18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 13), Year C

"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
~FDR, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1937.​

This quote from FDR sounds almost like a reading from Proverbs. Or a rebuke from a prophet on the people in power being too concerned with their own life style of abundance and not caring for the widow, the orphan, and the alien in their land. It has been said that there were powers in our country who have used certain issues to distract from their own work to rid the country of social safety nets and give more money to the upper 1% and insuring white supremacy. What were the distracting issues? Women in ministry, abortion, homosexuality. In particular, these issues were used to divide mainline churches, and in so doing, take away their power to call out for justice for the poor. Holy Moly. Lots going on here! The Luke reading this week is the parable of the rich man who decides to build new, larger barns to hold his vast crops. He feels satisfied, finally. Now he can eat, drink, and be merry. EXCEPT! He dies that very night. Jesus says this would be the type of man who was rich toward himself instead of being rich toward God. “Rich toward God.” Just what does that mean?

Come. Let us gather for worship.

Readings: Hosea 11:1-11 † Psalm 107:1-9, 43 † Colossians 3:1-11 † Luke 12:13-21 

About the Art: Master of the Osservanza. St. Anthony Distributing His Wealth to the Poor, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55513 [retrieved July 30, 2025]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Master_Of_The_Osservanza_-_St_Anthony_Distributing_his_Wealth_to_the_Poor_-_WGA14603.jpg. 

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