In the Name of Jesus
16. Sunday after Trinity, Proper 20C
19. September 2010
Lord Jesus Christ, we realize not only from Your Word, but our own experience in the world frequently teaches us, how the presumptive knowledge and selfish wisdom of our flesh, the puffed up exaltation of our human understanding, the discoveries of reason and its powers, are not satisfied to exercise their limited functions in that which is visible and created, but, behold, these presume even upon spiritual and heavenly things whose source and ruler You only, Lord Jesus Christ, are evermore. Renew, O Lord, our body sin, and, by Your grace, change the old Adam in us. Sprinkle our unworthy flesh with Your precious blood that we become wholly clean. Turn all our weakness and nothingness into Divine strength, our helplessness into Divine power, and our body into a dwelling of Your Spirit. Grant, therefore, that we put off the old Adam of sin and begin now to bear Your image, as new men and women conceived after the mind of God, to follow You in all humility, and constantly to grow in Your likeness; so that, in the day when Your return, we may be found blameless and without blemish in body and soul, unto the glory of God, Your Father, with whom You live and reign , in unity with the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen. (Löhe 110, 114,115).
Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to Luke where the holy evangelists writes: ,,The one who is faithful in an insignificant thing is also faithful in a significant thing, and the one who is dishonest in an insignificant thing is also dishonest in a significant thing. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? A house servant cannot serve two lords; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to one and think nothing of the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.“ Now the Pharisees, who were fond of possessions, were listening to all these things and were ridiculing Him. So Jesus said to them, ,,You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The Law and the Prophets were as far as and included John the Baptizer; since then the gospel of the reign of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into that reign. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to come to an end.“ This is our text.
The events and history of this world is twofold. There is the obvious course of events and activities that the news media, commentators, and history books capture. What often is neglected in the secular realm is that behind all these historical events is a spiritual depth that only Christians can properly glimpse and understand. It is like going to Best Buy and looking at the televisions. Yes, the standard transmission is good and the colors look nice. But when you put that standard transmission next to an Aquos HDTV with red, blue, green, and yellow colors and the transmission is stunning, bright, and extremely colorful. You see things you did not see before. The secular recording of history is like the old standard TV signal, and the Christian understanding of history is like the high tech HDTV with its amazing TV signal.
Case in point. In 312, Constantine and Maxentius were fighting for control of the Roman Empire. Both desired to unite the empire again under one emperor (Constantine defeated Licinius in 325 to become sole augustus and emperor). The average history text book will describe how this was a power struggle between two powerful augusti, examine the military strategies, and other such things. What was also going on was what Yahweh was doing through this power struggle. Yahweh works in and through human history and events for the benefit and the expansion of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The key spiritual understanding of Constantine’s rise to Roman emperor was that the Church benefited from his rule with the Edict of Milan (313) which guaranteed religious tolerance and restored the buildings and property taken from the Church during the Diocletian’s imperial persecution.
Jesus’ Parable of the Dishonest Steward teaches us about stewardship. Jesus uses an earthly example to teach a greater spiritual truth. First and foremost, stewardship is about Christ Jesus, the gospel, eternal life, and faith in Christ. Christians, then, are either faithful or dishonest stewards of God’s gifts. The stewards of God’s gifts in Jesus’ day were the Pharisees. They studied the Holy Scriptures, they made judgments on laws and the text, and regulated Jewish life. Yet, when the Word of God arrived in their midst in the flesh, these stewards of Israel rejected and opposed Jesus. The Pharisees loved money more than God. They attempted to justify themselves before the average Jewish man and woman with their obedience to the law and their good works, but the hearts of the Pharisees were an abomination before their Heavenly Father for they were hypocrites: the Pharisees neither keep the law nor do they always do good works. They are filthy sinners in need of Yahweh’s grace, gospel, and forgiveness.
Jesus points out the truth: The lust for wealth leads to poor stewardship. Perhaps our economic meltdown is God’s way of showing us that the unbridled pursuit of wealth hurts the Church and our Christian stewardship. Luther commented in 1528 that for more than seventy-five years the Muslim Ottoman Turks had cast a menacing shadow over Europe. The Turks had conquered Constantinople in 1453 and by 1500 they had expanded their empire to Southeaster Europe’s Danube River. In 1529 and 1532 the Turks were at the gates of Vienna, Austria and threatening westward to attack Europe. Luther commented on all this, saying that ,,the Turk is the rod of the wrath of the Lord our God and the servant of the raging devil“ (AE 46:170). Luther noted that the Turk was God’s plague upon the Church and Christians who had allowed the tyranny of the papacy, tolerated false doctrine for centuries, and paid no attention to the gospel silence in the pulpit.
