I’ve been reading some interesting articles recently about how people are coping with this severe financial crisis and the economic consequences of it. None of the solutions are very high tech. If anything, they reflect the old saying that, “Everything old is new again”. One of these new old ideas is that of layaway. With credit so tight and many people unable to get a credit card and their home equity lines dried up, the old fashioned idea of layaway is coming back big. Many people have reported that they were shocked that it even existed, and were surprised they could put a gift away at a store, pay a little bit at a time for it, and then get it in time for Christmas. Though, for stores like Kmart, which kept layaway, it has been a boon to its sagging profits. There is even a website that now allows you to do layaway.

Some other old fashioned notions have also been gaining traction lately. My grandmother would always have her envelopes. In each envelope would be the money for the rent, another envelope would be money for groceries, and still another for something else. A growing number of people are going back to this notion instead of just being able to put something ‘on the card’. Still another is the humble Christmas club, though these days I am sure it would have to be called a Holiday Club. Again, a simple notion…put aside a certain amount of money each week, this time in a bank account, and you could get it back next year in time for Christmas purchases.

As odd as it seems, today’s readings fit those old fashioned notions very nicely. All we have to do is replace the idea of layaway as it refers to goods with the idea of layaway as it pertains to faith, and all three lessons show us that the old fashioned notions work as well then as they do now.

In the reading from Joshua, the people are told they have to make a choice. They have to choose between the one true God and other gods and idols. They cannot have both. They are told, however, that if they choose God, they have to keep with their choice for their lives, as God is a jealous deity and will deal with his people harshly if they drift away from him.

In other words, they have to choose an item and stick with it. In most layaway plans, you have to choose what you want and then bring it back to the layaway department. You have to faithfully stick to that item, make regular payments on it, and even pay a small fee to the store for holding it for you. If you do not, the store has a right to rescind its offer. Sounds a bit like what God has said to Joshua’s people, doesn’t it?

In today’s reading from Thessalonians, we are told the reward for that belief. We will be raised from the dead to join the Lord. Those who still live, but who have been faithful, will also join him in the heavens. This is the reward for continuing faith.

If you think about it, this is also talking about layaway. If we are faithful to the Lord, if we keep making those faith payments to him day after day, for our lives, we will eventually get what we have paid for all those years – eternal life and eternal salvation. Agreed, the one the local Kmart offers is a bit easier, as we only have to pay for two or three months, instead of entire lifetimes, but I also will say without fear of contradiction that what is behind the Lord’s layaway counter is far more valuable than the Ipod you have been paying for.

We even get a cautionary tale in the form of Matthew’s gospel. The bridesmaids who prepared for the wedding enjoyed the fruits of their labors and had a wonderful banquet. Those who didn’t plan well found themselves locked out from all the festivities inside.

The envelopes my grandmother used, the Christmas club and the use of layaway show that if you do some good planning, you will not be caught short when you need to pay for an expense. In the days of easy credit, when you could use a home equity loan as your cushion, it was easier to do things on impulse. You didn’t have to plan. You could just go and purchase. Now, with the doors closed to those who did not plan, things have changed.

Again, the example lends itself to the faithful. It is very tough to lead a faithful life on impulse. God’s plan for us is just that, a plan, and it requires us to be vigilant in following it. It may require us to make some tough choices about where we can allocate our resources, and involve hard work and determination in making sure we follow that path set out for us. If we stray off that path, follow our impulses instead of our spiritual conscience, we may find the doors of heaven eventually closed to us. Being faithful to God is not easy. We can’t just have it as an afterthought. It has to be part of our very selves, and we must make sure we are following the plan each and every day of our lives.

In the days of easy credit, these old fashioned ideas were considered just that – old fashioned. Why bother doing any of them when we have a credit card we can use? If that got too high, we could always apply for another…after all, the banks were shoving them at us practically every week, weren’t they?

Being faithful is also an old fashioned idea. It is being the few people within Sodom and Gomorrah, while everyone else is breaking God’s law. It is sometimes passing up the easy road in favor of the longer and tougher route. It involves being called a religious nut, or even being laughed at for not taking advantage of one’s fellow person when the opportunity presents itself. The faithful are considered quaint throwbacks to another time, but not in step with the modern world.

In the race for each media outlet to outdo each other with their hyperbole, the current crisis has been called many, many terms. The one that has stuck in my mind so far is, ‘day of reckoning’ for many things financial. If it wasn’t for this ‘day of reckoning’, many of these old fashioned notions may have stayed exactly where they were…in the background, gathering dust on the shelf. Kmart would have been laughed at for keeping layaway, mason jars kept in the back of the closet instead of holding the money for the rent, and Christmas…excuse me…Holiday Clubs continuing to disappear from many banks as interest continued to wane. Now, they have come back into fashion, and all of a sudden the term ‘old fashioned’ is used with much less derision.

There are lessons for the faithful in today’s headlines. As our readings today demonstrate, human kind has been struggling with our faith layaway plans for years, preferring the easy way to discipline and the wants of right now to the needs of the future. It can be a very fearful things, because when the term ‘day of reckoning’ is used here, it is much more than not being able to use your credit cards. It is for our very future. I can’t think of a better reason to use layaway, can you?

Amen

--Michael Gow