Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
September 21, 2015
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
Pentecost 15
Use Money To Secure Your Future
Then the master praised the unjust manager because he acted shrewdly: because the sons of this age are more cunning than the sons of light in dealing with their own generation. Further I say to you: Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon so that when it is of no further use, you may be received into eternal dwellings. The man who is faithful in small matters, is likewise faithful in large ones. And whoever is dishonest in a small matter, is likewise dishonest in large ones. And so if you have not been faithful regarding money, who will entrust you with true riches. And if you have been dishonest with other people’s money, who will give you that which is your own? Luke 16:8-15
—
In today’s gospel Jesus teaches us to use money to plan for our futures.
Jesus is not a financial planner. Nor do we preach a “prosperity gospel” today – the one that promises that if you align yourself with Jesus all the problems of your life will resolve themselves, including your money problems. The real gospel is quite the opposite! Unless you relinquish all that you possess, and gladly embrace the cross of suffering, and follow Jesus into His passion, death and resurrection: you can in way be His disciple. That is the one gospel apart from which no one can be saved; apart from which no man on earth can find rest.
To understand today’s gospel we have to get past the cultural details of how commerce operated in Jesus’ time. Let us say only this, that the dishonest manager of today’s parable was giving unauthorized discounts to his customers in order seal their friendship. While the master does not approve of the man’s dishonesty he does admire that the man can think on his feet; which the Lord also praises, and recommends to us, we who are the “sons of Light.”
But Jesus spiritualizes today’s parable. Yes, such shrewd behavior can gain friends for you to see you over the troubled waters of life. But his concern is with winning friends for yourselves in heaven. The reasoning goes like this:
Use your money to benefit the church; so that by her commission to conduct the gospel in the world, she may bring many sinners to salvation. And those otherwise condemned sinners WHO HAVE BENEFITED by your faithful offerings, will welcome you into the “eternal habitations.”
Now it doesn’t matter what grand fantasies you can work up in your mind; nothing comes close to residence in the “eternal dwellings” with the Father Son and Holy Spirit, the angels, apostles and prophets, and with the whole company of the redeemed of all the ages. In a celebration that never ends, never fades, but grows more wonderful. “O the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Cor. 2:9)
You may know that when someone takes a fatal dose of fentanyl and is given Naloxone to bring him back from the brink of death, he hates his rescuer. Hates him because the magic moments under the influence of that deadly drug feel like heaven: and there is no greater horror to the person than to lost that high. But that high has nothing in common with the “eternal dwellings” that our Lord references in today’s gospel.
But securing our salvation by the cross of Jesus is not the end of the story. Because our Lord flatly asserts that NO MAN can serve two masters. Said another way you cannot “fear, love and trust in God above all things,” and worship money.
Jesus then goes on the say the obvious. That the person who is faithful in small matters, money in this case, will be faithful in large matters. And that if a person is unfaithful is small matters, no one will trust him with larger matters: financial or otherwise.
Likewise as the church must execute her affairs faithfully for the salvation of all men – those who serve God in providing “daily bread” for the world must do the same. We have a negative example of this in today’s Old Testament reading from Amos.
Just as it is the duty of the believer to support the church in her finances. It is likewise the sacred duty of Christians who have vocations in worldly commerce to administer their business with justice and equity.
We are not talking about Marxist economics because Marxism is the devil’s economic system. And capitalism, for its many rough edges, is the only economic system suited to a world that is populated by dishonest men, which all of us are; don’t bother denying it.
Now if you are under about 30 years of age you have likely been indoctrinated by Marxists, to think like Marxists think. But far from the palaver of the day: profit is not a dirty word. Indeed it is by capitalism, and because of profit, that any goods or services exist in the this world.
No one is going to produce food, or iPhones, or bring them to market unless there something in it for them. Profit. A payday. And so as long as there are free markets wherein a person gets paid a market wage, and is allowed to keep the fruits of her labor, God’s people will continue to enjoy the necessities, and even some of the finer things, of life.
But that was not happening in the Old Testament church to which Amos was called. As the Pharisees were enriching themselves at the expense of the human soul in today’s gospel; these Old Testament Bernie Madoff’s were enriching themselves at the expense of God’s people; who like so many Lazarus’ watched with aching bellies as ungodly people ate from sumptuous tables.
And so let us close as we began, by stating today’s theme: Use money to plan for your future by maintaining the church of our Lord Jesus Christ; which restores hell-bound sinners to their God. And they may welcome you into the eternal habitations/heaven. And be faithful to our God in this life as well, recognizing your vocation in the world, and using it as God would have you use it. Let us be faithful and just men!