The Church Season of Trinity - The 12th Sunday after Trinity

The Church Season of Trinity

The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (August 26, 2012)

Readings:        Psalm 146

                        Isaiah 29:17-24
                        1 Cor. 3:4-11
                        Mark 7:31-37

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen

 
The text for today’s message is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 7th chapter of St. Mark.

Mark 7:31–37, ESV

“Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment, and they begged him to lay his hand on him. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.””

(The following is from a sermon by Doctor Martin Luther.)

            The Gospel Reading describes the miracle of the deaf and dumb man. During the church year we regularly hear of wonders where Christ showed Himself the Savior who desires to keep us from the devil's wrath. We should thank God most sincerely for such a comforting blessing, to have given us such a Man, a Champion, who out of sheer grace will stand by us in everything that the devil can do against us.

            The fact that the poor man is so handicapped that he is unable to use his tongue and his ears like other people must be traced to the troublesome devil's stinging blows. Wherever he can, the devil afflicts people with blindness and sorrow, and leaves them joyless and hurting. He causes some to give in to false teaching, and others to be overcome by terror and sorrow.

We rightly thank our dear Lord God who has had compassion on us and sent His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who helped this poor man and also graciously safeguards us. Every person who is sound of body, eyes, ears, hands, feet, and all other members, should perceive these to be pure gifts of God.

            This Gospel Reading comforts us with unfailing help against the enemy. St. John says that "for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." The devil entered Paradise to destroy our Lord God's handiwork by causing pious and holy Adam and Eve to become disobedient and sinful. Not willing to tolerate this, God considered how He might avenge Himself against His foe, to make whole again what the devil had broken, and to destroy the devil's handiwork - sin, death, and hell.

            As we see in the Gospel Reading, He loosed the tongue which the devil had tied and opened the ears that he had stopped. Christ had come for this purpose and He continues this work among His Christians. He is the Helper of suffering mankind and desires to heal all afflictions with which the devil burdens us, and to drive him from us.

            Christ shows us that He opens ears and unbinds tongues. He seeks to perform this work daily in His church against the devil. It is a physical fact that God gives sound ears and tongues also to the heathen; but only for Christians is this spiritual fact true, that He opens ears and looses tongues. For we Christians must hear His Word with our ears and confess with our lips.

            This is sure, that we have our salvation alone through the Word of God. What would we otherwise know about God, about our Lord Christ, His sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit? To this day the greatest miracle and mightiest work is giving a person ears that gladly hear God's Word and a tongue that honors God and does not blaspheme.

            Many people are a thousand times worse off than this poor deaf and dumb man. They have ears that are really stopped up. They hear God's Word and yet really do not hear it, nor do they want to. But those who hear God's Word gladly and to whom Christ says, as to the deaf man, "Ephphatha (Be opened)," are helped against the devil. God has shown us no other way by which we can come into heaven than through His precious Word, the Holy Gospel. Whoever gladly and diligently hears and receives it and who loves and delights in it will be helped.

            God also stirs our tongues and causes us to speak, as St. Paul says, "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Through faith in Christ we come to have the forgiveness of sins; confession should also follow. We must not be mute, but speak what we believe in our hearts.

            Now see our Lord's unusual performance in the Gospel Reading. The people bring the poor man to Him, asking that He should place His hands on him. He then takes him aside from the crowd, places His fingers into his ears, spits, and in this way loosens his tongue. Then He looks up to heaven, sighs, and says, "Ephphatha!"

            We must note why the Lord employed such an unusual routine and procedure in this miracle. He surely could have effected this miracle by a simple word, for we see again and again in the Gospel that it requires merely His word to cause something to be done, and it is done. Lazarus He woke up with a word. To the palsied man He said, "Stand up and walk!" But with the deaf and dumb man He does not proceed in such a short and simple way, but takes unusual steps.

The Lord employs such vivid action here for the sake of the spiritual miracle. He wants to demonstrate how great an effort is required to cause a deaf man to hear and a mute man to speak. He shows us that if we are to be loosed from the devil's bonds and possess ready tongues and good ears, this can happen only through the external Word and preaching. We must, first of all, hear the Word, not neglecting Baptism or the Sacrament either, and the Holy Spirit will then be present to free the ears and tongues.

