By pastorjuhl, on July 31st, 2010%
Lots of help on this one from different places. I took a different tack with this text courtesy of Robert Farar Capon. It’s a way of preaching this text, one of many angles. I tried to weave in a more traditional way to look at this parable as well. I leave it to the Holy Spirit to take care of the rest.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit
Lucky for us we don’t have to deal with a just steward (Robert Farar Capon). A just steward would not be so forgiving. A just steward would expect immediate payment in full of all debts. A just steward would ignore our prayer from the Introit Psalm 54: O God, save me, by Your name, and vindicate me by Your might…. He has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.
The eye of a just steward would look upon you and me in vindication, but not the kind of vindication that brings mercy. A just steward’s eye brings vindication according to the letter of the Law. A debt is owed. The steward must see to it that the debt is paid in a timely fashion.
What if the unjust steward in Luke chapter 16 was a just steward? There would be no fire sale. There would be no deep discounts. Pay up or suffer.
One hundred measures of oil or wheat is nothing compared to the debt of sin we owe Almighty God. The problem is we cannot pay back that debt. All our offers of repayment fall upon ears that will not hear our futile excuses. Even if there were no excuses, the debt cannot be paid. Therefore, we must suffer the consequences of an unpaid debt. There is no room for us in the kingdom of heaven. There is only the burning lake of fire where weeping and gnashing of teeth are heard and seen for eternity.
This is our future if Jesus told a parable about a just steward rather than an unjust steward. It is the world’s future too, if there is no repentance from worshipping mammon and the improper use of mammon.
Let’s remember what is mammon. Mammon is an excess of abundance. It’s the leftovers of the leftovers. If you have more of what you need than what you need, that’s mammon. Jesus reminds us in the Sermon on the Mount that you cannot serve God and mammon. Luke puts that same quote a few verses after today’s Holy Gospel. So what do you do with the excess of abundance? Jesus puts that question before us in this parable.
The answer is not so much what you do with mammon, but how you use mammon. The unjust steward in Luke chapter 16 took fifty percent and twenty percent off a bill for oil and wheat. The rich man had to nod his head and commend the steward for shrewd business. Look on the bright side: the rich man might never have the debt settled had not the unjust steward been shrewd! Fifty percent is better than nothing among children of the world. It’s better to cut your losses and take what you can get.
That’s not how our heavenly Father works. There is no fire sale concerning the debt of sin. The only fire we deserve is that burning lake of fire. If we can’t pay the debt, and our Father in heaven will not forgive the debt without perfect payment in full, what is there left to do but wait for Judgment Day in sackcloth and ashes.
Our Father in heaven is so just that He does what seems to be unjust. The Father sends His Son to save us from sin, death, and hell. St. Augustine said the cross is the devil’s mousetrap. It’s a mousetrap for us too. Jesus baits us criminals with his own criminality: as the shabby debtors in the parable were willing to deal only with the crooked steward and not with the upright lord, so we find ourselves drawn by the bait of a Jesus who winks at iniquity and makes friends of sinners – of us crooks, that is – and of all the losers who would never in a million years go near a God who knew what was expected of himself and insisted on what he expected of others (Robert Farar Capon).
Satan takes the bait and is trapped. The scandal of the cross catches him across the windpipe as a mousetrap catches a mouse. Jesus befriends unrighteous, unworthy, slimy, filthy, nasty mammon like you and I in order to pay our debt of sin in full. Perhaps that is why we love to hear Jesus called “friend of sinners”. The Jews couldn’t stand the fact that Jesus dined with tax collectors and sinners. He knew better than that, or so they thought. Jesus knew what He was doing. If He does not dine with tax collectors and sinners, He cannot dine with anyone this side of heaven.
The Friend of Sinners shrewdly allows Himself to be taken captive, to suffer death upon the cross, and to rise from the dead triumphant over all our foes. Jesus shrewdly uses His human nature with His divine nature to reconcile sinners to the Father. As we sing in the Communion hymn, “O Lord, We Bless Thee”: All our debt/Thou hast paid/Peace with God once more is made. /O Lord, have mercy.
Our heavenly Father is the merciful master. His steward, Jesus, does more than cut your debt of sin by twenty percent or fifty percent. He cancels your debt. He forgives your debt you cannot pay. Even though you don’t deserve it, He brings you into His house and gives you eternal life. Our Father looks at the mousetrap of the cross and honors His Son’s cancelling your debt. You are free.
King David says in today’s Old Testament reading: With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; with a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; with the pure You will show Yourself pure; and with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd. You will save the humble people; but Your eyes are on the haughty, that You may bring them down. We actually deal with a Just Steward Who make friends with unrighteous mammon like you and me in order to save us from sin and death. Because Jesus Christ, the Friend of Sinners, is merciful, blameless, pure, and shrewd, so are you by His grace through faith in the Chief Steward of the heavenly Gifts.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit
By pastorjuhl, on July 29th, 2010%
I don’t read Robert Farar Capon as often as I should. He’s quirky, but often has a different view of the text that many of us, if not all of us, never thought. Here’s Capon up to his old tricks again from Kingdom, Grace, Judgment:
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Grace works only on those it finds dead enough to raise.
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The unjust steward is the Christ-figure because he is a crook, like Jesus. The unique contribution of this parable to our understanding of Jesus is its insistence that grace cannot come to the world through respectability. Respectability regards only life, success, winning; it will have no truck with the grace that works by death and losing – which is the only kind of grace there is.
