• Jeremiah 32: 1-3a, 6-15

Jerusalem is under siege and the nation’s future looks bleak.  This is not a time any reasonable person would want to invest in real estate in Jerusalem.  Yet, under “the word of the Lord,” that is just what Jeremiah does.  His cousin is eager to unload a piece of land before the  bottom drops out of the market.  Jeremiah buys the piece of property, insisting that every financial and legal formality be completed in duplicate copies “in order that they may last for a long time.”  Why?  “For thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought and sold in this land.”

• Psalm 91/l 1-6, 14-16

The psalmist expresses personal confidence in “my God in whom I trust.”  The Lord’s care can be compared to a mother fowl, who enfolds her young in her wings for protection, safety and warmth or to a “shield.”  Now God speaks (14-16), assuring consistent response and satisfaction to the one who trusts.

OR

• Amos 6: 1a, 4-7

Amos describes in vivid detail the lavish self-indulgence of  “those who feel secure…” right now.  They are not concerned about the “ruin of Joseph,” (God’s covenant)).  As a result, when times change, “they shall now be the first to go into exile….”

• Psalm 146

The psalmist exhorts herself to praise the Lord “while I breathe.”  In contrast to those who hold power for a while, but inevitably lose it, “Jacob’s God” is the “hope” who, “keeps faith forever….”  This God is known consistently and primarily by a passion for “justice” for those who, no matter what era or place, are always the most vulnerable in any society– the oppressed, hungry, prisoners, blind, crippled, orphans and widows.  By contrast, “the wicked” get entangled in their own machinations.

• I Timothy 6: 6-19

Timothy’s correspondent addresses the corrosive effect money can have and the false sense of security it can seem to offer.  Remain focused on godly virtues and faithful to the “good confession” you made “in the presence of many witnesses,” he writes.  Only “our Lord Jesus Christ,” who is our “blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord or lords,” has immortality and “dwells in unapproachable light” endures.  As for those who are wealthy at any particular time (but who can lose it all at any time), they should, instead, “be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share…” so that “they [too] may hold of the life that really is life.”

• Luke 16: 19-31

Jesus turns his attention back to the Pharisees, to whom he tells this parable, which is unique to Luke.  It is a story about two men whose lives could not have been more different.  One is very rich and indulges every creature comfort in excess; the other is so destitute he begs at the door of the rich man and is “covered in sores which even the dogs come to lick….”  Each man dies.  The destitute man, Lazarus, is “carried away by angels to be with Abraham.”  The rich man went to “Hades,” where he was tormented.  The rich man saw Abraham with Lazarus at his side and begged for mercy: “send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue….”  But Abraham reminds the man of there reverse circumstances before death.  Moreover, there is “a great chasm” and “no one can cross from there to us.”  Then the man pleads that Abraham send Lazarus to warn his five brothers.  But Abraham replies that they already have the testimony of the Torah and the prophets.  The man assumes that if “someone goes to them from  the dead, they will repent.”  But Abraham responds, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from  the dead.”

Due to “the word of the Lord,” Jeremiah has confidence in the continuation of life, even when common sense sees no evidence for it; therefore, always be willing to “invest” in the future, because of “the word of the Lord.”  The psalmist (91) has learned to trust the Lord, who is just as reliable as a mother hen for her young,  Amos matter-of-factly knows that “those who feel secure” due to some  temporary period of affluence, yet who forget God’s covenant, will be the first to feel the consequences when circumstances change.  Psalm 146 contrasts the temporary dominance of those on top at any point in time with “Jacob’s God” who is constant and is reliably knowable by a passion for “justice.”  Luke’s Jesus makes the same point as the prophets and turns it into a story about two men, whose fates are reversed when a reckoning comes.

These themes recur throughout the Torah, the prophets, the psalms and, of course, the gospels– all human circumstances are always temporary, therefore, trust/”invest” in the One whose passion for “justice” always will endure.  Sometimes in blunt prose, such as Amos, or the poetry of the psaltery or story-telling, as with Luke, the reader/hearer is invited to step off the treadmill of the demands of conventional wisdom and everyday pressure and look at things from Gods perspective.

A main concern of Martin Heidegger in Being an Time, is the “possibility of authentic existence,”  (his emphasis).  He catalogues all the ways we are consumed by what seems important in life and get caught up in conventional values. Such behavior is reinforced by the behavior of everyone else who is just as consumed.  One of the ways this spell can be broken is when we realize that one day we will no longer exist and all that we thought was vital actually turns out to look very different all of a sudden.  Heidegger writes that such an interruption to our accepted norms can cause a possibility for suddenly and clearly seeing life from a new angle.  But this is not just a new insight, it is also a new level of  “understanding.”  He writes: “It must be noted that understanding does not primarily mean just gazing at a meaning, but rather understanding oneself in that potential-for-Being which reveals itself in projection.” (p. 307)  In other words, a new way of imagining myself and the future.

This is the concern of biblical narratives.  Do not be misled by your current circumstances, which, given the vagaries of life, can change in an instant, but rather trust/”invest” in what will endure; God and God’s passion for justice!

To these recurring biblical themes, Luke adds an original twist.  He writes that Jesus tells his listeners– Listen:  The Torah and the prophets have already told you everything you need to hear to have a change of heart; you do not need to have some spectacular display of the miraculous, such as someone coming back from the dead, to tell you what you can already discover on your own, right now!  The voluntary death and resurrection of the Christ, therefore, is more evidence of God’s extravagant wooing us; it is on the same continuum with all that God did before him and is still doing, (under the aegis of the Holy Spirit, as Luke would remind us).  What transforms a life is not some miraculous intervention, but a voluntary change of perspective based on what we already know in scripture, a shift of what we choose to see and how we choose to see it, a coming around to God’s point of view, which sharply distinguishes between the temporary and the lasting.