Sermon, Sunday October 21 2007

Twenty first Sunday after Pentecost
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today we have a baptism. And so in light of that, the question that we are challenged with at the end of today’s Gospel lesson is very appropriate, and even poignant. And that question is "…when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?" When Jesus returns will He find faith in His baptized children?? Will He find faith in Bridger who is to be baptized today?? Will He find faith in Bridger’s parents, sponsors, family? Will He find faith in you, me, any of us??
After all we live in a world where faith in God is not only looked down upon and belittled but it is actually attacked. Look at any list of the top-selling books in the country and you will find books with titles like "The God-delusion" that try to invalidate the very idea of faith in God, particularly a God who loves and cares for us. Watch the news on television and you will hear about war, and famine, and hunger, and poverty, and violence. We don’t need to read a book to find excuses to question and struggle with our faith, we are bombarded with them everyday.
And so in baptism we are given sponsors and parents who pledge to raise us up in the faith and bring us to God’s House for worship and teaching and fellowship and receiving of the sacraments and the hearing of God's Word, and they pledge to expose us to God’s Word in scripture, and the commandments and the creeds. And we are brought into a congregation; a community of faith who also pledges to do their part in raising us up in the faith, and seeing to it that our faith is nurtured and sustained in God’s Word and the sacraments.
Well that should take care of it, right? Give us some parents, some sponsors, a congregation, and we’re good to go, especially since most of those people whom God surrounds us with; parents, sponsors, congregation etc., are adults. After all, that’s when we really start getting things figured out, right? When we become adults, we put all of our hang-ups behind us right; our doubts, our fears, our weakness. In adulthood, we’ve moved beyond all of that right?
Not quite. In fact I think we would do well to remind ourselves that there is a reason why Jesus calls us to have the faith of a child. The truth is, as we become older and more "independent" and more "sophisticated" we become more impressed with ourselves, and our own abilities, and our own intelligence and our own sense of reason and logic. And as we become more impressed with ourselves, we become more and more susceptible to all that the world will throw our way in it's attempt to lure us away from our faith.
We begin to develop the "itching ears" that the apostle Paul writes of in our second lesson for today. We are lured away from sound doctrine and we begin to seek teaching that suits our own desires, as opposed to remaining faithful to the will of our Lord. We begin to be lured away from the truth, and lured toward myths.
And because we are so impressed with ourselves, we are more than willing to buy into the most dangerous of all the myths that we are confronted with. And that is the myth of our own self-sufficiency, the myth that we can do it all on our own.
Earlier this week a new book was released. And you can find this new book in the Christian book section of any book-store or Wal-Mart. The name of the book is "How to be a better you." As if by reading this book we can somehow be given a step-by-step plan to become better people, as if the author of this book has some special knowledge through which he can account for all the challenges and problems and the difficulties that anyone who reads his book will be confronted with.
Nevertheless I am sure that this book will sell like hotcakes and many will sing it’s praises and talk about how it has changed their life. And on a worldly, practical level it might contain some wisdom and insight that could prove to be helpful to some on a purely worldly and temporal level. But remember it is being marketed as a Christian book, as opposed to just another secular self-help book.
And in that light, in terms of nurturing and sustaining readers in their faith in Christ, I believe this book will fall way short. I believe it is just another reflection of the presence of the "itching ears" that sin and the devil use to try to lure us away from the truth of Christ and Him crucified, to try to lure us away from our baptism, and away from our faith.
But having faith is about more than just believing in God and believing in Jesus. Having faith is about being claimed by your Lord through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus.
Having faith is about knowing that in the midst of a broken and sinful world that belittles and attacks faith, and tries to seduce God’s faithful with myths and lies; particularly the myth of our own self-sufficiency, in the midst of all of that there is One who refuses to let go of us. There is One who refuses to let go of the claim that He makes on us in the waters of baptism. It is the One , Christ Jesus who gave His life for you on the cross where He took your sin upon Himself and bore the penalty for your sins; and He took upon Himself your shame, your suffering and your death.
And so yes in baptism we are given sponsors and parents and a congregation to lead us and guide us and nurture and sustain us in our faith. But more importantly we are given a promise. We are given a promise that we are claimed by Christ and marked with the cross of Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit. And the very One who defeated sin, death, and the devil for us and was resurrected three days later, now promises through the Holy Spirit to come to us in His Word.
