Honor

Bishop Wright: 0:00
that God is sort of fascinated with, it seems throughout Scripture. You know people want to know nowadays. You know, what are the politics of Jesus? Well, I can tell you what the politics of Jesus are. They’re very, very clear, and that is justice, and that is mercy, and that is a fascination with improving, you know, the material life of those on the bottom rung, and so the politics of Jesus are always about that.

Melissa: 0:40
Good to Four People with Bishop Rob Wright. I’m your host, Melissa Rao, and this is a conversation inspired by Bishop Wright’s For Faith weekly devotions sent out every Friday. You can find a link to this week’s For Faith and a link to subscribe in the episode’s description. Good morning, Bishop.

Bishop Wright: 0:56
Good morning.

Melissa: 0:58
We are right for Labor Day right.

Bishop Wright: 1:02
Yes.

Melissa: 1:02
So I’m grateful for your devotion. That you called honor and it’s a reflection off of Mark, chapter 7, verses 1 through 23. So I’m curious how you made the connection between Mark’s passage and honoring our laborers.

Bishop Wright: 1:20
Well, well, thanks. I mean, that’s the right question, right? So what do we do as a nation this weekend? I mean, besides barbecue and maybe last trip to the beach and too many hot dogs or all that? I mean, the weekend is set aside, and particularly Monday is set aside to honor those who labor, those who work the long hours, those who go the extra mile, those who are committed to excellence, who really strengthen the fabric of this nation, and so I of course think that they are deserving of honor.

Bishop Wright: 1:58
We ought to remember those folks who stand on their feet all day and who teach our children and who heal us and who populate the urgent care centers and I mean the list is as long. You know our military folks who are, you know, in faraway places doing the work of securing, you know, our sleep at night, yeah, so I think we ought to honor them, we ought to take a moment and venerate their service and their labor, and that’s what they, that’s what the holiday is designed for. So, so, yeah, that makes perfect sense. It’s just that when you start reading, you know the bible, either in the old testament or in jesus, quoting his favorite old testament prophet which Testament prophet? Which is Isaiah, you get this idea that it is possible for us to honor with our lips, but our hearts and our actions are far away from the reality that our lips sort of sketch out. So that’s the premise how sometimes we live at distance from the words we use.

Melissa: 3:08
Do you want to say more about that? In what ways?

Bishop Wright: 3:10
Well, I mean.

Bishop Wright: 3:12
So if we’re honoring labor, for instance, and we’re honoring those people who pluck the chickens and, you know, build the houses and mow the lawns and all that sort of stuff, and mow the lawns and all that sort of stuff, then it seems to me that, in addition to just a day set aside to venerate them with our lips and even our holidays, we ought to make, you know, material improvements in the lives of those people who, you know, take care of us, who, you know, during COVID, we call them essential workers, right, and so, you know, we get to this question, this intersection, because of Jesus, right, you know, your lips, you know your lips honor me, but your hearts are far away from me.

Bishop Wright: 3:55
So, what would it be like if you know we made important improvements in the lives of those who labor? What if we, you know, distinguish ourselves in the nation, you know, by having incredible living wage standards and provide it, make sure we provided health care for everybody? And what would it be like to ensure that the men and women who worked so hard in this nation that their children had quality public school? Now, that would be real honor, right? So you know, the thing I like to say all the time is is that, you know, oftentimes our mind and our behinds are not in line right, and so when you look at Jesus, you know reasons. I can say it this way one of the reasons we had to kill Jesus and every prophet since then is because they call attention to the gap between what we say and how we actually live.

Melissa: 4:58
Wow, okay, so we have these holidays and we, to me, honor. So I used to think honor and gratitude are go hand in hand.

Bishop Wright: 5:08
Sure.

Melissa: 5:08
And I don’t know if it’s ironic or I have no clue, but I looked up the etymology of the word honor, and honor comes from the Latin word anos, which was the name of a Roman god of war who gave soldiers the courage to fight. I mean, isn’t that a little ironic?

