Proper 14 (19) – Year C

NINTH Sunday after Pentecost: August 10, 2025

Gospel Lectionary Text

Luke 12:32-40
12:32 "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

12:33 Sell 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.

12:34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

12:35 "Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit;

12:36 be 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.

12:37 Blessed 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.

12:38 If he comes during the middle of the night, or near dawn, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

12:39 "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.

12:40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour."

Context

Welcome to the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost. This week’s passage begins with a shot of courage — “Do not be afraid.” It ends with a warning about a thief in the night. In between lies the not-so-hidden treasure of God’s delight: a joyful, complete, continuous and unconditional self-giving love that overflows. This is the “unfailing treasure” at the heart of reality. And in discovering this treasure, we locate our own hearts.

The invitation here is to be watchful for God’s happy self-pouring. Such watchfulness isn’t always easy, but neither is it a grim duty. It’s more like the practice of joyful readiness. We are invited to stay awake to the One who comes to us like the master in the text — not just giving away party favors, but giving his very self.

Being wakeful to this self-giving shapes the human heart to mirror the heart of God. It frees us to live accordingly. But if we’re asleep to this truth, the heart wanders and gets confused. It seeks treasure elsewhere. Fear and resentment rush in and distort our vision. And soon, God the Giver of Goodness is mistaken for God the Thief when his loving presence dismantles our house of illusions and shatters our expectations. Only later do we realize: this too is the mark of God’s grace.

Either way, Jesus doesn’t shame us into readiness. He woos us, wakes us, and if necessary, offends us with his generosity. So, receive the gift. Join the party. Learn how to live with the heavenly hangover of God’s unfailing grace, poured out on all flesh, again and again and again… and again.

Question

It's easy to think that our hearts define what we treasurer — that our desires are unique and come from within. Anthropologist and theologian René Girard uses mimetic theory to suggest just the opposite: our desires are modeled for us by others. It also seems to be what Jesus is saying — where your treasure (desire) is, there your heart will be also. So, what is your desire? And who is it modeled after?

Reflections

Over the Shoulder

By Rev. Sarah Wiles | August 5, 2022

A friend of mine recently told me that when her brother learned to walk, he always looked back over his shoulder, watching where he’d been, never looking where he was going. Of course, since he was looking over his shoulder, he’d run into all sorts of things — coffee tables, stairs, trees, pets.

Read More »

Praying Eucharistically - Weekly Homily by James Alison:

Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.

Poetry

You Reading This, Be Ready
by William Stafford

Starting here, what do you want to remember?
How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?
What scent of old wood hovers, what softened
sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world
than the breathing respect that you carry
wherever you go right now? Are you waiting
for time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life –

What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

The Vacation
by Wendell Berry

Once there was a man who filmed his vacation.
He went flying down the river in his boat
with his video camera to his eye, making
a moving picture of the moving river
upon which his sleek boat moved swiftly
toward the end of his vacation. He showed
his vacation to his camera, which pictured it,
preserving it forever: the river, the trees,
the sky, the light, the bow of his rushing boat
behind which he stood with his camera
preserving his vacation even as he was having it
so that after he had had it he would still
have it. It would be there. With a flick
of a switch, there it would be. But he
would not be in it. He would never be in it.

Prayer

This week, the call to prayer comes from the Street Psalms Centering Prayer: 

Come, Holy Spirit, wild and free. Do as you please. Shine your light on me that I might see things as they are, not as I am. Free me to act in your name with courage, creativity, and compassion.

See the complete prayer >

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