For as Paul writes in our second lesson all scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness. And so we are to take seriously the pledge that we make at the font; the pledge to raise the newly baptized in the faith and to expose them to God’s Word in scripture and the commandments and the creeds, and to bring them to God’s House for worship and fellowship and to hear God's Word and receive the sacraments. For our Lord also promises that where two or three are gathered in His name; He is there and He also promises to come to us in His supper in the bread and the wine where He is truly present.
The Savior who claims us as His own in baptism, is the One who comes to you right now in the Word proclaimed and will come in a few minutes as you come forward and partake of His Supper, and comes to you daily in fellowship with fellow baptized believers.
And as He comes to us in Word and sacrament we receive the training in righteousness and the instruction for salvation in Christ Jesus, that Paul writes of, and the reassurance of the promise of forgiveness and eternal life in Christ Jesus, that is made over us in the waters of baptism.
And we are given the assurance and the vigilance that only Christ Jesus can give to us so that we are able to recognize the myths that the world throws our way for what they are; myths and lies and deceptions. The truth of the Gospel gives us the assurance that we need to live confidently in our salvation, knowing that we don’t need to be timid about our faith and that we can go to our Lord confidently in prayer, and bother God with all of our problems, and even fight and struggle with God as Jacob did in our Old Testament lesson.
The result of Jacob’s struggle was that he was given a new name; Israel, which we now understand as being a term not referring simply to a geographic nation, but to all God’s people. And so in baptism we too are named among God’s people, and we begin our lifelong baptismal struggle with God. But as Christ Jesus comes to us daily in His Word and sacraments, nurturing us and sustaining us in our faith, we have the assurance of knowing that our place in His eternal kingdom and our eternal life will be preserved,
(Step away from pulpit and walk to the font)
and when Jesus returns we can say confidently that He will find faith on earth and He will find faith in us, because it is the faith that He gives us and nurtures and sustains in us through His Word, sacraments and fellowship with other baptised believers, and it begins right here at the font.
Amen
(Invite baptismal party up to the front)

Sermon, Sunday October 14 2007

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have news for you today. You have been elected. There will be no recount. There will be no appeal to the Supreme Court. And there is no doubt about it. There will be no reason to review any ballots or look into the possibility of voter fraud. As sure as you are sitting there today, you have been elected. And it was a unanimous election. You were elected not by a commission, not by a board, not by a community of your peers. You were elected by the Lord your God to be a child of God.
And this is not optional. You cannot decline this call. When you were cleansed in the waters of baptism and God’s word of promise was spoken over you and you were claimed by Christ, sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ, your election as a child of God was sealed. And it is eternal. There are no term-limits here.
And so in light of that what does this mean for you, as you daily live in your baptism as a child of God? You have the comfort of knowing that the old, sinful creature in you has been put to death and through faith, the new creation that the Holy Spirit is making of you is emerging. You are a new creation in Christ. Does this mean anything to you? Shouldn’t this have some sort of effect on the way you live your life from day to day?
It did for Paul. When the Lord Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus and called him away from his life as a persecutor of Christ, that was indeed the moment of Paul’s election into his new life as a new creation in Christ.
Christ Jesus didn’t wait for Paul to reform his life, He didn’t wait for him to commit his life to Christ, He didn’t wait for Paul to accept Jesus. He simply appeared to Paul or Saul as he was known at the time, called out to him and snatched him from the jaws of sin, death, and the devil and into his new life as a child of God.
And indeed a new creation he was. His life was never the same. And in today’s second lesson we read where Paul writes that he endured everything for the sake of the elect so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. Paul devoted his life to seeking out the elect and letting them know that they were among the elect. And so maybe you ask "How does a person know who is also among the elect?" Well, in the words of one of my favorite theologians "If someone is within earshot of your proclamation of the Gospel, you are to presume that they are among the elect."
And indeed that is how Paul lived his life once he had been grasped by his own election as a child of God. He faithfully endured everything for the sake of the elect. He even went to prison and was eventually killed. And so, here you sit, having been elected. What is that doing for you? What affect does this amazing news have on the way you live your life?
