19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 14), Year C

By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
​~Hebrews 11:3
 
Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
~Luke 12:33-34
 
Do you have a prediction about where things are going in the world? While there have been no shortage of past prognosticators whose predictions have sometimes sucked all the oxygen out of the room, it seems these days we find fewer and fewer people who imagine they have a handle on what happens in the next six months, much less six years…or sixty. These are uncertain days, to be sure.
 
Abraham and Sarah knew uncertainty. They set out by faith for a place that was promised to be their inheritance. They set out “not knowing where [they were] going” (Hebrews 11:8). And each step of the journey, staying for a time in itinerant lands, waiting, and waiting, looking forward “to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (11:10).
 
We know that the story was a bit more complicated and messy, though. We have the documentation in Genesis. This too, the complication of life and our place in it, is surely true for us who know so little about the future.
 
What we do know is that this story of ours, this story of life, this story of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah and Rachel and Bilhah and Zilpah and of Jesus and his disciples—men and women—makes few specific promises about any future except that God is in it. And we know a lot about how the ancients have experienced God in it—as a seeker of justice, rescuer of the oppressed, defender of the orphan and the widow, as the One who desires our well-being far more than we do or can imagine (Isaiah 1). So, no matter the future, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Abba’s good pleasure to give you the kindom” (Luke 12:32).
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Isaiah 1:1, 10-20 † Psalm 50 † Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16 † Luke 12:32-40
 
About the Art: Cross, Henri Edmond, 1856-1910. Landscape with Stars, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57008 [retrieved July 28, 2025]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Landscape_with_Stars_MET_DT736.jpg.

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