This sermon that was heard at the First Presbyterian Church on Sunday November 23, 2008, Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday, the 34th and last Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Psalm 100
Ephesians 1:15-23
Matthew 25:31-46
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
In geometry, a line that intersects a curve at only one point is called a tangent line, a tangent for short. The single point where they touch is the tangent point. The most common way of drawing a tangent line is to draw a circle and then draw a straight line that touches the circle just once. Look out though, if the line intersects the curve at two points, it’s not a tangent anymore, it’s a secant.
Of course this is the easy way to describe a tangent. There are tangents in three dimensions, like where a ball touches the floor, that’s a tangent plane with its single tangent point. Actually, the line doesn’t have to be straight; a tangent point exists even when two circles touch at only one point. The curve doesn’t even have to be a circle, but that’s most familiar. It could be an ellipse, or a parabola, or a cone, or whatever other curved geometric figure you have in mind.
This is just the middle school geometry description of a tangent. This doesn’t include the tangent in trigonometry. In trig functions, on a triangle, the tangent of an angle is the ratio of the length of the opposite side to the length of the adjacent side. In fact, there is even a secant in trigonometry. That’s the ratio of the length of the hypotenuse to the length of the adjacent side, which is the reciprocal of the equation used to find the cosine.
If you are wondering just what in the name of all that’s holy I’m doing reading from an ACT/SAT prep manual you have every right. I am trying to make a point. The point being that in rhetoric, a tangent is a line of reasoning that goes off of the main thought. Sure, it touches at one point, but from there it’s off into the wild blue yonder, just like how a tangent line touches the curve.
Notice I started with one description of a tangent, a very simple one, and then took it all over the place. So not only did I explain two types of mathematical tangents, I used my description of mathematical tangents to create a description of a rhetorical tangent. That’s going off on a tangent. So let me get back to the main thought.
When reading this passage from Matthew’s gospel, one of the things that grabs me and demands my attention is the wonderful imagery. The pictures drawn by the mind’s eye are bold and vivid. Who doesn’t imagine something that Cecil B. De Mille couldn’t put on screen in “The Ten Commandments”? I see a valley, like the one off of the highway by the Bluebird outside of Eureka Springs. I imagine the throne of glory in the field, a fog settling around on a cool crisp morning. Like ants marching across the plain, I imagine the procession of sheep and goats making their joyful way to the Lord in his glory.
This may be the image most commonly associated with this passage, the sheep and the goats. The people of the church often see this part of the passage envisioning themselves as the sheep, with concern and even pity for those goats who will go away into eternal punishment. The weeping and gnashing of teeth thing we read last week has new urgency when we read about eternal punishment. It’s very, very scary.
We hear from the Lord who sits upon the throne of his glory that he will put the sheep at his right hand where they are blessed by the Father and will inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world for they fed the Son of Man when hungry, gave drink when thirsty, welcomed him when a stranger. They gave him clothing when naked, took care of him when ill, and visited while in prison. In very real ways, they carried the Lord when the Lord needed carrying.
“When, oh when did we do this?” the sheep ask. “When you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family.” the Lord answers.
It is impossible not to feel a glow right now. The sheep of the fold, the Church of the Lord, not any individual denomination or sect, but the entire universal church is blessed by the word and hand of the God through the work done on behalf of the Son of Man. We inherit the kingdom by the work we do for God.
This is the tangent. This isn’t the whole circle; this is the one point that touches the circle before going off into Euclidian eternity. This isn’t the main point; this is just one of many.
The point of doing good works, the point of helping the poor is not to earn the kingdom. We can’t do enough to earn this reward. We can’t hope to do enough for a “passing grade” letting Mother Teresa and Billy Graham get the A-plusses. We are called to follow the path of justice not for a holy reward but because that is where the Son of Man is now.
There’s always a lot of talk in the church about eternal salvation and the heavenly reward. These things are wonderful and glorious, but this glimpse of tomorrow must not become a barrier stopping us from going and working where our Lord is today. We live for tomorrow, but we must live today. Today there is pain and suffering, and where pain and suffering exists, the Son of Man is there, and the Son wants his children to be there too.
