Category: Trinity 9

Who is your God?

8/2/2021

Parable of the Unjust Steward, Marinus van Reymerswaele, circa 1540. Public Domain.

Trinity 9
Luke 16:1-9
Pastor James Preus

Trinity Lutheran Church
August 1, 2021

What is the unjust steward’s god? It’s obvious; isn’t it? Mammon. Earthly wealth. Whatever you fear, love, and trust in most is your god. And this unjust steward fears money. He revere’s its power to feed one’s belly and he is terrified of running out of it. He loves wealth. He desires to have it more than anything else. And he trusts in it. He trusts that if he can get money, he will be provided for. The next question is: Does he serve his god well? And we must answer, yes. He serves his god very well. This is why the master commends the unjust steward for his shrewdness.

Now, who is your God? If you are to call yourself a Christian, it must be the one true God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirt; the God, who sent his Son to die for our sins and who sends his Holy Spirit into our hearts through the Gospel. Now, we must ask. Do you serve your God well? Do you love him with all your heart, soul, and mind? Do you fear him and trust in him? Here we get a sharp rebuke from our God, Jesus Christ, “The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their generation than the sons of light.” This infidel steward, this dishonest thief is more shrewd than we are. He serves his false god with greater diligence than we serve the one true God.

So, what does Jesus exhort us to do in light of this revelation? Our true Master Jesus says, “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 to make use of unrighteous wealth, that is, unrighteous mammon. Why is it called unrighteous mammon?  Because it will fail. It gets destroyed by rust and eaten by moths and stolen by thieves. And even if you can protect it from the rust, moths, and thieves, you will lose it when you die. God said to the rich fool, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:20) And even if you have a slightly more noble goal for your wealth, to leave it to your children, it will remain unrighteous mammon for them. It will most certainly fail them too.

Yet, Jesus does not say that we should then throw away all earthly wealth and live as hermits as we pilgrim here on earth. The unrighteous, destined to fail wealth is given to us by our most generous heavenly Father. And he intends for us to use it for the good of his kingdom. Now, you might ask, what is the difference between a Christian using unrighteous wealth and an unbeliever using unrighteous wealth? It is the difference between being a master and being a slave. If mammon is your god, you are its bondservant. And you will serve earthly wealth until the day you die, when it will leave you to go to hell, so that it can enslave another victim. But if God is your God, that is, if you have faith in Christ Jesus who purchased you with his own blood, then mammon is your servant. And you must never be its slave.

Mammon can be used for good or evil. Gold can adorn the ears and arms of a harlot. Or it can be formed into a chalice to carry the very blood of Christ Jesus and to feed it to his Christians for forgiveness and salvation. A website can be used to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the forms of sermons, Bible studies, and other writings. Or it can be used to share the most perverse filth intended to draw victims to the slaughter. Money can be spent on excessive luxury, drinking, partying, and vacationing, and it can be spent to take care of the poor, support the preaching of the Gospel, to build churches, fund missions, and establish Lutheran Schools, so that future generations can be encouraged in the saving faith.

The Christian is in possession of greater wisdom than that of the shrewd steward. The Christian has the knowledge of an eternal dwelling stored up in heaven for all who believe in Christ Jesus, bought and paid for by the priceless blood of Jesus and his innocent suffering and death. Yet, Jesus warns that one cannot serve two masters; one cannot serve God and mammon (Luke 16:13). This means that the Christian must make everything in his life, including all his earthly wealth serve the aim of that final goal of obtaining that eternal heavenly dwelling. This is not to suggest that anyone can purchase the kingdom of heaven with unrighteous mammon, but rather, to warn that becoming a slave to unrighteous mammon can cause you to forfeit your eternal heavenly dwelling.

This is why Jesus instructs us not to use unrighteous mammon for our own pleasure, but rather, being content with what we need, to make friends with it, who will welcome us into our eternal dwelling. Now, who are these friends? This lesson is from Luke chapter sixteen. At the end of this same chapter, Jesus tells the story of the rich man and Lazarus. As you know, Lazarus was poor, died and went to heaven. Did Lazarus welcome the rich man into his eternal dwelling? No. The rich man died and went to hell. He didn’t make Lazarus his friend with his mammon. Rather, he only pleasured himself in obedient servitude to his unrighteous god. Had he had faith in Christ, he would have made his mammon serve him. He would have helped his brother in Christ, Lazarus. Lazarus would have welcomed him to Abraham’s side.

To make friends with unrighteous mammon who will welcome you into your eternal dwelling when the mammon fails means to use your unrighteous wealth to help Christians here on earth, who will be your friends forever in heaven. This means that you should be generous to the poor and use your unrighteous wealth to do God’s work to provide for every living thing. This especially applies to those of the household of God. St. John writes, “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” (1 John 3:17) Whatever you have, you have received from the Lord. It is not right for Christians to go hungry while their brothers and sisters in Christ get fat.

