27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

You Have Heard it Said:  Money is a sign of God’s Love

Happy Thanksgiving, friends! Not only does this holiday weekend feel like a real shift of seasons into full fall mode, and “spooky season”, and all the rest, it also marks a transition in our focus themes for worship. We’ll take leave of the Exodus story that we’ve been following for the previous 6 weeks, and shift gears into a few weeks focused on making some sense of faith and finances. There are a lot of things about money that we’ve “heard it said,” whether in society around us or even here in church—God’s help only being for those who help themselves, our money being ours and ours alone, money being a sign of God’s love, and more. Over the coming weeks, we’ll debunk many, if not all, of these things as we consider what faithfulness really looks like in relationship to money.

This week, we take a quick stop in Paul’s letter to the Philippians, where he gives clear testimony to the reality that all the ‘worldly’ things he once took pride in pale in comparison to his faith in and relationship with Christ Jesus. On a weekend when many of us pause to name our gratitude for the blessings of this life, we are reminded that these blessings are not the ultimate sign of God’s love for us. And given how such blessings can come and go, the true sign of God’s love, which can never be taken away—the embrace we’ve received in Jesus Christ—is something to truly give thanks for!