WORDLY WEALTH

AND THE GOSPEL

October 13, 2019

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Old Testament Lesson; Amos 8:4-7

Epistle Lesson; 1 Timothy 2:1-8

Sermon Text; Luke 16:1-13

We are gong to look at a parable Jesus told. This is one of the most, if not the most unique parable Jesus told. He is going to use a bad guy as motivation for Christians. So, I want you, as you consider this parable, ask “How in the world is Jesus using a bad guy to motivate Christians?”

Secondly, before we read this parable, I have a twenty dollar bill in my pocket. Let's imagine you were to have conversation with this twenty dollar bill. What would you say to this twenty dollar bill? I am going to put it up here, on the altar, because at the end of the service, I am going to have a little conversation with that twenty dollar bill.

Given that, let's read this parable Jesus tells from Luke, chapter sixteen, verses one through thirteen.

Jesus also said to His disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager who was accused of wasting his possessions. The rich man called him in and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you can no longer be manager.'

“The manager said to himself, 'What will I do, since my master is taking away the management position from me? I am not strong enough to dig. I am ashamed to beg. I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from my position as manager, people will receive me into their houses.'

He called each one of his master's debtors to him. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' He said, 'Six hundred gallons of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write three hundred.' Then he said to another, 'How much do you owe?' And he said, 'Six hundred bushels of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and write four hundred and eighty.'

“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the children of the light are. I tell you, make friends for yourselves with unrighteous mammon, so that when it runs out, they will welcome you into the eternal dwellings. The person who is faithful with very little is also faithful with much. And the person who is unrighteous with very little is also unrighteous with much. So if you have not been faithful with unrighteous mammon who will entrust you with what is really valuable? If you have not been faithful with what belongs to someone else, who will give you something to be your own? No servant can serve two masters. Indeed, 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 mammon.”

These are your words, Heavenly Father. Lead us in the way of truth. Your Word is truth.

Amen

I just want to put this parable in modern day terms.

Let's say there is a very, very wealthy man who owns a bank, or an investment company. He hires a guy who as his CFO, Chief Financial Officer.

This Chief Financial Officer is literally in charge of managing this very wealthy, bank owner's money. He is in charge of all of the books. He is in charge of the investors' loans, and that the loans are getting repaid. He is in charge of making sure all of the accounts get taken care of. I mean, he has access to all of the money, all of it. He can transfer money in, and out of accounts. In other words, he can do whatever he wants to.

All of a sudden, it becomes evident to the owner of the business that the manager has been wasting his money. And so, the owner of the company calls him in, and says, “What's this I hear? I hear you have been going on very, very expensive trips to Hawaii, with my money. You are wasting my money. I hear you have been throwing lavish parties, ten, twenty thousand dollar parties, with my money. You are wasting my money. I hear you have been buying ten thousand dollar suit coats, and getting five hundred dollar hair cuts, with my money. You are fired. You're fired. You have not been managing my money properly. But, before you are fired, you need to get all of the books in order. Then, we are going to sit down, and look at what has happened. You are fired in one week, so you have one week to get the books in order.”

So, this CFO realizes, “I have one week. I have only one week left, and then, I am without a job. Then, what is going to happen to me? I am going to have to find some other way to make a living. I have an important, white collar, job here. I am not going to take some blue collar job, because I am not even capable, I don't think, to work physically. Plus, I am too lazy for that. So, I don't want to be a blue collar worker. And, I am too proud to sit on the street, and beg for money. What am I going to do?”

“Oh, I know what I am going to do. I have one week, and still have access to all of these accounts, and all of these loans. I know what I am going to do! I am going to use this, as long as I have one week left, so that when the week is over, I will have made so many friends for myself that when I lose my job, they are going to welcome me in their homes. I will have a place to stay, and food to eat!”

So, he calls in all of the debtors who owe money. The first one he calls in he asks, “Tell me how much do you owe on your mortgage?”

The man says, “I owe four hundred thousand on my mortgage. It is breaking my back.”
The CFO says, “I will tell you what. I am tearing up that four hundred thousand dollar mortgage. You just owe two hundred thousand dollars.”

Well, that person who had that two hundred thousand dollars forgiven, would be ecstatic.

Then, the next guy comes in. The CFO says, “I see you have some student loans. You have five years worth of student loans, sixty thousand dollars in student loans. Tell you what, let's forgive a year of those, twelve thousand dollars. It is gone. You just owe forty eight thousand dollars.”
Why, that young person would be thrilled. They are going to pay off their loan so much more quickly.

