Lectionary Reflection
“Living Like the Future Is Real: Hope, Wealth, and the Justice of God”
Opening Prayer
God of the future and the present,
You invite us to trust not what we can hold in our hands,
but what You are preparing beyond what we can see.
You disturb our comfort to awaken our compassion,
and call us to live now as citizens of a Kingdom not yet fully here.
May we listen, turn, and follow.
Amen.
Prayer Before Scripture
Holy Spirit,
break open these words of ancient promise and warning.
Let them read us as much as we read them.
Turn our attention to what matters.
Root us not in wealth or fear,
but in Your unfailing Word.
Amen.
Reflection: “Living Like the Future Is Real: Hope, Wealth, and the Justice of God”
This week’s texts offer a contrast between the appearance of security and the substance of hope. They ask us: What are we really trusting in? And more urgently—what does it cost to ignore what God is doing?
A Foolish Security
Amos 6 calls out those who are “at ease in Zion”—lounging on ivory couches, anointing themselves with oils, feasting without limit, and singing empty songs. These are not random behaviors; they’re signs of decadence built on denial. The prophet is clear: you cannot sing your way out of injustice. God sees the indifference, and exile is coming. Comfort without compassion is spiritual rot.
Psalm 146 answers this judgment with an alternative: “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals in whom there is no help… Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob.” Here, we are reminded that real hope is not in institutions or elites, but in a God who feeds the hungry, lifts the bowed down, and watches over the stranger. This is a Kingdom where justice, not wealth, is the measure of security.
A Radical Hope
In Jeremiah 32, we find the prophet in prison while the city is under siege. All hope seems lost. But God tells Jeremiah to do something absurd: buy a field. Invest in a future that seems impossible. Why? Because “houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.” This is the gospel in prophetic form: God is not finished. Even in judgment, God’s purpose is restoration.
This is where Psalm 91 comes in—not as a magical charm, but as a song of trust. “Those who dwell in the shelter of the Most High… will not fear.” Not because trouble won’t come—but because even in trouble, God’s promises hold.
Faithfulness With Wealth, Urgency With Grace
1 Timothy 6 brings it all to a head. Paul warns against the corrosive power of wealth—not because money is inherently evil, but because it deceives. “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Those who crave it “wander away from the faith.” Instead, Paul urges godliness with contentment, generosity with resources, and an eager grasp of the “life that really is life.” The Christian calling is to live now as though God’s future has already arrived—because in Christ, it has.
A Final Wake-Up Call
And then, in Luke 16, Jesus tells a parable that is neither gentle nor ambiguous. A rich man feasts while a poor man, Lazarus, lies starving at his gate. The rich man is not condemned for his wealth—but for his willful ignorance. He never sees Lazarus as his neighbor. Even in death, he doesn’t change—he treats Lazarus as a servant. But the chasm is now fixed.
Jesus is not teaching about geography in the afterlife. He is speaking to the living. We must recognize Lazarus now—before the chasm is set. The future is not only about what happens when we die; it’s about how we live before we die. Do we use our privilege, power, and possessions to bless or to hoard? Do we see the suffering around us? Or do we, like the rich man, walk past the wounds of the world while praying to be spared from discomfort?
The Common Thread: Living Now as Though God’s Future Is Real
Each of these passages pushes against false security—whether in wealth, war, institutions, or privilege. They call us to:
Invest in hope when hope seems irrational (Jeremiah)
Refuse comfort at the expense of justice (Amos)
Find protection in God's presence, not human power (Psalm 91, Psalm 146)
Use wealth as a means of blessing, not self-indulgence (1 Timothy)
Wake up before it’s too late (Luke)
This is not about guilt—it’s about urgency. The future God promises is already pressing into the present. The Kingdom is at hand, and it demands that we live in a way that reflects what’s coming.
So buy the field.
Feed the poor.
Live generously.
See the Lazarus at your gate.
And trust that even in the ruins, God is planting resurrection.
Benediction
Go now in the power of God’s promised future—
Not clinging to security,
but walking in trust.
Not ignoring the poor,
but setting the table with them.
Not grasping for more,
but giving as those who know what truly lasts.
And may your life bear witness
to the world that is already breaking in.
Amen.