Money, faith and evil.

I got busy last week and didn't get the chance to talk about money in my blog. In one of the articles I read about the Lazarus and the Rich Man there was a challenge about how many times we preach about money without asking for it.

I decided I would take up the challenge. My take off line was Uncle Ben's line from Spiderman. "With great power comes great responsibility." By just changing one word in that line I had the theme of my sermon. "With great wealth comes great responsibility" We are, by any measure, a wealthy people. I talked about how we share, save and spend our money reveals our faith.

I hadn't really thought about it, but this week's readings take that notion of faith and responsibility a step further. The Hebrew Scriptures lament injustice and pain in the world. They lay the responsibility for that at God's feet, and God doesn't turn away from that. It isn't that God wills evil, but yet evil comes and God allows it. Yet we are told to wait and serve.

The Gospel reading talks about faith and waiting in service. So this week's sermon will be about a faith that is patient, but also a faith that serves. Our faith may not move mountains, but it will move us, and sometimes I think that is the greater task. While there is evil in the world it will find patient people of faith serving justice and waiting on God.