Readings for Sunday, September 30th

The Collect
O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah, where King Zedekiah of Judah had confined him.

Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came to me: Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, "Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours." Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the LORD, and said to me, "Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself." Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy; and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. In their presence I charged Baruch, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.

Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16 Page 719, 720, BCP

Qui habitat

1

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, *
abides under the shadow of the Almighty.

2

He shall say to the LORD,
"You are my refuge and my stronghold, *
my God in whom I put my trust."

3

He shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter *
and from the deadly pestilence.

4

He shall cover you with his pinions,
and you shall find refuge under his wings; *
his faithfulness shall be a shield and buckler.

5

You shall not be afraid of any terror by night, *
nor of the arrow that flies by day;

6

Of the plague that stalks in the darkness, *
nor of the sickness that lays waste at mid-day.

14

Because he is bound to me in love,
therefore will I deliver him; *
I will protect him, because he knows my Name.

15

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; *
I am with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and bring him to honor.

16

With long life will I satisfy him, *
and show him my salvation.

or

Amos 6:1a,4-7

Alas for those who are at ease in Zion,

and for those who feel secure on Mount Samaria.

Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory,

and lounge on their couches,

and eat lambs from the flock,

and calves from the stall;

who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,

and like David improvise on instruments of music;

who drink wine from bowls,

and anoint themselves with the finest oils,

but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!

Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile,

and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.

Psalm 146 Page 803, BCP

Lauda, anima mea

1

Hallelujah!
Praise the LORD, O my soul! *
I will praise the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

2

Put not your trust in rulers, nor in any child of earth, *
for there is no help in them.

3

When they breathe their last, they return to earth, *
and in that day their thoughts perish.

4

Happy are they who have the God of Jacob for their help!*
whose hope is in the LORD their God;

5

Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; *
who keeps his promise for ever;

6

Who gives justice to those who are oppressed, *
and food to those who hunger.

7

The LORD sets the prisoners free;
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind; *
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;

8

The LORD loves the righteous;
the LORD cares for the stranger; *
he sustains the orphan and widow,
but frustrates the way of the wicked.

9

The LORD shall reign for ever, *
your God, O Zion, throughout all generations.
Hallelujah!

1 Timothy 6:6-19

There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the right time-- he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.

Luke 16:19-31

Jesus said, "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, `Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' But Abraham said, `Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' He said, `Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house-- for I have five brothers-- that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' Abraham replied, `They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' He said, `No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

Matt's Sermon from Sunday

Matt Kruger
September 23, 2007
Today’s gospel reading is a parable, a specific genre of literature, with specific qualities that grant it this definition. In order to be a parable, the story must be a didactic tool, that is, it must have a moral or theological message. Parables must also include rhetorical structures, which are portions of a parable that should not inform the way we act. These are metaphorical elements used to illustrate a larger point, and not intended to function on a micro level. And then there are the practical elements that serve as models for the way we live; these can be interpreted in a more literal sense. The sum of all these elements, a parable should be a story that illustrates a larger truth using examples of impractical and practical action while making a theological or moral comment about the world as a whole.
Because I have this definition and these categories on hand, today’s Gospel should have become at once clear to me. Yet, after having read this parable close to fifty times, I am still not sure what is going on here. I have been to the library, and found nothing consistent from any commentator, ancient or new. Apparently, figuring out what the moral or theological message of this story is has proved to be a difficult task.
One problem is that almost every interpreter of this parable is convinced that it is about money, despite the precedent for understanding references to wealth in a metaphorical sense in other parables and throughout the Bible. This limits the possibilities for interpretation, and also makes this already confusing parable even more unappealing to preach on. But I am not convinced this parable has anything to do with money.
First of all, this parable matches the structure of two others. The first is the parable of the unforgiving servant, which begins, “The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.” In this parable, a king summons a slave who owes him 10,000 denarii, and when the slave begs for mercy, the king grants him more time to pay back the debt. This man then runs into another slave who owes him 100 denarii, and when the man is unable to pay, the slave who has already been granted a stay throws the other into prison until he can pay back his debt. The second is the parable of the talents, which includes this verse, “After a long time, the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them.” In this parable, a master gives three of his slaves an amount of money, one 5 talents, one two talents, and to the other, one talent. The first two slaves double their money by investing, while the other buries his so that he does not risk losing it. The first of these is about forgiveness, and the second, depending on your interpretation, is about faith or even about literal skills and gifts. By induction, each of these parables can be applied to money, but that is not their main moral or theological message.
Today’s parable can be understood as parallel with these two others, and we can therefore understand the characters as representing similar people. In one interpretation, that would make the master in each of these parables God, and the stewards or servants of God us. In each of these parables, God grants us certain things as the stewards of God’s creation that we can use either in the service of God or for selfish purposes. This is the case with the steward in today’s parable. Though he is supposed to be in the service of God, he is not; interpreting metaphorically, he is a sinner. Eventually, he is warned by God that his account is due, in my interpretation it means that he will be called to account for his actions. A common theological conception of the way the universe worked at that point in time is that all those who die, either at the time of death, or during a later apocalyptic period will be called to answer for their sins. In the temporal sense, the steward recognizes that he is in jeopardy of losing an earthly home, and wishes to avoid this. Thus, the steward acts in a manner that is both sinful and generous to ensure that he is not without a place to live. Though this action is self serving and selfish and seems only to continue the illicit practices the dishonest steward has begun, it has just a tinge of mercy attached to it, and this is enough. Though the servant is only trying to save himself, by forgiving the debts of those indebted to his master, he is acting in kindness, and he is worthy of reward.
The parable continues “And his master commended the dishonest manager,” but the Greek text actually reads “the lord commended the dishonest manager,” where the word “lord” can refer either to the lord of the manor or to Jesus himself complimenting the actions of the steward. I would argue that this sentence is intentionally vague, and in fact refers both to the lord in the story and to Jesus, because the actions are shrewd both in terms of this world and the kingdom of heaven.
This parable pulls at our human conceptions of justice. We are told a little later in the reading, “Whoever is faithful in a very little, is also faithful in much. And whoever is dishonest in very little is dishonest also in much.” This would mean that the dishonest steward, who is dishonest in much, is by virtue of his indirect yet faithful service towards God also faithful in much. He is an unjust person and a righteous person, a sinner and an individual who is already enjoying his salvation in a lived way. His indiscretions were not marked in stone, but when he forgives the debts of others, he himself is forgiven.
This is a reminder of the prayer we say every Sunday. “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” I would argue that this parable has little to do with money, and that it has only been interpreted as such as a result of being grouped by Luke with the second half of today’s Gospel reading. This parable is about forgiving others not out of fear of the afterlife, but that you may live peacefully in the present time as well. This parable is tinged with an eschatological urgency, not because of the imminence of the end times or because death is near, but because salvation is present in the here and now, and to hold onto the debts of others is to hold yourself from your own realization of the kingdom of heaven on earth.

