FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
September 28, 2025
THE FATHER IS MY HOPE; THE SON IS MY REFUGE;
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MY PROTECTION.
ALL HOLY TRINITY, GLORY TO THEE!
LIVE AUDIO STREAMING during today’s service is available on the Order of Service page. Recorded audio will be added following worship.
GETTING READY FOR SUNDAY: PREVIEW OF THE READINGS
Back in 1979, Bob Dylan, famously wrote,
You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
Bob Dylan’ lyric was a riff off today’s Gospel where Jesus gives a name to the devil that we invariably serve if we are not serving Christ: it is money or as the older translations have it, “Mammon. Unlike Christ, “whose service is perfect freedom”, service to Mammon is perfect slavery, filling us with anxiety in a never ending search for financial security. As an antidote and alternative to the anxiety stemming from the false worship of money, Jesus invites to consider the birds and the flowers and in so doing place our trust in God’s providence. In our Epistle reading, St. Paul shows us how, in the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “In a world where success is the measure and justification of all things, the figure of Him who was sentenced and crucified remains a stranger and is at best the object of pity. The world will allow itself to be subdued only by success. It is not ideas or opinions which decide, but deeds. Success alone justifies wrongs done. . . . The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard.”