humiliated, diminished when others are oppressed, diminished when others are treated as if they were less than who they are. But when you do good, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.”

 

Desmond Tutu tells a story about what he considers to be one of the most formative experiences of his life. When he was a very young child, he saw a white man tip his hat to a black woman. Such a gesture was completely unheard of. The white man was an Episcopal bishop; the black woman was his mother. He said that with the tipping of that hat, a simple gesture of respect and love, his reality was changed. Just one small seemingly insignificant action had a huge impact on him. He learned equality and justice and morality in that one action, and he dedicated his life to bringing equality and justice and morality to South Africa. Imagine what might have happened if that action had been negative, if the white man had spit at or insulted his mother, Tutu might have been full of anger or resentment or hate instead of love. That one action could have affected the entire trajectory of his life, it could have affected the future of South Africa! Every small and seemingly insignificant action we take and every word we speak matters, because we are all interconnected.

 

Without our interconnected society, without farmers and factory workers and trash collectors, we wouldn’t have anything, including our morning coffee. I hope that fact changes our attitudes.

 

For example, maybe we can empathize with the Union of Trash Collectors from Republic Waste Services who are on strike, fighting for improved healthcare, retirement benefits, job security, better working conditions, fair promotion opportunities, and pay increases that reflect the essential nature of their work and the company's profitability.

 

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said, “Our members are everyday Americans performing essential services across our communities, but Republic is unwilling to offer workers good wages, decent benefits, or a fair contract. The American public needs to understand that Republic Services and its overpaid, corrupt executives own this strike. Their greed is forcing trash collectors and waste haulers across the country out into the streets. We don’t want this garbage piling up. We want to return to work. But we refuse to be exploited.”

 

Victor Mineros, Director of the Teamsters Solid Waste and Recycling Division, said “Republic Services must come to its senses and end this strike with a strong offer for our members, a [fair] contract for every single Teamster who does the real, gross, unforgiving, and brutally hard work that these executives would never pretend to do.”

 

All people in our interconnected society deserve to live safe, happy, heathy, productive lives. All people in our interdependent world deserve our respect, kindness, and love, whether CEO, truck driver, coffee shop barista, or trash collector.

                       

Maybe the next time you are waiting in line at Dunkin’ Donuts, you will practice patience and kindness, and smile at the barista. Maybe that smile will be like that tip of a hat in South Africa, and create a spiral of goodness. Maybe the barista will end her shift not feeling so stressed out, and go home to her kid and spend valuable time with them, and then that child will go to school the next day ready to learn and succeed and one day grow up to develop a cure for cancer. Our whole world is interconnected, every action we take matters. We need each other. Ubuntu. I am what I am, you are what you are, we have what we have, because of who we all are.

 

May it be so. Amen.