Collect and Readings for Sept. 23rd

Collect
Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Reading

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

My joy is gone, grief is upon me,

my heart is sick.

Hark, the cry of my poor people

from far and wide in the land:

"Is the LORD not in Zion?

Is her King not in her?"

("Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,

with their foreign idols?")

"The harvest is past, the summer is ended,

and we are not saved."

For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,

I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.

Is there no balm in Gilead?

Is there no physician there?

Why then has the health of my poor people

not been restored?

O that my head were a spring of water,

and my eyes a fountain of tears,

so that I might weep day and night

for the slain of my poor people!"

Psalm 79:1-9 Page 701, BCP

Deus, venerunt

1

O God, the heathen have come into your inheritance;
they have profaned your holy temple; *
they have made Jerusalem a heap of rubble.

2

They have given the bodies of your servants as food for the birds of the air, *
and the flesh of your faithful ones to the beasts of the field.

3

They have shed their blood like water on every side of Jerusalem, *
and there was no one to bury them.

4

We have become a reproach to our neighbors, *
an object of scorn and derision to those around us.

5

How long will you be angry, O LORD?*
will your fury blaze like fire for ever?

6

Pour out your wrath upon the heathen who have not known you *
and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon your Name.

7

For they have devoured Jacob *
and made his dwelling a ruin.

8

Remember not our past sins;
let your compassion be swift to meet us; *
for we have been brought very low.

9

Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of your Name; *
deliver us and forgive us our sins, for your Name's sake.

or

Amos 8:4-7

Hear this, you that trample on the needy,

and bring to ruin the poor of the land,

saying, "When will the new moon be over

so that we may sell grain;

and the sabbath,

so that we may offer wheat for sale?

We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,

and practice deceit with false balances,

buying the poor for silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals,

and selling the sweepings of the wheat."

The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob:

Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

Psalm 113 Page 756, BCP

Laudate, pueri

1

Hallelujah!
Give praise, you servants of the LORD; *
praise the Name of the LORD.

2

Let the Name of the LORD be blessed, *
from this time forth for evermore.

3

From the rising of the sun to its going down *
let the Name of the LORD be praised.

4

The LORD is high above all nations, *
and his glory above the heavens.

5

Who is like the LORD our God, who sits enthroned on high *
but stoops to behold the heavens and the earth?

6

He takes up the weak out of the dust *
and lifts up the poor from the ashes.

7

He sets them with the princes, *
with the princes of his people.

8

He makes the woman of a childless house *
to be a joyful mother of children.

The Second Reading

1 Timothy 2:1-7

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For

there is one God;

there is also one mediator between God and humankind,

Christ Jesus, himself human,

who gave himself a ransom for all

-- this was attested at the right time. For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

The Gospel

Luke 16:1-13

Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, `What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' Then the manager said to himself, `What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.' So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, `How much do you owe my master?' He answered, `A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, `Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' Then he asked another, `And how much do you owe?' He replied, `A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, `Take your bill and make it eighty.' And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

"Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

Ben's Sermon from Sept. 16th - Lost Sheep

I wonder if any of you is feeling a little lost at the moment? Lost in a new town? A new university? Lost among a new group of people? Among new church congregation? For those of you who’re already part of this congregation, perhaps you’re feeling lost because of the new service leaflet or new singing of the Lord’s Prayer?