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Crux muscipulum diaboli, St. Augustine said: the cross is the devil’s mousetrap, baited with Jesus’ disreputable death. And it is a mousetrap for us, too. Jesus baits us criminals with his own criminality: as the shabby debtors in the parable were willing to deal only with the crooked steward and not with the upright lord, so we find ourselves drawn by the bait of a Jesus who winks at iniquity and makes friends of sinners – of us crooks, that is – and of all the losers who would never in a million years go near a God who knew what was expected of himself and insisted on what he expected of others.
You don’t like that? You think it lowers standards and threatens good order? You bet it does! And if you will cast your mind back, you will recall that is exactly why the forces of righteousness got rid of Jesus. Unfortunately, though, the church has never been able for very long to leave Jesus looking like the attractively crummy character he is: it can hardly resist the temptation to gussy him up into a respectable citizen. Even more unfortunately, it can almost never resist the temptation to gussy itself up into a bunch of supposedly perfect peaches, too good for the riffraff to sink their teeth into. But for all that, Jesus remains the only real peach – too fuzzy on the outside, nowhere near as sweet as we expected on the inside, and with the jawbreaking stone of his death right smack in the middle. And therefore he is the only mediator and advocate the likes of us will ever be able to trust, because like the unjust steward, he is no less a loser than we are – and like the steward, he is the only one who has even a chance of getting the Lord God to give us a kind word.
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Lucky for us we don’t have to deal with a just steward.
By pastorjuhl, on July 28th, 2010%
George Stöckhardt’s sermon for Trinity 9 in Gnade um Gnade is quite good. Here are a few choice quotes, some are extended quotes.
The wisdom which the Lord enjoins is but a special outflow and evidence of the wisdom that is generally fitting for the children of light, for believers. Not only in relation to their enemies, to the enemies of faith, but in whatever activity they are engaged in Christians should exhibit wisdom and prudence. It is laudable virtue, yes, a sacred Christian obligation wisely to make use of the time of our earthly sojourn, to number our days and make the best use of them. We live upon earth and are busy with earthly matters; we work, earn, but, sell as other people do. In our earthly vocation we have to associate with the children of this world, with the greedy, with adulterers, and others. Should we wish to discontinue these business dealings, we would have to quit the world. And so it is a Christian obligation in our association with people, in all our dealings, with the labor of our hands, to be intent upon what is pleasing to God, to let reflection, wisdom, understanding hold sway, as the apostle says, to walk as wise among fools.
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The main question for the children of light, for Christians is: How am I justified before God? How will I pass muster before God’s judgment on that great day, upon death, on Judgment Day? And Christians are foolish if they shove this most important question of all into the background and concern themselves with other useless, inconsequential questions and cares. True Christian wisdom is to keep one’s eyes fixed on the day of death, on Judgment Day. We are to learn this kind of wisdom from the children of the world. How they early on diligently guard against future reverses that affect temporal weal and woe, so, and all the more so, should we watch and pray so that we are not confounded on that day which determines our eternal weal and woe.
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We are children of light. By God’s grace and enlightenment we know the goal. We also know the way to the goal. We know how and by what means we are able to enter the eternal mansions. We are saved by God’s grace alone. The gift of God is eternal life. We know how we shall be able to pass muster on that day before the Supreme Judge. Through the blood and merit of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through His suffering and death He has settled accounts for us. God’s grace and Christ’s merit are, however, offered to us in the Word, in the Gospel. For that reason everything depends upon our accepting the Gospel, upon receiving it in faith. That is the way to life. The Gospel, Word, and Sacrament are the means through which we receive grace and salvation. The Word of God that is being preached to us, that we have before us in the Bible, which also gives power and effect to the Sacraments, is the Church’s most precious, greatest treasure. It is ours. It is a veritable treasure that will never pass away.
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It is Christian wisdom for Christians to be conscientious and faithful stewards with respect to eternal, heavenly, genuine blessings, above all with respect to the Word of God that is able to save their souls. Ah, how foolish it is when one frivolously throws away and squanders God’s Word, yes, when one makes sparing use of God’s Word. In the end, upon the hour of death one will come up short, then one is too weak and too poor and does not have enough faith to stand firm amid the terrors of final judgment. We should learn wisdom from the children of the world. They apply all their energies and utilize all the means at their disposal to secure their home for the future, and they certainly do not build upon sand.
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We have before us an eternal goal, the heavenly treasure. Thus we should with an altogether different diligence, with much greater, ardent longing and zeal gather, expend, economize, gather for ourselves from God’s Word, from preaching, out of the Bible eternal, genuine treasures, day and night to busy ourselves with God’s Word and make use of every opportunity to profit from God’s Word when it is expounded and laid upon our hearts. In the end it will become apparent how wise and prudent we were after having richly provided for and nourished our soul with God’s Word throughout our earthly life.
As the children of the world are wise in their generation, in dealing with their own kind, in making wise use of their wealth and possessions, in like manner the children of light should deal wisely in their generation, should faithfully husband the blessings and gifts of the kingdom of heaven. This is what the Lord means.
But the Lord in our Gospel demands still more from the children of light, from Christians. He exhorts them also to make use of the world’s possessions, of unrighteous mammon, to their own purposes. As the children of the world many times reach over into the area of religion, into the Church, an area foreign to them, and now and then pretend piety and worship with Christians for discretion’s sake, for business and personal reasons, thus should Christians take in hand what is foreign to them, unrighteous mammon, the world’s possessions and direct the earthly to the advantage of the eternal, to the heavenly goal.
