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Christmas at the Movies: Week 3, Day 2

by David Joynt on December 18, 2017


 

LUKE 16:22-23


This story decisively defeats one common heresy: that status in
this life is a sign of God's favor. Wealth distribution now is no
indication whatsoever of divine approval or disapproval. Many
religious and social philosophers have had a self-congratulatory
sense that success was a sign of God's special blessing in
response to our innate worthiness or our merit. The Old
Testament does sometimes equate material well-being with God's
regard, but the New Testament and the teaching of Jesus
repudiate this. In fact, "to whom much is given, much is
expected." Wealth is an opportunity to bless others and a holy
responsibility. Success can be a curse or a blessing in the life to
come depending on how it is used.

 

 

How do you think about success?

 

 

Is wealth relative?

 

Tags: blessing, curse, success

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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