To make eternal friends with unrighteous wealth also means to support the mission of the church. Under the Law of Moses, the children of Israel were required to give ten percent of their earnings to the Lord (Numbers 18:21ff). Christ Jesus has set us free from the requirements of Moses’ Law. Yet, both Abraham and Jacob freely gave one tenth of their wealth to God before Moses ever gave such a command (Genesis 14:20b; 28:22). And we Christians, who live by the Law of the Spirit of Life and not under the Law of Death certainly should be as generous with our first-fruits.

But in fact, not a tenth of what we have belongs to the Lord, but all of it. And we owe it all to him. If we truly recognized that all our earthly wealth will fail us, and that our faithful God promises to provide our daily bread each and every day, and even more, that he promises to give us an eternal dwelling as a free inheritance, we would seek to use our unrighteous wealth for the greatest good of furthering Christ’s kingdom by supporting Lutheran churches and schools, so that friends may testify of us on that final day that when they were hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and in prison, we helped them (Matthew 25:31ff). Christ tells us that we can actually use our worthless money and vanishing time and talents to do something that will last for eternity! We can make friends in future generations, who will thank us, just as we will give thanks for those before us who built this church and sweat and bled, so that we could have the Gospel today.

Our English Standard Version Bible translates it, “dishonest manager.” I like the translation, “unjust steward” better. A steward is one who manages that which does not belong to him. We are all stewards. Everything we have doesn’t actually belong to us. We have it for a time, on loan from God. And, just as with the steward in Jesus’ parable, our stewardship will be taken away from us. When we die, we will no longer be able to be managers of what God has entrusted to us. And also, like the steward in our parable, we will have to turn in the account of our management, as St. Paul also says in Romans 14, “So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.” And as Jesus’ parable about the talents also teaches us (Matthew 25:14-30), our Master will ask for an account of what we’ve done with the little that was entrusted to us; how we spent the unrighteous wealth God gave us; what we did with the talent and time God gave us.

Yet, unlike that unjust steward in Jesus’ parable, we will not need to weasel ourselves into someone else’s home. And indeed, we cannot trick, cheat, or steal our way into heaven. Rather, the debt we have incurred against our Master has been paid in full by the innocent suffering and death and precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has taken all our sins away. Our Lord Jesus intercedes for us now in heaven, showing our heavenly Father the marks of the nails in his hands and feet and the scar of the spear in his side. We do not need to cheat our way into our eternal dwellings. Our way has been rightfully bought and paid for. Christ Jesus holds in his hands the receipts. And in the Book of Life, written in Jesus’ blood, are the names of all who repent of their sins and trust in Christ Jesus for forgiveness and salvation.

Only an unbelieving scoundrel would then conclude that we need not care then how we spend our earthly wealth, time, and talents. Having been set free from slavery to sin and from hell, we cannot then turn in servitude to the false god Mammon. We must not obey it. Rather, being confident of both our eternal dwelling and our daily bread by the generosity of our God, we seek to put our mammon to work in the service of Christ’s kingdom. We ought to work as if it depends on us, but thank God that it doesn’t. Unbelief causes one to neglect making eternal friends with the mammon God gives him. It comes from not trusting that God will provide for you today and tomorrow. It comes from doubting that God has an eternal dwelling prepared for you (John 14:1-3). So, in order to have a generous heart and to seek to use our mammon to God’s glory, we must believe that Christ has won an eternal dwelling for us. Then God will be your God. And you will be his servant. And He will store up eternal friends for you. Amen.

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God Is Faithful

8/11/2020

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Esteban March - The Golden Calf, between 1610 and 1668, Public Domain

