ICF - Professions of Faith

Sunday 26th October 2025 - 20th Sunday after Pentecost

Joel 2:23-32; Psalm 65; 2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18; Luke 18:9-14
(Alternatives: Jeremiah 14:7-10,19-22; Psalm 84:1-6)

Today's Gospel reading offers itself as a powerful lens through which to consider our attitude to the world of work. Jesus is clearly speaking into the prejudices of contemporary culture when he highlights the presence of a tax collector in the prayer space of the temple. For various reasons, those who fulfilled this role were despised and dismissed, yet Jesus invites us to evaluate him not on the basis of the job he does, but his attitude of heart. This provides opportunity for a congregation to reflect and consider what jobs and roles in today's world are instinctively despised and dismissed - how might God be inviting us to think differently?

Historians tell us that Tax Collectors were somewhat forced into an ethical dilemma. They were seen as traitors because they worked for the occupying Roman army and though theirs might have been a lucrative career, they often had little choice but to fulfil it. When confronted by such circumstances today, it's easy for those of us not directly engaged, to adopt the attitude of the Pharisee - to stand at a self-righteous distance and rehearse our own piety. But Jesus' response to the ethical dilemmas of the working world is not to condemn those who can't keep their distance but commend an honesty and openness of heart.

This might leas us to consider whether we, as the Church today, sometimes stand at a "self-righteous distance"? Do we avoid talking about the realities of work because it's easier to simply to focus on religious things? Yet for many, their everyday lives offer no such option, and a religion that simply condemns from a distance will have little to offer. How can we use this story to create the space for honesty and appeals to God's mercy as people acknowledge the personal and ethical struggles of today's world of work?

The readings from Jeremiah and Joel present a common issue from two very different perspectives. Joel looks forward to God's restoration, conflating the physical and material renewal of the nation's fortunes with spiritual renewal. Jeremiah laments the spiritual shortcomings of the people, but in the final sentences offers a hint of physical struggle as he warns against seeking apparently needed rain through the worship of idols. Although couched in the language of agriculture and harvest, there is a clear connection between the spiritual state of the nation and its prosperity and success. This flies in the face of any contemporary narrative that suggests the world of work and commerce is beyond God's concern or unrelated to matters of faith and spirituality.