Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 26], rcl yr c, 2025
JEREMIAH 32:1-3a, 6-15; PSALM 91:1-6, 14-16; 1 TIMOTHY 6:6-19; LUKE 16:19-31
take hold of the life that really is life
If only the Bible would stop talking about money! Then we could talk about the more important things, right? You know, spiritual things. Hope, maybe? Or God’s generosity? Or maybe even eternal life?
But no, this week the Bible is at it again, and every reading is in some way about money. It’s as though God cares about wealth or something. It’s as though God cares about the impact money can have on us. Well—if the Bible insists on taking on wealth and money, perhaps we should take a moment and listen to what’s being said.
In our reading from Jeremiah, Jeremiah is given a word from the Lord, Jeremiah is told that he should buy a field from his cousin. It’s a bit odd to imagine God as some kind of property speculator, but there you have it: Jeremiah buys a field from his cousin for seventeen shekels of silver, has the deed signed openly in public, and then has the deed sealed in a jar and buried in the ground, “in order that they may last for a long time.”
It’s all a bit bizarre. When Jeremiah bought the land, Jerusalem was under siege by the Babylonians. Jeremiah had predicted that the Babylonians would win, and that the people of Jerusalem would be taken away. And if that were true, what would be the point of buying a field, if you were never going to enjoy it, if some invading Babylonians were going to take that land away anyway? It would be wasteful, wouldn’t it? This is not low risk speculation. This is about as smart as just throwing your shekels of silver out the window.
And as it turns out, Jeremiah was right. Jerusalem fell. Jeremiah himself was carted off to Egypt where he died. Never to see that piece of land ever again.So he seems a bit of a fool, doesn’t he.
And then we have 1st Timothy, one of the Pastoral Epistles as they’re called, and for good reason—it’s a pastoral letter, written to a young leader taking care of his pastoral charge, getting advice on the pastoral realities he is facing. If we went straight to today’s Gospel, we might imagine that no one could be wealthy and a Christian—but the letter assumes that there are wealthy people in the church. The letter assumes a connection between wealth and faith that would lead us to be careful in saying that talking about money is somehow at odds with the spiritual life.
No, it’s quite the opposite in this letter. It’s very, very important to talk about wealth and money because wealth and money can be so detrimental to our spiritual well-being. “[T[hose who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction,” we hear. “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”
But the letter doesn’t just warn, it offers a way, a difficult way, but a way nonetheless:“As for those who in the present age are rich,” Timothy is told of the wealthy within his pastoral charge, “command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on theuncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” We are reminded that riches are uncertain, and can vanish in a moment; and the wise soul sets their hope on God, not their wealth.
This is helpful as we turn to the Gospel, and the story of the rich man and Lazarus. This story is very much good news for the poor, because Lazarus, with nothing, and without even any evidence of virtue—what we know of Lazarus is not that he is a good man, but simply that he is a poor man—and that he is the one given a heavenly reward. “And at [the] 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.” That’s really all we know: he was poor, sick, hungry and neglected; and nevertheless, upon his death, he “was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham.”
And while it doesn’t turn out well for the rich man, we have a sense of why. Despite his largesse, and despite the fact that he knew Lazarus’s name, he did nothing to help. He’s an entitled man, who, even in death, thinks Lazarus is there to help him, “to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool [his] tongue.” I’m still hopeful for the rich man; it seems to me that he is undergoing some sort of sanctification, because he is at least showing some concern for others, asking that someone go to give some help to his brothers. I’m hopeful that the chasm between Lazarus and the rich man isn’t fixed forever, and that there is eternal hope for the rich man. Even then, it does seem that Jesus is saying that there are eternal consequences that can come with the misuse of wealth—that wealth, without concern for the poor, is a very dangerous place to be.
I want to finish now by turning back to Jeremiah, and his apparently foolish purchase of a property he will never get to enjoy. And to continue this thread about hope—the thread about hope we found in Timothy, and the advice not to set our hope on the wealth that can be ours today and gone tomorrow, but rather to set our hope on God, the God who is faithful to us. And the thread (the very thin thread) of hope that maybe we do see some change in the callous rich man that ignored Lazarus in his illness and poverty, and the hope of the church that even the worst and most selfish among us will be sanctified, and that God will break the barrier between heaven and hell once and for all.
Because Jeremiah’s action was one of hope too. On the surface: Jeremiah is foolish. But what he is doing through his purchase of property that was about to be seized by a foreign power was to say “by this foolish act of buying property I will not enjoy, I am reminding you that God is faithful, and God will keep his promise restore his people to the land.”
I think as I say this of all the predictions of the end of the church, that statistically there will be no Anglicans left by 2040. Maybe. But we are still going to ask you to make an offering to the church and the church’s ministries. Maybe it is just as foolish an act as Jeremiah buying land when the Babylonians are about to break down the walls. But the point of giving isn’t security or sound investment—it is, in part, an expression of hope in God and God’s faithfulness, even against all odds.
We give of ourselves, as we can, because God is faithful—and if God is faithful, then we can live in the sure hope that though things may not turn out the way we imagined, we will be surprised by grace—and we can make gestures of hope in a world of equity and faith that we can hardly yet imagine: “[doing]good, […] [being] rich in good works, generous, and ready to share […] [taking] hold of the life that really is life.”
And we can do so, make such foolish acts of generosity, because we are sure of God’s faithfulness to us in the Christ who breaks the chains of evil and death, and invites us, by grace, into his surprising future.
The Revd Canon Preston DS Parsons, PhD
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.
As our parish musician, he provides both support and leadership so that a variety of parish programs can find musical expression and attract participation. When our handbell choir is in season, he is one of our ringers. At parish dinners, he provides popular piano music for the guests to dine by. For both worship services and concerts, he will rehearse and accompany vocal and instrumental soloists from our congregation on piano, organ, or even accordion.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.