Adventurous Lectionary – Ninth Sunday after Pentecost – August 7, 2022

Last updated on: July 31, 2022 at 1:43 pm by Bruce Epperly

Adventurous Lectionary – Ninth Sunday after Pentecost – August 7, 2022 2022-07-31T13:43:52-04:00 Bruce Epperly

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Adventurous Lectionary – The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost – August 7, 2022

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20; Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23; Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:22-30

Now is the time for change. Now is the time to get our spiritual and ethical house in order and our values in line. The time is coming when values and actions, our relationship with God and neighbor, will go trump financial success, secular power, or material consumption. God invites us to be the change we want to see in the world. We need to be people of the future, God’s future, and not defenders of the status quo. We have let the world squeeze us into its mold, allowing our imaginations to be stifled by concrete limitations, and our becoming tranquilized by the familiarity of what has been. God calls us to a new thing, economically and spiritually. God calls us to alternative visions of reality and challenges us to become partners in healing the world. We need to expect great things from God and great things from ourselves if the world is to be saved.

Mysticism leads to mission. Encountering God holds a mirror to our life and our nation, and challenges us to choose life in a death-filled world. Confession and hope belong together in the prophetic vision. Speaking for God, Isaiah proclaims God’s distaste for worship that denies the realities of poverty and injustice. Aware of the realities of injustice and the disparity of the wealthy and poor, God is “tired of hearing your damned songs of praise and smelling your damned incense.” Quit trampling through my Temple, don’t tune your guitars and turn on your jumbotrons, God roars, unless you first expend your efforts seeking justice. There is hell to pay for those who forget that God is God and they aren’t! Trouble is on the way for the 1% of the population who focus on amassing wealth while others lose their homes and barely scrape by. Beware Christian nationalists, Trump Christians, and passive progressives, God is on the move, and you must change course, or the ever-flowing streams of God will roll over you.

Reading this in church without preamble or disclaimer could get the preacher in hot water – the preacher will be accused of being a socialist or not sufficiently patriotic!

For Isaiah, ethics matters and character matters. A nation can be wealthy yet spiritually bankrupt, and no amount of MAGA hats or God Bless Americas can recalibrate our nation’s spiritual GPS if we willfully go off grid, economically and ecologically, or stoke the flames of nationalism or racism. The cries of vulnerable and poor drown out any pretense to greatness.

Still, there is hope for the nation, Isaiah contends. Repent, seek justice, set things right, and forgiveness is possible. If you mend your ways and seek justice in the marketplace and the halls of Congress, God will no longer hold your sin against you. We still may have to face the consequences of our earlier injustices, but God welcomes us to be part of new and healing vision of reality.
While I do not believe God is in the punishment business, there is a moral arc in the universe and if we turn our back on the arc of history, we will suffer the consequences.

The Psalmist continues God’s critique of worship that neglects the vulnerable. True worship involves walking the paths of compassion and mercy, not opulence or fanfare.

The Epistle of Hebrews proclaims the life-changing power of faith. Faith is in the unseen, what seems impossible to the “realist.” Yet, faith opens us to a “deeper reality,” in which God’s presence makes a way when there is no way. The author of Hebrews proclaims that the great people of faith lived with the vision of another country, God’s country that lay beyond the limitations they were currently experiencing. Childless Abraham and Sara trust God’s promise, even though they initially cannot see this coming to fruition. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, confidence in things unseen.” What great thing – beyond your current understanding or reach – is God calling you to?

This faith, however, is not unrealistic, nor does it deny the real limitations and challenges we face. Faith emerges from recognizing the concreteness of reality, including the forces of entropy and injustice. Faith sees the concrete world as the womb of possibility and imagines that God is presenting us with provocative images of the future, even when these seem unlikely at the moment. Trusting God’s vision, the widest horizon of hope, faith trusts that the moral arc of history will come to pass, despite our current waywardness. God’s vision is more powerful than our recalcitrance.

I must admit that this is a difficult passage. I often feel hopeless that we can change either as a nation or a planet. We live in denial or frankly purposely lie about our current condition, calling climate change a hoax, maintaining false election claims, denying our nation’s racist history.
In the reading from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells his followers and us to be “ready!” We never fully know what time it is and the Kairos moment in which we are challenged to respond to God’s vision of salvation in life-changing ways. Accordingly, we should assume that each moment is a Kairos moment, each encounter is salvific and each place is holy. “Don’t be afraid,” Jesus assures us. Trust God, and then act sacrificially for the well-being of others. Fear is grounded in lack of faith, in our inability to experience God’s future shaping our present. Filled with faith, we plant mustard seeds, unsure that they will germinate, but trusting that within the seed is a field of flowers that will bring spice to our lives and the world. There is always “more” to imagine in God’s gentle providence in our world, and God’s providence comes to us filled with possibilities and the energy to embody them.
Faith opens us to deeper and wider visions of reality. It gives us greater perspective and energizes us to be God’s companions in transforming the world, enabling our world to embody on earth God’s heavenly dreams. It reminds us and inspires us to be the hands and feet of God, God’s partners in tipping the world from death to life and hate to love.
+++
Bruce Epperly is a pastor, professor, and author of over sixty books: THE ELEPHANT IS RUNNING: PROCESS AND OPEN AND RELATIONAL THEOLOGIES AND RELIGIOUS PLURALISM; GOD ONLINE: A MYSTIC’S GUIDE TO THE INTERNET; MYSTICS IN ACTION: TWELVE SAINTS FOR TODAY; PROPHETIC HEALING: HOWARD THURMAN’S VISION OF CONTEMPLATIVE ACTIVISM; and PROCESS THEOLOGY: EMBRACING ADVENTURE WITH GOD. His most recent books are FROM COSMOS TO CRADLE: MEDITATIONS ON THE INCARNATION and RESTLESS SPIRIT: THE HOLY SPIRIT FROM A PROCESS PERSPECTIVE.

Uncategorized

Christian nationalism

faith and politics

mysticism

prophetic healing

Previous Post

July 25, 2022

The Adventurous Lectionary - Eighth Sunday after Pentecost - August 7, 2022

Next Post

August 6, 2022 Hiroshima Day Meditation (August 6): Dusting Off the Doomsday Clock

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Book Reviews The Adventurous Lectionary Uncategorized

Select a Month November 2026 October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 December 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz