2025 09 28 Proper 21 year C
Jeremiah
32.1-3a, 6-15 Psalm 91.1-6. 14-16 1 Timothy 6.6-19 Luke 16.19-31
Following on from
last week’s readings, the warnings about desiring riches continues, and we see
a contrast between rich and poor, power and powerlessness. St. Paul’s letter to Timothy has these wise
words; “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.” This gives us a hint about the diversity of
people who were the early church and tells us that there were both rich and
poor and everyone in between. The evangelists
didn’t just preach to outsiders and poor, but they preached to everyone and
people of all walks of life responded.
From the prophet
Jeremiah we find this contrast also, with the powerful King and the powerless
prophet. Jeremiah was placed in
“confinement” in the palace. The back
story is that Jeremiah had prophesied to the King of Judah, Zedekiah, that the
city would be given into the hands of the king of Babylon and that they would
lose in their fight with the Chaldeans.
This came to be, yet the King was angry that Jeremiah had prophesied and
locked him in the palace. So here we
have the one with power and the one without power, side by side. But things are never as straightforward as
they seem, and certainly, God’s economy in the Spiritual realm is different to
that which is in the physical world.
Something that we
need to understand and remember is that the Spiritual realm is part of this
world. God is with us always and there
are powers and principalities at work that we can’t see. Most importantly we must remember that God
will have the last say. The physical
world decays, the spiritual does not.
Having great riches
or not, was not a sign of being a follower of God or not remember the great
people of faith, such as Abraham and David were very rich, but riches or
poverty or somewhere in between is simply a fact of living in the physical
world. And our challenge from last
week’s message is to understand that we are simply managers or stewards of
those riches and God is the Master who calls us to give an account of how we
have managed the riches of which he has entrusted to us - whether that be our finances, our skills or
talents.
Saint Paul also has
these words on the matter for Timothy; “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.”
In other words, our focus needs to be on the life that is really life…
which is the Spiritual life.
We, in this world,
are all the children of God. Some of us
have realized it and responded to God, but that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t
care about the others. One of the riches
that God has given us is the knowledge of him.
But what’s more, He has given us His Holy Spirit and all kinds of gifts
that go along with that. Are we being
good stewards of these gifts?
The Pharisees were
wealthy, but not many were being good stewards.
In this environment, Jesus told a story about a man who was dressed in
purple and fine linen. These two things
tell us that the man was both a King, as purple denote royalty, and a priest,
as the priests were to wear linen. This
tells us that Jesus is talking about a man who belonged to the people of God… a
royal child of God, who was also a person of faith – a priest - a servant of
God. You and I are this person!
This is an unusual
parable because it names one character, Lazarus. His name means, “God has helped”. This deliberate naming implies that no one
else has helped him, only God. It is
also significant that the rich man knew Lazarus’ name and the rich man knew
Moses and the Prophets. The rich man is
no outsider to the ways of God, as far as knowledge goes, and he probably lived
his life in both physical and spiritual comfort and security, feeling reassured
that God was on his side. He was,
however, not a good steward of his riches.
He did not care for those in need who he even knew by name –
Lazarus.
Going back to our Old
Testament, King Zedekiah had responsibility for the kingdom of Judah. He had been given riches and a position of
power and authority. As the king of
Judah, he was also in a position of power over the people’s faith. King Zedekiah refused to listen to the word
of God and his mis-management of his position meant that not just him, but the
kingdom also would suffer. King Zedekiah
knew Jeremiah by name. Jeremiah’s
prophecy had been proved correct and King Zedekiah still refused to change his
ways. Why? What can we learn from this?
Some questions we
need to ask ourselves and God are; Am I refusing
to help someone that God wants me to help?
Am I refusing to be corrected? Am
I being a responsible steward of the riches that God has given me?
We may not be poor,
but we may feel powerless. King Zedekiah
had power, and Jeremiah was confined by that power. Jeremiah had no internet to enable him to get
his word out to others. He could only
tell the king and those in the palace and they weren’t listening. Jeremiah and Lazurus were both helped by
God.
The word of God came
to Jeremiah and when his cousin came to ask him to buy a field, Jeremiah knew
what God’s message was. It was a message
of hope. Can you imagine the scene? it
would have been a pretty weird meeting.
This guy outside, coming into see the palace prisoner to ask him to buy
a field. The whole land was suffering as
it had been besieged. So, the land
Jeremiah was purchasing would have meant buying land that was completely
useless and under the control of a foreign power, but the message of God was to
buy this field. Why? Because God has the last word. Though there is destruction and darkness all
around, there is always hope for the people of God. For some time, this land would be
inaccessible for Jeremiah, but in time there would again be vineyards. Jeremiah might not have been very wealthy,
yet what he did with what he had was to follow God’s direction and spend it on
a field that for many years would not see the fruit.
We may feel like we
are in that same kind of position for our church… and our country. There has been a shadow over our church due
to the sins of another. And even our
country is divided and seems to be going in a direction that denies God’s
ways. What is God’s word to us? For the people listening to Jeremiah, it was
that after this disaster there would again be life and growth. God always has the last word.
In the final scene of
our Gospel reading, after both the rich man and Lazarus had died, the rich man
intercedes for his brothers who are still living and asks that someone be sent
back to life to warn them. Abraham
responds; 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will
they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'" This is Jesus telling the story and also
telling us what would happen to him.
In fact, God has
given every possible proof to mankind, but there will always be some who do not
believe. That doesn’t mean that God
stops trying to reach them. It is made
explicit in the Old Testament, that those who receive the word of God, if they
don’t pass it on, will be held accountable for the lives of the ones they were
meant to pass it on to. That is why
Jeremiah prefers confinement in the palace rather than freedom but at the
expensive of lives.
Many people who come
to faith, do so after being completely opposed to faith for many years. In fact, their hearts could be said to be “In
Exile”… but invest in those people…in faith… buy that plot of land …. Use our
wealth, our skills our talents, like good and responsible stewards to sow seeds
of faith in that ground. Understand that
the land is besieged by the enemy. Yet
we invest with hope knowing the word of God does not return void but will
accomplish God’s will. Not immediately,
but one day, that seed will flourish.
In the last sentence
of our Gospel, we understand that Jesus knew that there would be people who
would still refuse to believe even if someone came back from the dead. That didn’t stop him going to the cross. He was the word of God made flesh, and he
would atone for the sin of the world and rise from the dead, bringing us
eternal life. Jesus made spiritual life
and eternity the priority. We too, need
to have a Kingdom mindset.
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