Trinity 9
1 Corinthians 10: (1-5) 6-13
August 9, 2020

10 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

God is the same forever. He does not change. And although people do change, we all remain members of the same human race. And we share a common condition. We are sinners, who have fallen short of the glory of God. St. Paul says, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.” So, although each of us suffers from our own particular temptations and sins, nothing that afflicts us is unique. Nothing’s new under the sun. What tempts us; the sins into which we fall; they’ve tempted and caused to fall Christians before us.
And this is why it is so important to read and become familiar with the Holy Scriptures. Last week I urged you all to learn your Small Catechism. Luther’s Small Catechism teaches the basics of the Bible by simply explaining the Ten Commandments, the Apostles Creed, the Lord’s Prayers, as well as the biblical doctrine on Baptism, Confession and Absolution, and the Sacrament of the Altar. These six chief parts summarize everything you need to know to be a Christian. Yet, that does not mean that you don’t need to read your Bible. The Bible describes how our God, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever deals with his people, who are very much in the same spiritual situation as we are now. St. Paul says these things were written for our instruction or admonition. So, it behooves us to read what was written and learn about ourselves.
St. Paul reminds us that our fathers in the faith, the people of Israel, were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, that they all ate the same spiritual meat and drank the same spiritual drink, that they drank from the spiritual rock, which followed them, which was the same Christ we worship today! They worshipped the same God. They followed the same Christ. Notice even the similarity to the Sacraments we have today. They were baptized into the cloud, which was the very presence of God and into the sea, just as we are baptized not only into water, but in the name of God. They ate and drank spiritual meat and drink from Christ, just as we eat and drink the body and blood of the same Christ for spiritual sustenance. Yet, what does St. Paul say? “Nevertheless, with most of them God was displeased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.”
What does this teach us? It teaches us that Baptism and the Lord’s Supper do not save us if we do not have faith! They were all baptized! Yet, they were not all saved! But doesn’t baptism save? Indeed, it does! But only through faith. If you reject Christ, Baptism is of no benefit to you. Doesn’t the Lord’s Supper work forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation? Indeed, it does! Yet, only those who believe the promise of Christ eat and drink worthily!
St. Paul used the example of the children of Israel in the wilderness to warn the Christians in Corinth not to despise their Baptism and not to abuse the Lord’s Supper. And from what we can read from 1 Corinthians, this is exactly what the Christians in Corinth were doing; living as if their bodies were not the temple of the Holy Spirit, who began his dwelling in them at their Baptism, and treating the Lord’s Supper like a common dinner party, even participating in pagan sacrifices in direct contradiction to the Communion into which they participated in the Sacrament.
And this lesson is as important for us to learn today as it was for the Christians in Corinth. Are we not prone to treat Baptism like a superstitious magic spell, which imparts salvation even if we don’t continue in the faith? “Get the child done.” is actually uttered by Christians in reference to bringing a child to the saving waters of Baptism! Yet, Baptism is not a once and done event. Baptism is placing a new-born Christian in to the safety of the Christain Church to be nurtured and to grow in faith. And the Lord’s Supper is God’s food for the faithful, not for those who continue in sin without repentance, or for those who do not believe in Christ.
We must not be idolaters as some of them were. Here St. Paul references Exodus chapter 32, where the children of Israel, impatient with Moses’ delay on top of Mount Sinai, worshipped a golden calf, crediting it for their deliverance from Egypt! God punished them for their idol worship. The Corinthians likewise were tempted with idolatry. They lived in a culture that worshipped many false gods and Christians would often be pressured by social norms to participate in sacrifices to idols. And this lesson is relevant to us today. It may be uncommon to be invited to eat meat sacrificed to idols, but idolatry is to fear, love or trust in anything above God. And that is a temptation that persists among us today. We trust in money more than God. We love our pleasures, more than God. We fear rejection from our family and friends more than rejection from God. Take heed of this idolatry. Your fathers were baptized into Moses and idolatry destroyed them. Do not let your idolatry throw away your Baptism.
We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. Here St. Paul references the episode at the Baal of Peor as recorded in Numbers 25. The unfaithful prophet Baalam enticed the Israelites to embrace cult prostitutes from Moab. In his anger God killed thousands of them in a single day, until pious Phinehas in his zeal killed the most brazen offender and put an end to the plague. The Corinthian Christians needed to be reminded of God’s wrath against sexual immorality. They had been rescued from the perversions of the pagan Greeks when they were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit in Baptism (1 Corinthians 6:11). Yet, the Satanic world in which they lived continued to pull these infant Christians to tolerate the worst forms of fornication.
And we currently live in a culture that likely surpasses the ancient Greeks in perversity. And we’d be naïve to believe that the church is passing through unscathed. Are your views on marriage formed by how the world behaves or by how God teaches us in his word? Do you promote with your words and actions fornication and adultery? See God’s wrath against this sin. Those who participated in the same Christ fell away because of fornication.
Some of Israel tested Christ and grumbled against God, and God destroyed them with snakes and with the angel of death. This is the sin of covetousness: not being content with what God has given you and desiring what he has not given you. Covetousness is rooted in unbelief, because when you covet you are not trusting in God’s promise to provide for you. Israel tested Christ in this way. We too are guilty of this testing of God, grumbling and complaining for what we don’t have. Our generation has it easier than any other generation in the history of the world. We have more food than we should eat. We have more stuff than we need. Yet, we still grumble.
Christians often think that keeping the faith is simply holding on to the basic doctrine of the Christian faith, and as long as you believe that there is one God and that Jesus died on the cross, then you won’t lose your faith. But Satan often doesn’t attack the chief doctrine of our faith head on. Rather, he tempts us into other sins. If he constantly attacked our faith in one God and in Jesus as our Savior, we would put up guards against him. Rather, Satan attacks from the side. He entices us away from the faith by first drawing us into other sins. He won’t tell you to deny God upfront, but rather to also love other gods like money and power and worldly acceptance. He won’t deny that Jesus is Lord, but he’ll still entice you into sexual immorality or simply to think that it really isn’t a big deal. Christians can be guilty of being the worst complainers and malcontents imaginable. They think they honor God, while not realizing that their complaints and grumbling about money, against their neighbor, against their boss, and so forth are really complaints against God, who provides for them and bids them to love their neighbor.
This is why St. Paul warns, “Anyone who thinks that he stands, take heed lest he fall.” Don’t take for granted your faith in Christ, but rather beware of temptations that destroy faith. Too often Christians think that they can remain Christians by their own strength, merit, and works. They become proud that they will always be Christians no matter what. But as Scripture shows us and as our own experience tells us, Christians can fall away.
But how can you prevent yourself from falling? Who has the strength to resist temptation? And can anyone have certainty of salvation? To answer this, you must look away from yourself and to Christ Jesus. He is the way of escape from temptation. And he is your refuge when your own sins assail you. The reason so many of Israel fell in the wilderness is because they forgot Christ. Their Baptism into the sea and their eating of spiritual food did them no good, because they did not look to Christ their Savior, their God.
Can you have certainty of salvation? Yes, indeed! In Christ alone! Only in Christ Jesus do you find certainty of your salvation. Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them and follow me. I give them eternal life and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” This is a sure promise. Does Jesus lie? Certainly not! If you think you stand, take heed that you stand on Christ Jesus, or you will certainly fall! It is Jesus, his forgiveness and salvation, which will strengthen you in temptation’s hour. And it is Jesus who will restore you again when you come to him with a penitent heart.
God does not change. He always remains the same. And his promise of salvation in Christ cannot be voided or altered. The mercy he has shown to the saints in the Bible instructs us of this great truth. God forgave David, who committed adultery and murder. He forgave Peter, who denied Christ three times. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even the worst sinners. We are cut out of the same cloth as all sinners. And we are saved by the same Jesus.
When we look at Scripture, we see how God punishes those who reject Christ by falling away into sin. Yet, also throughout Scripture we see a God who does not deal with us according to our sins, but according to his own mercy (Psalm 103:10). St. Paul writes to the Romans, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4) The goal of the entire Scriptures, even when it shows the wrath of God, is to draw us toward the one who is our hope.
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
No merit of mine own I claim,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the Solid Rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand. Amen.