Bishop Wright: 5:28
It’s a little ironic, but you know there’s words and where they start off in meaning and where they end up in meaning is oftentimes, you know, quite different. But yeah, I mean, you know the god of war and so find your honor in making war, et cetera. Yeah, but you know, as we popularly sort of use the word now, it has to do with esteem, it has to do with status, and so, yeah, closely linked to that you’re absolutely right, closely linked to that is gratitude, so a profound sense of gratitude for people who make our roads and for people who admit us in hospitals and security guards who keep us safe, and the list is as long as your leg, you know. And so oftentimes these people, many of these people, they occupy the lower rungs of our socioeconomic status, and, you know, in the nation, and so, again, in addition to the day where we call attention to you know, the fact that all labor has dignity, right, and that we’re grateful as a nation and as individual communities and as individuals, for you know, this tireless work that people sort of put in, you know how, about making material differences in their lives? I mean, this is the thing that God is sort of fascinated with, it seems throughout Scripture. You know, people want to know nowadays. You know, what are the politics of Jesus? Well, I can tell you what the politics of Jesus are. They’re very, very clear, and that is justice, and that is mercy, and that is a fascination with improving. You know, the material life of those on the bottom rung Right, and so the politics of Jesus are always about that. That’s the essence of the meditation is really.

Bishop Wright: 7:26
And you know, look, it takes. It takes some real, I would say, bandwidth, I would say maybe even courage to acknowledge the gaps between what we say and how we live. And you know, I’ve said it before in this podcast, I’ll say it again you know, what allows us to look at how we fall short or our blind spots is, you know, this great gift from God in the words of Scripture, and that is is that we are not condemned, right, there’s no condemnation, but there is invitation, right? And so some people wince and don’t want to look at the gaps because, you know, maybe they wonder if they’re redeemable. And so some people wince and don’t want to look at the gaps because, you know, maybe they, they wonder if they’re redeemable.

Bishop Wright: 8:15
And here’s this wonderful word from Scripture saying you’re infinitely redeemable? Of course you are. You’re worth what, you’re worth all and everything to God, right. However, you know, at the same time, in response to a good God who gives us the courage to look into situations, we have to begin to amend our lives right. And so we have to amend, in this particular instance, we have to amend how we deal with those who are on the sort of lower end of our, you know, socioeconomic ladder.

Speaker 2: 9:00
This is your producer, easton Davis. Thank you for listening to Four People, a conversation about faith and leadership. We encourage you to support the show, leave feedback and follow us All from the show’s episode description. And now back to Four People.

Melissa: 9:21
Welcome back, bishop. Before the break you were talking about. To me it was really kind of like the what do you say? You get your mind and your behind in line, right. Yeah, we can honor with our lips.

Bishop Wright: 9:35
Yeah.

Melissa: 9:36
And talk is cheap.

Bishop Wright: 9:39
Yeah, I mean talking is not the whole bus ride, right, talking is important, you might be on the bus, but it’s not the whole bus ride, right.

Melissa: 9:47
Right, I mean to say that I love you to say that I love you, but to never demonstrate love or treat you with respect and honor your dignity, yeah, To say you are my neighbor, but not to be neighborly.

Bishop Wright: 10:04
So in some ways, my wife has this great scheme that she uses called an integrity audit. Whenever Jesus is talking to us, telling us stories, you know there’s always implicit in what he’s saying, an integrity audit. What is the integrity of your faith, what is the integrity of your living? And so, again, it is possible to do lots of different things with your mouth, and you know so.

Bishop Wright: 10:32
For one of the most tragic things we do, I think, as a nation and we’ve done this historically, whether Democrat or Republican president is that we have sent men off to war. And now men and women off to war, but when they come home they have a hell of a time getting the care that they need, getting the benefits they need, and this has been historic in our nation. And so, you know, people say these days thank you for your service, and I can tell you, as a former serviceman, I need less of that and more of the resources. Now I’m okay, thank God. But there are brothers and sisters who have served, who have suffered moral injury or worse, who come home and find, you know, red tape and bureaucracy keeping them from the services they need. And yet we say thank you for your service or we let you get on the airplane first. I think what those men and women would prefer is certain other benefits that seem more substantial as expressions of support.

Melissa: 11:41
Yeah. So how do we then honor with more than just our lips?

Bishop Wright: 11:48
Well, I mean, we’re all working on this, but I think it has to penetrate, right? I mean, I think, when we’re talking about lips and not hearts, is the difference between most hearts and mouths is something like 12 to 16 inches, right, you know how to be people of integrity, how to take Jesus’s invitation on having some integrity in what we say and do, to to closing those gaps. Now, look, we’re all imperfect and all fall short of the glory of God, but it, but it is this endeavor to get up in the morning and to endeavor to close the gaps between what we say and how we actually live, right, and so I think that’s what we do we find the courage to examine the gaps, you know. But this is, I mean, you know, here’s you’re asking such a good question, because I think one of the things in modern Christianity in particular is that our default is to personal piety, right, and so, yeah, so personal piety has a lot to do with it.

