The Best Famine to Prep For
“Behold, the days are coming ... when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.”
As much as this painting of the Parable of the Unjust Steward has a 19th C vibe to it, it is a contemporary work of art, produced in 2021 (!) by the Russian artist, Andrey Mironov. Mironov is a master of the old style sacred art: all of his paintings have the same kind of classic gravitas to them.
In this depiction, we see something different in the unjust steward: mercy. Gentleness. Tenderness. There is a kindness in his eyes and warmth to his presence that we don’t see in the little story Jesus tells about this character he describes as “dishonest” and “shrewd,” who he describes in his self-talk and rationalizations for self-dealing … and yet commends in the end.
Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
— Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Luke 16:9)
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Texts for This Week
Prayer
O Lord, you have taught us that without love, all our deeds are worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the true bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whoever lives is counted dead before you; grant this for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Scriptures
A Charge to Keep I Have
Gospel singer Rev. Timothy Flemming improvises on the old Charles Wesley hymn, offering a virtuosic meditation on the weighty charge that attends the human soul, appropriately reminiscent of “the Blues.”
For some reason, this hymn appears to be especially popular among Black churches, but I don’t know why this is the case; nor have I been able to find any speculation on the phenomenon. But here is a Ghanan Methodist Bishop speaking about the history of the hymn, and followed by a performance of it by the Kasoa Bethel Methodist Church Choir.
To my mind, this hymn is only really tolerable in view of this week’s Gospel reading. Yes, we have a charge to keep, but the point is not that we should try harder and be more determined to keep it. We’ve already blown it, and our just condemnation is at hand. In view of what soon awaits us, NOW is the time to take risks in and toward grace. That’s really our only hope, because none of our schemes to make things right with the Master are going to cut it.
Knowing what great grace has already been poured out for us, God teaches our stubborn hearts through such abandon. There is a reality that runs deeper and is more important than our “charge” — though we should most certainly keep it! We are forgiven, we are loved, and we are received by God — in spite of our many faults and failings. Thanks be to God!
