A SHAME, SCANDAL AND SCAM

A SERMON FOR COMMITMENT SUNDAY

A sermon prepared by Rev. Tim Kutzmark
Sunday, March 16, 2008 • Unitarian Universalist Church of Reading

"Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present."
—Albert Camus

“The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us
to count our blessings.”
—Eric Hoffer

From the New York Daily News, Wednesday January 10, 2008:

Virgilio Cintron was the happiest corpse in New York City as his two buddies wheeled him in a red office chair to a . . . check-cashing shop with his last Social Security check.  “He’s probably laughing at it now,” a . . . longtime friend  . . .  said yesterday.  “The last con.” (NY Daily News, January 10, 2008)

On January 8th, I took a quick trip to New York City to see a concert live at Lincoln Center.  I stopped to grab a meal at a favorite Thai restaurant on Ninth Avenue.  But the corner where the restaurant sat was clogged with reporters, cameras, satellite vans, and onlookers.

One reporter was sitting in the front seat of his television van, smoking a cigarette, and looking rather bored.  “What’s going on?” I asked.

It seems that an older guy named Virgilio Cintron had died in his apartment nearby.  He died of natural causes.  But his roommate decided not to let “the situation go to waste.” (NY Daily News, Jan 9, 2008)

So the roommate, “James O’Hare and his buddy David Dalaia attempted to dress Cintron’s corpse in a pair of paints, a T-shirt and sneakers . . . When they couldn’t get the pants[up]  to his waist, the 65-year-old men threw a jacket over his crotch and wheeled him from his W. 52nd Street apartment to [the] check-cashing outlet around the block on Ninth Ave.” (NY Daily News, Jan 9, 2008)  “One immediate complication in the scheme was the chair had no arms, which meant [they had considerable difficulty keeping . . . Cintron in the chair.”  (NY Daily News, January 10, 2008)  “Witnesses observed Mr. Cintron flopping from side to side and these individuals propping him up as they rolled along,” (NY Daily News, January 9, 2008)

“Another complication came when NYPD Detective Travis Rapp happened to look up from his lunch in a Ninth Ave. restaurant.”  (10)  “At first I thought it was a mannequin, “ Rapp later said” . . .  “He began to think otherwise as the men drew nearer.  The figure in the chair was pale and stiff . . . and his feet were bumping on the pavement.  The two escorts were sweating with the continuing effort to keep their passenger from spilling out” . . . Officer Rapp remembered.” (NY Daily News, January 10, 2008)

“The men stopped outside the Pay-O-Matic check-cashing shop, which was not corpse-accessible.”  (NY Daily News, January 10, 2008)  “The men left Cintron’s body outside while they went into Pay-O-Matic, where Cintron always cashed his checks.  An employee recognized the name on the $355.00 check, and when he asked to see Cintron, O’Hare said, “He’s outside.  We’ll get him.”  “They were trying to pass the guy off as alive,” [said]] Pay-O-Matic clerk Mariano Galvez. (NY Daily News, January 9, 2008)

The casual corpse on the sidewalk at 3:45 pm drew a large crowd. (NY Daily News, January 10, 2008)

Detective Rapp emerged from the restaurant and identified himself.  “What’s going on?”  Rapp [asked] . . . “I’m cashing my friend’s check,” O’Hare said.  “An ambulance arrived and the paramedics reported the figure in the chair had been dead for a good 12 hours.   O’Hare and Dalaia were arrested on charges that took a while to determine, there not having been a crime exactly like this in anybody’s memory.” (NY Daily News, January 10, 2008)

People will go to great lengths to get money.  Organizations will go to great lengths to get money.  And, yes, even religions will go to great lengths to get money. 

I think of the Roman Catholic Church, which, years ago, sold indulgences to anyone who could afford them.  Indulgences were basically “get out of hell” cards.  They granted forgiveness for sins, and could spring you, or a dead relative, out of eternal damnation.   You commit adultery, you hire a prostitute and transport her across state lines, you cheat on your taxes, or you do a little murdering and pillaging?  It was nothing cash couldn’t correct.  The money raised from the sale of religious forgiveness built some of the most beautiful cathedrals in Europe.

Religions will go to great length to get the money they need.  Today, many churches require a tithe, an automatic donation of 10% of your income to have active membership in the Family of God.  Other faiths simply assess a fee; there is a stated membership price that covers the cost of operating the institution.

As Unitarian Universalists, we don’t operate that way.  Since we don’t believe in eternal damnation, we can’t sell salvation to the highest bidder.  We don’t believe that a tithe, 10% of all income and equity, is the Law of God and must be followed without question.  We don’t even assess a membership fee to cover the basic cost of keeping the church going (although I can tell you that it will take an average $1, 232 a day to keep our doors open next year).