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Making Friends for Eternity

8/19/2019

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Luke 16:1-13
August 18, 2019

“You cannot serve God and mammon.” Jesus here is clearly teaching the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. Mammon is a false god. Mammon is often translated as money, but it refers to any type of riches or property. Martin Luther says that mammon is riches or temporal goods anyone owns over and above what his needs require, and with which he can benefit others without injuring himself. Of course, what one’s needs require is difficult to discern. Three-year-olds are not the only ones who use the phrase, “I need” quite liberally. The more money we have, generally, the more needs we seem to have.
But money, property, riches, all mammon are false gods. There is only one God, whom we should worship. The Father, who created all things through his Son, who died for us, and the Holy Spirit, who makes us holy through his word: three distinct Persons inseparably united in one Godhead. Apart from this Holy Trinity, there is no god. You make something your god when you fear, love, or trust in it most. This is why mammon is a false god. People fear, love, and trust in money and possessions more than the one true God, from whom come all good gifts. Your god is that which you fear losing most. Your god is that, which you serve. And far more people serve mammon than serve the one true God, who alone is deserving of service and adoration.
The First Commandment is law. When Jesus teaches us the First Commandment by telling us that we cannot serve both God and mammon, he is confronting us with our own sin. That is what the law does. “The law is but a mirror bright/ To bring the inbred sin to light/ That lurks within our nature.” (LSB 555:3) Through the law comes knowledge of sin. We serve mammon. We work hard to get it. We guard it. We prize is. We fear losing it. We are much more concerned that we might lose some of our extra mammon than that others lack what they need. Mammon is a false god that draws us away from the true God and his word and keeps us from serving our neighbor in love. This is a sin.
The law confronts us with our own sins, so that we repent. To repent means to turn from our sin. We must turn from serving mammon and serve the only true God. Yet, how can this be done? How can we make God our only master? The temptation to serve other gods we can feel, touch, and count are much too alluring to this sinful flesh!
The truth is, we cannot make God our master. Rather, he makes himself our Master, that is, our Lord. You are taught in your Small Catechism:
I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord,
who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and his innocent suffering and death,
that I may be his own and live under him in his kingdom and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as he is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.
This is most certainly true.
Jesus became our Master by purchasing us from sin, death, and the devil with his precious blood and innocent suffering and death. Jesus becomes our one and only Master, our God and Lord through faith, when we believe that he has forgiven our sins and rescued us from the condemnation of the law. And even this faith, he gives to us as a gift through the Holy Spirit, who works in our hearts through the Gospel.
You cannot make God your one and only Master by serving him. You are much too sinful to do that. You will fail. Rather, you serve God, because he has made himself your Master through Jesus Christ, whom you receive through faith.
Yet, what should we do with all this mammon? It still exists, doesn’t it? We cannot just act like it doesn’t. Yet, since Christ Jesus has become our only Master through faith, we certainly can’t serve it either. So, what ought we do with it?
Mammon is a gift from God. It shows us that God not only provides us with what we need to support this body and life, but he supplies us with much more than we need. Yet, he does not supply us with these gifts in order for us to abandon him and serve the gifts. Rather, since we are now God’s servants and he is our Master, everything we own becomes in the service of God’s kingdom. We do not serve unrighteous mammon, rather, unrighteous mammon serves us to the glory of God.
Jesus tells a strange parable. And it is made all the stranger by the approval of this dishonest steward, who stole from his master in order to be welcomed into the homes of his debtors. Yet, the master does not commend the steward for his lying and cheating, but rather for his shrewdness, because he worked diligently to secure room and board for himself by means of mammon, fifty measures of oil here and twenty measures of wheat there. Jesus does not want us Christians to emulate this shrewd steward in his dishonesty, but rather in his shrewdness and diligence. Make your mammon work for the kingdom of God as diligently as this man made his master’s mammon work for himself.
Jesus says, “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” Many falsely claim that here Jesus teaches us to earn our way to heaven by giving to the poor or giving to the church. Yet, we have already learned that we cannot earn our way to heaven, but rather, Jesus has purchased us from all sin, from death and hell, and has made himself our Master. And we his servants, live under him in his kingdom forever. We do not serve in order to get to heaven, but rather, we serve, because we are already heirs of God’s kingdom in heaven through faith in Jesus’ blood. Rather, here Jesus is teaching us how to serve him even now.