Another diversion from helping the sick, the poor, and the incarcerated is actually rooted in the vision of watching the sheep and the goats on their way across the valley floor. Sheep have been the symbol of God’s people since the days of the prophet Isaiah. We have become sheep as the adopted children of God at the foot of the cross through the blood of the Son of Man.
So when we sheep look at the goats wandering across the floor of the valley, sitting at the left hand of the throne of glory, we look upon them with compassion and with pity. This is dangerous. This judgment upon the goats is not for you us make.
It is not up to us to separate the sheep from the goats, even in our mind’s eye. This is the job of the sovereign God who comes to judge the nations. We are not worthy to make the final judgment about who is a sheep and who is a goat. Our sight is flawed; it is colored by the shroud of sin that covers all humanity.
Yet we make judgments and in our world we must. While the final judgment of the nations is not ours, we are called to make some judgments. This passage teaches us our vocation is to follow the call of the Lord to serve the distressed. If we did not make any judgments, we would not follow where the Lord leads. This sort of judgment is not of other’s personal or religious values, but of our vocational discernment. We are to follow what is good, what is right, what is just, what is Godly. But the judgment we make is provisional. The final judgment belongs to the One who actually separates the sheep from the goats.
I have sent us down some rabbit trails; I have hopped us from one subject to another jumping all around the point. I have done it quite intentionally because these two items, inheriting the kingdom and separating the sheep from the goats, seem like big things in this part of Matthew’s gospel. For us, they aren’t.
Today we celebrate Christ the King Sunday, the Sunday of the Reign of God. Today we celebrate that God is in charge and we are not. Christ is King and we are the humble subjects. We are not to separate the sheep from the goats. We are not to wait for the coming kingdom like we are waiting on a bus. We are to follow our Lord, and the Son of Man makes it clear that he is with the poor, the sick, and the naked.
We are to start giving praise with the word that begins this passage: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory.” The word is “when,” not “if.” This is the wonderful and glorious reassurance that the Son of Man comes. His coming is not conditional. This isn’t a maybe; it’s a someday. It is the assurance that the Son of Man will come in his glory, and with all of his angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
Until he comes again in his glory, we are to come to him in his anguish. Not because it is good for us, not because we will enter into the kingdom, we are to do this because it is as our Christ the King commands. Serving those who need, we serve the one who will come in glory.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Faithful-Good and Trustworthy
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday November 16, 2008, the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time.
Judges 4:1-7
Psalm 123
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and redeemer. Amen
Last week, I promised you this would be the second of two stewardship sermons. As any faithful follower of November sermons is well aware, the stewardship sermon ends with the plea for faithfulness to the Lord through tithes and offerings throughout the year. I would say that the request is usually more subtle than that, but sometimes it isn’t. We all know it’s coming. We all know I will make the plea for increased offerings, so that part of the sermon is almost out of the way.
Let me now say thank you and praise God for your financial faithfulness. Many members of this part of the Body of Christ give very generously in their abundance. Many members of this part of the Body of Christ give as generously in their poverty. All members give generously as a faithful response to the glory of God by the grace they have received through Jesus Christ our Lord by the Holy Spirit. I rejoice and I give thanks that you are so very generous.
I have spoken of financial stewardship the past three Novembers, and this November is no different. I have written about stewardship and the financial needs of this part of the Body of Christ in the newsletter several times over the past three years. The last newsletter even had an emotional plea that could be titled “one nickel toward a million.” Just to add one more piece to the pie of asking, I am sure everyone has all ready found a copy of the “Estimate of Giving” form in the bulletin. You will be asked to fill it out and put it in the offering plate in about twenty minutes.
Let me also point out that we use “estimates” rather than “pledges” because it is more pastoral, especially after the way the economy has gone over the past twelve months.
So as I say this, I put these two thoughts together —you are very generous and the economy is tumultuous. I ask for more and if you can give more—then praise God, but I also know that many of you give all that you can, and even more than that. Many are like the widow from Mark 12[1] who gives her two pennies and can not afford to give that. Like her, you give in response not to my request but to God’s faithfulness. I could try to squeeze another penny out of you, but I know how hard you are squeezed.
As Forrest Gump often said, “That’s all I have to say about that.”