Bishop Wright: 12:52
So you know what I, rob, get up and do and what you, yeah, so personal piety has a lot to do with it. So you know what I, rob, get up and do and what you, melissa, get up and do every day has a lot to do with what it means to follow Jesus. But Jesus is preoccupied not so much with personal piety and certainly the prophets before him, but with the. You know how just is the society right? And so we don’t like to talk about that very much, because then we say, oh, my goodness, you’re being political. Well, being political means to have concern about the affairs of the city right.

Bishop Wright: 13:27
Well okay.

Melissa: 13:27
I have a burning question, though, and this is kind of, I think, important for Labor Day Bish, all right, you know, it doesn’t strike me that. You said justice, right? Yes, and they’ve made Labor Day about them who haven’t worked a single day in their lives in a field or haven’t had to do, you know, an 11 to 7 shift, you know. So the people you’re highlighting in your devotion, I think, are laborers, and yet I think we have all said, oh well, I labor too. I go to work in my office from nine to five, and therefore Labor Day is also my holiday. I don’t know that. That was the original spirit behind having a Labor Day. Maybe I’m wrong.

Bishop Wright: 14:25
And sometimes, you know, we can sound like not you, of course, and not any of our listeners, but sometimes we can sound like little petulant children.

Bishop Wright: 14:35
He’s got a cookie. I want a cookie. Where’s my cookie, look? I think the way we go down that road is we simply say all labor has dignity. But I think, also within ourselves, we’ve got to look out beyond ourselves and acknowledge that there’s some folks out here who are catching hell. You know why does it take two and three jobs in this great country for people to keep a roof over their head and to try to get their kids some education and keep you know sort of clothes on their back back? See, I think these are the better questions and certainly these are the questions that God, throughout the Old Testament, and certainly Jesus in the New Testament, tries to keep in front of us, in other words, so why are you so content with only some having? Isn’t the goal, isn’t the express goal, for all to have? I mean, you know we’ve been.

Bishop Wright: 15:30
You know our former president talked a lot about greatness. You know, making America great, and you know some people took exception to that and I didn’t. I think that’s a great ideal. So what makes us great? Is my question right?

Bishop Wright: 15:43
So it’s not nostalgia, right, it’s interrogating the gaps and making sure that in this country the floor height is higher than any place else and you know that people are cared for that. You know we don’t have this public school phenomena like we have. You know, where kids are not equipped and there seems to be some sort of sad acceptance that you know a lot of kids are just going to. You know, be socially promoted and go out into the world and be underprepared. You know for reality and you know it’s no wonder that we’re looking at fourth grade, third and fourth grade reading scores as an indicator projection of what the incarcerated population is going to look like. So you know this gets really way down the road from just personal piety. I mean. How the connection goes is is that if you happen to be a person who has influence in your sphere of influence, then by all means, right, interrogate the gaps in your own organization, right? I mean this is true for our individual congregations, churches, this is true for us at home. I mean this is also true for our society, to acknowledge these gaps.

Bishop Wright: 17:00
But so much of what we do is we deny the gaps or we explain them away. You know I love Stephen Colbert, that great, you know, humorist and late night show host who talks about who’s a pretty devout Christian. I believe he’s a Catholic and he says you know, we ought to just say that we don’t want to go in Jesus’ direction and stop the farce, you know, rather than saying, yeah, we’re buddy buddies with Jesus, but not doing the very things. I mean, I’m paraphrasing but not doing the things that Jesus has asked us to do. And so you know, I think that God’s formula to abundant life, for us to have peace, which is shalom, the presence of shalom, which has to do with the abundance of God’s presence and the abundance of justice, right and even also an expression of obedience right, the most positive expression of obedience is for us to interrogate these gaps and how I’m living at odds with the things I say about myself, and then chart my course across that gap.

Melissa: 18:12
Yay, Well, I guess on this Labor Day weekend to For being invited I guess there’s an invitation to interrogate and be grateful and honor our folks who labor day in and day out. Bishop, any last words?

Bishop Wright: 18:29
No, I mean. What can we say to those who plant the food and harvest the food and lay the roads and heal our children and teach our children and labor in court and are public defenders and sit and do the justice of lawmaking and being judges, and who work hard to find compromise under our Golden Dome here in Atlanta? What can we say except that we owe you a debt of gratitude and we’re so thankful for your work, and I look forward and I hope for a day not very far off when what we say on days like Labor Day is actually present in our public policy.

Melissa: 19:11
Bishop thank you and thank you, listeners, for listening to Four People. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Bishop Rob Wright. Please subscribe, leave a review and we’ll be back with you next week.