The chief use of the law is to show us our sin. This is the chief use, because it shows us our need for a Savior. The law condemns us for our sin, in order that we see our need for Jesus’ blood and forgiveness. Yet, since we are Christians redeemed by Christ and no longer under the threats of the law, we do not fear the condemnation of the law. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We are forgiven for Christ’s sake. Yet, the law still has its use for us Christians. Now, instead of condemning us, the law teaches us. Here Jesus teaches the law in order to teach us Christians how to serve our Master with the unrighteous wealth he gives us.
Mammon is called unrighteous, because it can be used for evil. That is why people steal. Mammon is a very disloyal god. It helps whomever happens to have it in his possession. Stolen money will buy a car just as well as hard earned money. And money can be used to satisfy sinners’ most vile desires just as easily as it can be used to feed hungry children and build churches. But you can use mammon for good, and that is what God calls us to do.
Mammon always fails, but God calls us to use it to make friends we will have for eternity. Who are these friends? They are our fellow Christians, who will receive an eternal dwelling with Christ on the basis of His merits, His suffering, death, and resurrection. Scripture teaches us to do good to everyone, especially to those who belong to the household of faith. We are going to live with them for eternity, so we should start getting along with them now.
The steward in Jesus’ parable was not working with his own money. He was playing with his master’s money. He used his master’s money to his own advantage. Yet, he made his master look generous. News surely spread that this master forgives debts, is merciful, kind and patient. We too do not work with our own property. Everything we own comes from God. And in reality, God owns all that we have. We are stewards, managers.
This realization should result in two things: great confidence in God and great generosity toward those in need. We should have great confidence in God, because God has given us all that we have and he promises to not let you starve, or be in need, but to provide you with everything you need in this body and life. You can be confident that you will not lose anything by using your unrighteous mammon to help those in need, because God will richly supply you and will make up for whatever you need. This should result in us being generous and eager to help. This truly is a fruit of faith, which shows that we have confidence in God.
Generosity with unrighteous mammon glorifies God. Scripture says, “If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” (1 John 3:17). Yet, what is the result when the opposite happens? Then instead of God’s love being hidden, God’s love is revealed. All good gifts come from God. When you help those in need, particularly those who are members with you in Christ, what is their response? Is it not thanksgiving to God for his ever-enduring mercy? Yes, by your actions you can cause someone to praise God and to have confidence that God does indeed provide daily bread.
Your generosity also should extend to the Church and her mission to proclaim the Gospel both at home and abroad. The Lord commands in Scripture that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:14) and that those who are taught should share all good things with their teacher (Galatians 6:6). Yet, the Lord does not want you to give out of compulsion, but with a free heart. As Scripture says, “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9:7)
This can only be done as a fruit of faith by one who has confidence that God will supply him with every good thing. This is what our fathers Abraham and Jacob did. Melchizedek did not command Abraham to give him a tenth of all he had, nor did God command this of Jacob, yet they did it with a free heart, because they trusted in God’s goodness and protection. Likewise, Moses had to command that the people of Israel stop bringing free will offerings for the construction of the tabernacle, because they brought gifts according to their hearts desire every morning in such abundance that they had much more than they needed to build God’s sanctuary.
This is how God uses unrighteous mammon, which fails in all its endeavors, to do work that will last through eternity. Through free-will gifts given by previous generations, we all have established churches where we have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, through which we are saved for eternity. And through our free-will offerings now, God helps friends in future generations, whom we may never know in this life, but who will be our friends in our eternal dwellings.
Yet, this generous spirit has an adversary. Our old sinful flesh. And when we examine ourselves, the law which we should use as an example to live in service to Christ, again convicts us for having a less generous spirit than we ought. The law tells us that we aren’t good enough servants in Christ’s kingdom. That instead of putting our mammon to work for God, we serve it. The law causes us to doubt our place in God’s kingdom.
This is why we must always remember how God becomes our one and only master. It is through faith in Jesus Christ, who has purchased and won us by his suffering and death. That is the only way that we are placed in his kingdom and it is the only way we will remain in his kingdom. And this faith will produce fruit. Christ will work in you. But this fruit only comes when your heart believes that you have a generous God, who willingly forgives all your sins for Christ’s sake and gladly provides you with all you need both now and for eternity. May such faith in Christ produce fruit from us, so that we may make friends now, who will greet us when we enter our eternal home. Amen.

