The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 21), September28, 2025

Hope in Action: A Relational God in a Fractured World

 This week’s lectionary texts are unsettling.

They confront our comfort, expose economic disparity, and challenge the false security of wealth and power. And yet, through the lens of open and relational theology, they also reveal something profoundly hopeful: that God is responsive, loving, and inviting us into partnership. God is not manipulating outcomes behind a cosmic curtain, but calling us to live lives of justice, generosity, and faithful presence—because what we do matters in the unfolding of God’s future.

In Jeremiah 32, we meet the prophet imprisoned in a collapsing kingdom. Babylon is laying siege to Jerusalem. Chaos looms. And in the midst of this despair, God tells Jeremiah to buy a field. It’s an almost absurd act of hope. The land is essentially worthless in the moment, but the message is clear: the future is not closed. “Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land” but only if Jeremiah acts. Again, we see the future is open to change, it is influenced by human and divine action and interaction. Jeremiah’s purchase is a relational gesture, a participation in God’s vision of restoration. It shows trust in a God who is with us, even in the ruins, coaxing hope from despair.

 Psalm 146 reinforces this dynamic and compassionate view of God. The psalmist praises a God who “executes justice for the oppressed,” “gives food to the hungry,” and “sets the prisoners free.” This is not a passive or aloof deity. Like so many of the psalms this text rejoices in a God whose power is exercised through compassion and whose glory is manifest in justice. Relational theology sees divine power not as domination, but as loving influence. God lifts the lowly not by overriding human freedom, but by moving within creation in countless responsive and persuasive ways—through people, communities, even prophetic imagination. In doing so we recognise a God of hope.

The sharp critique of Amos 6:1a, 4–7 reveals the consequence of ignoring the divine invitation and offers a challenge to our modern-day complacency. “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion,” Amos declares, condemning a culture of luxurious contentment while the nation unravels. The wealthy “lie on beds of ivory,” but care nothing for the pain and societal collapse around them. Using an open and relational framework, God’s warnings are not threats of inevitable doom but calls even warnings to change course. God does not impose judgment; rather, injustice brings its own consequences. Still, God continues to reach out, desiring transformation and restoration – not destruction.

That same theme of urgent choice appears in 1 Timothy 6:6–19, where Paul warns against the seduction of wealth. “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,” he writes. Instead, the letter urges believers to pursue righteousness, godliness, and generosity—because these are the values that sustain true life. This call assumes a level of human agency and responsibility. If the future were preordained, such exhortations would be meaningless but instead we are called to participate with God in shaping what comes next. God is not a puppeteer but a partner.

Nowhere is that message more vivid than in Luke 16:19–end, Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The story is haunting. The rich man, wrapped in privilege, ignores the suffering of the beggar at his gate. Only in death does he see the truth but then it’s too late. This is not a fable about punishment; it’s a mirror held up to us. In this life, the relational God is constantly drawing our attention to those who need help and who are often close by, to the Lazarus at our gates. God can be seen in the faces of those close by and as Welsh feminist theologian Lisa Isherwood and Elaine Bellchambers emphasise that God is not distant but deeply woven into the fabric of life, experiencing and responding to its joys and sufferings. We are not spectators in God’s work here on earth but participants in the divine tapestry.

Together, these readings call us to act in hope, rooted in relationship both with God and with each other. The reign of God is not imposed but invitational and there is hope even in dark times. A field can be bought in a besieged city. A poor man’s life can reveal eternal truths. And we, in every decision, have the capacity to help weave a future where justice, compassion, and love prevail.

Reference: Isherwood, L and Bellchambers, E. Through us, with us, in us: Relational Theologies in the Twenty-First Century. SCM Press. 2010.

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Doral Hayes is the Principal Officer for Ecumenical Development and Relations at Churches Together in England and a Licensed Lay Minister in the Oxford Diocese of the Church of England. Doral holds a MA in Contemporary Christian Theology from Newman University, Birmingham and is currently undertaking doctoral research in ecumenical theology at the University of Roehampton, London. Doral is a contributor to Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God, edited by Jeff Wells, Thomas Jay Oord, et. al as well as a number of other publications. She lives in Buckinghamshire, England with her husband, two teenage children and a crazy whippet.