We don’t con each other.  We don’t resort to tactics of coercion.  We don’t sell membership.  We try not to succumb to the lowest common denominator.

Rather, as Unitarian Universalists, we believe that inside everyone there is so much goodness, so much beauty, so much dreaming, so much possibility.  Inside each of us we believe there is so much love and light and gentleness and wisdom.  And, call us crazy or naive, we believe there is something inside each of us that wants to share, believes it is necessary to share, that believes part of the call to a spiritual life is not to clutch things too tightly or hold things for our own use alone.  We believe that there is something in each of us that knows, beyond a doubt, that there is a great flow in the universe, that there are blessings from the universe that flow into our lives.  We believe we can become part of that eternal flow, allowing some of those blessings to move through us back into the universe.  We believe “sharing produces its own abundance . . . that trumps anything our hands can hold.  In the end, we have more.”  (Edward L. Beck, Soul Provider, p. 18)

Edward L. Beck, a Catholic priest and author tells this true story:

Once I was traveling on a fully booked flight from the West Coast to New York.  The plane’s departure had been delayed for over two hours, and tempers were flaring.  As finally we were boarding, I witnessed an interchange between a smartly attired businessman and an elderly woman with a cane.  She was leaning against a wall as the first-class passengers were entering.
“Don’t you want to board first?” the businessman asked her.
“Oh, no, I’m not in first-class,” she responded.
“Yes, but you have difficulty walking, and you have a cane,” he said.  “Please, go ahead.”  He motioned her forward,
“Well, okay, I guess I can.  Thank you.”

She limped ahead of the businessman and a few annoyed looking first-class passengers and handed the smiling agent her coach-seat boarding pass.  The businessman followed with his first-class boarding pass.

When I finally boarded and was passing through the first-class cabin, I noticed the . . . [older] woman sitting in a first-class seat on the aisle, sipping a sparkling water with lime, and looking like she had hit the lottery.  I didn’t see the businessman anywhere—until I reached my seat, midway down the plane.  He was jammed into a middle seat in the next to last row. (p. 9-10)

Being part of the flow means giving something up.  It means not having something in our hands that we would have had otherwise.  I’ve been very up-front that I donate 5% of my pre-tax income to our church.  I’m blessed, and in a position that I can do so.  And I realize that not everyone is.  But sharing 5% means I have to do with more than $3200 less in order to offer that money here.  And to be honest, there have been many days I wish I had that extra money to do something extra for myself, and my family.  But then, something smiles inside me and I am reminded that I use that money to do something extra for us.  And your sharing and my sharing does something.  Together, we helped heat the children’s nursery on one of those really cold and icy Sunday mornings in January.  We helped turn on the lights for one of the nights we hosted a workshop for the town exploring the issue of race in America.  We helped cover the cost of a staff member’s health insurance.  We purchased the music the choir sang this morning.  We paid the bill that keeps our church’s phone and voice mail operating, so that when there is a crisis or death in the family, we have a place to call to find comfort and support.

Sharing in a church community is different than giving to charity.  It is different than writing a check to the March of Dimes, American Cancer Association, or the AIDS Action Committee.  Those charitable contributions are all essential, and I urge those of us who are able to share time and finances with the organizations and causes that make a difference.  But this church is different from charities and service organizations.  This church is the place we come when the cares and worries of our life seems too much for us.  This church is the place we come to weep, and this church is the place we come when we need to laugh and sing again.  This is the place we come when we feel overwhelmed by the headlines and we need to be reminded that there is goodness moving in the world.  This is the place we realize, as Wayne Muller writes: “that we know more than we can say.”  This is the place we “are invited to breathe deeply in love and grace, until we have had our fill.”  We are the place that will celebrate our birthday as a day when the world became more beautiful.  We are the place that is big enough to hold all our doubts and fears and questions.  We are the place that is small enough to want to know us by name.  This is a place we come to find God.  This is the place we come to find peace.  This is the place we come to be reminded that we are good and that we are loved.  This is the place we come to be reminded to take our light and share it with the world.  This is the place we come to be reminded that the longtime sun shines upon us, all love surrounds us, and the pure light within us guides our way on.

This is the community that welcomes every part of who we are—the best and the worst and the in-between.  This is the place that tenderly holds our heart, our spirit, our friendships, our family, our individuality, our commonality, and our dreams.  This is a sacred place, our growing community of strength, conscience, memory and hope.

For this I am grateful.  For this, may we be grateful.

No cons.  No corpses wheeled down the street in a red office chair.  No forgiveness for sale. No membership fees.  No false promises.  Just the opportunity for us be . . . together…for another year.

May it be so.  Blessed Be.  Amen.