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Trinity 9 You Cannot Serve God and Mammon

7/29/2018

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Luke 16:1-13
Pastor James Preus
Trinity Lutheran Church
July 29, 2018

“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 mammon.”
This lesson from Jesus clearly teaches against greed. Greed is forbidden in the ninth and tenth commandments, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.” and “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” The prohibition to covet is often looked at as the least of God’s commands, being tagged on to the end of the Decalogue. Yet, Jesus’ warning against greed is nothing short of a warning against breaking the greatest commandment God gives. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment.” In this greatest commandment we are given the meaning of the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.” How do you have no other gods before the LORD God? By loving the Lord God with all your heart, soul, and mind.
Martin Luther correctly teaches in his Large Catechism concerning the First Commandment: Whatever you fear, love, and trust in most is your god. Most people don’t think this way, but it is true. Most Christians figure that if they aren’t worshiping a golden statue or praying in a Mosque then they are obeying the first and greatest commandment. But there is another false god with far more followers than any other idol: Mammon.
Mammon is the Aramaic word for worldly possessions or money. Aramaic was Jesus’ mother tongue. Mammon has far more devotees than any other religion, because people from all walks of life around the world serve mammon; fear, love, and trust in mammon above all things. People believe that if they have enough money they will be secure and safe. It’s simple mathematics. Mammon is such a persuasive god, people sacrifice their time, friends, wife, children, even their bodies to obtain more money. And the only thing money can buy will perish.
So, why does Jesus tell a parable, where the main character is commended for his unwavering devotion to mammon? “The master commended the unrighteous manager for his schrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” Jesus does not tell us this parable so that we will cheat, lie, and steal to gain more money, like the manager in our lesson. Rather, Jesus shames us Christians for being less diligent toward our God than the mammon worshipers are toward theirs.
St. Paul warns us in our Epistle lesson, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.” We live in an urgent time. Christ will return like a thief in the night and judge the living and the dead. On that day we will face eternity and we need to be ready. Yet, we’re lazy. We slack off as if we have all the time in the world. Christians, for the most part, don’t take their devotion to Christ as seriously as those who worship this creation. The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with this generation than the sons of light; to our shame.
So, what shall we pathetic Christians do in response to this embarrassing rebuke? Jesus says, “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.” Is Jesus telling us to cheat our employers and use bribes so that people will receive us into their homes as the manager in his parable did? Certainly not. Jesus is not telling us to cheat and bribe the rich so that we can benefit here on earth. He tells us to make friends by means of unrighteous mammon, so that we can be welcomed into the eternal dwellings. The rich can’t give you eternal dwellings no matter how much you suck up to them. And you can’t buy these eternal dwellings no matter how much money you scrounge.
Mammon isn’t in and of itself bad. It is unrighteous, because it cannot give you eternal life. But mammon, like all creation is a gift from God. All things are made holy by the word of God and prayer. Yet nothing in creation should be an object of your worship, not even your father, mother, son, daughter, wife, or husband. Yet all these things and people can be used for service in the kingdom of God! By telling us to make friends with unrighteous mammon, Jesus is telling us not to have mammon our god, but rather to make mammon our servant and as such a servant to the kingdom of heaven.
There is a big difference between serving mammon and having mammon serve you. Mammon is a terrible master; a cruel god. Mammon is unforgiving, unmerciful; it’ll betray you to your worst enemy. It demands complete devotion your entire life and then abandons you when you die. And we see people racing after it all around us; bowing to it; slaving for it. Children don’t know their fathers, because their fathers devote all their time searching for money. Worse, children don’t know their heavenly father, because their parents search after money instead of teaching them about Jesus; money for bicycles, sports, camp, vacations, fancy clothes; money to give them the best life they can live here on this sinful earth. But money can’t buy Jesus or his forgiveness. Serving mammon is slavery, which leads to death.
Serving God is freedom, which leads to eternal life. And with such freedom, you can make mammon your servant. This is what Jesus is telling us to do. Make friends with unrighteous mammon. Make the mammon holy by how you use it. You do this by recognizing that all you have from your head to your toes, from your bank account to your coin purse is from God. He has given you all you need in this life. It belongs to him. And as a free child of God, you use all that you have, your skills, time, and money in God’s service. All you do as a Christian should be in love toward God and in service toward your neighbor.
Now, who will welcome you into your eternal dwelling? Well, those are your fellow Christians. Jesus says in his familiar end times lesson in Matthew chapter 25, “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” It is the least of Jesus’ brothers, who will welcome us into our eternal homes; Christians, whom we have served in this life with unrighteous mammon made holy by being put to work by free children of God!
Of course, we can’t look at people and know whether they will join us in heavenly bliss. And Jesus commands us to love even our enemies and pray for them. Yet, it is clear how Jesus wants us to treat our fellow lambs. He wants us to care for them. Watch out for their needs. Be generous. Feed, clothe, and help the poor. Support the preaching of the Gospel and missions. What does God want you to do with the mammon he has given you? Do you think he might want you to use it as an instrument to grow his church, to support missions and Christian education? God wants you to be generous with those in need, especially those within the household of God. That is how you make friends with unrighteous mammon; friends who will welcome you into your eternal dwelling.
The manager in our lesson was clever, no doubt. But he had something going for him that was essential to the success of his scheme. His master was very generous. And he wanted everyone to know that he was generous. He didn’t rescind his manager’s adjustments to his debtor’s debts, because he wanted all his debtors to believe that he was generous; which he was. He was even generous enough to give his manager time to cheat him instead of throwing him into prison immediately.
We are all managers of what we have. We don’t really own it. God does. We’re stewards of God’s gifts. God is generous. He will take care of you. Jesus says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and the rest will be added unto you.” God will feed you and clothe you. He’ll provide you with all you need to support your body and life. He wants you to believe that he is generous. And he wants you to be generous with what he entrusts to you.
“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is unrighteous in a very little is also unrighteous in much. If then you have not been faithful in unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?” Mammon is very little, no matter how much you get. It’s just unrighteous wealth. But Jesus does have true riches for you. And he is even more generous with his true riches.
As God wants you to be generous with your unrighteous wealth, making friends with those you will see in heaven, even more he wants you to be generous with true riches, which Christ Jesus has won for you. True riches come in the form of the forgiveness of sins, which you receive through Jesus’ Word and Sacraments from Jesus’ cross. God’s greatest generosity is seen where Christ sheds his blood for sinners. Through faith in Christ, you have riches that cannot be measured on earth. And as you have been given these riches freely, so Christ wants you to give them freely as well, by forgiving others, putting the best construction on things and not getting unreasonably angry, by sharing Christ’s love through patience and through sharing the Gospel.
You can’t buy eternal life with money. Neither can you earn it with your generosity toward others. But if you trust in Jesus through faith, you are free to lord over unrighteous wealth for the benefit of the kingdom, which you will inherit. Christ has set you free to be a child and heir of his kingdom. Do not become a slave to mammon. Amen.

