Trinity 9 [Luke 16:1-13] (28-Jul-2013)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am, lay reading), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (10am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yarram (2pm) and St John's Lutheran Church, Sale (4pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text: (Luke 16:1-13)

The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

 
Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus calls his disciples sons of light. He calls them specifically sons, because in ancient times, a son was the one who inherited his father’s house and property. Jesus calls all Christians “sons”—whether they are men or women, boys or girls—because all Christians inherit the kingdom of God equally. As St Paul says: There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. This doesn’t mean that there are no differences between men and women: men can’t be mothers, and women can’t be fathers. But Jesus calls both men and women together here “sons”.

Also, Jesus calls his disciples: sons of light. We read in 1 John 1: God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. In the Gospel of John we read that Jesus is the true light, who enlightens everyone, who was coming into the world. In the Nicene Creed, we call Jesus God of God, Light of Light. It’s through Jesus, the light of the world, that we enter become children of our heavenly Father, that we become sons of light. It’s the light of Jesus Christ, the light of the forgiveness of sins, that shines in our lives. This light shines upon us through Holy Baptism, through the water and God’s word. We trust in our Baptism as God’s work: and all of our Christian life is simply walking in that light, basking in that light, walking with Jesus in his light, the light that doesn’t belong to us, but belongs to him, and which he shines and pours out upon us through His holy word and Holy Spirit.

And constantly throughout our Christian lives, we are always learning just what it means to be a son of God’s light, God’s own precious child.

So often in the bible, when Jesus or his apostles want to encourage us in our Christian life, it happens in this way:

First of all, we are reminded of who we are. Jesus says: You have the light. Or St Paul says: You are children of light. We might say: You are baptised. You have been given the Holy Spirit. Your name has been written in the book of life.

Then, we are shown our sin. We are always being called to repentance. So, Jesus says to us: While you have the light, walk in the light. St Paul says: You are light in the Lord, walk as children of light. St Peter says: God called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

You might say: This isn’t talking about our sin. Well—ask yourselves: why does Jesus or St Paul or St Peter need to tell you to walk in the light? Because for the simple reason that you’re not. You are a child of God, you are baptised, and yet you are not living like a child of God. You are not behaving as a baptised person behaves. You are not living the sort of life that you would be living if Christ were living in you. Your actions do not reveal that the Holy Spirit dwells in your heart.

But the reality is: it’s true! You have been baptised, you do have Christ dwelling in you, you have been filled with the Holy Spirit.

But Jesus also says to you: You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. This word is a crushing word: it convicts us of our sin. And so, it’s not for us to pretend to ourselves that we really are morally perfect. We need to drown our old self daily, and tell God where we can see that our lives have not lived up to his standard. Every day, we find that we’ve failed. Jesus wants us to keep the 10 commandments perfectly. And James says: Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.

Who can live that sort of life? you might ask! I can’t possibly do that! You’re right! You can’t. But Jesus doesn’t want you to give up. Instead, he wants you push through, to run the race, to fight the good fight, to deny yourself and follow him, to take up your cross daily and follow him. But you will never be able do this on your own. On this side of the grave, you will always be a sinner. And so, you always need to live each day in the strength of Jesus, in the power of his pure, complete forgiveness of all your sins.

Jesus commands show us our sins: but Jesus doesn’t push us away. He tenderly and lovingly invites us to pray to our Father in heaven together with him, with his blood, and with his righteousness, not our own.

The light reveals the darkness of our sins, but then Jesus himself covers our sins with his blood, with his forgiveness. What a wonderful gift the forgiveness of sins is! What a wonderful gift it is to be a son of light! It’s not our own light, it’s always borrowed light, light which is borrowed from Jesus.

So Jesus calls his disciples sons of light, before he tells us what to do. He wants to encourage us first, and build us up first, before he gives us a job.

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Now, also in our Gospel reading today, Jesus tells us where his disciples are going. He says they are going to eternal dwellings. We all have our own homes to go to, but Jesus also promises us an eternal home, an eternal dwelling. In fact, even now, we who are baptised people already dwell with Jesus in an eternal home. The church is an eternal home, a spiritual temple, where those who have died and those who are still alive join together in one divine service listening to the life-giving words of our Good Shepherd. That’s why when we prepare to receive the Lord’s Supper, we sing the “Holy, holy” with angels, and archangels, and all the company of heaven. What a wonderful gift!

And so, we wait for that day when we will see the things we now experience and join in with our own eyes! We will see our resurrected Lord Jesus standing in front of us, just as he has been standing with us our whole lives. Jesus says: I will be with you always to the end of age. And Job says: I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth, and when my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.

So Jesus promises us eternal dwellings. He says: In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? In Deuteronomy 33 it says: The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

So Jesus teaches us that we are sons of light and that we are longing for eternal dwellings.

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Now, in the midst of all this talk about sons of light and eternal dwellings, is a lot of talk about money.