Matthew’s version of the Parable of the Talents is found every three years and always in the heart of Stewardship season. As I was thinking about the story, stewardship, and this part of the body of Christ; I have found five truths I want to share about this parable. Keeping with the parable’s common interpretation, God is represented by “the Master.”
First, each of the three servants received according to their ability. The Master goes on a journey and leaves behind eight talents in the care of three slaves. He doesn’t split them up so that each of them receives two-and-two-thirds talents apiece. He could have. There is no biblical reason why he could not have split them apart. So like the disciples hearing Jesus tell this story; we learn that there is meritocracy, people being rewarded according to their abilities. The Master trusts his slaves in proportion with what they have proven they can handle. Not everyone gets the same piece of the pie just because that’s the democratic way.
This doesn’t seem quite right to our sensibilities. We wonder how God gives to each of us differently especially since God loves us all equally. This passage does not change that at all. God loves us all equally and to a depth and breadth we will not begin to understand on this side of glory. God knows us and empowers us differently with the multitude of the spiritual gifts. So like the slaves in the parable we receive God’s gifts differently. Then we are called to serve the Lord uniquely.
The next thing that I want to share is that while it is true that the slaves received according to their ability, even the one who received least received an extravagant amount. Based on the price of silver on Wednesday morning, a single talent is worth just a little over $6,500.00.[2] While this is nothing to sneeze at, in the day of the parable this amount was even more valuable than it is today. This amount, one talent, $6,500.00, was the equivalent of twenty years wages to the average laborer.[3] (Inflation is a thing no matter how long ago you lived.) So while each of the slaves received different amounts, the amounts they received were more than they could ever imagine.
The lesson we take from this is that our God is just as extravagant with gifts. We are given more than we could ever hope or imagine. Our talents don’t always come in silver or gold, but they are given by the one who gives best, and they are wonderful and glorious.
So next, while what they receive is outrageously generous, in the words of the Master, what the slaves have received are “just a few things.” Based on twenty years of wages, the slave who received five talents was given well over $1.5 million. This amount is based on Berryville average wages. The national average would make the amount rise up to nearly $2.16 million.[4] This is an impressive sum. Give me the amount given the least capable slave, between $300,000 and $432,000, even I think I could pay off my student loans.
Yet, yet this is what the Master calls “just a few things.” From this piece of the parable we learn that as much as we think we have, to God this is just a start. What to us seems to be extravagant is a sample of the bounty of the Lord. We are often bound by our perceptions of what the Lord can do; limiting God by what we think God can or should do. This lesson is, trying as we might to put restrictions on God; the Lord blows through the limits of our expectations and experiences beyond what we can even dream.
We are told next that those slaves who made gains with the Master's assets were put in charge of many things and invited to enter into the joy of their Master. There is no telling what this meant, but if the Master’s idea of joy is anything like the master’s “few things” it would be outrageously extravagant.
In our Master’s world, we are given glimpses of the joy of God—shimmers of the bounty of God’s good gifts. These are a foretaste of the joy promised the faithful slaves of the sovereign Lord—the good and trustworthy servants. As God’s children, we are invited to come into the messianic banquet where in the presence of our Lord; we will rejoice and share fully in the Master’s joy.
Finally, in a strange sort of way, the servant's reactions to the Master reflect the Master's reactions to the servants; a form of self-fulfilling prophecy. While only the third slave said so, based on what the master said, I suspect he is a harsh man, reaping where he did not sow and gathering where he did not scatter seed; and all of them knew this to be the Master’s way.
Yet, in this fear, the first two responded to their master through diligent work, both of them doubling the amounts they were entrusted. The third was so afraid he simply chose to hide the assets, possibly hoping never to be bothered by them or the master ever again. Two worked and were rewarded with praise as good and trustworthy servants. The third, wicked and lazy, was punished; their prophecies fulfilled.
This portion of the parable is a walking, talking affirmation of the first Proverb, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”[5] All three feared the master as all of us should rightly fear the Lord. Yet the example we are to follow is that two responded beyond their fear while one cowered. The Lord is all powerful, and there is much we are called to do with what God gives us. We are to respect the Lord and fear the power. We are also to trust in the love, faithfully following where it leads us to work with what has been given us to increase the kingdom.