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Trinity 9: Unrighteous Wealth Vs. True Riches

8/13/2017

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Luke 16:1-13

Jesus calls money unrighteous wealth. This is not simply because people use money to buy and do terrible things and people do wicked things to obtain money. Jesus calls money unrighteous wealth, because everything you buy with it will perish.

Money can only buy things that break, rot, rust, or otherwise turn to nothing. And if your wealth does last, you lose it all when you take your last breath. Jesus calls it mammon, that is earthly wealth. He says, "No servant can have 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 mammon."

And indeed, mammon is the greatest false religion in the world. The masses rush after it. They devote their time and talents; sacrifice marriages and faith; in short, they worship mammon: money, and all it can buy.

This is a cruel false religion that never satisfies and conks out on even its most devoted followers when they die. And it is a dangerous threat to Christians, as Jesus warns in his parable about the sower and the seeds, "As for those sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches chokes the word, and it proves unfruitful." (Matthew 13:22)

So, it is somewhat astonishing that the master in Jesus' parable commends the unrighteous manager. Isn't the unrighteous manager a cheat? Yes, but the master doesn't commend the manager for being a cheat. Jesus says, "The master commended the unrighteous manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light."

He commended the unrighteous manager for being wise and diligent. He was in a pickle and he thought quickly to get out of it. He lost his job. He had a little time to gather his books. So, he quickly calls his master's debtors and uses his master's money to make friends. The master isn't commending him for being a cheat, but for being smart and industrious.

And it is true that the worshippers of mammon are much wiser in dealing with mammon than Christians. Well, they're more devoted to it. In fact, sadly, it seems the disciples of earthly wealth are more devout to their god than the followers of Jesus are to Christ. When I was a fourth-year seminarian I would often fill in services at vacancy congregations. To get to one congregation I had to drive on the Queen Elizabeth Way, which goes to Toronto. The highway is normally packed Monday through Friday, but on Sunday morning it was smooth sailing. People are willing to drive an hour to work, but few would do that to find a faithful church.

But God does want you to use this unrighteous wealth wisely. After all, he gave it to you. Just like the manager in our text, you aren't working with your own money. You're working with God's money and God's possessions. Everything belongs to God. God says in Psalm 50, "For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine." Everything in your bank account, every possession in your house, yes, even your beating heart was given to you by God and they all rightly belong to God. And God has some opinions (mark sarcasm) on how you should use his property. And just like the master in our Gospel lesson, God wants you to be generous with his possessions.

Did you catch that in our lesson? The master commends his unrighteous manager, because of his shrewdness, that is, he commended him for wisely using wealth to secure future wealth. But the manager did it at the master's expense. Although the manager cheated his master, it seems that the master wanted the manager to be generous with his property. And this is certainly true with God.

