UNPAID RENT
Matthew 25:31-46

A sermon given by the Rev. Richard H. Taylor
February 6, 2005 / Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

Last Sunday I said some things about how we must live in the present, in the now, free from past and future also. This week I thought I would tell a few stories to illustrate what living in the "now" might mean.

First story:
Back in the 1970's I came to be a fan of the music of Avery and Marsh. Richard Avery, a Presbyterian minister, and Donald Marsh, a musician, had begun to write many songs that could be used in church. I liked what they did. A lot of it was quite joyful. I went to several of their workshops, ran in to Donald Marsh at Tanglewood, felt I got to know them.

Many of their songs were easy and fun, and they became favorites of children's choirs. As a matter of fact so much of their music was sung by children's choirs that some people began to dismiss all of their music as childish. That is a shame. Some of it was quite wonderful and adult.

Don Marsh told a story of how he came to write one song. Marsh lived in New York City, and had a friend who was prone to get in trouble, write bad checks and the like. I am sure many of us have friends that do things that exasperate us. Anyway, the friend got arrested, convicted, and sentenced to a year in the Attica prison. Before the friend left, Marsh said he would be up for a visit. But if you know New York geography, Attica – between Rochester and Buffalo – is a long way from New York City. Marsh thought about going, but delayed.

Then the Attica prison riots occurred. The friend was not an instigator, but he was killed in the riots. That was that. He never saw his friend again. After time, this song was the result:

[The song "Love Them Now" by Avery and Marsh, is sung]

Second Story:
Sherri Hopper has written a story about a part of her life. Her lover, Kai, and his non-English speaking immigrant mother, both found out they had cancer within a month of each other. At one point along the way both Kai and his mother ended up in the same hospital at the same time. Kai is there for treatment. The mother is scheduled for surgery. After the surgery time Sherri leaves Kai in his room to go see how his mother is doing. She writes:

"When I arrive she is sleeping: none of the family is there, which is strange , because they usually make sure that there is someone with her. As I step into the room, I watch a young med tech take hold of an IV needle in her arm and twist it in a different position. Then he removes a pillow from behind her head, causing her head to fall back thump. I think, Thank the gods for morphine. But the med tech's tender mercies must have hurt enough to wake her up, for she looks past the rough young man and pantomimes to me that she wants a drink. The man says she's not allowed to drink, however, because she just got out of surgery, and she may not have any visitors yet, either.

"I've been in this hospital too long: I opt for a little drama. I touch the med tech's shoulder and motion towards the side of the room conspiratorially, leading him away from Kai's mother. In a hushed voice, I tell him that this is not just some old woman, but a queen by birthright, and that if any of her people had seen what he did with that IV and that pillow, the least he'd be out of was his job. ‘Really, for your own sake,' I urge him, ‘be very careful in how you treat this woman. These people are very good people, but they are very protective of her because of who she is. Do you understand?'" ¹

Do you see this woman? She is a queen. Now.

Third Story:
This story also involves a song. Some years ago I got to sing in a choir led by Jeffrey Radford, and when in that choir he taught me this song. Jeffrey was ten-years my younger, and was Music Director at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, the largest church in our denomination. There he had built up a large magnificent music program. He also wrote many arrangements in the New Century Hymnal. He taught me this song, a Broadway show tune to be sung by a church choir. Jeffrey died a few years ago, a creative genius, not yet fifty.

The song he introduced me to was written by a young man, Jonathan Larson. Larson was one of those young people who set their roots down in New York City planning to be a star, a big success. I think that's why my son Julian went to New York, imagining a big success. The daughter of the organist from my Michigan church did the same thing. She ended up as the piano teacher at the Turtle Bay Music School. You know what they say about New York, "If you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere."

Well, Jonathan Larson ended up working in a restaurant. Not the first person to do so. And he was in the restaurant a long time. He wrote songs. One of the songs he wrote was about writing a song. It was called "One Song Glory," "One song glory, before I go, One song to leave behind…" He didn't want it to be a wasted opportunity.

He put his songs into a play called "Rent," a play about a group of young people hanging out in a dilapidated building, hanging on and not paying the rent. A modern La Boheme. Unpaid rent. Hoping to write one glory song.

It was really not only about the rent we owe to the landlord, but the rent we owe to each other for living, the love we can give to each other: and to the friend in Attica Prison, and the queen in the hospital.

One song starts the second act announcing how many minutes there are in a year – minutes to love, opportunities to love, opportunities to pay up on the rent of human kindness.

Some how, after years in the restaurant, Larson got someone to produce his play: and on Broadway for that matter. A glory song! Excitement! Except Larson died the week before the show opened. So others got to sing his one song glory. And we all got to know, Jeffrey Radford and me included, how many minutes we had in a year to make a difference… now.

[Youth Choir Sing "Five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes," from "Rent" by Jonathan Larson.]

Amen.

1 – Hopper, Sherri L., "When This is Over," The Sun, (Issue, 349, January, 2005, pp.14-18), p.18.