There is a wonder and glory in this parable along with deep shadows of darkness and despair. There is great joy and there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. There is judgment of how we work with the talents we receive. Yet as so much as knowledge begins with fear of the Lord, when we focus on the fear alone we become too frightened to move.
Yes, fear is one response, but at the traffic signal of life, fear is the yellow light, not the red. Caution is warranted, but focusing on the joy and plenty of God’s kingdom, instead of the harshness, we grow in faithfulness. We grow to be called good and trustworthy.
We receive all of these gifts and we are called to use them to increase them in the service of the Lord in God’s good creation. We all receive gifts and we are called to use them to increase them in the service of the Lord in God’s good creation.
While not a pun in ancient Greek, the cleverness of the English word talent is there for us. Whether the talent is financial or some kind of skill; we know that these talents are more than the gold and silver. They are also the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, and faith; the working of miracles, healing, and prophecy; discernment of spirits, and speaking and interpreting tongues.[6] These are the gifts of ministry, teaching in wisdom; exhortation, giving in generosity; leadership, and compassion in cheerfulness. [7]
Given the financial aspect of the parable of the talents, it is easy for us to slip into the possibility of seeing the gospel of prosperity, a “be faithful/get rich quick” scheme. This is not true. When they were judged, the slaves who used the Master’s talents and worked to increase them were welcome into the Master’s joy. Because we are gifted differently, this is true whether we begin with millions of dollars or two copper coins.
Looking at this parable through the glasses of stewardship, this parable tells us that stewardship isn’t so much about what we give—it’s about what we do with what we are given. It’s about taking the talents God gives us, English pun intended, and faithfully using them to the glory of the kingdom.
It is a call to us to look forward, see that we are given much, and see that the reward of faithful discipleship is more than we could ever hope or imagine. It is to recognize the gifts we receive and offer them to others. While we know that God’s judgment can be harsh, it is in trust that as the Master’s faithful disciples that we will be judged “good and trustworthy.”
Yes, this is where I ask you to fill out the “Estimate of Giving” sheets in your bulletin. If you haven’t done so yet, there is still time during the hymn. And as we discern what we are called to give, let us remember that what we are to give are from all of the talents our Lord endows upon us—not just silver and gold.
That’s all I have to say about that.
[1] Mark 12:41-44
[2] Actually $6,519.45. This figure presumes a mass of 20.4 kilograms of silver per talent (according to the New Interpreter’s Study Bible, page 382) and the kilogram has a mass of 655.88 ounces troy. The spot open for Silver in New York on November 12, 2008 is $9.94 according to http://www.thebulliondesk.com/ (retrieved November 11, 2008).
[3] Hare, Douglas R. A. “Interpretation, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching.” Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1993, page 286.
[4] Computations taken from per capita income information for Berryville, Arkansas found at the US Census internet site, http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts?_event=Search&geo_id=&_geoContext=&_street=&_county=72616&_cityTown=72616&_state=&_zip=72616&_lang=en&_sse=on&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010&show_2003_tab=&redirect=Y retrieved November 15, 2008.
[5] Proverb 1:7 (NRSV)
[6] 1Corinthians 12:7-10
[7] Romans 12:7-8
Judges 4:1-7
Psalm 123
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and redeemer. Amen
Last week, I promised you this would be the second of two stewardship sermons. As any faithful follower of November sermons is well aware, the stewardship sermon ends with the plea for faithfulness to the Lord through tithes and offerings throughout the year. I would say that the request is usually more subtle than that, but sometimes it isn’t. We all know it’s coming. We all know I will make the plea for increased offerings, so that part of the sermon is almost out of the way.
Let me now say thank you and praise God for your financial faithfulness. Many members of this part of the Body of Christ give very generously in their abundance. Many members of this part of the Body of Christ give as generously in their poverty. All members give generously as a faithful response to the glory of God by the grace they have received through Jesus Christ our Lord by the Holy Spirit. I rejoice and I give thanks that you are so very generous.