It is really wise to make everything useful and serviceable to the highest goal, to the salvation of souls. The Lord says: “Make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon!” While the world, following the example of the unjust steward, this irresponsible spendthrift and miserable deceiver, makes unjust use of mammon, of possessions profiteers and deceives by means of wealth, thus should we make use of wealth, of the mammon of unrighteousness in the right way. And the right way is to make friends with mammon, that is, to make friends with the poor, gladly to do good and share with the poor. This is dealing not only justly, fairly, in love, but also wisely. This serves the final goal.
Of course, it is only by grace, for the sake of Christ’s merit, through faith that we are justified and saved, not through works. But the poor whom we have aided will on Judgment Day rise up and testify that we fed, gave drink to, clothed the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, and therefore through works demonstrated our faith, our Christianity, and will receive us into the everlasting habitations and thank us forever for what we did to them in time, and God upon their request will reward us out of grace into eternity.
Of course, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. But he who sows richly, who has made many friend with the mammon of unrighteousness, who has richly sacrificed for church, school, missions, and so for his part has won friends for God, he will reap bountifully there. Thus we want to evaluate all things, spiritual and temporal, all circumstances, all the days that God still gives us on earth, in relation to the final, eternal, blessed goal.
By pastorjuhl, on August 6th, 2009%
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit
Stewardship is the 800-pound elephant in the room. Everyone knows it is there, but no one wants to pay it any attention. We know we should give back to the Lord a fair portion of what He first gives to us. Ten percent is the Biblical standard of stewardship. When the word “stewardship” comes from the preacher’s mouth, it sounds like he is begging. Jesus doesn’t think so. The point of His parable in Luke chapter 16 is to make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.
Mammon is an excess of surplus. You might need only one set of measuring cups in your kitchen. The kitchen utensil drawer or cabinet has three or four sets of measuring cups. That’s mammon. Even if your house is perfectly organized and neat, let alone if you cannot walk through your own home because piles of stuff and hoarding, mammon may have control of you. Can you give away the excess? Can you live on necessities alone?
What is overlooked in our Lord’s Words are these four words: that when you fail. You will fail to impress Almighty God with your mammon. He doesn’t want what is leftover. He wants the first fruits. Jesus’ point is not for you to live like a monk who owns nothing. His point is to use what you have, especially if you have a surplus of excess time, treasure, and talent, to help those who have less than an excess of surplus.
You are the unjust steward in Christ’s parable. You are entrusted with goods that do not belong to you. The Master of the goods wants you to take good care of them. He wants you to have just enough for you and your family. What is left is either unnecessary or may be given to those who are without. When you have enough, it is never enough. There must be more food. There must be more clothes. There must be more shoes, cars, animals, land, televisions, computers, toys, tools, books, music, and money. No wonder storage facilities are in great need these days. There is too much stuff and not enough places to store stuff. You can’t unlearn stewardship unless you want to live like a man of the world while calling yourself a Christian. It’s impossible to have both ways. You live like a man of the world and collect more stuff for the love of collecting stuff, or you consider surplus stuff an opportunity to help your needy brother.
Jesus does not condemn stuff. All you have belongs to God. If you have mammon, let your neighbor who does not have enough have it. Doing so makes friends with unrighteous mammon. Nevertheless, you love your unrighteous mammon so much that you won’t let go. Consider these words from the apostle James: If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Sounds like nonsense, doesn’t it? It is not nonsense when you hoard your goods while wishing your needy neighbor well with smooth talk.
The unjust steward backed up his smooth talk with shrewd action. He knew the ax was about to fall. He needed a soft place to land. He called in his master’s debtors and had a fire sale. Fifty percent off a bill of oil here. Twenty percent off a bill of wheat there. Even the unjust steward’s master admired his former steward’s deed. It’s shrewd to reduce the bill of debtors in order to keep a line of safety and security open for the future.
Saint Paul says in today’s Epistle: these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. He then goes on to list a number of events in Holy Scripture where God’s people put mammon before God and suffered the consequences. Paul continues: let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. When you put your excess of God’s gifts before God’s face and dare to call them your god, you are headed for a fall.
Jesus Christ had the opportunity to put mammon and earthly power ahead of His Father. Recall what the devil promised Him when He was tempted. Jesus responded: away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ Jesus Christ had the opportunity to come down off the cross and show His adversaries that He was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus remained on the cross; all the while remaining the Christ, the Son of the Living God, for the Christ must suffer and die for the sin of the world.
Jesus knows you will hoard mammon. He knows you will say one thing and do another to your neighbor. Instead of holding your sin against you, He takes your sin upon Himself and becomes the ultimate sin offering for you. Jesus has the riches of heaven and earth in His Hands. Instead of clutching grace as if it was precious, He stewards the priceless treasure of forgiveness of sins and everlasting life.
Jesus stewards His means of grace in Word and Sacraments through His called and ordained servants of the Word in the Office of the Holy Ministry. You steward your mammon to those in need as a testimony of God’s love and mercy dwelling among you. Life is not about how much stuff you have. Life is about what you do with the excess stuff God gives you.
The author to the Hebrews puts it this way: let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Stewardship begins with the lips, singing the never-ending sacrifice of praise to God for all He does for us and gives to us. Stewardship goes from the lips to the hands, giving to those who are in need the sacrifice of praise through doing good works and sharing good things.
Stewardship is a joyful thing, flowing from the stewardship of forgiveness and life given by a loving and gracious Lord Jesus Christ. All attempts to do good and share with our neighbor will fail unless the love of Christ breaks through our love of mammon, just as the hymn teaches us to pray:
We give Thee but Thine own,
Whate’er the gift may be;
All that we have is Thine alone,
A trust, O Lord, from Thee.