He does that with debtor, after debtor, after debtor.

The week is over, and the business owner calls this CFO into his office. That CFO has been very, very generous with somebody else's money. And, he was dishonest. However the business owner commends the dishonest manager, not because of his dishonestly, but Jesus says he commends him, because of his shrewdness. He looks at this guy, and says, “You are brilliant. You're brilliant! You knew you only had a week, and what you did was masterful. That was clever. That took a lot of thought. You really weighed out what was going to happen here. Very clever that you used all of my money, with the end in sight, knowing that if you spent it the right way, you would have friends to take care of you the rest of your life.”
Then, Jesus transitions to you and me. Here is the transition. He says,

“For the children of this world

are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation

than the children of the light are.”

What does He mean there? He is talking about unbelievers, and believers. He is saying, “Unbelievers are maybe more concerned about money, being good managers of money, watching over money, and how this is going to work for them. They may really take care of their money.”

Whereas, Christians are thinking, “You know what? I have something more important than money. I have Jesus. I have my Savior. My sins are forgiven. God is going to take care of me. And so, I am maybe not so shrewd in taking care of my money.”

Here is the point Jesus wants to make. He says,

“I tell you, make friends for yourselves

with unrighteous mammon,

so that when it runs out,

they will welcome you into the eternal dwelling.”

What is Jesus saying there? He is saying, “I have given you my money. It is not yours. It is mine, to manage. You only have it for a certain amount of time. Then, it is going to run out, someday. In other words, you are going to die, and you can't take it with you. It will be gone. Be shrewd. Be shrewd in how you use that money I have given to you. Use it wisely. Use it cleverly. Use it intelligently, with the end in mind, knowing, 'I have only got a certain amount of time. What am I going to use it for?'”

If I were to ask all of you, “What is the most important treasure you have?”, I think all of you would say, “It is the Gospel. It is Jesus. It is knowing my sins are forgiven, for Jesus' sake. That is the most important treasure I have. You can take everything else away. It is the pearl of great price. I would give up everything for that Gospel message.”

If that is the most important treasure we have, if it is, Jesus is saying, “Use your worldly wealth I have given you to serve the Gospel. Some day, when it is all over, and you have used all of that, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”

What does He mean by that? “Some day”, He is saying, “you will die, go to Heaven, and a group of people will walk up to you. Maybe one of them will put their arm around you, and say, 'See this guy right here? Had it not been for him, and his donations to church, we would have never had our fifth grade teacher. We could not have paid the salary. When I was in fifth grade, I thought nobody cared about me. I thought nobody loved me. But, I went to that school, and she was the one who taught me about Jesus. I would not be here today, if it had not been for this guy making sure my fifth grade teacher got paid her salary.'

“Somebody else may walk up to you, put their arm around you, and say, 'Do you see this person, right here? Had it not been for them, in my country of Latvia, I would not have had a place to go to church. But, they used their gifts to see to it we had a church in Latvia, and I could go there. Even though in the country where I grew up there was great pressure, cultural pressure for me to give up my faith, I had this refuge where I could go, be preached to, and I could receive The sacraments. Had it not been for that refuge, I think I probably would have fallen away from my faith. Thank you for your offerings to Latvia.'

“Somebody else may come up to you, put their arm around you, and say, 'Thank you so much for making sure to it my pastor got paid, he had a salary. Because, when my husband died, and we had his funeral, thank God my pastor was able to preach The Word, because he was being taken care of. There were people who came to that funeral who never would have known Jesus, had that pastor not been able to preach to them. Thank you so much.'”

Jesus is getting you to think about using your wealth in that way. Now, here is the question. Jesus said that this wealthy, wealthy business owner called his steward, his manager to account. He saw he had been wasting his money.

What if today the Lord called you to account? He said, “It is over. You have had enough time. I gave you all of that time to use all that I have given to you. Let's look, and see how you did.”
How would that go? Would He look in there, looking at the account, and say, “What? It looks to me like you spent more money on entertainment, gaming, hunting, fishing, sports, and lattes, than you did on the service of the Gospel. It looks like you were more concerned about keeping stuff, keeping money, because you were worried I was not going to take care of you, and keep my promise – 'Give, and it will be given to you'. It looks like using the wealth on personal things was more important to you than the Gospel message.”

