25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Proper 20), Year C

Hark, the cry of my poor people 
from far and wide in the land:
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”
For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of my poor people
not been restored?
~Jeremiah 8:19a, 20-22
 
If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?
~Luke 16:11
 
It seems that Jesus didn’t get the word you are not supposed to talk about money in polite company. By one measure, 16 of his 38 parables deal with the topic, and roughly one in ten verses in which he is the speaker address it. And, truthfully, the many writers and editors of the scriptures over the millenia didn’t seem to catch it either. Over 2300 verses broach the subjects of money, wealth, debt, and possessions.
 
Now, let’s breathe for a minute. This is certainly not to say that money or material is innately bad. Indeed, it is a frequent subject of faith because it is so important. It buys its way straight to the heart. With us, it has the power to bless or curse, to lead us together or tear us apart, to build health and wellness and peace or something else entirely, to serve God or to serve wealth.
 
It seems that this supposed “dishonest manager” (Luke 16:1-13), in one of these 16 parables about money, may have an angle on this that is more contemporary than we might have imagined. What might we learn from his surprisingly familiar position and his faithfulness with dishonest wealth?
 
Enter into worship.

Readings: Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 † Psalm 79:1-9 † 1 Timothy 2:1-7 † Luke 16:1-13
 
About the Art: Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940. Mill Children in Macon, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55696 [retrieved September 8, 2025]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mill_Children_in_Macon.jpg.
 
Background: “Some boys were so small they had to climb up on the spinning frame to mend the broken threads and put back the empty bobbins.” – [from photographer's note, Wikimedia] – Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Collections. Lewis Hine was a sociologist and a photographer, who used his craft to help improve the protection of children in labor laws. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

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