We have a dishonest manager who is fired from his job. And he wonders what he’s going to do with his life, when he becomes unemployed. He needs some friends to look after him. (He doesn’t have Centrelink and welfare to help him out!) So he goes and cancels some of his master’s debts for people. This makes them happy because they don’t have to pay as much! But also it makes his master happy, because now a whole lot of people are happy with the master! The dishonest manager has been dishonest, but he has also won for himself some friends at his master’s expense. We read: The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. The manager did the master a little favour, even though he used his money!

Now after this little story, this little parable, Jesus says: The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

Jesus tells us a parable about a dishonest man. He uses the example of a man’s sin to tell us how we should behave! Isn’t this strange? Well, who else is Jesus going to compare our heavenly Father to? Jesus must compare himself and his Father to sinners, because they’re the only people in the world that he can compare himself to! The only person who is not a sinner is Jesus himself!

So it’s natural that Jesus should compare the Christian life to some sinfulness, because this is our only experience: the only people we know, except for Jesus, are sinners! The only thing we know is how to look after our own backs and serve our own interests. The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.

But one thing that Jesus teaches us is this: Our money, our things, don’t belong to us! They belong to God. Jesus says: Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. Our money doesn’t belong to us: we are just managers of it. And Jesus wants us to use it to make friends. Eventually, our money will fail. We’re all going to die, and all your money, your stuff, your collections, whatever!—none of that will be any use to you when you’re six feet below the ground.

So what are you going to do with it?

Some people treat money like God. When they run out of money, they say: “God, why have done this to me?” Have you been spending your money on yourself, or have you been making heavenly friends with it? Have you been generous with it? Have you helped people with it who are needy?

Just a little bit later in this same chapter of Luke’s gospel, we read about Lazarus and the rich man. See Lazarus has some friends who welcome him to heaven: the angels who carry him to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man had lots of money, but he had no heavenly friends. Who is Jesus calling you to use your money for? Are you serving yourself with your money, or are serving God with your money? Jesus says in our Gospel reading: No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Today, parents raise their children in such a way that the most important thing in the world is money. What do you do when you leave high school? Do you think about starting a family? Not without money! What’s the point of going to school? So you can be a better citizen, a wonderful contributor to society, a leader, a parent, a wise friend? No! Australians today talk as if the only purpose of getting an education is to get a job so that we can all get lots of money.

No wonder people don’t come to church, because they’re all serving that other god, called “money”. It’s as simple as that. And there’s a great temptation for us to do the same thing. And Christianity is suffering in Australia, in Europe, and in America for the simple fact that we are too rich, we have too much money, and we worship money instead of God. Beware all of you who have had an increase in your salary or pension: your responsibility is now greater. There is so much more you can do for the devil with your new money, but there is so much more you can do for Jesus.

We who are rich have a greater responsibility to do something for God with our money. We must do something for God with our money, before the devil gets his hands on the stuff and ruins us. Remember the rich man and Lazarus.

Now, people always think that the church wants your money. The church doesn’t need your money at all. It has never needed it, and it will never need it. None of your money belongs to you anyway, it belongs to God, and God himself will provide the church with everything it needs. The offering plate in the church is not there because God needs it, but because you need it. 2 Corinthians 9 says: God loves a cheerful giver. You have to decide what you want to give to the church. Jesus won’t ever let you go without. Remember the widow who put in the last 2 pennies she had to live on. Psalm 37 says: I have been young and now am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.

Hebrews says: Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

How is God calling you to use the money he has given to you? Can you look back and wonder if you ever entertained an angel without knowing it?

We are children of light, sons of light. We are God’s baptised people. We have the forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit as a completely free gift from God himself. We look forward to an eternal home. We already dwell in a heavenly home. This is a wonderful gift that God has given us!

Maybe that same God will put a beaten up man on a road for us this week. Maybe Jesus will come in disguise in someone we would never expect: a hungry person, a thirsty person, a sick, imprisoned person, a stranger. Especially, take notice in the church, because Christians are friends and disciples of Jesus. These people are the people who will welcome us to heaven.

So make friends. Don’t you want friends? Jesus is your friend! And you can’t possibly pay him back for what he has given to you!

Make friends with your unrighteous wealth. As Ecclesiastes says: Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Make friends with those things that God has given you, so that when your money and your stuff fails, these friends may welcome you into the eternal dwellings. How many thousands of angels are hanging around and surrounding you, waiting to disguise themselves so that you can help someone and make friends with them!

May Jesus bless you, you dear beloved children of his light! May Jesus bless you, you dear pilgrims, walking towards your eternal dwelling! May Jesus bless you with many friends! God is our eternal dwelling, and underneath us are his everlasting arms!

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, you know our hearts, and that we do not you as we should, but serve money instead. Forgive us for living like sons of this world, instead of sons of light, and send us your generous Holy Spirit, so that we can also learn each day afresh to be generous from you. Amen.