            We must be on guard against the fantastic spirits who despise the external Word and Sacrament, waiting till God speaks to them in the heart. "No," says Christ, "here is My finger, the eternal Word, that must sound in the ears; My spittle, which must moisten the tongue. In this way My work proceeds rightly." We see this wherever the external Word has free course. There Christians will be found, for as goes the shepherd, so go the sheep.

            Everyone should take care to be found on this path and gladly hear God's Word. Without the Word, God does not reveal Himself in your heart. To see and know Him can happen only through the external Word and Sacraments. The Holy Spirit works in no other way.

            This is what God taught at the time He spoke from heaven, "This is My beloved Son; hear ye Him." Likewise, Christ commands His disciples, "Go into all the world, teaching and baptizing." Again He says, "Whoever hears you, hears Me." Thus our dear Lord Christ commanded preaching the Gospel and baptizing. This is the only way to salvation. Otherwise all is lost and for nothing.

            Surely none of us would hesitate to travel a hundred miles to a certain church if we knew God Himself were going to speak and preach there. Everyone would want to hear His voice. Now, instead, our Lord God says, "I will arrange things closer for you, so that you do not have to travel so far. Listen to your parish pastors, and you will hear Me. They are My disciples and office bearers. When you hear them, you hear Me."

            These are the external means Christ points to. Our tongues will not be loosed, our ears opened, faith in our hearts begun without the outward, oral preaching of the Word and external Sacraments. For parish pastors and preachers are the fingers of our Lord God, the servants and spittle, through which He looses our tongues and opens our ears. When you hear them, God says to your hearts, as to this deaf man, "Ephphatha!" so that your ears are opened, your tongue unsticks, and you become a hearing, speaking person, no longer deaf and mute.

            Let us take careful note and learn to truly be Christians by the Word and by our professing of it. That is why we should cling to the Word tenaciously, for us to be saved. May our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ grant this to us! Amen.

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The Church Season of Trinity - The 11th Sunday after Trinity

The Church Season of Trinity

The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (August 19, 2012)

Readings:       
            Psalm 50:7-23
             Genesis 4:1-15
            Ephesians 2:1-10
            Luke 18:9-14

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father

and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 18^th chapter of St. Luke, especially the following verse:

[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13   But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

            The parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. This parable is told about a snapshot of time, in fact a single moment in time, and a parable is fiction. Jesus makes the characters so that a clear example is given. The Pharisee is bold and egotistical and proud. The Tax Collector is excruciatingly humble and repentant. And this parable is a snapshot of when both are near to each other. There were a lot differences between the two men, but we want to look at the important difference, the one that separated the two of them as they stood before God.

            One man appeared to be well off, well-blessed, and the other, not so much. One man was religious, and the other, not so much. One man felt good about himself, and the other man did not. One man behaved the right way, day in and day out, and the other was doing something despicable in the eyes of his community. Both men were confident, but in different ways.

            And Jesus gives the difference away in the introduction, "And [Jesus] also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt". The important difference was in the attitude of the men. One man was proud of himself, and the other was ashamed. One man thought that surely he was the kind of guy that God would find appealing, and the other man was just hoping, without a lot of hope, that God would forgive him and be merciful. To sum it up in one word, the difference was humility. One man had it, and the other did not.

            Jesus said, "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted." Note what Jesus does not say, He does not say that the life-choices of the Tax collector were right, or decent, or pleasing to God, nor that the obedience to the Law of Moses by the Pharisee was somehow displeasing to God. In fact, Jesus didn’t refer to the behaviors and life-records of either man. He spoke only about their attitude, how they approached God, and how they stood before God as a result of that. This is important for those people who think that they are going to be "good" and "holy", and that by being well-behaved they will please God and win blessings or salvation. Walking the walk is not in-and-of-itself God pleasing.

             But humility and repentance is God pleasing. People who come to God in humility are repentant because they know that they have sinned and that they don’t deserve any good thing from God. They don't come bragging and they don't come demanding. God is handing out forgiveness to people who don’t deserve it.

            Contrast that to the Pharisee who says he’s not like other people, and believes he is something special. He knows everything and who all the sinners are.  In other words he states, “Look there God at all those horrible people, aren’t you glad you don’t have to use up any of that forgiveness stuff on me?”

