PROPER 20 (25) Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost Year C September 18, 2022
Throughout my experience with our lectionary, it
never ceases to amaze me at how God uses the set readings to coincide with
events. Here in today’s reading we have
the call to pray for everyone, and especially for Kings and rulers.
In the last week we have had the death of the
Queen. Mostly we live our lives not
thinking too much about the royal family, but for most of our lives the Queen
has been there… known as defender of the faith, and maintaining the status
quo. Now the crown will go to her son –
the baton will be passed to another. Do
we expect the status quo to remain or do we expect change? Regardless, we are called to pray for our
leaders.
It isn’t just for our Monarch, that we are exhorted
to pray. We are to pray for all in high
positions and all in leadership. When
our government has an election, we may be personally praying for our preferred
person to be elected, but what do we do when the “other” person is elected
instead? Hopefully we realize that we need to pray for them.
In these last few years, all of our politicians have
been under extreme pressure. They may
have made decisions that we agreed with, and they, more likely, made decisions
with which we strongly disagree. Do we
get on our soap box and call out their sins?
Might I suggest, the less we agree with a leader, the more seriously we
need to be praying and interceding for them… maybe even fasting and praying. I emphasize, we ought to pray FOR them –
praying God’s blessing and that they come to know His saving grace.
It is God’s will that everyone be saved and come in
to the knowledge of truth. Especially
that politician with whom we disagree.
It IS God’s will that we live lives that are prosperous and good, and it
is also His will that all be saved. If
we are not stepping up and praying for our leaders with whom we disagree, we
are not doing that which we are called to do, as made clear by St. Paul.
When we pray God’s blessings for those with whom we
disagree, it changes things. In the very
least, it changes us. We become more
aware of the humanity… the cares and concerns of the person we are praying
for. We become aware of the other
person’s perspectives. We may still
disagree with them, but we may become more understanding and more compassionate
towards them. All in all, it makes the way
that we will approach areas of conflict, different, and the way we talk about
those people, more the way that God would have us talk.
God is trying to tell us something…. What is it? Here it is, in our reading from Saint
Paul. God desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
We all have a part to play in this. Have we forgotten our call to go into all the
world, making disciples? and have we become unfaithful stewards of the riches
we’ve been given? We are the managers in
God’s kingdom. All of us in the church
are called to play a part in passing on the Good News about Jesus Christ coming
to save all people. How are we going
with this? Are the people that God has
put in our charge, saying the same as those we read about in the words of
Jeremiah; “The harvest is past, the
summer is ended, and we are not saved.”?
Imagine that…
Not consciously, but spiritually, there are people that we are meant to
be sharing the Good News with and their spirits cry out, “we are not saved”. These are people who, in the plan of God, we
are meant to impact their lives…
We, the church, have been entrusted with the riches
of salvation and the knowledge of truth.
We know that we belong to God and have assurance of his love. We have the knowledge of God’s ways, and
knowledge of what he says is good and what is not, and we understand his heart
of love. Yet, to put it in terms of the
Gospel reading; have we “halved the bill”….watered down the Gospel, made
friends with the ruler of deception, by showing that we can be cunningly deceitful
such that we are accepted by all, and not been faithful with the true riches of
God’s grace, mercy and truth? There is a
song we will sing later with words, “Then the glory of the cross is a propaganda
gloss.” (God of Jeremiah)
I don’t have the answer to this question, but I pose
it, because this seems to be the challenge in our readings for today.
Our Gospel reading seems confusing at first. At a glance it seems to be in support of the
dishonest worker. However, the parable
is told to explain the difference in attitude.
A dishonest worker has an attitude that is completely self-focused. He is not concerned at all about the master,
or the master’s wealth, but he is concerned about insuring his own
position. The dishonest manager “Made
Friends” much the same as a mafia manager might do so. He cut their debts to another, but in doing
so, he ensured that they became indebted to himself. Exactly like we see in the movies, where
someone is in debt over their head and bailed out, only to find themselves
indebted in a more sinister way.
Our attitude needs to be completely different. Our priorities must centre around God’s
concerns, and we need to have a heart that reflects God’s priorities, rather
than our own.
There is a story about a preacher on the Titanic,
John Harper. John led his young daughter
to a life boat and, being a widower, was entitled to get on that life boat with
her, but instead he chose to provide the masses, who were drowning, the chance
to know Christ. There was an officer who
rebuffed him. John could have been
offended and left that officer for dead, but instead he gave the officer his
own life jacket, stating that the officer needed it more than him. He swam to as many people as he could,
sharing the message of Christ and eventually died. Four years later, at a survivor’s meeting,
one man testified that he was the last convert of John Harper.
John Harper had the heart and the priorities of
Christ. He knew that he was secure in
the love of God and saved by the sacrifice of Jesus. This life is important, but nothing about
this life is more important than being saved by Christ and secure in the
knowledge of the truth.
At this point we need to reflect on just what it is
about our personal relationship with God that makes it important. There are many stories about people who were
terrible sinners and when they were introduced to the love and mercy of God
they responded with repentance. The Bible tells us it is the kindness and
love of God that brings people to repentance.
We need to understand that people experience the love and kindness of
God through us.
Though there are people, acutely aware of their
failings, there are many more people who, though they occasionally stuff up,
their sins are nothing so startling, yet these people also respond with
absolute dedication to God.
Consider King David.
He was known as a man after God’s own heart. Or consider even Jeremiah the Prophet from
whom we read today… or countless other prophets and people who have been
prepared to, or even given their life for the truth and Good News of God. I think there is really just one thing in
common. All had a knowledge of the truth
of God and all understood his goodness.
God is! Those
who know God, know that he is the ultimate reality and all of this world finds
its meaning and reason only in the light of that fact. The fact that this very real God loves us is
the Good News. There is always an aspect
of realization of one’s imperfections when we come face to face with the
reality of God, but the love of God that we experience through the sacrifice of
Jesus is truly Good News. Christianity
is unique in that God came down as one of us to save us. He showed us his great love and did for us
what we can not do for ourselves. The
love of God is constant and it is promised that there is nothing, neither
Angels, demons, things present or things to come that can separate us from the
love of God that we have through Christ Jesus.
This is the key.
Those who have experienced the love of God are those who have impacted
the lives of others with that love of God.
John Harper knew the love of God and we know his name today and his
amazing story of preaching as the titanic sunk.
Saint Paul made history with his fearless preaching in so many places,
some also coincidentally with the back drop of sinking ships.
We need to search the scriptures, pray and ask God
to reveal his deep and abiding love for us.
When we know this love, God will be our only master and we will respond
by reaching out in love to others…. We will be faithful stewards.
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