Are you like Paul? Are you faithfully enduring everything for the sake of those who are within earshot of your proclamation of the gospel?? Are you willing to go to prison and even die for the sake of the elect?
More likely we are like the nine lepers from this morning’s gospel lesson who, after being healed from their Leprosy, did not return to praise and thank Jesus for what He had done for them. Like Paul those lepers had benefited from being in the presence of Jesus. And although they did ask for mercy, that does not mean that they were asking to be healed. In fact, it is likely that they were simply asking for money or food.
But here also, Jesus does not wait for the ten lepers to straighten themselves up, or commit their lives to Him, or say a certain prayer, He heals them of their Leprosy while they are on their way to show themselves to the priest. But only one of these ten lepers returns to thank and praise Jesus for what He had done. After showing grave disappointment over the fact that none of the other ten lepers showed up to praise God for what He had done for them, Jesus tells the one leper who did show up to get up and go on his way and that his faith had made him well.
And there lies the common thread between Paul and the one leper who returned and the difference between both of them and the nine lepers who did not return. And the difference was faith. After his experience on the road to Damascus, Paul couldn’t help but have faith. When the faithful leper saw that he was healed, his instinct was to return to Jesus and praise God. Like Paul, he couldn't help but have faith after his encounter with Christ Jesus. He was somehow able to see in Jesus, what the other nine lepers were not able to see; God. The spiritual problem with the nine lepers who did not return was that their trust was not in Jesus.
So it is with us. Daily we fail to trust Jesus for our daily needs. Daily we fail to trust the forgiveness that we have in Jesus. Daily we put our faith more in ourselves and things of the world than we do in Jesus. Daily we fail to live up to our calling to forsake all for the elect, for those who are within earshot of our proclamation of the gospel, in other words, for our neighbor.
But the good news is that you have been elected and Jesus refuses to allow you to forget that. Paul reminds us in our second lesson for today that the Word of God is not chained. Indeed the Word of God is loose, breaking through, creating a new reality, claiming the elect for God’s eternal kingdom, marking them with the cross of Christ and sealing them with the Holy Spirit.
And so as miraculous and gracious as the healing that Jesus performed for these lepers was, I believe He had bigger plans for the lepers. I believe He was not just healing them but claiming them as His own. They may not have seen right away where their healing came from, but the Word had been set loose and would find them. Maybe the one leper who came back would go find them individually, I don’t know. But I believe eventually the Word found them and called them to faith.
And so the Word has been set loose after you also. As you daily live in your baptism, in the midst of the slings and the arrows that the devil throws your way trying to convince you to deny your election, to put your faith in things of the world, to resist the call to share the love of Christ with your neighbor; in the midst of all that the Word is breaking loose coming after you, claiming you, and calling you to faith.
Indeed the Word is set loose and in the Old Testament lesson we see another example of just how determined the Word is when it is set loose. Looking to be healed from his own Leprosy Naaman went to the prophet Elisha who told Naaman to wash himself seven times in the Jordan and his flesh would be restored.
Well this was not good enough for Naaman. He thought that because he was a great military leader surely Elisha would just call on the Lord, wave his hand and the Leprosy would be gone. He didn’t think it was right that he should have to go to the trouble of washing himself seven times in the Jordan, and so Naaman pridefully walked away.
But the Word had been set loose and through one of Naaman’s servants, the Word found Naaman and Naaman could not resist any longer and he went down to the Jordan and he was healed, and his flesh was restored and he was made clean.
And this is the same Word that will not be denied of it’s claim on you. And today it brings more than healing or cleansing, it brings forgiveness and new-life. It brings Christ Jesus who remains faithful when we are faithless and who brings the faith that we are incapable of ourselves, the faith that can only be called ours because we receive it from Christ Jesus Himself. Your faith has indeed made you well, but what gives faith it’s power is not you who receive it, but Christ Jesus who gives it to you through His unchained Word which will not be denied.
So what does it mean to be among the elect?? It means to recognize that you are called live a life of faith. Living a life of faith is to live your life in praise and thanksgiving of what your Lord has done for you. And what Has He done for you?? He has bore the burden of your sins and freed you from sin, death and the devil in His death and resurrection, and He has refused to allow you to deny His claim on you. You have been elected and you have been freed to tell your neighbor that they have been elected.