And we believe Thy Word,
Though dim our faith may be:
Whate’er for Thine we do, O Lord,
We do it unto Thee.
- Lutheran Service Book 781:1, 6
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit
By pastorjuhl, on August 4th, 2009%
Ordinarily, when a grand lord places his possessions under a caretaker, this is done out of necessity, because such lord cannot arrange and take care of everything by himself. But in this case it is quite a different matter – here the Lord God appoints men as caretakers not at all because of necessity but because of pure grace and mercy (2:101).
This is the principal reason for this parable of Christ: to exhort us to good deeds toward our neighbor and see to our neighbor’s welfare with our temporal goods while there is still time. We will take none of our temporal goods with us out of this world – except for the good deeds we have done others; for on Judgment Day they will be publicly praised. Thus, in this time of grace, we should make friends (2:106).
The good that is done for the poor, Christ praises and esteems as done for Him, as He expressly states in Matthew 25. He comes to us in the person of the poor and permits us to serve Him. This is why the poor – that is, Christ, whom we serve through the poor and thus prove our love for Him – will receive us in the eternal dwellings.
Hence, the following parable: A man had three friends. The first friend he daily treated well with abundant food and clothing, leaving him lacking or wanting nothing, indeed, fulfilling his every wish. The second friend he treated well on occasion, but not as well as the first friend. The third friend he treated poorly, paying little heed to his needs; even when he pleaded for help and kindness, he was usually turned away empty handed. Now when the man was summoned before the court and had to defend himself before his accusers, he went to his first friend, whom he had treated so well, and asked for his support; but he was turned down. Then he went and asked for the support of his second friend, who had accompanied him to the courthouse; but this friend turned around and left. Finally, as the last resort, the man found it necessary to go to his third friend, though ashamed to seek his support because of the ill treatment. But the third friend, beyond all expectation, not only testified for the man and gave a good report but also paid the fine for all the charges against him.
In this parable the man’s first friend is to be understood as his own body, which he daily nourishes and clothes, but which will depart from him in death because his soul will be separated from his body and must appear before God’s court and countenance. The second friend is to be understood as the man’s relatives, who will accompany him to his grave site, but then will depart again. The third friend is to be understood as our Lord Christ, who speaks to us through His Word but whose voice is too often not taken to heart. He comes to us bodily, but we do not accept him or treat him well; yet He is the best and only faithful Friend who, on the final day of judgment, will be our advocate, absolve us from all accusations, and take us up into the eternal dwellings.
This is how those to whom we do good will receive us in heaven, not to mention the preachers and teachers, for whom we provide, because they sow among us that which is spiritual (1 Corinthians 9:11). By the divine Word they bring us to the knowledge fo God and to right faith so that we will be saved (2:107-108).
By Pastor Parent, on July 21st, 2008%
+ + + Jesu Juva + + +
The Ninth Sunday after Trinity
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Why did the Lord Jesus Christ present this parable to us? What was His purpose? Surely He did not approve of the unrighteous servant who cheated his master, who is caught with his hand in the cookie jar, as they say, and when he is fired he sticks his hand into the cookie jar again instead of making up for his transgressions from his own means? Why does the Lord set this parable before us?
In the parable of the servant of unrighteousness, we see a certain rich man who has found out that his trusted steward has been squandering his possessions, and therefore his wealth, by mismanaging his affairs. The rich man fired the steward telling him he “can no longer be steward.” (Luke 16:2, NKJV) The rich man called the steward to an accounting and the books were about to be opened and examined. There was about to be an audit.
But this steward was a shrewd character. After some quick weighing of his options, he quickly came up with a plan. He knew he could neither dig nor beg. Both options were a bit distasteful to him. Instead, he called all his master’s debtors to him and reduced the amount they owed so that they would look favorably on him when he was out of a job.
Not only had this steward cheated his master once, but when he was found out, he cheated his master again, so as to preserve his comfort to which, I am sure, he had become quite accustomed. But the astonishing thing is that the rich man then commends the steward for his shrewdness. To this Jesus says, “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.” (Luke 16:9, NKJV) So again I ask, why does the Lord set this parable before us?
In a worldly sense, the shrewd steward acted very wisely. But Jesus seldom, if ever, praises the world and certainly the wisdom of the world is chided by His Apostles in the Epistles of the New Testament. So while the steward in our text was clever in looking out for himself, Jesus certainly is not promoting his corruption. What, however, Jesus does commend is the man’s shrewdness. The steward used his master’s riches to ensure that he would continue to be provided for after losing his position in his master’s house.
The point Jesus made here is that non-believers, or children of this world, are much more adept at using the unrighteous things of the world to better themselves, to selfishly improve their position and temporal lives, than children of the light are at using the same things for love and in service to their neighbor. The sons of the world far surpass us when it comes to a single-minded dedication and zeal for using worldly wealth to gain a temporary advantage for themselves in this life, than we believers are when it comes to using the same gifts for the good of our fellow men and women, for our neighbors, and for the Church.
Jesus encourages His listeners to imitate the steward, but not by being unrighteous. “The sons of this world” are “more shrewd” in worldly matters because they know how to be unrighteous—to bend the rules, play the game, or beat the system—in order to accomplish their goals. But Jesus wants those who follow Him to be ignorant or unlearned in the practice of such unrighteousness, because it is advantageous only in this “generation”, this present age, this life, and is actually harmful for those whose hope is in the age to come. “The sons of light” are to be shrewd by recognizing that true riches are to be found in heaven and maintain their focus on where their hope truly resides—in Jesus Christ, God’s Son.
