Rev. William A. Muhlenberg
Today’s Gospel is very interesting to me… It seems to me, in every movie I’ve ever seen about Jesus; he goes into the Temple drives out the money-changers and merchants, then his disciples close protectively around him and help Jesus make a get away before the Roman soldiers can arrest him.
But that’s not what happens here, in this Gospel Jesus is seen to hang around for awhile! Matthew portrays Jesus as first chasing out the money-changers and merchants, then Matthew tells us; “The blind and lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them.”
As our good priest pointed out in her sermon about the lame man at the Temple-gate called “Beautiful” a couple of weeks ago; the blind, the lame, the diseased, handicapped and defective were not permitted to enter the temple. Ever. It was against the Law of Moses to allow such a person into the temple… Yet, once the money-changers and merchants are driven out, Jesus bids the blind and the lame to come into God’s house and be healed. Money out! People in!… I’d like to make a quick footnote here. Money itself is not evil, it is greed, corrupted power and exclusivity that’s evil. But for the sake of brevity, I will be saying; “Money out, people in!”
This is not the first time we see this pattern in the Gospels. The first time is in Luke, when Jesus is born in a humble stable and the shepherds are bid to come and worship. Jesus could easily have been born in a palace and worshiped by the kings of the world – but then the shepherds would have been excluded. This way, however, anyone who wanted to come to the stable would be allowed in, the lowly Shepherds as well as the Three Wise Kings.
Another time we see the Money out – people in pattern is at the River Jordan. In the day and age that Jesus lived, the normal, orthodox and sanctioned way to get your sins forgiven and be made reconciled to God was to; take the time off work, pay for the long journey to Jerusalem, pay for lodging, buy and present the acceptable sacrifice the Law prescribed to the priest. Getting your sins forgiven and being reconciled to God was an expensive proposition! Consider now, that the Jews were living in a Roman occupied country and were being outrageously taxed. Consider too, that the majority of people did not own their homes or their land and had to pay landlords. Finally, they also had to pay for their ten-percent tithe, pay for their food, clothes and medicine. It just was not happening, there was not enough to go around… So, what really happened was this; the people who could not afford the trip to Jerusalem or the price of the sacrifice remained at home and lived in their sins, divorced from God, feeling lonely or doomed because of their poverty.
Then came John the Baptist, who dared to declare that God’s forgiveness is as free as Jordan River water! To all those who were outcast from the temple, whether because they were too poor to pay or because they were blind, lame, diseased… None of that mattered any more. Come to the Jordan, be forgiven, be reconciled to God! Be healed… Why was Jesus baptized? To confirm that God will meet you in the water, in that Sacrament. To confirm that God and his forgiveness is not to be bought and paid for – it’s free! And not just for a select few, but for all who have the desire to meet God… No wonder the Pharisees were standing there on the banks of the Jordan, demanding of John; “Who are you? Who gave you the right to do this?” From their point of view, John was robbing them of clients, robbing them of money and threatening to put them out of a job altogether. Money out! People in!
Yet another time we see this pattern of money out, people in… When the little woman who had been bleeding for 12 years comes on the scene. We’re told that she’d spent allher money on doctors – in vain, apparently. Not one of them cured her. But here she is, 12 years sick, flat broke and still clinging to hope. She sees Jesus walking by and says to herself, “if I but touch the hem of his robe, I’ll be cured.” Low and behold, that’s just what happens! What does it mean that Jesus healed her, or healed anyone? True enough, it demonstrates his love for us and let’s not belittle that at all – but it’s also a backhand slap at the doctors who would rob a woman of all her money. How so? Because Jesus healed her and all the people who came to him for FREE. Money out! People in!
Needless to say, this new philosophy was not only revolutionary, it turned the whole world completely upside down. For a time anyway, but somehow, it got lost somewhere along the way… And it was not only misplaced by the Catholic Church, which sought to the own the world and call it “Christendom”, selling saintly relics and indulgences – telling people they could buy their way to heaven. It was misplaced by the Protestant Churches too, as we will see.
Today we celebrate the feast of Reverend William Augustine Muhlenberg, a daring and joyful priest who would lead us in the way of Christ’s revolution and have great impact on the Church today.
William graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. He was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1817. These two feats alone tell us the man was a scholar. But his list of accomplishments are incredible. He helped to found the Philomathean Society. He served at St. James Church and Church of the Holy Communion. He founded the Flushing Institute (later called St. Paul’s College). He founded St. Luke’s Hospital. He also founded The Evangelical Catholic, a church newspaper and he was instrumental in getting the Episcopal Church to expand its use of hymns in worship. Which makes sense, considering he wrote quite a few hymns himself – he definitely believed in making a joyful noise to the Lord!… He created and named the first Convent of Protestant nuns in America. At Church of the Holy Communion, he began a parish school and created a parish unemployment fund. WHEW! A whirlwind of activity, all requiring quite a bit of scholarship and managerial skills. Still, while each one of these accomplishments is impressive by itself and the whole of list of them almost overwhelming, virtually noneof these is the reason I’ve chosen to pay tribute to his life, virtually none of these is the reason I love the Rev. William Muhlenberg.
