Year A Proper 6 WED 2023 Economics

YYear A The Third Sunday after Pentecost, WEDNESDAY June 21, 2023

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA

“Economics”

Collect

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Old Testament 1 Samuel 2:12-26

Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord or for the duties of the priests to the people. When anyone offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself.* This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the one who was sacrificing, ‘Give meat for the priest to roast; for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.’ And if the man said to him, ‘Let them burn the fat first, and then take whatever you wish’, he would say, ‘No, you must give it now; if not, I will take it by force.’ Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord; for they treated the offerings of the Lord with contempt.

Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy wearing a linen ephod. His mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year, when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, ‘May the Lord repay you with children by this woman for the gift that she made to* the Lord’; and then they would return to their home.

And the Lord took note of Hannah; she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.

Now Eli was very old. He heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He said to them, ‘Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people. No, my sons; it is not a good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad. If one person sins against another, someone can intercede for the sinner with the Lord;*but if someone sins against the Lord, who can make intercession?’ But they would not listen to the voice of their father; for it was the will of the Lord to kill them.

Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and with the people.

Gospel Luke 20:27-40

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man* shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.’

Jesus said to them, ‘Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die any more, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.’ Then some of the scribes answered, ‘Teacher, you have spoken well.’ For they no longer dared to ask him another question.Good morning! This morning I wanted to speak to Economics.

Now before you get up and walk out, or fall asleep from boredom, I want to be clear about what I mean when I talk about Economics. Here is where we get the word from:

The word "economics" is from the Greek words οἶκος [oikos], meaning "family, household, estate," and νόμος [nomos], or "custom, or law," and hence literally means "household management" or "management of the state." [Source]

Basically Economics is how we run our house. That house could be your domicile alone, or the state entire. But today I want us to filter our view through the household of God. Our collect this week speaks directly to that:

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion…

In all three of our Scriptures this morning, we see God at work to maintain the household, but in oh so many ways.

In Samuel we see the aging Eli, the priest of God, trying to hold down the fort of the worship center at Shiloh. This is before the Temple was built. But Eli’s sons were the worst sort of minister. Doing it all for selfish gain, and poor Eli, loved his sons but at the same time was too tired to correct them in their bad behavior. 

But then God saw the desire of Hannah and Elkanah, and the need of Eli and God’s holy space, and together they were the recipients of God’s blessing of Samuel. All of our lives, the good, the bad, the heartbreak, can be glorified by God in God’s economy. NOTHING IS EVER WASTED IN THE ECONOMY OF GOD. Not a thing!

And it is not only the bad that can be transformed, never be surprised when God surprises. In our Acts reading, God took the exact right moment to capitalize on the gathering of believers in Jerusalem at Pentecost to make a local movement spread across the Mediterranean world in a day!

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?

God enabled and empowered the apostles, through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to make his household the Church exactly what we prayed for in our collect. God breaks through when we least expect it. Better than the Calvary, and truly a Deus ex machina, God does what needs to be done and better than we could ever imagine.

Lastly, God will not will not be tricked or sidetracked. When I taught school, I was often asked a question that the students knew would be a rabbit I would chase down to get me off the lesson, or to delay their work. I could see right through them. If not a packed day, sometimes I would let them. But mostly I would shake my head and laugh, and say, “You are not gonna make me go there. I see what you are doing!”

In our faith, we see God as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He was there, is here now, and at the end of days will draw all things unto Godself. Thanks be to God! God runs a tight ship, a proper household. Remember, nothing is ever wasted, God’s plan is full of serendipities, and nothing will take God off course. If only our other economics worked so well. Amen