© 2004 Rev. Roland J. Wells, Jr. - Pastor
St. Paul’s Sermon 2004
The Sixteenth Sunday of Pentecost - September 19, 2004
Lessons: Amos 8:4–7; I Timothy 2:1–7; Luke 16:1–13
“Loving What?”
Introduction:
Our Gospel lesson is a very, very strange story. It’s a parable. It’s the story of a crooked manager who cheats his master- and gets congratulated for it! This is a very odd Bible passage! Unlike so many other parables of Jesus, it’s not a story about the Kingdom of God, but instead it’s a parable about the Kingdom of this World- Jesus explains to us how the world works- how people lie cheat and steal to get what they want- it works in the world- and if you want to be part of that kingdom, you’d better get good at it. Jesus says, “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” And those eternal dwellings are guaranteed to be in a place where there is no “no smoking” section. Pretty strong words!
I) What do we Love?
Let’s focus in on the punch line:
"No servant can serve two masters.
Either he will hate the one and love the other...
You cannot serve both God and Money."
Jesus uses two verbs there- love and serve. To love is to serve, and to serve is to love.
That’s an interesting idea. Jesus talks about wealth in terms of love.
What do we love?
Of everything that Jesus teaches about, he talks about money and possessions more than anything else. I think in these last years I’ve really done you a disservice by not talking about God’s promises about money and possessions. In our culture, these are the things that eat us up alive- we worry more about these things, and spend more time and effort getting and maintaining them than anything else.
God cares about providing you with all you need for a very important reason. God, your heavenly Father loves you far more than your earthly father or mother loves you, or even more than you love yourself. Your Father wants to be in a day-to-day relationship with him. Day by day, now that the boys are grown, I love to check in with them. If I’ve got a minute while I’m driving, I call to see how their day is going. We have a short talk, I find out about their needs, I hear about what they’re doing. Often, if I haven’t called them for a day or so, they’ll actually call me to check up on me. I want to be close to them. I want to care for them. I want to provide for them so they have what they need and even some of what they want.
Your Heavenly Father desires that you get to know him. But you can’t hear his voice, you can’t see him- you are separated from him by our human sin. God’s Spirit is your connection to him, and he desires for you to develop intimacy in knowing his person and his will. He speaks to you in his Word, and he also speaks to the very center of your being to lead you and give you deep assurance of his presence. That grows in life as we get to know him.
II) Love Breaks Through
But how does he break through? Many years ago there was a young woman named Helen Keller. She was born normal, but illness took away her eyesight and her ability to hear. She was both blind and deaf from the time of being a baby. Can you imagine how hard it was to teach her that it was possible to communicate with the outside world? To give her the idea that there are words, and that little bumps on paper and vibrations in the mouth can connect you to the outside world? How do you explain that without words?
One day she and her teacher- Anne Sullivan went to the outdoor pump. Miss Sullivan started to draw water and put Helen's hand under the spout. As the cool water gushed over one hand, she spelled into the other hand the word "w-a-t-e-r" first slowly, then rapidly. Suddenly, the signals had meaning in Helen's mind. She knew that "water" meant the wonderful cool substance flowing over her hand. Quickly, she stopped and touched the earth and demanded its letter name and by nightfall she had learned 30 words. She learned. Gradually, as her tutor spent hours and hours with her, feeling her lips, learning letters, she was able to learn to both read and speak! How amazing it was.
So how does your Heavenly Father teach you that he’s there, and what his personality is like? He teaches you to pray and to trust him. As we read his Word, as we take him up on his promises, we learn that there is a very different reality in this universe, very different from the kind of world the crooked manager only knew. There’s a world where we don’t have to be eaten up with worry about our finances. There’s a Father who cares for you and promises to provide. He tells you, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.” (Matt 6:33)
III) He Calls us to Test Him- a Promise of Blessing
He even gets bolder than that. He tells us to test him to see if he means it. This is the only place I can think of in the Bible where God gives a blanket statement to test him: Malachi 3:10 Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house; and thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.
God doesn’t need your money. He has all he needs. God will somehow provide for his church and the work it needs to do. But will you be blessed? Will you learn what God has for you? Will you experience the kind of relationship that he desires? Trusting and returning our first fruits to him are very critical ways in which we learn about his nature and his ability to keep promises. If you test him and he doesn’t come through and provide you with all you need, then you know he’s false. But he keeps his promises, otherwise the church of Jesus Christ wouldn’t be here 2000 years later.
Another place God’s Word teaches us about this is 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 The point is this: one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work.
Did you hear the black-and-white promise in that? “One who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” Every spring farmers all over southern Minnesota go to the Co-op and buy thousands of dollars stuff. Then they take those thousands of dollars worth of stuff and just go lose it in the ground. They throw it away, never to be seen again. Thousands of dollars, money that they could use to feed their families. Would you take sack after sack of quarters and just go throw them all over a field and lose them in the dirt? But that’s what the farmer does year after year after year. It’s called seed. They take thousands of dollars of good hybrid seed and expensive fertilizer and throw it all away. That’s called seed. And if they don’t plant seed, if they don’t take all that money and go throw it away on the ground- they won’t get a crop. If they plant half the seed, they get less than half a crop- because each one of those kernels of corn gives them two or three whole ears of corn. Every acre they plant about 20 pounds of corn. They get back 8,100 pounds of corn! That’s the picture God has in mind when he promises, one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
When God calls us to trust him and return our first fruits to him, it’s pure Gospel. It’s all promise. It’s all about love. God desires to bless you, to provide for you, to bless you, all so you can know him. He wants to show you his love; he wants you to reach out and love him. Really know his love. Hear his promise: one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. He says test him. That’s between you and him.
No, I’m not trying to peddle some sort of get-rich quick plan. I’m not say give so you can get more. I’m saying that if you want to learn of the Father’s love, do it the way the Father teaches you. Plant seed. See how he answers. It’s all about love; it’s all about planting in joy to see how the Father will use it. Ask your Father to teach you how to give. Ask him to prove himself. Give to God however he leads, wherever he leads.
But the key thing is that God desires to take away your fear and put all that you have in his good order. He wants to reveal himself to you and he wants to give you peace, so you aren’t all terrified inside over your future, over your stuff and over whether you’ll have enough. Hear the rest of Jesus’ words from Matthew 6: Matthew 6:25-33
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? [26] Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? [27] Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
[28] "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. [29] Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. [30] If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? [31] So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' [32] For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. [33] But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
He just wants you to know him so you can really know your Father. It’s all promise; It’s all joy. It’s all about love. He’ll keep his promise. Amen.
Amos 8:4-7
Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying,
"When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?"--skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat. The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: "I will never forget anything they have done.
1 Tim. 2:1-7
I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone-- for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men--the testimony given in its proper time. And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle--I am telling the truth, I am not lying--and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles.
Luke 16:1-13
Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.' "The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg-- I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.' "So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' " 'Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,' he replied.
"The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.' "Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe? " 'A thousand bushels of wheat,' he replied.
"He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.' "The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? "No servant can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money."