by Pat Lee
(Based on Luke 16:1–13; Jeremiah 8:18–9:1)
Today is Storm Sunday in our Season of Creation. We all know about storms. Last weekend we experienced a violent wind storm, which was quite scary, causing some damage. We can name and honour the elemental forces that shape our world, as well as confronting the human responsibility for climate disruption. The storms we face are not only meteorological — they appear in our politics, economies, theologies, and in our everyday lives.
Storms are potent metaphors for transformation. Pressure builds, lightning strikes, and rain falls. There is fear and awe, destruction and renewal. After the storm passes, skies clear and the air is fresh.
Storms remind us of the wildness of creation — and the inevitability of change.
This week, our lectionary gives us two challenging texts: Jeremiah 8:18–9:1 is a raw lament, and Luke 16:1–13 a parable of a shrewd, even dishonest, manager. These readings pull us into the tension between grief and realism, sorrow and strategy. This is where we live. It’s the heart of discipleship in an age of storm.
In Jeremiah’s lament, he isn’t angry. He’s heartbroken. He sees the collapse of Judah looming — politically compromised, morally adrift — and he weeps: “Is there no balm in Gilead?”
His grief is love expressed in tears.
In our own age of climate crisis, economic inequality, and social fragmentation, what would it mean for the Church to weep like Jeremiah? To lament:
- Coral reefs bleached white,
- Families displaced by rising seas,
- Tamariki [children – Ed] inheriting a wounded planet,
- Systems of wealth, hoarding and poverty,
- A church that whispers comfort when it should cry out for justice?
To lament is faithful worship. Jesus did it too: “Jesus wept.” Our sorrow clears space for hope.
Then comes Luke’s unsettling parable. A dishonest manager, knowing he’s about to be fired, secures his future by shrewdly altering debts. And Jesus praises his decisive action — not his ethics, but his urgency.
This isn’t a moral lesson, but a challenge: be wise, bold, real and timely in how you live out the Kingdom. Use what you have, use it for good, and use it now — because the storm is already here.
Together, Jeremiah and Luke give us a spiritual rhythm: Feel deeply. Act wisely.
Blues music teaches us to express sorrow while creating beauty. So too in faith — we must make space not just for praise, but for lament. To cry out injustice, name our pain, and invite transformation. The Spirit stirs us to lament for those things we know to be unjust, but also to act with courage and passion with love, mercy and justice.
Here in Aotearoa [New Zealand – Ed] , we know storms. But we also know kaitiakitanga — the Māori call to care and protect our creation. Today’s readings call us to hold grief and leadership together. To act with urgency and imagination. We need to live out our faith with our feet and our hands.
So, what can we do this week?
We can pray, learn something new about climate change, take a small action like reducing waste, give wisely to help empower changes, and join with others to help them through their storms.
Lament, then rise. Weep, then work. Cry, and then create.
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