If we were all to stand before God in judgment based on how we have managed what He has given to us, it would be terrifying. I would be terrified to have God look at how I have spent everything, because I know, I know I could be a better manager with what God has given to me. He would have every right to say, “You are fired. You are fired!”

This is why we need the Gospel so dearly. This is why the Gospel is such a treasure to us. This is why we run to passages like this one.

“You know the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ.

Though He was rich,

yet for your sake He became poor

so that you,

through His poverty, might become rich.”

I want you to think about this. I was watching a show, (I don't know if it was Law and Order), the other day. They were talking about somebody who came from one of the wealthiest zip codes in the nation. What zip code did Jesus come from? Jesus came from THE wealthiest zip code, Heaven, where the streets are paved with gold, and the gates are made of pearl. Jesus is the owner of everything. But it says,

“You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Though He was rich,

yet for your sakes He became poor.”

Jesus took all of His riches, all of His wealth, everything He had, and with you in mind, with you in mind, He said, “If I have to set that all aside for you, and the sake of your soul, I will set it all aside.” And He did.

“You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Though He was rich,

yet for your sakes He became poor.”

And He said, “If I need to set that aside, and be born in a little manger, I will do that for you, because your soul is so important to me. If it means I have to be brought up by Mary and Joseph, who have hardly any money, I will do that, because your soul is so important to me. I will set aside all of that wealth. If it means I need, in my ministry, to just live off the alms of others, and I have no place to lay my head, no place to call home, I will do that for you, because your soul is so important to me. If it means that what little possessions I do have, (my clothing), gambled away at the cross, and become utterly, utterly destitute, I will do that all for you, because your soul is so important for me. If it means I need to take your spiritual debt, that debt that is so heavy, so great, and I need to take that to my own account, as if it were mine, and if I need to be the one who stands before the Father in your place, and hear Him say, 'You're fired', I will do that for you. I will go to the cross for you. And, I will, with my blood, ransom you. One drop of my blood is more precious than all of creation, but I will purchase you, and cancel your debt.”
Brothers and sisters in Christ, our debt is canceled. When you think it would be something to have your mortgage canceled, or your student loans canceled, that is nothing. It is nothing compared to what Jesus has done. He has canceled our debt to God. It is forgiven. Not only that, we are credited with Jesus' righteousness, so that the Lord sees us as if we have always lived a holy, perfect, spotless life, always used everything He has given to us in a perfect way, because Jesus always lived perfectly for us. God looks at us, for Christ's sake, and He says, “Your debt is paid. It is wiped out. I see you, for Jesus' sake, as if you have always managed everything you have perfectly.”
Wow! Are we ever rich!

“You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Though He was rich,

yet for your sakes, He became poor

so that you,

through His poverty, might become rich.”

There are riches there beyond what any money can buy. You have the forgiveness of sin. You are right with God. God is your friend. Heaven is your home. Nothing can ever come close to those riches. Someday, you will have all of the riches of Heaven.

I am going to tell you something. The tighter we cling to the Gospel, the tighter we cling to the Gospel, the more loosely we cling to worldly wealth. The tighter we cling to the Gospel, and that treasure of what God has given us in Christ, the more loosely we cling to money. The more tightly we cling to the Gospel, the more generous we become with somebody else's property, Jesus' property, and then the more we want to use that to advance the Gospel.

So, if we were to have a conversation with this twenty dollar bill, we would look at it, and say, “You know what? You are not my master, anymore. Jesus said you can't serve two masters. So, I am not going to be so worried about piling up twenty dollar bills, hanging on to this and that, and using the money to purchase all kinds of things for myself. You are not my master anymore, Twenty Dollar Bill. I am your master. I am your master. I am going to send you to do the Lord's work. I am going to send you, Twenty Dollar Bill, to make sure that third grade teacher gets a salary, and so that the Gospel is spread. I am going to use you to make sure there are foreign missionaries who can go to different parts of the world, and take the Gospel. I am going to send you to do that - serve the Gospel. I am going to use you to make sure our pastors get paid, so that Word and Sacrament can be taught, and souls can be built up for Christ. I am going to use you, and send you to take care of the poor, to give food to those who are hungry.”
This is why, after our offering, we often say this little prayer.

We give Thee but Thine own,

whatever the gift may be.

All we have is Thine alone,

a trust O Lord from Thee.

Amen