            But thank God we wouldn’t talk about other people like that.  Thank God we have never expressed it the way that Pharisee did. 

            Have you ever seen those people fleeing their homes on TV? You know the ones, running from the disaster, the typhoon, or the flood, or the fires, or the civil war in their country? When you see that, do you ever ask, "Why did this happen? Why did it happen to them?" and then said, “Oh dear God, why didn’t this happen to me?”

            Well, of course not! When it happens to other people, we don't need a reason. But when it happens to us, it must have some cosmic meaning, which really means that we consider ourselves something extraordinary. Thank God we’re not like other people! Bad things should not happen to us!

            Do you remember the question that’s always asked when some big disaster or calamity happens?  The one that goes, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”  But in reality they should say why do good things happen to bad people, that is sinners, that means all of us?  We think we don’t deserve anything bad to happens to us, but we have all sinned against God, and man, and deserve to be punished.

            It really isn't fair, but what it is, is grace. We don't get what we deserve. Instead of God’s wrath we get forgiveness of sins, because Jesus died for us. We get blessings because it suits God to give them.

            Do we always give thanks for all we get? Not really. When you read a news story about someone enduring heartache or trouble, you should be moved to give thanks for your continued blessing and good. And you should be moved to pray also for those who suffer such troubles.

            We come before God as beggars. We are sinful, and ungrateful for the good that we receive. We might be thankful for some new good, something we have long-desired, or never had before, but we often forget about those good things we enjoy every day. We take them for granted - and then complain bitterly if they should be gone, even temporarily. But we don't deserve them. They are gifts and blessings, not court-ordered support payments!

Part of the humility is repentance. We have so much to repent of, including our thanklessness.

            We can take, take, take, and forget to give thanks. We hold others to standards we cannot hope to achieve - or maintain, if we do achieve them. We do things just to please ourselves without thinking about how it affects others. In short, we sin - by attitude, by word, and by action. When we come to understand that we are very much similar to the Publican in character and not as much like the Pharisee as we would like to think, we need then to be more like the Publican in how we come before God and less like the Pharisee. We need to be humble and repentant.

            If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. No, we are sinners. But if we confess our sins, God, who is faithful and just, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That means that if we humble ourselves and repent, we, too will hear the judgment of Jesus, "this man went down to his house justified".

            Unlike the parable, your life is not a snapshot. It is more a moving picture! You can be humble today and proud tomorrow - or vice-versa. This humility and repentance is not supposed to be merely a momentary thing. It is to be your life-style, an on-going attitude with which you approach things and people and situations. That is why, for example, Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” This is to be an on-going state of being, not just a momentary thing that happens in you.

            No one can do this perfectly. No one except Jesus, which is why He did it for you and then died for your failure to do so. Your sins are forgiven. Your blessings are all gift. Your life is His gift to you, and His creation to use for His holy purposes. So, rejoice, and give thanks, and remember who you are, and who is God in this picture called "life". Do not let the good things and blessings and fun stuff confuse you or make you think you are something that you are not.

            It is by God's gift and God's will, because Jesus paid for your sins and mine. If you do well, or righteously, know that Jesus is working good things through you. If you do sin, repent, and hear the words of forgiveness and grace that Jesus speaks to you in the absolution, and, indeed, in every word of the Gospel.

            Your humility does not earn your salvation, but it does show a right understanding of where salvation comes from and why.  Salvation comes from God it is because He so loved you He sent His Son to die for you.  Your humbleness shows that your faith is properly seated in God’s grace. That, my friends is the important difference for you.  Amen.

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The Church Season of Trinity - The 10th Sunday after Trinity

The Church Season of Trinity

The Tenth Sunday after Trinity

Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (August 12, 2012)

Readings:       
            Psalm 92
            Jeremiah 7:1-11
            Luke 19:41-48

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father

and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the New Testament Lesson from 19th chapter of St. Luke, especially the following verse:

Luke 19:41–44, ESV

“And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.””

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

            In all of the Bible, Jesus the very Son God, weeps just two times.  Jesus weeps at the death of His friend Lazarus, that’s one and Jesus weeps here for Jerusalem the city of God that’s two.  And in the case of Lazarus He was raised from the dead, but Lazarus died again.  And what about the City of Jerusalem?  About 30 years after Jesus weeps, Jerusalem falls too, in a bloody massacre of about one million people.  These people hid from the Romans who had surrounded the city and then camped out while they waited for the people inside the walled city to starve.  As the four year Roman siege played out, those inside the tall walls of Jerusalem ate all the food, then began eating dung, then ultimately ate other humans beings as well. And when the city fell the Romans took no prisoners.