God may bless you with wealth, but not so you can make believe that the wealth you have is your own. That is how unbelievers, “the sons of this world” (Luke 16:8, NKJV) treat the gifts of God. But you are “the sons of light” (Luke 16:8, NKJV) and you should know better. Therefore, as the unrighteous steward acts shrewdly to obtain for himself earthly benefit, so we Christians should act in the same way that we may gain eternal friends in heaven. Or has our Lord Jesus not said, “…be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” (Matthew 10:16, NKJV) and are the riches of this life truly our own or are we nothing more than stewards of our Master’s goods?
Thus, not a single possession we have is our own; it belongs to another; it belongs to God. As we pray with the psalmist, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.” (Psalm 24:1, NKJV) The reality is that we are all stewards and one day we all will be called to an accounting. One day soon we will stand before our Master to give an account for all the gifts He has entrusted to us.
You see, there comes a time for everyone, no matter how wealthy, when worldly possessions, even our most treasured possessions, become meaningless. Those of you who have sorted through things that belonged to someone who is now dead may understand what I mean only too well. The things we have in this life never really “belong” to us at all. At best, we possess these things only on temporary loan, for when we die they are still here in time, while we are there in eternity. Our possessions cannot provide for our eternal future. They fail us when death comes into view, and oftentimes, even before. What is important then, is not how much we have, but what we do with the things we have while we have them.
That is what Jesus meant when He talked of “unrighteous mammon.” (Luke 16:9, NKJV) For mammon to become unrighteous, it must be used in an unrighteous way without concern for God or neighbor. For mammon itself is a neutral thing, neither good nor bad. Therefore, it is how it is used that makes for righteousness or unrighteousness. Thus when we have more than we need and refuse to use it in service to God in love for our neighbor, it becomes unrighteous mammon given to greed and gluttony instead of to love. This mammon we possess unrighteously since it is a gift of God and given by our gracious God for the love and service of those we see in need. Such mammon before God is nothing more than stolen goods used in selfish ways for things neither given by God nor needed for this body and life.
Jesus said, “Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?” (Luke 16:11-12, NKJV) In other words, “If you can’t be faithful in what I have loaned to you in this life for use in service to your neighbor and the Church, how can I trust to you the true riches of everlasting life?” And what is Jesus’ conclusion to this question? “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Luke 16:13, NKJV)
I wonder. If our true Lord and Master called you to an accounting today, if He opened your books and did an audit, if He looked over your use of the time, talents, and treasures with which He has blessed you, would your books balance? Is there any justification for a charge against you that you have wasted God’s goods? The steward of our Gospel text was intent on providing for himself alone. He had been charged with wasting his master’s goods. Yes, I wonder. Are we any better than the unrighteous steward?
The children of unrighteousness, like the steward of unrighteousness, do indeed set a good example for the Christian in terms of their shrewdness and persistence in worldly endeavors. We, who are the baptized children of God, are called to do no less in spiritual, eternal realms.
This is what Jesus meant when He said, “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.” (Luke 16:9, NKJV) We are to be shrewd in material things, but not in the way of the steward of unrighteousness, but in the way of Christ—not selfishly, but selflessly.
But beware! I am not saying that works make one good or acceptable to God or merit entrance into heaven, and neither is Jesus. For works do not make one good, but only show evidence of the faith which makes one good in the eyes of God. The good that one does in this life attests to the faith in one’s heart. Therefore, one must first be good before one can do good. One must first be godly before one can act in a godly way and this godliness comes only by grace through God given faith in Jesus, God’s Son. “Therefore, faith alone must be present first to make us good, after that good works must follow to prove our piety.” (Luther 9th Sunday after Trinity, 1522)
All that we have is the Lord’s. He may have made us stewards, but He is the Master and Lord. We are to use His possessions for the good of our neighbor and the proclamation of the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. In this way, we are selflessly using the possessions Jesus provides us in faith, trusting in our Master to provide all that is needed for this body and life.
Still, this parable has more to say to us. Jesus commended the steward of unrighteousness not only because of his shrewdness, but also because of his faith in the mercy of his master. He believed that this master, who did not throw him into prison when he could have done so for the waste of his possessions, would be merciful to him by honoring the reductions in debts the steward had agreed to, though he was under no obligation to do such a thing. He truly believed his master to be a man of generosity and forgiveness. On that, he staked his future and his salvation. He did well, for it is that faith which his master praises.
So, too, we trust that our Master is a God of mercy who will forgive our debts through Jesus, that we may be received into our everlasting home. (Luke 16:9) In this, our hope is certain, that God, who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We believe that God the Father will be merciful to us because of the debt paid on our behalf through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is that faith that our Father desires and praises.
We have squandered our heavenly Father’s possessions in selfishness and sin, but Jesus, who is the Steward of Righteousness, has cancelled our debt, knowing that His forgiveness will be honored by the Father because of His holy suffering and death upon the cross. Jesus made eternal friends of us, not by hoarding things for Himself, but by living as one with no home of His own, having no place to lay His head. He became poor so that we might know and receive the riches of His mercy. He even gave away His own Body into death, that through His atoning and all-sufficient sacrifice we might be cleansed from all unrighteousness. Yes, Jesus relied on the Mercy of His Father. He trusted that the Father would honor His death in our place to cover the debt we owed.
