Ninth Sunday after Pentecost August 10, 2025

Prayer of the Day `Almighty God, you sent your Holy Spirit to be the life and light of your church. Open our hearts to the riches of your grace, that we may be ready to receive you wherever you appear, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Amen.

The Gospel
Luke 12:32-40 32“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 35“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 36be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. 37Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them. 38If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. 39“But know this: if the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

Reflections on the Gospel reading:
Remember the old joke about ‘how do we get to Carnegie Hall’? Practice, practice, practice. We might wonder ‘how to get into the kingdom of God’ when the reality is God eagerly waits to bring it to us—and generate it with in us. The kingdom can be spotted when a way of life is being practiced. Maybe we can use the word “vibe”…God’s kingdom has a certain vibe. It’s how people structure their lives and it’s what people value.

I like the Scandinavian ideal of hygge—it’s a sense of simple coziness and quiet contentment usually with generous doses of good food and drink.

My coffee aficionado friend Dave just returned from Denmark and I could hardly wait to hear about his trip; and I was particularly interested in the coffee. “Good coffee”, he said. “It was funny, though that when I asked for recommendations about coffee shops people pointed me to cafes with the most comfortable chairs…they must have a thing for comfortable chairs there.”

Part of the vibe…the values of comfort and community at work.

The kingdom Jesus talks about is a way of life—can we call it a vibe? Ethos might be an apt term as well. The last couple of weeks, the Gospel readings warn against obsessing over possessions speaks to our anxiety about not having enough. In today’s reading, the ‘ethos’ God’s kingdom is living life in which we trust in God’s goodness and live in hopeful expectation.

More broadly speaking, we can remember Jesus’ sermon on the plain where the poor are valued or we recall his mother Mary’s song about the poor being filled with good things or we might remember stories about the last being first. That’s all ethos of the kingdom God yearns to impart to us.

Jesus is just getting warmed up….he’ll continue subverting hierarchies and inviting the outcast into the inner circle. And he’ll tell some wild stories about joy overflowing when lost things are found and lost people find their way home.