Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Adventurous Lectionary – Pentecost 25 – November 10, 2024

Adventurous Lectionary – Pentecost 25 – November 10, 2024

Last updated on: November 10, 2024 at 3:47 pm by Bruce Epperly

0 Comments

Adventurous Lectionary – Pentecost 25 – November 10, 2024 2024-11-10T15:47:36-05:00 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.

Twenty Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

I Kings 17:8-16; Psalm 146; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44

On this Sunday after USA Election Day, congregations may be joyful, troubled, angry, split, or worried about the future of our nation. Some of us may be in shock, and even if the forces of division and destruction are defeated, we worry about violence, far beyond January 6, 2021, and know that the struggle for a more perfect union will continue. Many preachers will discard the lectionary and deal with pastoral and political issues in their congregation. Yet there is wisdom in these passages from long ago and faraway.

Today’s scriptures describe God’s faithfulless in times when we feel most in need, spiritually, politically, and economically. We recognize that we live in a world in which fear is used to motivate political decisions and personal priorities – that is obvious over the past several months of the presidential campaign. We are often counseled more about threats than possibilities. We have resources all around us, and yet we are told to consider what we lack and thus to live by individualistic insecurity rather than divine abundance. The most powerful nation in the world is told by a presidential candidate to fear fellow citizens and immigrants. Persons with adequate resources are asked “will you outlive your money?” focusing on limit rather than possibility and how much time we have left rather than how we will spend time the time of our lives. We can be realistic about personal and congregational limitations in time, talent, and treasure, but in God’s world, they should not determine our visions of the future. Indeed, those of us who are privileged must count our blessings and be willing to sacrifice for the greater good and the vulnerable in our midst as well as in response to climate change.

The exchange between God’s messenger Elijah and the widow of Zarephath goes against the whole ethos of isolated individualism and self-reliance and as it presents the classic tension between trusting God’s abundance and obsessing on our limitations. The widow deserves much affirmation: despite her fear and scarcity thinking, she is willing to look at her situation with new eyes and trust God with her future. She lets go of scarcity thinking to support the wellbeing of another, and discovers has more resource than she had previously imagined. Her diminished resources are miraculously replenished one day at a time. “Do not be afraid,” Elijah counsels her, God will provide. Scarcity-consciousness is about fear – fear of the future, fear of not having enough, fear of our own inadequacies to respond to life’s crises. Scarcity consciousness isolates us, disempowers us, and robs us of our imagination. We feel as if we’re on our own, without resources. Every stranger is a threat to our well-being. Faith awakens us to possibilities, to a larger world, where resources come from unexpected sources. Faith awakens us new relationships and opens our senses to resources we did not know we had.

Psalm 146 reminds us to trust God not mortals, especially politically leaders. Only God is our savior, not any ideology or politician, right or left. The divine savior is, as the Psalm says, executing justice for the poor and promoting the healing of the nation. Pray for vision, letting go of ideology, to listen for God’s voice.

Hebrews continues this theme. Mortality is the source of fear, isolation, and alienation. Our days are scarce and numbered when we depend on solely on human resources alone for our salvation. But, the true High Priest Christ has sacrificed so that we live in hope for eternal and everlasting life now and forever more. Trusting God’s everlasting life liberates us from our fears in this world. We may still be anxious and fearful. We need to respond to threats to our well-being and threats against loved ones. But we need not be afraid of our fear or demoralized by threat. The ultimate questions of life are in God’s hands and God is on our side, now and forevermore.

In the gospel reading, Jesus contrasts wealthy religious leaders with an impoverished woman. The scribes’ generosity is based on their exploitation of the poor. They can give generously because their gains come from injustice. The widow, fully dependent on God and at the lowest end of society, gives out of her poverty. She knows that everything belongs to God and that her life is in God’s hands. Therefore, she can sacrifice, trusting divine providence to care for her. Even those of us who are privileged, as I am, must recognize that our privilege is part of a larger support system that we neither earned nor created, and we need to be willing to be sacrificial as church members and citizens. We need to forsake lonely individualism for lively world loyalty.

These readings are not for the faint-hearted. Trusting God means that we may be called to get out of our comfort zones, reach out beyond our communities, and give up some of our abundance so that others will simply live. The constant caravan of immigrants coming north for freedom and survival, like the two widows, is an appropriate image for our time. While we need to be prudent in the affairs of state, in border laws, and in our personal economics, we are equally called to be sacrificial and to risk comfort for greater goods for our neighbors in need. We need to look at both our “guns and butter,” our investments and sacrifices, to recognize that our self-interest involves the well-being of others and that in letting go of our tight-fisted scarcity consciousness, we open to God’s reservoir of resource in our personal lives, relationships, and political involvement. We need to recognize that our first loyalty is to God and that loyalty to God means looking beyond nation and party to seek the wellbeing of the whole earth.

Regardless of the election outcome, there is work to be done. We must not accept the forces of evil. We must not give up our vocation to be healers of the earth. We must protest and pray and contemplate and challenge as we seek God’s realm on earth as it is in heaven, in the USA as it is in the moral arc of history.

+++

Bruce Epperly is Theologian in Residence at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ in Bethesda, MD. A pastor, professor, university chaplain, and seminary administrator for forty years, in retirement he remains on the faculty at Wesley Theological Seminary. He is the author of over eighty books including “Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet,” “Homegrown Mystics: Restoring the Soul of Our Nation through the Wisdom of America’s Visionaries,” and “The God of Tomorrow: Whitehead and Plato on Metaphysics, Mysticism, and Mission.”

Uncategorized

elections

religion and politics

spirituality

Previous Post

October 27, 2024

Adventurous Lectionary – Pentecost 24 – November 3, 2024

Next Post

November 10, 2024 Adventurous Lectionary - Pentecost 26 - November 17, 2024

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"https://www.antalyaescortsi... siz siz olun gelin"

antalyaescortsizin.com

Caesar or Jesus: A Palm Sunday ..."

"https://www.antalyaescortsi... harikalar diyarı"

antalyaescortsizin.com

Palm Sunday’s Tragic Beauty – March ..."

"Power of love is far more beautiful and effective than the love of power. "The ..."

Dr.Cajetan Coelho

Palm Sunday’s Tragic Beauty – March ..."

"Ash Wednesday, 2026The 40 Days and Three Tests of Jesus in the DesertThe joy these ..."

Joris Heise

The First Sunday in Lent – ..."

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Book Reviews The Adventurous Lectionary Uncategorized

Select a Month 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