So come forward now and receive from the hands of this steward the marks of your zero balance account. Know that by receiving the Body and Blood of our Lord that your account of sin has been closed. It is my privilege to announce unto you the grace of God and to place into your mouth that which declares your debt fully paid. Kneel down, take your bill and write, “Paid in full.”
Your books are balanced. Your account reads zero. You will receive an everlasting home. How do you know? You know because you hear and believe Jesus when He says to you, “I forgive you all your sins.”
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +
Rev. Raymond Parent
Hope Lutheran Church, Bellaire, MI
07/20/08 A+D
By revhamer@verizon.net, on July 16th, 2008%
Sermon on St. Luke 16:1-13
The Dishonest but Shrewd Steward
Trinity 9
+ Jesu Juva +
Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.
– St. Luke 12:37
Today’s Gospel Lesson is one of those lessons where you hardly feel like saying, “This is the Gospel (good news) of the Lord.” One is tempted, rather, to ask, “Is this really the Gospel of the Lord?” But underneath this curious story about a shrewd dude is the Gospel of the Lord. For it will teach us what it means to be God’s faithful stewards in Christ and to be awake when He comes.
“There was a rich man who had a manager.” The rich man is the owner of the estate, the one who founded the business, nourished it from his spare room to Wall Street, and then incorporated his business and hired a manager as it grew. The rich man is the CEO and President, the sovereign who rewards good and punishes evil. His manager is a high-ranking employee who is responsible to be a faithful steward of the rich man’s estate. He has the second-nicest office, the power of attorney, and full authority in the business, second only to the rich man himself. But then comes the initial incident, ripped from the headlines of today’s financial world: the manager has been unfaithful to the rich man, cooking the books and wasting his possessions. The unfaithful manager must be defrocked. “Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager!”
And then what happens? The manager contemplates within himself what he will do. He could get a job digging; maybe help build the latest aqueduct or seaport, but he is too weak. All those years in the high back office chair have taken their toll and he is out of shape. He could beg; maybe those employees he helped with their pension funds will be generous to him; but he is too proud to beg. All those years with the six-digit salary and five-digit expense account have spoiled him a bit. But then, one last great idea comes to his mind; one final, strategic move for this dishonest but shrewd manager to help him secure, a “pauper’s parachute,” so to speak. As the turning point of the story, he calls in his master’s debtors and reduces their debts–from a hundred measures of oil to fifty, from a hundred measure of wheat to eighty, and so forth. Now he has friends in this lifetime who will help him in his need. He’s still fired, of course, but he won’t have to beg or dig, because his friends will return his generosity.
And then what happens? The surprising climax of the story. What would you do if you were the rich man, you fired your manager for bad accounting, and he finished his last day at work with more bad accounting? One might expect the rich man not just to fire the manager, but to impose a lean on all his goods, foreclose on his home, and even throw the manager into debtors’ prison. But what does the rich man do? “[He] commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.” What can we say? At least the dishonest manager was thinking on his feet. And so Jesus says, “I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteousness wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” The contrast is against the Pharisees, whom Jesus describes as “lovers of money” (16:14). If they cannot manage a little money, then they cannot be faithful managers of true riches. But the disciples will be faithful to their Lord and Master in all things, managing their money well and faithfully managing the true riches of God’s kingdom. And so it goes in the parable of the dishonest but shrewd manager.
What does this mean? This parable teaches us a lesson about our place as stewards in God’s kingdom under all three articles of the Creed: creation, Christ, and His church
As the rich man entrusted the management of his wealth to his manager, so God has entrusted everything you own, yes, this entire creation, to you. God’s initial command to our first parents was, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the the earth and subdue it and have dominion . . .” Take responsibility for all that you are and all that you have–your body and soul, your reason and all your senses; your land, animals, and all your goods. How often we are tempted to think that God is in charge of my soul, but I’ll take are of my body and everything else. But this is precisely the sort of false teaching that Jesus counters shortly after today’s gospel lesson in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. The Rich Man should have used his earthly wealth to help the poor beggar laid at his gate, but he kept it all to himself. In eternity, their fortunes were reversed. You yourselves have been given an abundance of creation in our affluent society. Even the poorest person today has access to more and better types of food than kings and queens did just a few centuries ago. Use your wealth for the benefit of your neighbor. Give 10% of your income directly to the church. God doesn’t need it, but your neighbor does. Give generously to your neighbor and help him in his need. The opportunities for acts of mercy for your neighbor are right in front of you every single day. “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes,” for in using your wealth for your neighbor, you will fill the earth with God’s mercy and subdue it with His lovingkindness.
As it goes for creation, so it goes for Christ. In good Lutheran fashion, we must ask where Christ is in this parable. He is woven throughout this parable as mercy incarnate. He is the mercy of the rich man, who could’ve acted much more harshly against his manager. Christ is the mercy that reduces the debts of the employees, absorbing the debt into the rich man’s estate with no questions asked; that commends the dishonest manager for his shrewdness instead of demanding a second reckoning; that promises an eternal dwelling for those who trust in His mercy here and now. This all foreshadows the ultimate acts of mercy on the cross. He cries out from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know now what they do” (Lk. 23:34). He promises an eternal dwelling to the penitent thief: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43). And it’s all for you and for your salvation. Left to ourselves, we are forever indebted to God and deserve the ultimate debtors’ prison, viz. Hell. But in the crucified Christ, our debt of sin is canceled, our bill is paid in full, and we stand before God redeemed, restored, and forgiven. As our hymn of the day puts it, “Grant thro’ thy death an sacrifice, To me a full remission.” “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes,” for they stand before God in the final judgment clothed in the baptismal robe of Christ’s own righteousness.