William was not just a scholar, he was more than just a brain. He was man with a great heart and an enormous love for Christ. As a demonstration of his great love for Christ, he took particular care of the Lord’s house. One source tells us that William “made extensive use of music, flowers, vestments, and an emphasis on the Church year and on sacramental worship.” He loved the house of the Lord, he wanted it to be beautiful. Not necessarily ornate. Music, flowers, and vestments do not need to be ornate to be beautiful. Rather, what William was passionate to convey is, that we need to care for the house of the Lord – bring him such simple offerings as flowers and musical praise, need to be joyful in His presence.
William not only loved the Lord. He loved the Lord’s people, indeed he had the heart and compassion of Christ.
When he came to New York City, to serve as priest for the Church of the Holy Communion this is what he found; New York City was literally a concrete jungle. It was tenement built on top of tenement, built on top of tenement. There were no trees, no parks, no fields. There was no air-conditioning in summer and people everywhere in the streets, literally standing on top of each other. Believe me when I tell you, the air was hot, humid, polluted and it stank. The New York Times called the living conditions “vile”. And it was! The conditions were vile and ripe for epidemic. And it came, the great tuberculosis epidemic. This was a tough and merciless time in America’s history. There was no government Unemployment fund, there was no Welfare, no Medicaid, no Social-security. Often, very young children were forced to do hard manual labor, for long hours. If you were poor, it was your own fault and your own tough-luck. When the tuberculosis epidemic hit, the government did not rush in to help. And from what I can see America’s elite families, wealthy families did not rush in to help either.
Rev. Muhlenberg however, did not sit on his hands. He helped to create the “Fresh-Air Fund”, which was designed to perform one simple mission – to allow children living in disadvantaged communities to get away from hot, noisy city streets and enjoy free summer vacations in the country, where they could see the green fields and enjoy the fresh air.
In the winter, William enticed the children to come out to Times Square, where he had installed the City’s first Christmas tree for the poor to enjoy.
But, following the example of Jesus, William’s greatest accomplishment was in opening the doors of God’s house for everyone to come in and be forgiven, be healed, and praise God together. In William’s day, people could not just walk into a Church and sit anywhere they wanted. In his day, it was the common practice for people to pay rent for their very own private cushioned pews. That was true for Church of Saviour too, that’s why there are numbers fixed onto the ends of each of these pews… William however, held the firm conviction that the Church should minister to all social groups. No one should be excluded, for any reason, let alone just because they were too poor to pay rent on a pew! So, he abolished the Pew-rental system and declared that everyone, rich and poor alike should come and worship God freely and on equal footing…
Okay, true enough, William abolished the pew-tax and enabled everyone to come and worship for free, but don’t let the word “free” fool you. William would have been the first to remind his people of the words of Jesus; “Freely you have received, now go and freely give.”
This brings me to the second thing I love about William. He called himself an “Evangelical Catholic”. Meaning, he firmly believed and preached that no one could buy their way into heaven with good works. No, Salvation was the free gift of God, requiring only faith. But, William also believed that faith and love of the Lord would naturally produce good works – just as an apple tree naturally produces apples. I’m sure he preached long and often from the book of James 2:14-18, which reads;
14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.16If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead… Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
In other words, once everyone was finally allowed into the house of God, William encouraged them to use their God-given talents to build up the Body of Christ, to become living stones of the living Church.
Isn’t that what the first reading, from Ephesians was about? “The gifts Christ gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…” To equip the saints for the work of ministry. Hey, that’s the Good News folks, we are all called to be ministers to a hurting world.
William understood it didn’t really matter if there were some in the congregation that didn’t have a penny to give. He understood that everyone did indeed, have something to give. Whether it was leading the Sunday school, cleaning the toilets, mopping the floor, repairing a leak, mowing the grass – everyone had something to contribute. And not only to the Church but also to those outside the Church. He preached that every Christian had an absolute obligation to do their best to perform the Corporal Works of Mercy found in the Sermon on the Mount; Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, give shelter to the homeless, visit the sick, ransom the captive, bury the dead.
So we see that William was completely in love with the Church of Christ. He decorated the building with flowers, vestments and music. He brought everyone, all of the children of God through the doors. He empowered people, teaching them to use their gifts for the good of the Church and he sent them out as healing ministers to a hurting world… He could definitely cry out with today’s Psalm; “How dear to me is your dwelling, O Lord of hosts! My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord!… Happy are they who dwell in your house they will always be praising you!”
- AMEN!
