Godly Contentment (Pent. 16, Yr C)

Sept. 28 | Pentecost 16, Yr C

Jer. 32:1-3a, 6-15 or Amos 6:1a, 4-7
Ps. 91:1-6, 14-16 or Ps. 146
1 Tim. 6:6-19
Luke 16:19-31

Though St. Paul writes that the love of cash is a root of all types of evil, the whole lot in all creation belongs to God. In wealth, the distinction between blessing and curse is our angle towards it. As Jesus mentioned within the Sermon on the Mount, “For the place your treasure is, there your coronary heart can be additionally.” Evil is the results of inserting our coronary heart, our hope, our very dependence on our wealth. If our current and future are seen as completely dependent upon our materials well-being, then we can be topic to rationalizations and compromises to know at an illusory safety.

The lure of wealth is powerful as a result of cash seems to be the treatment for all our wants and wishes. We expect cash brings energy, standing, and achievement. When cash turns into an finish in itself, nevertheless, it brings not solely the looks of these issues however a really actual and ever-increasing want for extra, which is what we name greed in others. Women and men have been pushed to despicable ranges by the love of cash. All through historical past and at each stratum of society, folks have betrayed and financially ruined members of the family and mates to pursue their god. Others, just like the religion-for-gain lecturers St. Paul writes about, have even sacrificed their love of God on the altar of cash.

The other of greed is contentment, so the apostle contrasts greed and godliness. By doing so, he teaches us that if our love of cash is saved in godly perspective, we’re really blessed and can know contentment. As a instrument for furthering the dominion and honoring God, cash is a real present. However the energy of the present is in its use and never its possession.

St. Paul sees the temptation of greed as so robust that he pleads with us to flee from it. That admonition raises a very good query: How usually can we take our sinful tendencies critically sufficient to flee from them, not to mention seeing our objective of a Christlike life as vital sufficient to actively pursue?

In Scripture we’re instructed to seize the everlasting life [by] fleeing from [unrighteousness and] pursuing righteousness, godliness, religion, love, endurance and gentleness. The recipe for the obedient life is popping away from the greed of the world and looking for the beneficiant coronary heart of God to make it our personal. Our function on earth is to announce and show the aim and route of God by Jesus Christ. Solely by God’s generosity has our salvation been assured by our Spirit-inspired religion within the loss of life and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Solely a beneficiant life can reveal a beneficiant God.

Our true hope is in our Christ-given everlasting life. As Jesus taught, that’s the solely factor in all creation that’s value being grasped. Everlasting safety and significance, true contentment, come from realizing that we’re youngsters of God by our acceptance by his grace, and adoption as heirs of the dominion. By way of religion in Jesus Christ, we develop in our data and acceptance of the fact of God’s promise and expertise rising freedom from the bondage to worldly wealth and standing. Such freedom permits us to make use of no matter we now have in a godly method; that’s, for the unfold of the dominion of God by the expression of a beneficiant love for our neighbors.

Our contentment could be solely present in God by our obedience to his excellent will. Whereas greed can solely convey discontent, godliness within the type of generosity with what we now have been given brings contentment. The enjoyment of a present comes from utilizing it for its correct function. Whereas there may be at all times anxiousness after we should defend what we possess, there may be solely freedom and contentment in taking the blessings we now have obtained and utilizing them to be a blessing to others.

Look It Up: Luke 16:19-31

Suppose About it: God has given us all of the assets we have to love and bless our neighbors.

The Rev. Dr. Chuck Alley, former rector of St. Matthew’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, teaches anatomy at Virginia Commonwealth College Medical College.