I have spoken of financial stewardship the past three Novembers, and this November is no different. I have written about stewardship and the financial needs of this part of the Body of Christ in the newsletter several times over the past three years. The last newsletter even had an emotional plea that could be titled “one nickel toward a million.” Just to add one more piece to the pie of asking, I am sure everyone has all ready found a copy of the “Estimate of Giving” form in the bulletin. You will be asked to fill it out and put it in the offering plate in about twenty minutes.
Let me also point out that we use “estimates” rather than “pledges” because it is more pastoral, especially after the way the economy has gone over the past twelve months.
So as I say this, I put these two thoughts together —you are very generous and the economy is tumultuous. I ask for more and if you can give more—then praise God, but I also know that many of you give all that you can, and even more than that. Many are like the widow from Mark 12[1] who gives her two pennies and can not afford to give that. Like her, you give in response not to my request but to God’s faithfulness. I could try to squeeze another penny out of you, but I know how hard you are squeezed.
As Forrest Gump often said, “That’s all I have to say about that.”
Matthew’s version of the Parable of the Talents is found every three years and always in the heart of Stewardship season. As I was thinking about the story, stewardship, and this part of the body of Christ; I have found five truths I want to share about this parable. Keeping with the parable’s common interpretation, God is represented by “the Master.”
First, each of the three servants received according to their ability. The Master goes on a journey and leaves behind eight talents in the care of three slaves. He doesn’t split them up so that each of them receives two-and-two-thirds talents apiece. He could have. There is no biblical reason why he could not have split them apart. So like the disciples hearing Jesus tell this story; we learn that there is meritocracy, people being rewarded according to their abilities. The Master trusts his slaves in proportion with what they have proven they can handle. Not everyone gets the same piece of the pie just because that’s the democratic way.
This doesn’t seem quite right to our sensibilities. We wonder how God gives to each of us differently especially since God loves us all equally. This passage does not change that at all. God loves us all equally and to a depth and breadth we will not begin to understand on this side of glory. God knows us and empowers us differently with the multitude of the spiritual gifts. So like the slaves in the parable we receive God’s gifts differently. Then we are called to serve the Lord uniquely.
The next thing that I want to share is that while it is true that the slaves received according to their ability, even the one who received least received an extravagant amount. Based on the price of silver on Wednesday morning, a single talent is worth just a little over $6,500.00.[2] While this is nothing to sneeze at, in the day of the parable this amount was even more valuable than it is today. This amount, one talent, $6,500.00, was the equivalent of twenty years wages to the average laborer.[3] (Inflation is a thing no matter how long ago you lived.) So while each of the slaves received different amounts, the amounts they received were more than they could ever imagine.
The lesson we take from this is that our God is just as extravagant with gifts. We are given more than we could ever hope or imagine. Our talents don’t always come in silver or gold, but they are given by the one who gives best, and they are wonderful and glorious.
So next, while what they receive is outrageously generous, in the words of the Master, what the slaves have received are “just a few things.” Based on twenty years of wages, the slave who received five talents was given well over $1.5 million. This amount is based on Berryville average wages. The national average would make the amount rise up to nearly $2.16 million.[4] This is an impressive sum. Give me the amount given the least capable slave, between $300,000 and $432,000, even I think I could pay off my student loans.
Yet, yet this is what the Master calls “just a few things.” From this piece of the parable we learn that as much as we think we have, to God this is just a start. What to us seems to be extravagant is a sample of the bounty of the Lord. We are often bound by our perceptions of what the Lord can do; limiting God by what we think God can or should do. This lesson is, trying as we might to put restrictions on God; the Lord blows through the limits of our expectations and experiences beyond what we can even dream.
We are told next that those slaves who made gains with the Master's assets were put in charge of many things and invited to enter into the joy of their Master. There is no telling what this meant, but if the Master’s idea of joy is anything like the master’s “few things” it would be outrageously extravagant.
In our Master’s world, we are given glimpses of the joy of God—shimmers of the bounty of God’s good gifts. These are a foretaste of the joy promised the faithful slaves of the sovereign Lord—the good and trustworthy servants. As God’s children, we are invited to come into the messianic banquet where in the presence of our Lord; we will rejoice and share fully in the Master’s joy.
