Numbers
Wisconsin has somewhere in the neighborhood of 5.6 million residents. As of 2008, there were 50.35 full time equivalent (FTE) Wisconsin state employees for every 1,000 of those residents. At that time, this ratio was about 8.2% fewer state workers per 1,000 than the national average.
The changes to pay, benefits and union access for state workers presently before the Wisconsin State Legislature (which, as of this writing, are likely to pass) will impact a statistically small number of Wisconsin citizens. Some money will be saved, but Wisconsin's budgetary problems will not be solved. Fiscal conservatives will laud the changes as a new era in responsible government. Social liberals and those sympathetic to labor unions will decry the changes as insensitive and regressive.
State workers will go back to work. They will also go back to their calculators and ledger sheets to figure out how to keep their households fiscally sound in the face of significant changes in their take home pay. Like so many of us, they will worry about how to pay their mortgages, put food on their tables, gas in their cars, educate their children, etc. My guess is the legislators who will vote in favor of the changes are people who care about the future of Wisconsin. Undoubtedly, they will go home feeling good about their decisions. Some of them won't lose much sleep over the impact their vote will have on the lives of literally thousands of people. Philosophically, I can understand that "winners and losers" are a part of the political process we call democracy. Theologically, I recognize democracy isn't the means to usher in the Kingdom of God.
This coming Sunday is my turn to preach. If it's an average Sunday at Trinity Church, there will be 30-40 folks at the 8:00 a.m. service and 135-160 people at the 9:30 a.m. service. We'll hear some texts read from Leviticus, 1 Corinthians and the Gospel of Matthew. And my job is to make some connection between at least one of those passages and what's going on in our world and in our lives. Situations like the one unfolding at the Capitol Building in Madison makes this work a particularly daunting task.
I can understand why the temptation to offer a "personal piety talk" instead of a sermon is so irresistible. After all, I'm one voice in a sea of millions. Statistically speaking, the number of people I will be preaching toward is negligible in the broader political schema -- even if everyone present on Sunday agreed on the goodness or the horridness of this week's legislative actions.
And besides, what do I know?
I'm not an accountant, a union organizer, a legislator or a state employee.
I'm a preacher. Plain and simple.
I periodically remind the congregation I serve that
Jesus worked in small numbers -- one person at a time.
I'm pretty sure there's no other way to be the Church.
I'm also realistic, though.
I understand not much
I will say on Sunday will change the numbers --
Either of the "budget repair" or the "pay cut" variety.
But I keep thinking
I have to say something...
Because I can't believe the prophets of Israel and Judah
Would have kept their mouths shut;
Jesus certainly had plenty to say about how we treat one another.
Good Lord, deliver me from timidness and arrogance!
The timidness that convinces me what I might say won't make a difference
And the arrogance that seduces me into thinking something I could say will.
Wisconsin has somewhere in the neighborhood of 5.6 million residents. As of 2008, there were 50.35 full time equivalent (FTE) Wisconsin state employees for every 1,000 of those residents. At that time, this ratio was about 8.2% fewer state workers per 1,000 than the national average.
The changes to pay, benefits and union access for state workers presently before the Wisconsin State Legislature (which, as of this writing, are likely to pass) will impact a statistically small number of Wisconsin citizens. Some money will be saved, but Wisconsin's budgetary problems will not be solved. Fiscal conservatives will laud the changes as a new era in responsible government. Social liberals and those sympathetic to labor unions will decry the changes as insensitive and regressive.
State workers will go back to work. They will also go back to their calculators and ledger sheets to figure out how to keep their households fiscally sound in the face of significant changes in their take home pay. Like so many of us, they will worry about how to pay their mortgages, put food on their tables, gas in their cars, educate their children, etc. My guess is the legislators who will vote in favor of the changes are people who care about the future of Wisconsin. Undoubtedly, they will go home feeling good about their decisions. Some of them won't lose much sleep over the impact their vote will have on the lives of literally thousands of people. Philosophically, I can understand that "winners and losers" are a part of the political process we call democracy. Theologically, I recognize democracy isn't the means to usher in the Kingdom of God.
This coming Sunday is my turn to preach. If it's an average Sunday at Trinity Church, there will be 30-40 folks at the 8:00 a.m. service and 135-160 people at the 9:30 a.m. service. We'll hear some texts read from Leviticus, 1 Corinthians and the Gospel of Matthew. And my job is to make some connection between at least one of those passages and what's going on in our world and in our lives. Situations like the one unfolding at the Capitol Building in Madison makes this work a particularly daunting task.
I can understand why the temptation to offer a "personal piety talk" instead of a sermon is so irresistible. After all, I'm one voice in a sea of millions. Statistically speaking, the number of people I will be preaching toward is negligible in the broader political schema -- even if everyone present on Sunday agreed on the goodness or the horridness of this week's legislative actions.
And besides, what do I know?
I'm not an accountant, a union organizer, a legislator or a state employee.
I'm a preacher. Plain and simple.
I periodically remind the congregation I serve that
Jesus worked in small numbers -- one person at a time.
I'm pretty sure there's no other way to be the Church.
I'm also realistic, though.
I understand not much
I will say on Sunday will change the numbers --
Either of the "budget repair" or the "pay cut" variety.
But I keep thinking
I have to say something...
Because I can't believe the prophets of Israel and Judah
Would have kept their mouths shut;
Jesus certainly had plenty to say about how we treat one another.
Good Lord, deliver me from timidness and arrogance!
The timidness that convinces me what I might say won't make a difference
And the arrogance that seduces me into thinking something I could say will.
posted by FrGaryB | 8:07 PM
2 Comments:
"My guess is the legislators who will vote in favor of the changes are people who care about the future of Wisconsin. Undoubtedly, they will go home feeling good about their decisions. Some of them won't lose much sleep over the impact their vote will have on the lives of literally thousands of people. Philosophically, I can understand that "winners and losers" are a part of the political process we call democracy. Theologically, I recognize democracy isn't the means to usher in the Kingdom of God."
Well, it seems to me that's a true, and at the same time a somewhat courageous bold statement in the current climate. I might wonder aloud if you could proclaim a message on that general theme, in particular that last sentence? (Good luck to you!)
"Good Lord, deliver me from timidness and arrogance!
The timidness that convinces me what I might say won't make a difference
And the arrogance that seduces me into thinking something I could say will."
You've shared a fitting prayer for anyone's station in life, preacher or no. "Take heart; get up, he is calling you." (Mark 10:49 - this verse and your prayer constitute a bidding for courage in far more circumstances than these which will someday be a distant memory - another opportunity will surely present itself. )
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