Any one of you, whether new this year or returning, might be feeling like you have left the herd that sustained you over the summer, and now you are on your own. We often hear that sheep tend not to go it alone, yet to begin new school year that is exactly what you’ve had to do. You are on your own.

But the reassuring message of today’s gospel is that, wherever you wander, Jesus has got you. Whenever you are feeling like a lost sheep, Jesus “lays [you] on his shoulders and rejoices” to bring you home.

Today’s reading from Luke is one of two versions of the parable of the lost sheep in the gospels. You might not know it, but the story also appears in Matthew with a slightly different message. This is nice because it allows me to say something about the way we Episcopalians, we members of the Anglican Communion, interpret the Bible. Anglicans have a long history of being literary-types; we are maybe a bit artsy-fartsy for some tastes, but we believe in a breadth of interpretation. We are the sorts who believe that Jesus’s words are so magnificent, that there can’t just be one interpretation to each passage of scripture.

The parable of the lost sheep is proof of what I say, because Matthew and Luke interpret Jesus’s story in slightly different ways. The gospel writers use the story of the one sheep out of ninety-nine that is lost and put their own spin on it. Is it about being lost to sin, or about being lost in the world? Is it about God saving us from sin in the person of Jesus, or is it about Jesus promising that God holds on to us so that we never will be lost?

Luke thinks it is a parable about sinners and so he sets the story in the context of the Pharisees challenging Jesus. The Pharisees are saying: “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Lk 15:1). So why does Jesus hang out with sinners? Luke uses the parable to explain. Luke seems to be presenting Jesus as a shepherd trying to find the sinners of this world, so as to make them aware that God loves them. Jesus ends the story with these words: when the lost sheep is found, the shepherd comes home, “And… he calls together his friends, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents” – just as Jesus the Son and God the Father rejoice together when one who is lost responds to their call, responds to their offer of grace.

The message seems to be that God finds you in your sin and God is active in you when you repent. That is what Augustine takes the parable to mean in his Confessions, the famous meditation in which the famous saint tells the story of his life. Even when you think you’ve gone astray, says Augustine, God is there guiding you back. You can’t get lost from God. This is what Augustine calls grace.

Augustine tells the story of his own time at college. Instead of going it alone, he got in with the wrong crowd – a group that picked on lonely freshmen. He writes: “I was far quieter than the other students, and had nothing whatever to do with the vandalism which used to be carried out by the Wreckers. This sinister and diabolical self-designation was a kind of mark of their urbane sophistication. I lived among them shamelessly ashamed of not being one of the gang. I kept company with them and sometimes delighted in their friendship, though I always held their actions in abhorrence. The Wreckers used wantonly to persecute shy and unknown freshmen. Their aim was to persecute them by mockery and so to feed their malevolent amusement.” Sound like any group you know?

Augustine says that it doesn’t help if, when you are feeling lost and lonely, you get in with the wrong crowd. It doesn’t help, but even there God is with you. Even as you commit sins against others, God is trying to bring you round through grace. When Augustine thought he was going away from God, as a young boy, as a student and then as a rich lawyer, he came to realize that God was still holding on to him throughout.

Matthew has a different take on this same parable: for him the lost sheep is an example not of a sinner but of a child of God, among whom we can count ourselves. God is the shepherd in this version and God looking out for you. Matthew introduces the parable with Jesus saying of the children of God: “Take care you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven. What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?... So it is not the will of your Father that one of these little ones should be lost.” (Mt 18:10-14)

Although the focus is no longer on sin, the message is still that God is never far away from you. Even if the world rejects you, or your peers reject you, or your sweetheart does, or your family, God will not. So which interpretation do you like best?

Both interpretations say something that Episcopalians and Anglicans think is particularly important to say about God. It is distinctively Anglican to focus on the incarnation, on God’s coming to us in Jesus, so that we might be found. In line with Luke’s version, we believe God has overcome sin in Jesus. In line with Matthew’s version, God has come into the world in human flesh so as to lift human flesh up to God. Sin overcome and humanity lifted to God: that has results for us too. As sheep who have been found, in Jesus we are given the opportunity to be transformed.

The meaning of the incarnation, and of this parable, is humanity’s transformation. Think of what Paul wrote in our reading from the first letter to Timothy: “I am grateful to Jesus Christ our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence” (I Tim 1:12). Paul has been found. Like Paul, the Christian is no longer “a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a [person] of violence” but is transformed by Christ “to [do] his service.” We are those who have been called to join a new herd. If we feel like we are lost, then look around you and recognize in one another that we are being transformed in God’s service.