Amen

Sermon, Sunday October 7 2007

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why are you here today?? Why are you here this morning?? Why do you come here on Sunday mornings? Is it because this is how you were raised? Is it because it’s just what you have always done as long as you can remember? Is it so you have a reason to dress in your Sunday best? Is it so you have an opportunity to socialize and maybe catch up on a little gossip? Or do you come here on Sunday mornings with the same thought and the same request that the apostles had for Jesus in today’s Gospel lesson when they say to Him "Increase our faith!"
If that’s the reason why you’re here then hallelujah, that is good news. But are you sure about that?? Are you sure that you want more faith?? Have you really thought about it? I mean listen to what prompts the apostles to make this request for more faith. The apostles request for more faith is prompted by Jesus telling the apostles about some of the different challenges that Jesus calls His followers to endure.
Jesus calls you to care for the "little ones," meaning those inexperienced in the faith. He calls you to keep others from stumbling in sin and to forgive them consistently. Forgiveness of others can certainly be difficult, but it’s probably not nearly as difficult for you as that rebuking part. That’s the tough part; holding others accountable for their sins. You don’t want to upset anyone. You don’t want to make waves. No reason to ruffle any feathers.
And yet there it is. There is Jesus telling His disciples what is expected of those who would call themselves followers of Christ Jesus. And this is a calling that is not just limited to those who were with Jesus that day. It is a calling that is extended to all of those who would consider themselves to be faithful to the Lord Jesus. It is a calling that is extended to all those who have been claimed by Him in baptism. It is a calling that is extended to you.
So not only are you called to share the love of Christ with your neighbor but you are also called to forgive each other and rebuke each other. How can Jesus demand that much of you?? Doesn’t He realize that you have a life to live; that you have a living to make? You still have to function in this world, right?
But again, it’s clear as day. Jesus compares His followers to slaves here by pointing out in this parable from the Gospel lesson, that slaves are not given any special treatment simply for doing what is expected of them. So again, I ask you, are you sure you want more faith?
But wait, Jesus responds to the request for more faith by telling the disciples that if they had faith the size of a mustard seed then they would be able to tell a mulberry tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea. The faith of a mustard seed?? Well that can’t be that much right? Certainly such a miniscule amount of faith isn’t going to make that much of a difference in your life right?? And really how much faith do you need??
I mean of course you want enough faith to get you into heaven. That’s a no-brainer. And maybe enough to help you pass a test or get a job that you really want. But do you really want enough faith to make you more Christ-like in sacrificial living? You don’t want anything that’s going to make you a fanatic right?
Jesus says it only takes the faith of a mustard-seed. Surely you must have that right? Surely you must have that and some to spare, right? Well, let me ask you this, do you think that you can order a mulberry tree to uproot itself and plant itself by the sea, and it would obey you? Why don’t you give that a shot and let me know how that works out for you. But if it doesn’t work then that can only mean one thing; that you don’t have even the faith of a mustard seed. Not within you, not on your own. Even with your best efforts, you are still slaves. You are slaves to disobedience, you are slaves to sin, death, and the devil.
But still we have this tendency to think that if we do what we are commanded then we will be rewarded. Thus we tend to think that if we follow God’s commands then we will be rewarded. But on our best and most pious days we could not even come close to fulfilling the demands that our Lord expects of us.
And so, in spite our best efforts, we remain slaves to sin, death, and the devil. But the very One who points out to us that we do not have even the faith of a mustard-seed, is the One who has become a slave for us. For it says in Philippians 2 that Christ Jesus emptied Himself and took the form of a slave and humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
In doing this He has paved the way for us to God’s heart. He allowed Himself to become utterly lost in death on our behalf where He was found obedient by God, even to the point of death on a cross. And we, whose death Christ Jesus took upon Himself are also found to be obedient, through faith in Him. Through faith in Christ Jesus, His obedience is our obedience, and His death and resurrection is also our death and resurrection.
But even our faith; the faith that saves us is a matter of grace. For it says in Ephesians that we are saved by grace through faith and even that is not of our own doing. The faith that saves us is the faith that claims us in the waters of baptism and it is the faith that continues to be nurtured and sustained through the Word proclaimed, the partaking of the Lord’s Supper as Christ Jesus comes to us in the bread and the wine and, in fellowship with each other.