We should not think ourselves above God’s punishment. Too often we are consumed with the accumulation of wealth. What suffers is our stewardship to Christ whether that is being stingy in the offering plate or content with the status of our sinful lives. Little thought is given to the important aspects of stewardship, namely, eternal life, forgiveness, and faith. So Yahweh sends tribulations and distress into our lives in order to shake us out of our sinful sloth.
Jesus tells us that if we act like the Pharisees and depend on our possessions or hypocrisy as a way into the reign of God, then He calls us to make a violent break from those means and enter into Jesus’ reign through faith in His mercy (Just 625). This calls for repentance and confession of sins. Our hearts must be pierced by the sword of Yahweh’s law. We must recognize our sinfulness. We must repent and confess. We have been dishonest stewards of Yahweh’s wonderful, rich blessings of eternal life, forgiveness, and faith – all of which He gives us free of charge, but we consider them dross while we are enamored with our wealth and good merits by which we attempt to give to Yahweh as our entrance fee into heaven.
In the 2003 movie ,,Luther“ Frederick the Wise laments that he has received the golden rose from the Pope Leo X on 3. September 1518 to express his highest esteem for Frederick’s lordship, heroic loyalty and devotion to the Church with the intention to entice Frederick to hand Luther over to Rome. Sir Peter Ustinov wonderfully agonizes Frederick’s broken heart, saying ,,When I was a child I thought like a child, I was a child, I played like a child. And now, thanks to the adults, I’ve had to join the world of adults. And I am appalled by how easy they thought it was to bribe me.“
We cannot bribe our Heavenly Father and Protector with our own golden roses of possessions, good works, or any other item we use to merit His attention and favor. We must repent of our bribery, cast aside our meritorious golden roses, and look to the true Golden Rose of our Heavenly Father, who is Christ Jesus our Savior. The tax collectors and sinners entered Jesus’ reign through the ,,violence“ of repentance— dying to sin— and faith in Jesus (Just 626).
The Holy Gospels give us the historical and spiritual account of Jesus’ public ministry in which He follows John the Baptizer, preaches the reign of God, whereby He gives us the benefit of eternal life.
Jesus did what we can never do: He suffered a violent death by crucifixion, and upon that cross He bore all of our sins. He took upon Himself our sins of dishonest stewardship, our trust in our wealth and good deeds, our iniquitous attempts to bribe our Heavenly Father, and countless other transgressions both known and unknown to us, and made those sins His own sins. Jesus bore the brunt of His Heavenly Father’s wrath that was poured out in full measure for mankind’s sinfulness. Therefore, the reign of God is opened up to us because Jesus is our Mediator and Propitiator before God the Father.
And you know what the really great part of this all is? The Holy Gospels are not proclaiming some ancient action by Jesus that has no relevance in our lives today. Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection are not some historical fact recorded in dusty books shelved away in the rare book room from the sight of library patrons. The gospel of Jesus Christ is still fresh and active in the 21st century, just as it was in the 1st century.
The Holy Spirit has drawn us into this majestic gospel story. The Holy Spirit uses the liturgy and the Divine Service (Gottesdienst) as the means by which He gives us the benefits that Christ has purchased via the cross and the empty tomb. We are in the midst of the spectacular reign of God for this blessed reign is embodied by Christ and this reign is given out to us in the Word and the Sacraments.
The proclaimed Word today and the Sacrament of the Altar not only give us the very forgiveness that Jesus has purchased for us on the cross, but the Word and the Sacrament give us eternal life and salvation. These means of grace are not only for our justification, but they also empower, enable, and strengthen us to be good stewards of our Heavenly Father’s immeasurable wealth and possessions. He gives, we receive, and we are thus blessed beyond measure. Jesus is the Perfect and Faithful Steward of His Heavenly Father’s gifts, and He has made us good and faithful stewards through His shed blood and risen body. Amen.
Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, the one Mediator between God and men, who gave Yourself as a ransom for all people, make us faithful stewards of the mysteries of eternal life and salvation, not that we might earn them by our faithful stewardship but that we draw unto You alone as the one who has redeemed us back to our Heavenly Father and that we have salvation and forgiveness by faith alone. Amen.
One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!
Just, Arthur A., Jr. Concordia Commentary: Luke 9:51– 24:53. Copyright © 1997 Concordia Publishing House.
Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.
Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Vol. 46: The Christian in Society III. ,,On War against the Turk“. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, & Helmut. T. Lehmann, Ed. Copyright © 1967 Fortress Press: Philadelphia.
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