Every week, we’ll supply a curated collection of weblog posts that talk to the upcoming lectionary texts to assist spark your creativeness and function a thought accomplice for you. We hope these musings meet you proper the place you’re with a contemporary, daring, and devoted witness.
September 21, 2025
Paired: Amos 8:4-7
Rev. Angela Denker, “A Digital Area for Religious Formation”
How can I elevate up the wants of those that are trampled upon? How can I inform their tales?
What do I pray when I’m trampled?
When do I confess to being the one who’s trampling upon the needy?
Gospel: Luke 16:1-13
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “The Endless Work of Contradiction”
Twice within the gospel narrative Jesus declares the last word both/or of his life and educating: You can’t serve God and wealth. … This both/or of Jesus will not be inflected or certified. It cuts to the guts of the selection required by the gospel. … This declaration of Jesus is the topic of the shrewd discerning dialogue of Eugene McCarraher in his e book, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism grew to become the Faith of Modernity (2019). The subtitle signifies his topic, one that’s absolutely apparent and proper, that capitalism is “the faith of modernity” in regards to the aggressive state, the ultimacy of the market, and the unfettered predatory freedom of unencumbered people.
Previous commentary from our latest contributor, Miguel Escobar, writer of The Unjust Steward: Wealth, Poverty, and the Church Right this moment:
What I found in my cautious studying of the Gospels was a world of agricultural photos and miraculous tales that was a terrific deal extra just like the world described round my immigrant grandparents’ kitchen desk than the bleached blonde Christianity that gathered across the flagpole for prayer.
– “Goals of Reversal,” Open Plaza
Lots of the Gospel tales about stewards truly current the steward as a foil to Jesus. The steward originally of the parable of the unjust steward is engaged in exploitation. He and the landowner are extracting wealth from the employees who’re in debt bondage. On the marriage ceremony in Cana, the steward is the one who says, “You must actually serve the nice wine first, not final.” In every case, Jesus is offered because the foil, or the best way the dominion of God is offered is the other. The unjust steward finds his salvation, his security, by truly releasing wealth, by taking his grasp’s wealth and releasing it.
– “The church has a sophisticated relationship with cash,” Religion and Management
Watch Miguel current on early Christian approaches to financial justice at The Discussion board at St Bart’s
