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
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
posted by Steve at 5:57 AM
1 Comments:
Great sermon! I loved the interplay with having the God who decided to be your God and our failure to trust Him alone.
I couldn't see the connection b/tw your mentioning the manager in the parable and what it speaks to for us, but other than that, wonderful sermon!
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