From Caroline – carolinesymcox@googlemail.com, 01285 712467
Readings for Sunday: Amos 8.4-7; 1 Timothy 2.1-7; Luke 16.1-13
To hear Caroline’s sermon click on the arrow below.
The following is taken from the Parish Newsletter for Sunday 21st September 2025.
‘Money can’t buy happiness’, the saying goes. ‘But,’ as folk of my generation seem to be fond of adding, ‘it can certainly make a good start!’ People who seek to obey God and follow his directives, for thousands of years, have had a turbulent relationship with money. Look at our reading from Amos as a starting point. Amos is writing in the 8th century BC – around 750 years before the birth of Jesus. Already we see that the pursuit of wealth is causing problems. Amos calls out those who are making profit at the expense of the poor and needy, bringing the word of the Lord down upon them
and their dishonesty.
It seems that the willingness to feather our own nests while exploiting others has been a problem as long as people have had the means to do so. It is as true today as at any point in our history, it’s just these days we’re even better at it. Technology can really assist in the process of extracting wealth.
We who seek to follow Jesus can see the sinfulness of such things, but we find ourselves in a complicated situation. Because to live in this world involves using money. Barter systems just don’t cut it anymore, and haven’t for a good millennia or so. We need money, simply put. We need it to eat, to have shelter, to get any of the things that we need to just live. The Church needs it – to maintain buildings, to pay workers, to heat and light those buildings, to print and publish material to aid in the sharing of our faith and to be used in worship. We can’t manage without it.
So where does this leave us? Well – on a knife edge, really. We balance in a precarious situation, knowing that any poor move could result in a swift fall. We are directed towards awareness, to being awake to the dangers inherent when money gets involved. The greatest risks are twofold: the temptation to hoard – to succumb to the love of money, which as Paul reminds us elsewhere in 1 Timothy, is the root of all kinds of evil; and the temptation to exploit others – to pay less than we should, to demand more than we should, and generally, in the words of Amos, ‘to make the ephah small and the shekel great’.
Our choices around money must be clear, and fully thought-through. Where we choose to use our money is a window to our true desires and commitments. Where is our heart? Are we using our resources in service, in furthering God’s mission of outreach and love? And we might look further up – is the national Church using its resources like this? Is our government? And where the answer is no, what might we do to effect a change?
This week, let’s strive to live as children of light, rather than children of this age – putting worldly ‘cleverness’ aside, and fully and forthrightly putting our money where our mouth is.
Rev’d Caroline
Updated 21st September 2025