Finally, in a strange sort of way, the servant's reactions to the Master reflect the Master's reactions to the servants; a form of self-fulfilling prophecy. While only the third slave said so, based on what the master said, I suspect he is a harsh man, reaping where he did not sow and gathering where he did not scatter seed; and all of them knew this to be the Master’s way.
Yet, in this fear, the first two responded to their master through diligent work, both of them doubling the amounts they were entrusted. The third was so afraid he simply chose to hide the assets, possibly hoping never to be bothered by them or the master ever again. Two worked and were rewarded with praise as good and trustworthy servants. The third, wicked and lazy, was punished; their prophecies fulfilled.
This portion of the parable is a walking, talking affirmation of the first Proverb, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”[5] All three feared the master as all of us should rightly fear the Lord. Yet the example we are to follow is that two responded beyond their fear while one cowered. The Lord is all powerful, and there is much we are called to do with what God gives us. We are to respect the Lord and fear the power. We are also to trust in the love, faithfully following where it leads us to work with what has been given us to increase the kingdom.
There is a wonder and glory in this parable along with deep shadows of darkness and despair. There is great joy and there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. There is judgment of how we work with the talents we receive. Yet as so much as knowledge begins with fear of the Lord, when we focus on the fear alone we become too frightened to move.
Yes, fear is one response, but at the traffic signal of life, fear is the yellow light, not the red. Caution is warranted, but focusing on the joy and plenty of God’s kingdom, instead of the harshness, we grow in faithfulness. We grow to be called good and trustworthy.
We receive all of these gifts and we are called to use them to increase them in the service of the Lord in God’s good creation. We all receive gifts and we are called to use them to increase them in the service of the Lord in God’s good creation.
While not a pun in ancient Greek, the cleverness of the English word talent is there for us. Whether the talent is financial or some kind of skill; we know that these talents are more than the gold and silver. They are also the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, and faith; the working of miracles, healing, and prophecy; discernment of spirits, and speaking and interpreting tongues.[6] These are the gifts of ministry, teaching in wisdom; exhortation, giving in generosity; leadership, and compassion in cheerfulness. [7]
Given the financial aspect of the parable of the talents, it is easy for us to slip into the possibility of seeing the gospel of prosperity, a “be faithful/get rich quick” scheme. This is not true. When they were judged, the slaves who used the Master’s talents and worked to increase them were welcome into the Master’s joy. Because we are gifted differently, this is true whether we begin with millions of dollars or two copper coins.
Looking at this parable through the glasses of stewardship, this parable tells us that stewardship isn’t so much about what we give—it’s about what we do with what we are given. It’s about taking the talents God gives us, English pun intended, and faithfully using them to the glory of the kingdom.
It is a call to us to look forward, see that we are given much, and see that the reward of faithful discipleship is more than we could ever hope or imagine. It is to recognize the gifts we receive and offer them to others. While we know that God’s judgment can be harsh, it is in trust that as the Master’s faithful disciples that we will be judged “good and trustworthy.”
Yes, this is where I ask you to fill out the “Estimate of Giving” sheets in your bulletin. If you haven’t done so yet, there is still time during the hymn. And as we discern what we are called to give, let us remember that what we are to give are from all of the talents our Lord endows upon us—not just silver and gold.
That’s all I have to say about that.
[1] Mark 12:41-44
[2] Actually $6,519.45. This figure presumes a mass of 20.4 kilograms of silver per talent (according to the New Interpreter’s Study Bible, page 382) and the kilogram has a mass of 655.88 ounces troy. The spot open for Silver in New York on November 12, 2008 is $9.94 according to http://www.thebulliondesk.com/ (retrieved November 11, 2008).
[3] Hare, Douglas R. A. “Interpretation, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching.” Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1993, page 286.
[4] Computations taken from per capita income information for Berryville, Arkansas found at the US Census internet site, http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts?_event=Search&geo_id=&_geoContext=&_street=&_county=72616&_cityTown=72616&_state=&_zip=72616&_lang=en&_sse=on&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010&show_2003_tab=&redirect=Y retrieved November 15, 2008.
[5] Proverb 1:7 (NRSV)
[6] 1Corinthians 12:7-10
[7] Romans 12:7-8
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