            Lazarus lived and died and Jesus wept for His friend, But the Word of God caused Lazarus to live again, but ultimately Lazarus died.  Jerusalem was the light on the hill, the Holy city but it was dying in its transgressions.  Jesus wept and Jerusalem ultimately dies.  So is our faith futile?  Do we pray in vain? How do we make things better?

            I recently read as essay by a pastor expressing his thoughts on whether his aging parish would live or die.  I found the essay so compelling and so appropriate to this Gospel lesson that I will read part of it today:

            “Six years in, I feel utterly powerless and mostly exhausted. You try to rally the troops and lead some charges, not realizing that many of the troops [in the congregation] have been on many charges and are too tired to do it anymore. But a few go with you, maybe against their better judgment. Probably as many more want you to fail. And the mass don’t pay any attention.

            After a while, you can’t do it anymore. The politics within the congregation continues. The numbers decline in church and school. There’s no time to go after the sheep who never join the rest of the flock by the pulpit and the altar. There are no volunteers to help give rides to church or check on why others aren’t attending. They’re overwhelmed with the inroads the enemy makes into their areas of responsibility—their children, grandchildren, sick parents and spouses.

            And yet—the death of a congregation can be averted—can’t it? Should we always chalk it up to God’s hidden will? Or does God sometimes allow the congregation to decline because He wants His congregation to seek Him? He hides Himself, desiring to be sought? He wants the congregation to examine herself, to fast and pray for the lost sheep, to listen attentively again to His Word? “In their distress they shall earnestly seek me…” Where is that verse?

            Even with dying people we counsel them to accept God’s will as coming from the hand of a gracious Father. “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” Yet we also do not stop praying for the recovery of the dying—[always adding] if it is God’s will.

            Often with the elderly it isn’t easy to know what to pray for, particularly if they’ve been suffering a long time. And yet, I’ve seen families who—with good intentions, out of love—keep telling a dying family member, “It’s okay, grandma…it’s okay to go see Jesus now.” But they don’t realize that sometimes it is not okay; it’s not because grandma doesn’t want to go. She’s wanted to go for days or weeks; she is tired of the pain.

            But God is not ready yet. He says, “No”. But we keep telling grandma it is alright to go now, as though grandma decides when she lives and dies. Because death is inevitable, we don’t want our loved ones to have to keep fighting it forever. But burying a church? It’s different. There are young people and old people in a church. There are those who are tired and those in the midst of their years; and there are children and infants from whose lips God has ordained praise, to silence the foe and the avenger.

            One member of the congregation, I’ve heard, seems to want the congregation to die. “Why don’t you just let it die in peace!” he’s supposedly said. This often angers me. But we’re in different places. I’m 35 and this is the first congregation I’ve served. This person is 80 something. This person has had enough and no longer has the energy to keep leading charges. Even though I’m worn out, if I was convinced it would accomplish something and I could get anyone to come with [me], I could probably lead scores more charges. Let’s paint this! Let’s convert that! Let’s show mercy here! Let’s study this!

            But if I get this tired at 35, I can only imagine how I’ll feel at 85. I would not give an 85 year old a guilt trip for not wanting to endure radiation treatments or chemotherapy.

            But a congregation doesn’t exist only for 80 year olds, even if they are the majority. What about the 35 year olds? What about the 20 year old mothers in the projects up the streets, and the 7 year olds with no father who don’t know the gospel of Jesus Christ? What about the children who are the age of my son? They are the ones who are going to have to come of age in a country in which the wealth and power we enjoyed have become ruins. They are going to see the collapse of the great tower of Babel built by our great grandfathers, where the church and the Greeks and the Romans were built together in a great city that housed Bach’s music and Luther’s theology as well as Thomas Jefferson and Robespierre and Nietzsche and Freud. All of that is going to be a ruin by the time my son is older. It is already becoming a ruin. But then the barbarians will be scavenging marble from the aqueducts to build fortifications and vandalizing the statues of Apollo.

