Proper 20C (RCL) – A Preacher’s Ponderings

Eternal tents

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost; 18 September 2022; Proper 20C (RCL); Jeremiah 8:18 – 9:1; Psalm 79:1-9; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13.

The readings in Track 1 from Jeremiah over the course of these last weeks have just gotten bleaker and bleaker. It’s almost enough to make one choose Track 2 for Year C. Next week, the armies of the King of Babylon will be besieging the city, and the following week, we will read from Lamentations. And the week after, Jeremiah will tell the exiles in Babylon that God wants them to settle there, and increase rather than decrease, in other words, to accommodate to their exile.

True riches

18 September 2016
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 20C (RCL)
Jeremiah 8:18 – 9:1
Psalm 79:1-9
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Luke 16:1-13

This is one of the most ambiguous parables in the New Testament — nearly maddeningly so. But I think that is the point of the parable; it allows a number of possible ‘points’ to be drawn from it. No one likes the fact that the master commends the unjust steward for lying (or at least scheming), and, by implication, Luke makes it seems as if Jesus commends him as well. How could Jesus commend dishonesty? Continue reading “True riches”