Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity 2022

 

Lectionary set for Holy Communion today: 1 Timothy 6:6-19 and Luke 16:19-31

The readings set for today are timely, given Friday’s mini-budget here in the UK. I want to reflect on the correspondence between Paul and his co-worker Timothy, and what it might mean for churches today.

‘Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment;’

Godliness is devotion to God. Contentment, here, refers to sufficiency for all, or, that everyone has what they need to live. It does not mean, ‘Sit down, be quiet, and learn to cut your cloth according to your means.’ There is a rhetoric abroad in our nation arguing that enabling the rich to become even more wealthy benefits everyone—trickle-down economics—but when increasing numbers of people in work highlight years of real-terms pay cuts and demand this be rectified, they are accused of being greedy and unreasonable. Devotion to God is of little benefit without commitment to sufficiency for all. Likewise, commitment to sufficiency for all without devotion to God leads to ideological impasse. But there is great gain to be had in godliness combined with contentment, which is precisely the contribution our churches, working together across tradition and denomination, bring to political debate.

‘for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it;’

Here, Paul is playing on the idea of carrying in and out, and that in the end we all get carried out in a box, whether we are given a State funeral or come to our local parish church. There are no self-made men, nor is wealth the consequence of hard work and poverty the evidence of laziness; but we are all carried by, and carry, one another.

‘but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.’

Key, here, is food that is nourishing; and covering that is focused on, but goes wider than, clothing. Here, I want to commend the work of local churches not only to run food banks and clothing banks, but also to feed people—for eating together nourishes the soul, as well as the body—as well as working in partnership to identify warm spaces (not every church building is appropriate) this coming winter.

‘But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.’

Ruin, here, means being undone in the present; while destruction refers to being destroyed in the age to come, both in terms of the bright new era politicians love to proclaim, and in terms of eternity. As Christians, we believe that poverty is material, social—and spiritual. We believe that inequality is bad for those who are rich, as well as for those who are poor, for those who have more than they need as well as for those who have less than they need. Unlike Left/Right ideological difference, we do not see enemies to be destroyed, but enemies to pray for, whose souls we have care of.

‘For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.’

This verse is famously misquoted as ‘money is the root of all evil.’ In fact, the love of money, that is, avarice, excessive greed, is a root of all kinds of evil. For much of the history of the Church, avarice was seen as a deadly sin, a social evil. Reaganomics and Thatcherism proclaim avarice to be a social virtue.

How, then, ought we to respond? Paul addresses Timothy:

‘But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.’

Man, here, means human: and while it is directly addressed to Timothy, a man of God, Paul’s instruction is for all who would consider themselves to be a man, woman, or child of God.

We are to shun the temptations of wealth. The original impact is, flee. One member of my family has such a phobia of spiders, they cannot remain in the same room as one: that is the import here.

Instead, we are to pursue, not wealth but true riches, chasing after these things, desiring to take hold of them. There is no half-hearted commitment to this.

Righteousness means justice. We are to pursue justice, working and praying for, advocating for, justice, for that society where each person has what they need to live well, free from fear or exploitation.

As already noted, godliness means devotion to God, giving all that we are and all that we have to God’s service. It carries a sense of responsive generosity: that we are to be generous because we have known God’s generosity towards us. We are to pursue generosity—traditionally, the Church has seen good works as the social virtue that heals us of the social vice of avarice: works that do not earn our salvation but, rather, are the fruit of our salvation. Here, I would commend the volunteer hours given by church members to their community, the number of neighbours served, the weight of food distributed. Here, I would thank those who give of their time, talents, and money. Here I would also want to encourage people to review their financial support of the church: to amend it as necessary; and also to consider prioritizing their giving to the church over (not instead of) their giving to other good causes, who draw on a wider pool of donors.

Faith refers to knowing God’s will. We learn what God’s will is through reading the Bible, with prayerful, communal discernment. It bothers me that many Christians read a daily newspaper, but don’t read their Bibles daily. This is where we learn what God’s will is, for how we order our society.

If faith is knowing God’s will, love is choosing what God prefers. Again and again in the Bible, God insists on justice for the most vulnerable among us, the widow, the orphan, and the alien living in our midst.

We are to pursue endurance. Jesus taught his followers to pray, ‘Our Father in heaven…your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven…’ Why? Because God’s will is contested, opposed. We need endurance because we live in a society, a world, where injustice continues. We are called to pursue the endurance God gives; and prayer is the gift by which we receive that endurance afresh each day.

And finally, gentleness. Meekness, or strength under control. If we try to see the world changed in our own strength, we will become overwhelmed, exhausted, and bitter—and quickly so. We are called to participate in the transformation of society in God’s strength, not ours. As we face a difficult winter, we do not do so alone.