            It’s easy to preach the pure Gospel at a funeral and say, “Your mother doesn’t have to lead anymore charges. She rests with Jesus.” But, what about for a congregation that wants to die, that wants to be able to die and say, “It was inevitable. It couldn’t be helped. The neighborhood was bad. The old people were bad. The school was bad. The pastor was bad.”?

            How can a congregation want to die? “Why will you die, O house of Israel?” “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Much of the congregation wants to die. Or doesn’t want to avert it’s death.

            Because death is upon it. Sennacherib is surrounding the city. But no one humbles himself before the Lord. The church does not pray and fast or weep in dust and ashes. The congregation does not rouse itself and seek the Word of God. It wants the good days to come back, and if they won’t come back, then nothing is worth working for or saving. Let our children live in the ruins like owls in the wilderness.

            But I think there’s a problem with my preaching and theology, too. I scold the congregation, as though the dead could raise themselves. Or as though the lame could strengthen their own wobbly knees. There may still be time left, but the congregation is no more able to contribute something to its own healing than the mourners are able to comfort themselves. Mourners try to do that a lot. They invent false comforts. “He’s in a better place,” is the one we hear most frequently. The funeral homes print stupid poems up on cards: “When you stand at my grave, do not weep. I am not there. I do not sleep.”

            The first task is to take those [cards] away without giving the impression that you’re sadistic and you hate them (if possible.) But it can be done, if there is compassion. Because no one really believes the stupid poems.

            Probably this has been one of my gravest sins in the ministry—that I foolishly preached and acted as though the congregation had any resources to effect its own repentance. Or as if I had them [too].

            No, neither the minister nor the congregation has the resources to prevent its death. Repentance and renewal in faith and the continued existence of the congregation are in God’s power alone. All of the three depend on His will alone.

            Perhaps I should pray, “Lord, grant the congregation repentance and spiritual renewal. And grant me to preach Your Word rightly, so that I don’t act as if our salvation is in our own hands. And if it pleases You, let the congregation continue to proclaim Your Word and Your mercy to the next generation.”

            Jesus wept because men thought they could save themselves, but Jesus knew better.  He knew the cup He would have to drink to save us from ourselves.  The true church that is the congregation of believers will never die, because Christ is always Lord of the Church.  Jesus wept so that you will no longer shed any tears.  Christ is not hidden from your eyes, He is here with you in Word and Sacrament, He is here with you in body and blood. He is here to forgive you to forgive you for your sins, to comfort you in the face of the enemies of this world.  You will not get out of this life without dying, but for you who believe and are baptized this death has already occurred.  There is no reason to weep.  Rejoice Christ makes eternal peace for you.  Amen.

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The Church Season of Trinity - The 9th Sunday after Trinity

The Church Season of Pentecost

The Ninth Sunday after Trinity

Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (August 5, 2012)

Readings:       
            Psalm 51:1-12
            2 Samuel 22:26-34
            1 Corinthians 10:6-13
            Luke 16:1-13

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father

and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the New Testament Lesson from 16th chapter of St. Luke, especially the following verse:

Luke 16:1-13 (NIV)

¹ Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. ² 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.’ ³ “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— ⁴ I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ ⁵ “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ “‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’ ⁷ “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.’ ⁸ “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. ⁹ I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. ¹⁰ “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. ¹¹ So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹² And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? ¹³ “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.”

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

            We focus on the words of Jesus, “And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.”

            Scripture is timeless, the Words of Christ ring true to us in the very world in Dishonest managers try to gain friends by cooking the books. How could such a thing happen? And the hardest thing to understand is why in the world does it seem like the master in the story commends this unjust steward, as he is usually called, for his dishonestly? Jesus doesn’t even call it dishonesty. He calls it shrewdness.

            It certainly is a strange text. What is it about the children of this world which make them wiser than the children of light? Why is it that they get farther, do well, and generally seem like they understand how things work better than the Christians? That’ss really the question. .

            In the great company scandals in the past decade the companies cooked the books in order to appear to be better off than they really are, they hid losses,  moved numbers around, and things were not what they appeared.  They tried to impress their stockholders, but why did they do it? Well I guess one answer was to make money. Money has always been a great motivator.

