Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog: September 21 and 28
Each week, we’ll offer a curated selection of blog posts that speak to the upcoming lectionary texts to help spark your imagination and serve as a thought partner for you. We hope these musings meet you right where you are with a fresh, bold, and faithful witness.
September 21, 2025
Paired: Amos 8:4-7
Rev. Angela Denker, “A Digital Space for Spiritual Formation”
How can I lift up the needs of those who are trampled upon? How can I tell their stories?
What do I pray when I am trampled?
When do I confess to being the one who is trampling upon the needy?
Gospel: Luke 16:1-13
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “The Unending Work of Contradiction”
Twice in the gospel narrative Jesus declares the ultimate either/or of his life and teaching: You cannot serve God and wealth. … This either/or of Jesus is not inflected or qualified. It cuts to the heart of the choice required by the gospel. … This declaration of Jesus is the subject of the shrewd discerning discussion of Eugene McCarraher in his book, The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism became the Religion of Modernity (2019). The subtitle indicates his subject, one that is surely obvious and correct, that capitalism is “the religion of modernity” concerning the aggressive state, the ultimacy of the market, and the unfettered predatory freedom of unencumbered individuals.
Past commentary from our newest contributor, Miguel Escobar, author of The Unjust Steward: Wealth, Poverty, and the Church Today:
What I discovered in my careful reading of the Gospels was a world of agricultural images and miraculous stories that was a great deal more like the world described around my immigrant grandparents’ kitchen table than the bleached blonde Christianity that gathered around the flagpole for prayer.
- “Dreams of Reversal,” Open Plaza
Many of the Gospel stories about stewards actually present the steward as a foil to Jesus. The steward at the beginning of the parable of the unjust steward is engaged in exploitation. He and the landowner are extracting wealth from the workers who are in debt bondage. At the wedding in Cana, the steward is the one who says, “You should really serve the good wine first, not last.” In each case, Jesus is presented as the foil, or the way the kingdom of God is presented is the opposite. The unjust steward finds his salvation, his safety, by actually releasing wealth, by taking his master’s wealth and releasing it.
- “The church has a complicated relationship with money,” Faith and Leadership
Watch Miguel present on early Christian approaches to economic justice at The Forum at St Bart’s
September 28, 2025
Paired: Amos 6:1a, 4-7
Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann, “Due Cause For ‘Alas’”
This combination of factors is an expression of “US imperial power” that is characteristically on the side of the predators and indifferent to the needs and requirements of the peasant population. The unchecked greed, moreover, gives rise to unsustainable luxury and self-indulgence that is everywhere on exhibit among the ownership class as an echo of the old phrasing “ease in Zion” (Amos 6:1-6).
