postID: 6921; title: The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost
groupKey: secondary
groupKey: other
The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost
O Lord, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without thy succor, preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 13)
Array
(
[date] => 2010-08-01 00:00:00
[scope] =>
[year] =>
[month] =>
[post_id] => 135961
[series_id] =>
[day_titles_only] =>
[exclusive] => 1
[return] => formatted
[formatted] =>
[show_date] =>
[show_meta] =>
[show_content] => 1
[admin] =>
[debug] => 1
[filter_types] => Array
(
[0] => primary
[1] => secondary
)
[type_labels] => Array
(
[primary] => Primary
[secondary] => Secondary
[other] => Other
)
[the_date] => 2010-08-01 00:00:00
)
2 post(s) found for dateStr : 2010-08-01postID: 6799 (Joseph of Arimathaea)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6799; date_type: fixed; year: 2010
fixed_date_str: August 1
fixed_date_str (mod): August 1 2010
formattedFixedDateStr: 2010-08-01
=> check date_assignments.
dateAssigned: 2022-08-01 (2022)
yearAssigned (2022) does NOT match year (2010)
displayDates for postID: 6799/year: 2010
Array
(
[0] => 2010-08-01
)
postPriority: 999postID: 6921 (The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6921; date_type: variable; year: 2010
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6921
displayDates for postID: 6921/year: 2010
Array
(
[0] => 2010-08-01
)
postPriority: 3primaryPost found for date: 2010-08-01 with ID: 6921 (The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost)
The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost
Array
(
[date] => 2010-08-01 00:00:00
[scope] =>
[year] =>
[month] =>
[post_id] => 135961
[series_id] =>
[day_titles_only] =>
[exclusive] => 1
[return] => simple
[formatted] =>
[show_date] =>
[show_meta] =>
[show_content] => 1
[admin] =>
[debug] => 1
[filter_types] => Array
(
[0] => primary
[1] => secondary
)
[type_labels] => Array
(
[primary] => Primary
[secondary] => Secondary
[other] => Other
)
[the_date] => 2010-08-01 00:00:00
)
2 post(s) found for dateStr : 2010-08-01postID: 6799 (Joseph of Arimathaea)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6799; date_type: fixed; year: 2010
fixed_date_str: August 1
fixed_date_str (mod): August 1 2010
formattedFixedDateStr: 2010-08-01
=> check date_assignments.
dateAssigned: 2022-08-01 (2022)
yearAssigned (2022) does NOT match year (2010)
displayDates for postID: 6799/year: 2010
Array
(
[0] => 2010-08-01
)
postPriority: 999postID: 6921 (The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6921; date_type: variable; year: 2010
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6921
displayDates for postID: 6921/year: 2010
Array
(
[0] => 2010-08-01
)
postPriority: 3primaryPost found for date: 2010-08-01 with ID: 6921 (The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost)
Scripture citation(s): Luke 12:13-21
A Sermon by
Fr. Spurlock
on
Luke 12:13-21
✛
A Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Array
(
[0] => 60757
)
book: [Array
(
[0] => 60757
)
] (reading_id: 73490)bbook_id: 60757
The bbook_id [60757] is already in the array.
No update needed for sermon_bbooks.
“There be some that put their trust in their goods, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches.” Ps 49.6
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He formed this terrestrial ball upon which we sit. He filled it with an abundance of good things and when he had created us, mankind, he gave us one to the other. With God as its sovereign, all of creation was given over into our hands and we were given to creation as its steward. We were to tend it, care for it, to work towards its continued sustenance and to use its resources rightly.
God’s good gift was that there was such an abundance to be found in creation that all of our material needs, and if cared for, all the needs of those who would come after us, could be met out of this abundance. A harmony was established between creature man and creator God and all the rest that he had made. Who knows how long it was we lived peaceably in that perfect world and in relationship with a God who would walk with us in the cool of an evening. But however long it was, though God had declared it all very good, it did not last.
At some point, an exaggerated self awareness crept in on us and we began to seek some portion of creation where we were sovereign, over which we were lord. As one writer put it, a place where we could tell God to “butt out.” And so what started as a seemingly insignificant defection of our will from our Father’s, very quickly became a woven web of sin in which we were caught. One portion of that wicked web are the problems articulated in our scripture readings today.
The writer of Ecclesiastes considers his amassed fortune and all the work of his hands, and he declares it is vanity and a chasing after wind.
The psalmist considers the foolishness of those who put their trust in honor and riches, but will one day learn that pomp does not follow beyond the grave, there being no pockets in the burial shroud.
Jesus tells the story of a man who thought to store up goods so as to lead a life of pleasure, and he is judged a “fool.”
A kind of materialism is at the heart of these readings. If we are materialistic, perhaps our problem is not that we deny the existence of God, but rather that we proclaim through thought, word and deed, how indifferent we are to his existence. We are less troubled about how to live in right relationship with him, and we are consumed with material concerns. Saint Augustine diagnosed this indifference as a “presumptuous reliance of a human race that does not rely on God.”
A presumptuous reliance, boasting in the multitude of our riches. As though our only concerns are the needs of this life with no regard for what lies beyond. We trust that an abundance of riches will pay the ransom for our soul or, as generously put by the psalmist, the soul of our brother. But if any of us would take a close inventory of all that we possess, we will find no thing or a collection thereof that God would take in exchange for our soul.
So what are we to say; that to be rich is a sin or that to be poor is a virtue? Never! The very fact that God gave us stewardship over creation is the foundational notion of the rightness of possession. And poverty is ugly, mean, and decidedly not a part of God’s good order. But an exaggeration of either possession and want are repugnant to a God who, in the beginning, provided an abundance in creation for ALL people. It is our own poor stewardship that tips those scales.
The tragedy of the life consumed by material concern apart from God is the narrowness of mind and the poverty of spirit that is displayed. The tragedy is the loss of the wonder and beauty that comes from living in the presence of a God who created the material things of this world. It is not wrong to want to have those things and to live better. “What is wrong is a style of life which is presumed to be better when it is directed towards having those things rather than being in that presence.
Taking our readings today and suggesting they stand as an indictment of wealth and those who possess it is as equally narrow and impoverished as a life lived apart from God.
These readings express the sadness of a life lived apart from God but also give voice to God’s desire that you put off that old nature and put on the resurrected life to which you have been born anew in your baptism.
Put to death those parts of you that belong to the earth, you have done with that. Put on the new nature that is constantly being renewed in you. Let Christ’s love for you be the arbiter of your desires. Let his gospel dwell among you in all its richness. Let your every word and action, everything you do, be in his name, and give thanks through Jesus Christ to God the Father, for all the good things that he has made known to us in creation.
No, this is no indictment on those who have, nor a bromide for those who do not. But rather another generous and graceful call to you all from our Lord Jesus Christ to put off your cravings for things that are passing away and to take on a craving for Jesus’ all consuming possession of your very self.