As it goes for Christ, so it goes for the church. As the rich man entrusted the stewardship of his estate to his manager, so Christ has entrusted the stewardship of the riches of the church to his pastors. In I Cor. 4, St. Paul describes himself and all preachers of the cross and resurrection as “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1). The word “steward,” the same word translated as “manager” in our gospel lesson, means those who take care of something that belongs to another and give an account for their stewardship in the end. But while our parable is talking about earthly wealth or, to use St. Luke’s catch-phrase, “unrighteous mammon,” St. Paul is talking about the mysteries of God, i.e., every article of the Christian faith: the Trinity, the two natures in Christ, the Word of God, the sacraments, etc. To place ourselves directly into the Biblical narrative, the church is God’s house. The Lord Himself is the Rich Man. The pastors are the stewards, those responsible for the right doctrine and practice in the church. And you, the baptized, are the householders of God, i.e., the members of His churchly family who share some of the responsibility for the stewardship of His mysteries. “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes” – awake with good law-gospel preaching; full baptismal regeneration; a high view of absolution; and the real presence of Jesus’ true body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.
“Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes.” This beatitude describes those who are baptized into Christ and who live every day in complete dependence on His mercy. Blessed are those servants who use the gifts of creation in thanks toward God and in love toward their neighbor. Blessed are those servants who hear the “unjust” word from the cross, “I forgive you all your sins.” And blessed are those servants who would rather face death than sacrifice their stewardship of the gospel and sacraments. Yes, blessed are you, Dearly Beloved, for your Lord and Master will receive you into His eternal dwelling. “This is the Gospel of the Lord! Praise be to Thee, O Christ!” INJ. Amen.
Rev. Brian J. Hamer
Redeemer Lutheran Church
Bayside, NY
By ToddPeperkorn, on July 14th, 2008%
The Lord Jesus, the True Teacher, puts before us the Parable of the Unjust Steward. By the example of this person He makes clear to us that in this world nothing is really ours, but that we have been entrusted with the stewardship of the goods of Our Lord. Either we use them in thanksgiving according to our needs, or we distribute them to our neighbor according to his need. Furthermore, it is not lawful to misuse indiscriminately the goods that have been committed to us, or to claim the right to extravagant expense and display. For we must render an account of our stewardship to the Lord when He comes. (St. Gaudentius)
In the Gospel Christ compares the unrighteous man with the righteous man. As the unrighteous man acts shrewdly with his unrighteousness and villainy, so we should act wisely in matters of justice and piety. This is the point of the comparison, as Jesus Himself explains when He says, “the sons of this world are wiser in their own generation than the sons of light”. The “sons of light” should learn prudence from “the sons of darkness”, or the world. Even as they are clever in all their doings, so also should “the sons of light” be clever in all their doings. (Blessed Martin Luther)
The parable Our Blessed Lord tells in today’s Gospel is about a man who does not bless God, but who works so hard for the blessing of others. It’s about a man who does not turn to God in time of need, but relies on His own cleverness and inner resources. And so he is called unjust, unrighteous. Not because he hurts others or treats others with injustice, but because he does not rely on the righteousness of God. The man tries to make things righteous, rather than trusting in the mercy and compassion of God the Righteous One. If only he cared about righteousness as much as he cared about unrighteousness!
Do not consider your riches as belonging to yourselves alone. Open wide your hand to those who are in need; assist those in poverty and pain; comfort those who have fallen into extreme distress; console with those who are in sorrow, or oppressed with bodily maladies and the want of necessaries; and comfort also the saints who embrace a voluntary poverty that they may serve God without distraction. Nor shall your so doing be unrewarded. For when your earthly wealth abandons you, as you reach the end of your life, then they shall make you partakers of their hope and of the consolation given them by God. (St Cyril of Alexandria)
In this parable, the unfaithful steward is represented as receiving commendation from his master, not because he had done wickedly, but because he had done wisely. If the defrauded master is moved to praise the worldly wisdom of his dishonest servant, how much more our Master Christ (who cannot be defrauded by any of us, and is Himself the great Forgiver of debts) will be moved to praise us if we show compassion on those who are brought to greater faith in Him and His mercy! (St. Jerome)
The sense of this parable is something like the following: The God of all wills that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth (1 Tim 2.4). For this reason He gave the law for a help (Is 8.20)—that is, the whole inspired Scripture—by means of which we learn the path which leads straight unto every good and saving thing. The Lord of all, therefore, requires us to be thoroughly constant in our strivings after virtue, and to fix our desires upon the better and holy life, setting ourselves free from the distractions of the world, and from all love of riches, and of the pleasures which wealth brings, that we may serve Him continually and with undivided affections. (St Cyril of Alexandria)
By pastorjuhl, on July 10th, 2008%
Pius Parsch, “The Church’s Year of Grace”
Christ praises the unjust steward not for fraud but because of the cleverness and zeal with which he provided for his future, earthly career. The zeal of the children of this world in earthly affairs should serve as a model in our strivings after an eternal goal. (Vol. 4, p. 92)
The burden of the Sundays midway after Pentecost may be summarized in the phrase: the conflict between the two camps. Though placed in the kingdom of God, we remain surrounded by the kingdom of the world; and our souls, laboring under Adam’s wretched legacy, waver continually to and fro between two allegiances. (4:94)
By the parable, therefore, Christ wished to teach us that as children of God we should pursue our eternal welfare with the same zeal and with the same shrewdness and with the same perseverance as the children of the world strive after social status and higher standards of living. (4:98)
