Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C 18th September 2022
Lectionary Readings: Amos 8 v4-7; Psalm 113; 1 Timothy 2 v1-7; Luke 16 v1-13.
God and money.
Amos was send by God to the northern kingdom of Israel during a period of prosperity to expose its rotten core. Amos warned the people of impending doom for not listening to God and for not following his commandments, particularly in regard to the welfare of the poor and needy.
The Lord said, “You people crush those in need and wipe out the poor”. You say to yourselves, “How much longer before the end of the New Moon Festival? When will the Sabbath be over? Our wheat is ready and we want to sell it now. We can’t wait to cheat and charge high prices for the grain we sell. We will use dishonest scales and mix dust in the grain. Those who are needy and poor don’t have any money. We will make them our slaves for the price of a pair of sandals.”
“I, the Lord, won’t forget any of this.” (Amos 8 v4-7a).
The Psalmist urges us to praise God and reminds us of God’s bias towards the poor, “God lifts the poor and needy from dust and ashes and he lets them take part in ruling his people.”(Psalm 113 v7,8).
Luke tells us of a story that Jesus told about a dishonest manager. The story ends with Jesus saying, “You cannot be a slave of two masters. You will like one more than the other or be more loyal to one than to the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Luke 16 v13).
We live in a world where few are wealthy and many are poor. As Christians we are challenged to live by God’s Kingdom values of justice and mercy, to live in harmony with each other and our environment. This means that, just like Amos, we are called to expose and challenge injustice when and where we find it, in our community, our nation and the wider world.
We must start with ourselves, by reflecting on our priorities in life. How do we spend our time, our money, our talents? If we find ourselves thinking mostly about our own financial security, then what does that say about which master we are serving? True, if we don’t want to fall into debt then we have to manage our money wisely. But that does not mean that we should be selfish in our attitude towards the poor, especially those who are the victims of exploitation, of other people’s greed.
The charity ‘Christians Against Poverty’, who work alongside many who are living on or below the poverty line, encourage people to include charitable giving within their household budget. No matter how poor we may consider ourselves to be, there are many more in need of our help.
Hymn writer Martin Leckebusch writes on the theme of God’s Justice and our need of forgiveness.
(Singing the Faith 703 v1,4).
In an age of twisted values we have lost the truth we need;
in sophisticated language we have justified our greed;
by our struggle for possessions we have robbed the poor and weak
hear our cry and heal our nations: your forgiveness, Lord we seek.
We who hear your word so often choose so rarely to obey;
turn us from our wilful blindness, give us truth to light our way.
In the power of your Spirit come to cleanse us, make us new:
hear our cry and heal our nations till our nations honour you.
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English version.