            And the unjust steward? He is the manager of the master’s house. He is taking care of things that are not his.  He is simply watching over what the master has given him to watch over. But the master discovers that this unjust steward was wasting his goods. In other words, the unjust steward is not caring for things as he ought to be doing. He’s spending too much here, and not enough there. He’s sloppy, he’s lazy, he’s not doing his job, and as a result, all of the work that the master has put into his property is going down the tubes.

            So what does the master do? If you or I were the master, what would you do? You’d fire him on the spot! Don’t give him any opportunity to mess things up any more than they already were. Get rid of him while you still can.

            But that’s not what the master does. He gives this unjust steward one more chance to make the books right, to give a proper accounting of his stewardship. From a business point of view, you don’t give a person another chance to cook the books. You don’t let someone run the shop that has another goal in mind. What is this steward’s goal? His goal is not to serve the master; his goal is to save his own skin, to make money and save his life.

            And that’s just what he does. He thinks through what is the one thing that he has to offer that will get him into the good graces of the people with money. Well, the one thing he has is his master’s books, his accounting. So he goes and starts forgiving debts left and right. It’s a fire sale on loans! He is lavish, generous to a fault; really he’s quite ridiculous with his master’s debts. Slash. Cut. They’re gone. A hundred measures of oil become fifty, a hundred measures of wheat become eighty. All the sudden, the unjust steward has more friends than he knows what to do with. He has turned a bad situation and, because he was dishonest, made it so that it works out for his benefit.

            And what does this master do?  With the knowledge that his unjust steward has misused his position, abused it for his own gain given away money like it is candy…what does the master do? He commends him for acting shrewdly. Oh, he acted shrewdly, alright. He made sure that he got the one thing needful. His future was taken care of, no matter what the cost. This master, even if it seems he runs things kind of strangely, well, he just can’t help but take note of the fact that this steward understood what finally was important for him. As Jesus said, “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.”

            The world understands this point. Focus on what’s important. Put your energies there. Other things may go by the wayside, but keep your eye on the ball. Do whatever you have to do to get to that great goal, whatever it may be. That is what the master commends the unjust steward for doing.

            Still don’t understand the parable? What is your treasure? What is the most important thing in your life? What do you live life for, and what are you willing to go through in order to get it? For the Christian, the one thing needful is none other than Jesus Christ. This is your treasure; this is your life and your lifeblood. This is who you live for, and by being connected to him, you inherit the treasure of eternal life with Him. In the fact of this, nothing else matters. I think we can understand that.

            God gives you this treasure to care for and take care of and to pass on, to give away, as it were, when and where God wills it. For this treasure, the Gospel, you may only keep by giving away. But you blow it. You toss this treasure, this Jesus, aside. A thousand things become more important to you: home, vacation, work, pet and a host of sins that you love so much. Even your family may become more important than this one, this great treasure. So what do you do? You waste the treasure. You hide it.  You don’t share it, You throw it away. And is so doing you don’t give it away to the ones God has entrusted to your care, namely, your family and your children. You waste it.

            What should you do? You have been given the gift; you have the treasure beyond all treasures. You know you have blown it, and that you have squandered the master’s gift. You don’t deserve to receive the gift. You know begging will get you no where. And you know that you can’t work your way out of this. You’re stuck.

            We’ve all been there, dear friends. You can look back at your life and wonder why you wasted so much time, so much money, so much everything on things that don’t last. We all can. The feeling of “should of” is the Law speaking to you. Your stewardship of what God has given you in Christ stinks.

            But remember this master is not like other masters. This master is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. This master will pick you up. This master forgives you and draws you into His presence. You may not be shrewd like the sons of this world. But you aren’t a son of this world. You are a son of light. You are baptized. You have the inheritance of eternal life in Jesus Christ. You have the one thing needful.

            That is the generosity of the master. But it goes even farther than that. Jesus love and forgiveness goes out just like this unjust steward. It’s reckless. It doesn’t make sense. He forgives debts that have no business being forgiven! But that is the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. He wipes away your debt. To the eyes of the world, it is crazy. His love and forgiveness should get Him in big trouble. But it doesn’t. In fact, our heavenly Father commends Jesus for forgiving our debts. I guess this just goes to show that when it comes to forgiveness and God’s love for you, you can’t finally understand it.       But it is true. His love for you knows no bounds. Believe it, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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