So whatever your reasons might have been for coming here this morning; be it to socialize, to show off some new clothes, to continue with something that has always been done in your family or whatever really doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because ultimately you are here this morning because you have been called here. You have been called here by the Holy Spirit through God’s Word. You have been called here this morning so that the faith that you receive in baptism can continue to be nurtured and sustained.
Christ Jesus is bound and determined to increase your faith in Him and so He continues to come to you. So you need not worry about how uncomfortable some of the expectations that are placed upon the followers of Christ might make you feel. You need not worry about looking like a fanatic.
Find comfort in the words of Paul from our second lesson this morning. Paul writes that God did not give us a Spirit of cowardice, but rather of power and love and of self-discipline. Paul tells us to then not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord but to join in the suffering of the Gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace.
So here you sit saying to your Lord "Increase our faith." And that is what He is doing, and that is what He does for you daily as you live in your baptism. And maybe you will never get to the point where you can command a mulberry tree to uproot itself, but through faith your life can be spent in joyous service to the Lord Christ Jesus who became a slave for you.
Amen

Sermon, Sunday September 30 2007

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The last words believed to have been written down by Martin Luther were the words "We are all beggars." These words were scribbled on a piece of paper that was found not long after he died. I bring this up because in the Word proclaimed to you today your Lord speaks to you of your status as beggars. Indeed in the second lesson for today, Paul writes that we bring nothing into the world. We come into the world, totally dependent on those around us. We come into the world with nothing. We come into the world as beggars.
And so for pretty much all of us the first thing we do after being thrust into this world from the comfort of the womb is to cry out. We cry out for attention. We cry out for nourishment. We cry out for someone to make us feel like it’s going to be ok. Whatever it is, we cry out. And thus begins our lifelong quest to make something out of the nothing that we bring into this world.
And so you are like both the characters from the Gospel lesson for today. You are like Lazarus the poor beggar, longing to satisfy your hunger, but you are also like the rich man seeking to fill the void and emptiness in your lives with things of the world. Like the rich man, you seek to satisfy your gaping hunger with wealth; all the while sin, death, and the devil tell you that seeking your own fortune is the righteous way to go. And of course you are more than willing to buy into this. You have the hunger and the yearning of Lazarus and the dependence on material possessions of the rich man.
The problem with the rich man was not his wealth per se’, nor is that the problem with you, even though when going by worldly, global standards you would be considered wealthy. The problem with the rich man, and you is that you set your hopes on the uncertainty of riches and not on the eternal certainty of Christ.
And so indeed we are always beggars. We are never satisfied. We never have enough, whatever our income level, we are just naturally so focused on what we don’t have that we completely lose sight of the rich blessings that God has already provided us with. And when we become so focused in upon ourselves we lose sight of those around us. We don’t hear the cries of the poor and the needy, who are really just echoing God’s own call for justice and mercy. We shut out the "noise" of the needs and desires of those around us so that we can focus on our own self-contentment and seek the past of self-justification.
There is within all of us a tendency to make money and wealth the master that we cling to rather than Christ. We become trapped by harmful desires and addicted to destructive behaviors. And so we make money and wealth our masters. And so that which we place our hope in, we naturally become reluctant to part with. Martin Luther writes that this passage was written as a warning to us.
He writes "This was written as a warning to us, lest we fall into avarice and the practice of usury. Such misers will be the losers in the end. They will be severely punished for not giving a penny to anyone. When they die, they will go to the devil and leave their ill-gotten gains to others, who will show no gratitude but will squander the money on carousing. But this is what they want. I call it a plague on body and soul, honor and goods, wife and child. There is no more damnable person on earth than a rich miser who is not considered worthy of serving God and man with his goods."
And so in your quest to fill the nothing that you come into this world with, you ultimately fill it only with your own death and condemnation. You shut out the cries of God’s needy and hungry people, and thus you shut out the cries of your Lord. As your Lord tells you in Matthew 25, as you do to the least of these, who are members of His family, you do to Him also and so as you do not do to the least of these, who are members of His family you do not do for Him. And so the judgment that is cast upon you is not simply the result of not being generous with your possessions, although that is a calling we all share, but rather the judgment comes from not listening to your Lord, from not listening to the prophetic Word of your Lord. And so, by your own doing, the great chasm that has been fixed between you and God is only widened.
