St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church – Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Pentecost 18 – September 27th and 30th, 2007
Text: Luke 16:1-13
1Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2So 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—4I 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. 9I 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. 11So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12And 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.”
Dear Children of God
Sometimes we can learn things from the people we least expect it. For instance we learn many things from children. I was reading a little story. A married couple had their Grandpa sitting in the corner of the kitchen where he was eating his food out of a wooden bowl because he had spilled so much and had dropped and broken too many of the good dishes. One day their son was whittling on a block of wood. His parents asked him what he was doing. He told his parents in a very simple and direct way, “I’m making a wooden bowl for when you get old.” What a lesson that young child taught his parents on what it meant to be kind and considerate to our elders and to all people.
This morning we aren’t going to learn a lesson from a child, but rather we are going to learn a lesson from another odd place – the sinful world that is all around us. Many times as we look at the people of this world who are not believers we see that they can teach us things about how we can live our lives as Christians. So today with that thought in mind we will look at:
Theme: The World’s Lesson To the Church
1. A lesson of rebuke
2. A lesson of challenge
If you would look at the heading in your Bible you would see that this section of God’s Word is called “The Parable of the Shrewd Manager.” As we look at this parable we want to first notice that there is a comparison that is being presented in this parable. It is the comparison of the shrewdness of the people of darkness compared to the people of light. Let’s make sure that we understand this. Simplified this means that we have two distinct groups in this world. We have believers and we have unbelievers. Each is separate and is working towards its own goals. Each has its own leaders and its own followers. Each group is driven by their motivation to reach their goals. Believers and unbelievers are in the same arena – the world. We all are living in this world, and we are each seeking to win our battle against one another. Would we be safe to say that each group is working equally hard towards their goals and objectives? And if one is not working as hard as it can, their might be a slight rebuke whether it is spoken or unspoken.
First we will take a look at the unbelievers. Their source of power comes from evil, because they are followers of the King of Evil – the Devil. Their purpose would be the same as that of the Devil. Their purpose would be to enjoy the things of this world at any cost and try to get as many to follow your sinful path. Driven by their love of this world and their pursuit of earthly happiness, they are greedy and selfish, hateful and proud. They are liars and cheaters. Their hearts are far from God. They are climbing the rungs of the ladder of life at the expense of anyone that might be in their way.
Isn’t this a fitting description of the shrewd manger in our parable for today. He wasted the things of his master who had entrusted them to him. When he was caught, he devised a clever scheme to save himself. He went to all the people that owed money to his master and cut their bills in half. He falsified their accounts so that these people would now be indebted to him. They would owe him something when he no longer was the manager for his master. He didn’t do this at his expense. He cheated his master one more time. The children of this world are just like this shrewd manager. All we have to do is read the newspaper or watch the news. The crime and neglect that we see. The lack of morals or ethics. Decency is gone and people’s conscience seems to be taking a back seat to what is right and proper. All of their energy and zeal is being used to make themselves better and stronger. They will sop at nothing to get what they want.
I see some of you with perplexed looks on your faces. How in the world is this going to be helpful for me? What lesson can I learn from this shrewd yet very sinful manager? Should I cheat and lie to make my life better and easier? Obviously not. You notice that Jesus never once commended the man for what he did. He commended him for his shrewdness and determination. This is what God wants us as Christians to be like. He wants us to be equally determined to press on towards the goal to win the prize of eternal life. Rather than looking at our life on this earth as something that is hard and difficult, let us put all our energy and zeal into serving God. What an opportunity for those of us who love or Lord and Savior. While the power source of the wicked is found in sin and evil, our power source is found in Christ Jesus who gave his life on the cross. From God we have received every good and perfect gift. He gave us his one and only Son so that we might be heirs of eternal life. He poured his salvation into our hearts and gave us the light of salvation. He sent the Holy Spirit into us and has made us new creations eager to serve God. He has called us by the Gospel and enlightened us with his gifts. He has given us the free gift of his grace and mercy.
He has also given us work to do with that gospel. He wants us to spread it to all the corners of this world. He didn’t give this job to his angels. He gave this most rewarding and difficult task to us. This is the opportunity that God sets before us. He wants us to fight this battle with the same determination and zeal as the people who are followers of the Devil. We have something far greater that has been given to us. We have been blessed in ways that we can’t even describe. How can we not be filled to overflowing with the desire to do whatever it takes to live for Christ and to share Christ? Why does it seem like the people of the Devil show more zeal and have more desire to promote unbelief than we who have been given everything? In many ways we would have to say that the world has put God’s people to shame. The Lord commended the manager because he acted shrewdly. He had done whatever it took to move forward. All to often we as God’s children sit back and wait for the perfect opportunity to fall into our laps, but that perfect opportunity never comes. We need to grab the bull by the horns and charge forward with God’s help. The shrewd manager for all the wrong things he did was looking towards his future. After toying with a few ideas he thought this would be the best way to secure his future. He put everything we knew and had into helping his future.
As we live on this earth can we say that we have done the same when we think about our Lord and Savior and the many people of Watertown and this world whose future may not be so secure? No sacrifice is too great as we live our faith and serve our Lord. No amount of time and effort is too great to do the Lord’s work. There cannot be such a thing as giving too much for our God and for those who need to know about our God. The time is short but the prize is great.
But let us never forget that we can’t just move forward to show up the people of this sinful world. Our goal in life should never be to be better and more dedicated than the followers of the Devil. Like the Prodigal Son who had to admit that he had squandered everything and that his only hope is in his living and caring Father. We too need to recognize that we have squandered too much of what God has given us and have wasted too much of our time and talents, but we know that we have a good and gracious God who has forgiven us and has given us the strength to take up the challenge and follow God. As we live our lives may we recognize what is at stake. While the world is looking for earthly survival, we are looking for heavenly security. The faith that has been put in our hearts leads us to trust that our salvation is secure. We know that our good words and dedication cannot earn us heaven, but as we see in the words of our text, our Lord is watching our faith and life. He is looking and watching to see if our faith is alive or dead.
Does the name Pheidippides ring a bell with anyone? This man serves as a great example of what it means to give our all to serve the God who means everything for us. Pheidippides was the Greek messenger who ran across the plains of Marathon to tell the king of Athens and its people that their army had won the victory. He ran 150 miles in two days and then ran the 25 miles back to the King. (which is where we get the term for a Marathon) After uttering the words that they had won, he died from exhaustion. Would that describe our lives on this earth as Christians? Can we say that we have given our all to grow in our faith and to share our faith with others? When we leave this earth one day what will people say about you? Will they say that this person sure was an example of what it means to live their faith and share their faith, or are they going to talk about the nice cars and houses that you had and what a hard worker you were at work and how he was always dressed nice.
As we look at the work before us, we sometimes could learn another lesson fro this world. The world very rarely will say that something is impossible. The job is not too big. No investment too great. They will do whatever it takes to accomplish the task. How many times do we who have the greatest God in all the world leading us say that we can’t do that because it is too hard or too difficult or too far out of our reach? May we be wise and full zeal as we move forward with God’s help to do the work which God has called us to do. Amen.