Jesus does not praise the steward for defrauding another; neither does He hold up his conduct as such a model. That would have been impossible for the holy and sinless Son of God. What Christ praises is the shrewdness and ingenuity with which that man provided for his future earthly welfare. And this shrewdness Jesus places before us, His children, for imitation on the supernatural plane. Accordingly He concludes, “The children of this world (of whom the steward was an example) are wiser in dealing with their fellowmen than the children of light (i.e., we Christians).” (4:97)
Church Fathers
From this we learn that we are not ourselves masters, but rather the stewards of Another’s possessions. And that when we do not administer wealth in accord with the will of the master, but abuse for our own pleasures what has been entrusted to us, we are unjust stewards. (Theophylactus)
We are not placed in this life as lords in our own houses, but as guests and strangers, brought hither whether we would or not, and at a time not of our choosing. He who is now rich in a moment is a beggar. Therefore, whoever you may be, know that you are but an administrator of things that are Another’s, and that upon you has been bestowed but the right of their brief and passing use. Cast then from your soul the pride of dominion, and put on instead the modesty and humility of a steward. (Chrysostom)
In this world nothing is really ours, but that instead we have entrusted with the stewardship of the goods of our Lord, either to use them, with giving of thanks, according to our needs, or to distribute them to our fellow servants according as they need, and that it is not lawful to misuse indiscriminately the means that have been committed to us, or to claim the right to extravagant expense and display; for we must render an account of our stewardship to the Lord when He comes. (Gaudentius)
Blessed Martin Luther
This dishonest steward and others like him win friends for themselves by means of someone else’s wealth. They use their master’s riches to insure that they will not suffer loss themselves. How much more should you Christians be good stewards of the possessions God has given you, to use them to his glory and the welfare of your neighbor. You ought to be cultivating friends by a different and better use of such things than this dishonest steward used his master’s debtors.
If a peasant, burgher, merchant, blacksmith, wife, maid, and so on, can serve the devil with such diligence, sparing no pains, why shouldn’t I want to serve my Lord in the same manner, with whom one day I hope to share eternity? They run like mad toward their eternal ruin and destruction. How can I be so indolent and lazy, when it has to do with my soul’s salvation, that God must drag me as it were by the hair? Ought I not spit myself in the face, that while others rush pell-mell toward hell, I don’t crawl towards heaven?
Just as a greedy person goes after money and a worldling after his livelihood, so we ought zealously apply ourselves to things eternal. But where is the Christian who does that? Where is the Christian who jealously walks a quarter mile to church in order to hear the Word of God, as a merchant travels far and wide in order to become wealthy? Christ, therefore, concludes correctly that the children of the world are much more industrious and shrewd with what they have than are his children. We need daily and earnestly to persist in godliness, discipline, patience, meekness, gentleness, compassion, and other Christian virtues. For when we are on the right path and stay on it, then each step – be it ever so heavy and short – will be true, just so we don’t let ourselves think that one step is all it takes.
In great mercy [Jesus] wants to say to us: Try to serve me more faithfully and be more zealous, because you are a child of light; but because you don’t succeed, I must cover you with the mantle of grace and forgiveness. We need that grace, yes, it must be projected into our lives from on high, so that we live beneath it as beneath the canopy of the skies. So, the fact is, we are not without a friend or two, in particular the true Friend, Who can bestow heaven and salvation, our dear Lord Jesus Christ.
Whoever wants to be a Christian must not constantly open his hand to take but close it so tighty when it’s time to give that not even a penny falls through. Rather he should gladly, willingly, and benevolently help the one who is in need and give wherever he can. This is serving God, and He will ultimately reward you. On the other hand, the skinflints and profiteers, who can do nothing but pinch pennies and give nothing to anyone, or very sparingly, serve the accursed devil, who will also reward them in kind.
Mammon means riches, not simply riches, but a superfluity of riches, whatever is beyond our needs. A man has more than he needs for his support, so that he can help others without injuring himself.
C.F.W. Walther
Man is not a lord everything he has, but merely a steward, a manager. Therefore, everything a person has is only a good God has lent and entrusted to him for management. Although someone may have many thousands or even millions of dollars at his disposal, he is only God’s treasurer with respect to that money. He may have a very profitable business and a great stock, but he is still only God’s steware. Although he may live in many houses and palaces and show indisputable title to great stretches of land, he is nevertheless only God’s tenant and leaseholder.
With this story, the Lord says that just as this godless man knew how to deal with the goods of his lord to guarantee his temporal future, so should a person use the goods of the Lord his God in such a way tha the secrues an eternal future. As godless prudence was praiseworthy before the world, so is true prudence praiseworthy before God.
If God has placed you as a steward over temporal, earthly goods and gifts, the danger for you lies in that one days, having become unfaithful, you are called to give a strict account and are rejected. You have also received the only means with which you can and should acquire eternal and heavenly goods. Thus you can rejoice if God has given you a good understanding, but do not seek personal glory in this. Instead, you must be content on earth with your steward’s wages, with nourishment and clothing. Turn your gift to God’s glory and to the good of your neighbor, and in heaven you will find a rich eternal harvest from your brief sowing.
Christ alone has earned our entrance into heaven for us, but no person will be admitted unless he has witnesses that he really believed in Him. These witnesses are among our brethren whom we have served with our goods and gifts on earth.
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