But the very One who’s cries you ignore when you ignore the cries of the poor and the needy is the One who bridges that gap for you. You confess in the creed that for you your Lord descended into hell, and that confession does not simply refer to that which we normally think of when we think of hell. It refers to the "hell" of our daily lives, the "hell" of our futile quest to fill the nothing that we come into this world with, with things of this world.
The very One who claims you in baptism enters into your daily lives where the divide between you and God is ever-present. And in that moment that you are claimed by Him He descends into the depths of the chasm between you and God, and brings not the judgment that you deserve, but He brings the eternal hope and promise that only He can bring through His death and resurrection.
He refuses to leave you in the chasm of despair. He does not allow you to continue to not listen to Moses and the prophets. He lifts you out of death and into new-life by which you cannot help but become convinced of what Moses and prophets point to; that we are not self-sufficient, that we cannot do it on our own.
Indeed, Luther was right, you are all beggars. You are all completely dependent upon God’s grace, which alone is sufficient to save you, and does save you from the justice that you deserve. Indeed, your Lord comes to you in His Word and humbles you and reminds you that you are all completely dependent upon God’s grace. He reminds you of the futility and the uncertainty of worldly riches.
He calls you to new life in Him, the new life that really is life, and not the life of trying to fill the nothing that you come into this world with, with things of the world, for that is the life built on the lie of your self-sufficiency and the lie of your capability toward self-justification.
And so you are humbled. You are humbled by your Lord opening your eyes and ears so you can finally listen to Moses and the prophets as you are completely laid bare and your sin is exposed to you. You are humbled as you stand face to face with the reality that it is your Lord who provides you with all that you need. And like your Lord, in your humility, you are exalted as children in the faithful line of Abraham. In your humility you are exalted as children of the most high God.
And so you are beggars. But the good news is your begging and pleading has been answered. It has been answered in the cleansing waters of baptism, and it continues to be answered everyday as your Lord comes to you in His Word and in the bread and the wine of His Supper and in fellowship with each other. He answers your begging and pleading by filling the nothing that you bring into this world, with God’s grace and His promise of eternal life through faith in His Son Christ Jesus.
And so now you have been freed to hear your Lord through the begging and the pleading of your neighbor. You are freed to hear the pleas of the poor person at your door, knowing that what you do for even the least of your Lord’s people, you do for Christ Jesus.
Amen

Sermon, Sunday September 23 2007

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
Brothers and sisters,
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
From the moment of your baptism, probably even before that especially if you weren’t baptized as an infant, through the rest of your life you are taught one single reality. And everything that you are taught and learn regarding your faith is shaped by this one single reality. And that reality is that the God who created the heavens and the earth, the God who created the creatures on the land, the birds in the air, and the fish in the sea, the God who created all of humanity, has decided to be your God.
You learn this when you learn the first commandment, at least this is how you should have learned the first commandment. The first commandment is yes a command to not have any gods other than the true God of scripture, but it is also, first and foremost a promise. It is a promise that you will not have any gods other than the true God. It is a promise that the true God of scripture, who created the universe and everything in it has decided to be your one and only true God.
So why then, do you continue to search for other gods? Why do you search for other masters? In the Word given to you today in the Gospel lesson, Christ Jesus tells you that you cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve God and wealth. But you try to.
It is in our very nature to do just that. We measure the value of our possessions by how much they please us. We are envious and jealous of those whom we think have more than us. We completely lose sight of everything that God has blessed us with.
And so you prove yourself incapable of what Jesus talks about in the Gospel lesson for today when He says that "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much;" Daily, through greed, envy, pride, and covetousness you reveal yourself to be incapable of being faithful with even a little.
Daily you show that you would not have been able to be as shrewd as the manager in the parable that Jesus tells the disciples in today’s Gospel lesson. And yes the manager in this parable does display a bit of dishonesty in dealing with his master’s debtors, but to dwell on the morality of the manager’s actions is to miss the point.
The manager is told by his master that essentially he is going to be fired. So of course all of a sudden the manager is concerned about his future. He is going to need a place to stay, he is going to need a place to sleep and food to eat. He could have gone to these debtors, collected the debts with compounded interest and kept the money for himself and just took off. But instead he looks not to himself but to the needs of his master’s debtors and even his master himself.
