Sept. 25 Jer. 32, Lk. 16:19, I Tim. 6
My immigrant grandparents tired to move up a bit in the world and bought some investment property in 1929. They wanted to build a better future in America. My aunt ended up moving a few blocks from the buildingThey lost it of course..My grandmother wailed,but my grandfather quoted a verse from Timothy this morning.Money means different things in different times.I tim-money shifts our focus Notice it is the love of money as the root of all kinds of evil, not money itself.
Sharp investors are on the lookout for a good investment.They are trying to predict a future, to make a brighter future. To them, Jeremiah must have been out of his mind to select a field and purchase it when doom was on the horizon. Few things speak more hopefully about the future than a vineyard. Vineyards take a number of years before they are able to reward their investment. Owning land itself is a declaration for a future. Every time a seed is planted it is a declaration of hope. Some of the local wineries have early vineyards in Grafton or Wild Pickins (Chesterfield)This is not a short-term investment or a quick fix financially. Jeremiah definitely looks to the future here. And as he looks to the future, he has one eye on the past. Money is a guide into the future.Very few returned from exile in reality. It lies only about 3 miles north of jerusalem.Alton gets investment from small businesses. A more concerted effort to move into the tech, health, and advanced ag sectors.
We hear of the sufferings of Dives or the Rich Man. So, he is unnamed. The poor man is named (god helps-Eleazar/Lazarus, a rare time when the poor one is named and the rich one is unnamed. It is a tool of the downtrodden to make someone poor the hero of a story. Does Lazarus ever speak in this story? Even in heaven he is still voiceless..)He ignored the plight of Lazarus, the poor beggar who was at his gate every morning. We learn to look past poverty. I don't know if I have ever crossed the McKinley bridge without the specter of someone trying to get money from the cars at the light. “'They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.” . If we request mercy we should give mercy. rabbinic saying if you turn your eyes from the poor then you are serving a false god. Giving money to the poor builds up an account in heaven. Can we love two things at the same time? Yes. Can love of money be in priority with love of god? The rich man did not seem to notice Lazarus when he was outside the door, but he surely notices him now.Here he is in torment, but he does want him to warn his family. When he does see Lazarus he wants to treat him as an errand boy.for us, jesus could easily say: christians have this story, and they continue to think that beating up on the rich will change their behavior. Breuggemann-”We live in a society that would like to bracket out money and possessions (politics and economics) from ultimate questions. The Bible insists otherwise. It insists that the issues of ultimacy are questions about money and possessions. Biblical testimony invites a Introduction 13 serious reconsideration of the ways in which our society engages or does not engage questions of money and possessions as carriers of social possibility. “-Legacy of devotion-institutional legacy that has fallen out of fashion. Money does talk-and talk with force about our commitments.
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