Our Lord says, "Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwelling." When what fails? The unrighteous mammon that God has given you. And it will fail. Nothing you buy will not fail, waste away or be lost. Yet God, nevertheless, wants you to use this transitory wealth to make friends, who will greet you when you enter your eternal dwelling. Well, who will greet you in your eternal dwelling? Not your car or your house or your best bottle of bourbon. The person sitting next to you! They believe in Christ Jesus! They will welcome you in heaven! Do they have need with which you can help with the mammon God has given you? And of course, Jesus died for all human beings, and whoever believes in Christ will be saved, so potentially every person you encounter could welcome you into heaven. Perhaps this will give you perspective on why you should help those in need!

God also wants you to be generous to his Church. Yes, there are many con artists and televangelists pretending to be pastors, who will gladly take your money to make themselves rich. But that does not give you an excuse to not support the true proclamation of God's Word. When you support your local congregation and good Lutheran missions, you are using your unrighteous wealth, which God has given you, in a righteous way. By supporting the proclamation of God's Word, you help many friends, who will greet you in heaven.

Jesus says, "If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches." People are unfaithful with unrighteous wealth, because they don't consider it a loan from God. Instead they worship their unrighteous wealth. And since they worship their unrighteous wealth, they do not worship the true God. Jesus says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21) If you worship unrighteous wealth, you will not recognize true riches.

What are true riches? Well, like unrighteous wealth, true riches are given to you by God. But unlike unrighteous wealth, true riches do not waste away or get lost. Not even when you die! True riches last forever. And like unrighteous wealth, God wants you to use your true riches wisely.

True riches are the Gospel and the eternal life given by the Gospel. This includes Baptism, Absolution, the preaching of the Gospel, and the Lord's Supper. These riches that you receive here on earth are eternal, because they give you Jesus and eternal life with him. Baptism joins you to Christ's death and resurrection and gives you new birth. Absolution isn't debt forgiveness from a credit card. It is worth much more than that. Absolution removes the guilt that would surely send you to hell, by placing it on Jesus, the sinless Lamb of God, who washes your sin and guilt away in his own blood. Preaching cannot be compared to watching a show or hearing a lecture, because Christ has chosen to come to you through the preaching of his word and he has promised to create and strengthen saving faith through it. The Lord's Supper is not a ritualistic snack that you can forego for long periods of time without any negative repercussions. This is the true body and blood of Christ that not only forgives your sins, but gives you the strength to continue in your faith.

These are true riches, because they all give you Jesus. God is generous, no doubt. He feeds you and clothes you. He gives you a good job, good husband or wife, children, house, etc. Yet these don't even touch on God's generosity. God's generosity is seen in its extreme in his giving of his Son, Jesus Christ to die on your behalf, covered in your sin, to give you eternal life as an innocent child of God.

And so, God wants you to handle these true treasures that give you Jesus and eternal life wisely. He does not want you to neglect them, but use them. Remember your Baptism, Hear God's Word. Take advantage of the free forgiveness of sins! Eat Christ's body and blood, do not stay away for no good reason.

And as with the unrighteous wealth God gives you, he wants you to be generous with true riches. God has forgiven you, so you must also forgive others. The power to forgive even your enemy does not lie in you, but it flows from the blood of Jesus that has washed away your sins.

It is a wise use of unrighteous wealth to not spend your entire paycheck, but save a little and invest. And it is wise to use your money to take care of your children, buy them food and clothing, invest in their education and health, and such. But the greatest investments and wisest planning with unrighteous wealth can never compare to the use of true riches. Everything you do for your children with unrighteous wealth, while good and wise and right to do, will eventually waste away. But your child's baptism does not waste away. When you bring your child to be baptized, you give your child a heavenly treasure worth much more than a mutual fund or a warm meal and a clean bed to sleep on.

Likewise, education is a fantastic investment that will benefit your children for the rest of their lives. But it is learning to trust in the Lord that comes from being taught Jesus' words that will last beyond this life. There is nothing more precious that you can give your children or loved ones or an enemy or a stranger than to share the Gospel, even to just invite them to church or say a prayer for them. Because the greatest riches you have are not in stocks or bonds or real estate. Your greatest riches are your faith and the things your faith receives: Jesus' love and forgiveness given through his word and sacraments.

You are all very wealthy; rich beyond your wildest dreams. You probably won't think so if you count your wealth in dollars and property. But all that will waste away soon enough. You are wealthy with possessions that will never waste away, because God is unbelievably generous. He has made you rich with the blood of Jesus Christ, our God and brother. God loves being generous to you. He loves giving his wealth to you. He gives his wealth to you today! And it is God's desire that you recognize the true wealth he gives you. Amen.

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"For faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." ~ Romans 10:17

Who is your God?

God Is Faithful

Making Friends for Eternity

Trinity 9 You Cannot Serve God and Mammon

Trinity 9: Unrighteous Wealth Vs. True Riches

Rev. James Preus

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