He looks after his master’s needs by making sure that the debts of these debtors would get paid. He makes sure that his work is finished before he leaves. How many of you would be that devoted if you knew you were going to get fired? But he also looks after the needs of the debtors by cutting the debts that they owe. Even though he never actually received permission from his master to cut the debts as much as he did, the actions of the manager must have seemed somewhat selfless to his master, because he is not condemned by his master but rather commended.
But this is not you. You are not a fictional manager in a parable. You are a human being created by the God who has decided to be your God and promises that you will have no other gods beside Him. But still you try to cling to false gods.
You cling to false gods by constantly taking for granted what God has blessed you with, by even being dissatisfied with what God has blessed you with especially if you perceive that your neighbor has been blessed with more material possessions than you. Martin Luther writes of this human tendency toward dissatisfaction and greed by actually comparing us to animals. Luther writes…
A bird pipes its lay and is happy in the gifts it has; nor does it murmur because it lacks the gift of speech. A dog frisks gayly about and is content, even though he is without the gift of reason. All animals live in contentment and serve God, loving and praising Him. Only the evil, villainous eye of man19 is never satisfied, nor can it ever be really satisfied because of its ingratitude and pride. It always wants the best place at the feast as the chief guest (Luke 14:8); it is not willing to honor God, but would rather be honored by God.
It’s as if we live our lives arguing with God. God blesses us with the gift of life, He provides for our daily needs, and as if that weren’t enough He even promises forgiveness and resurrection. But it’s just when God comes to us promising all these things that the old creature in us rears it’s ugly head and says "Wait a minute I’m in charge here."
And so you convince yourself that there is nothing that you can’t handle on your own. You think God is fine up there in heaven, but down here you are the one in control. Or maybe you start to think if God would give you just a little bit more then you would be more grateful, then you would be a more faithful steward of God’s blessings. Or maybe you even start to think that you deserve more than what God has blessed you with. You see that your neighbor, who maybe isn’t as pious as you, or doesn’t go to church as often as you has a nicer car than you or a bigger house, and so indeed you start to think that not only do you not owe God anything but that God owes you something.
And so you find yourself clinging to your possessions trying to serve two masters, but really only serving one; wealth. Wealth in and of itself is not bad. But, the danger comes in losing sight of where the wealth comes from and how you live out your faith in light of that wealth. In other words, the danger is in allowing wealth to be an idol. Clinging to wealth, clinging to your possessions is akin to worshipping wealth and worshipping your possessions.
But God will not be stopped. He has promised that you will have no Gods beside Him and He meant it and He is determined to make it so. And so in the midst of your daily argument with God, He sends a mediator. He sends the only true mediator between God and humankind; Christ Jesus.
He sends Christ Jesus who mediates on your behalf by performing what Luther called the "sweet exchange" when Christ Jesus put Himself into your place and you into His place, by giving His life as a ransom for all, on the cross, and paying the price for your sin and idolatry, on the cross. And this ransom is beneficial to you because Jesus’ place is beside God in His eternal kingdom. And so now when God sees you, He sees Christ Jesus whom He loves so much that He raised Him from the dead and in Christ Jesus He does the same for you.
And so by the ransom that has been paid by one true mediator on your behalf, Christ Jesus, you have been freed from the penalty due you that we read about in the OT lesson where it says that God will never forget the deeds of those who trample on the needy and bring ruin to the poor. Whether you are a billionaire living in a mansion or a farmer struggling to make ends meet, clinging to material wealth and possessions can only lead to spiritual poverty and death. But hear the words of the psalmist this morning who promises that God raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash-heap and makes them to sit with princes of His people.
The one true mediator Christ Jesus who comes to you in baptism and in His Word and in each other, gives you one thing that all of the material possessions and wealth in the world can’t; a place in His eternal home. And so what is left but to trust the promise of the God who has decided to be your one and only God, and who sent His only Son as a ransom on your behalf, and to follow Paul’s example to be a teacher in faith and truth to your neighbor, to bring mercy, compassion, forgiveness and the presence of the One who frees you from the burden of trying to serve two masters.
Amen