Sermon on Luke 17:5-10

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

Focus :Just as this passage gives us a distasteful image of Jesus without the loving context of the Gospel of Luke, the world around us can give us harmful images of God that do not align with the loving God that we find in the themes of the Bible.

Function: This sermon will challenge hearers to examine the images of God they hold onto.

Today’s Gospel reading makes me sick to my stomach.

At face value, it sounds like:

1.    Jesus scolds his disciples for what seems like an earnest and understandable request.

They’re not asking for glory or riches or even for comfort.

They’re asking for faith,

perhaps hoping it’ll make it easier to follow Jesus’ prior instruction about forgiving people who have sinned against you seven times in a single day.

Who wouldn’t want divine help fulfilling that daunting task?

2.    Then, Jesus uses a troubling slavery metaphor for the relationship between God and humanity.

It’s impossible as a 21st century American to read this passage apart from the history of chattel slavery in the United States,

which hadn’t happened yet when Jesus spoke these words.

And still, slavery of any kind is dehumanizing and an insult to the image of God in every person,

so it’s alarming to hear Jesus talk of forcing an enslaved person to serve dinner after a long day in the field and not even thanking them.

Please and thank you are so ingrained in many people’s upbringing that I hear people thanking Siri, Alexa, and other electronic devices.

Surely Jesus isn’t making light of a posture of gratitude.

3.    And then the real punch in the gut comes when Jesus says,

“So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”

What happened to being beloved children of God?

What happened to being made in God’s image?

What happened to our loving God and compassionate Jesus?

At face value, this is a horrifying passage that portrays God as an entitled, ungrateful, dehumanizing enslaver.

So, as responsible readers of the Bible who have critical thinking skills and good questions, we can ask ourselves, “What else is going on here? What is the larger picture?”

First, let’s remind ourselves of the overall image of God we see in scripture. The Bible contains dozens of writings compiled over thousands of years, so we get a wide range of images of God (including some troubling ones), but we can find some overarching themes:

1.    From the very first page, the Beginning, we see a God who delights in creating and calls creation good.

2.    If we turn more pages, we see God’s faithfulness to God’s people throughout the Hebrew Bible—forgiving over and over again, calling them into relationship with God.

3.    As we flip through, we’ll find some parts of God’s law and messages from the prophets that are pretty strange to our modern understanding, but we also see God calling people into new ways of being in the world: forgiving debts, taking care of the vulnerable, tending to the land, setting aside time to rest and get to know God better.

So those are some themes in the whole Bible. Let’s narrow down our search and flip to the Gospel of Luke. We find some themes here, too:

1.    In the prophecies around Jesus’ birth, we see that God fulfills God’s promises.

2.    If we turn a couple more pages to chapter 4, we hear Jesus’ mission statement that sounds a lot like the new ways of being in the world God lays out in the Hebrew Bible.

3.    On pretty much any page in Luke we can find healing stories—Jesus cares for those who are suffering and marginalized and restores them to their community.

4.    We also find Jesus teaching a lot about money and power and the dangers of both. He invites us to realign with the upside-down order of the Reign of God.

5.    And between the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, written by the same person, we see God’s work in the world spread beyond a single group of people into an invitation for all into the banquet of the Reign of God.

Now that we’ve reoriented ourselves to what God is like in the whole Bible and specifically in the Gospel of Luke, let’s get even narrower by looking again at today’s reading.

Our reading comes at the end of a series of those parables about the danger of wealth and power. Jesus calls us instead to compassion, mercy, and relationship.

Right before our reading, Jesus warns against being the reason someone sins. Focusing on

1.    Jesus’ admonishment not to cause one of these “little ones” to sin

2.    and looking again at the themes in Luke of mercy for vulnerable people:

Jesus is not saying “don’t wear a halter top because the men around you might sin”

but instead “don’t cause your neighbor to steal because they were hungry and you didn’t share.”

Then, Jesus tells his disciples that if someone sins against them seven times in a single day and asks forgiveness seven times, they must forgive them.

This is a lot to take in. It’s no wonder the disciples ask for some help: “Increase our faith”!

Hidden somewhere in Jesus’ harsh words and troubling metaphor is the message that the disciples are asking for the wrong thing.

It takes only the tiniest speck of faith to participate in the upside-down Reign of God and do things the world doesn’t expect.

And faith isn’t something you store up or hoard—it’s something that you show through your actions. You also don’t show off your faith or expect a parade—it’s simply something that happens when you embrace the new lifestyle of the Reign of God.

Far from the image of God as an entitled, ungrateful, dehumanizing enslaver, in this passage we can see our loving, creative God as inviting us into a new way of living that lifts up the lowly and fills the hungry with good things.

As we see in this passage, we can find some pretty troubling images of God when we don’t look at the overarching themes of the Bible and the context of the passages we’re reading.

Reading verses out of context is called “proof-texting,” and it can be used to justify a lot of horrifying things, like slavery and genocide.

A couple examples:

If we only read about God’s judgment and apocalyptic passages, we can find a fire and brimstone God who will punish anyone who doesn’t comply.

But that completely ignores God’s grace, forgiveness, and love. God loved the world God created so much that God became human in Jesus to restore our relationship with God. God knows we mess up all the time and loves us anyway.

Or, if we pick and choose verses about God’s blessings, we can construct a prosperity gospel God who wants us to “name it and claim it”—“it” being a mansion or helicopter or a billion dollars. Of course, a handsome donation helps your chances of your wishes being fulfilled.

And yes, God wants good things for you, but that probably doesn’t mean a private jet. Instead it means the loving relationships that form when you show compassion and generosity to your neighbors, when you join in the lifestyle of the upside-down Reign of God.

We don’t have to stick to extreme examples either to find unhelpful images of God. None of us has a perfectly accurate image of God, so our images of God always deserve to be examined. They grow and change as we do. Our understandings of God don’t always serve us well, so comparing them to the themes we see in the Bible and the truths we see about the world in our daily lives can help us know God better.

For example, I grew up in a loving environment with supportive adults and a faithful church community. But as a child I still absorbed an image of God as a benevolent but distant King who wanted us to be humble servants.

It took time for my image of God to be more personal and loving and less distant and severe. My image of God wasn’t serving me well. But as I grew God showed me the more personal and attentive aspects of Godself. And my image of God will continue to grow and change for the rest of my life. Hopefully yours will too.

It’s important to pay attention to our conceptions of God and whether they’re helping us grow closer to God and better love our neighbors or whether they are making us fearful or judgmental.

Reading passages of the Bible without considering the context and the themes of the Bible as a whole can lead us to some trouble images of God, like an entitled, ungrateful, dehumanizing enslaver, instead of a loving God inviting us into a new, creative, abundant way of life.

When you come across difficult passages and troubling stories in the Bible, consider that an opportunity to take a long view of God’s story and wrestle with your image of God.

God is bigger than we can imagine

and more compassionate than we can ever know.

With critical thinking,

good questions,

and a curious mind,

let’s get to know God better.

A Chasm Between Us

Pr. Jasmine Waring

September 25, 2022

This past Thursday marked the beginning of the Fall season, which means Christmas is right around the corner! I know it’s too hot outside to think of Christmas, but when I was reading today’s assigned Gospel this week, I kept on being reminded of Ebenezer Scrooge from The Muppet Christmas Carol (the only correct interpretation of this novel). The theme of Rich Men and lovers of money (like Scrooge) are prevalent in the Gospels. There is the parable of the rich fool, who hoards his wealth by creating even bigger barns to store it all, only to die the next day without being able to use it. There is the Rich Young Ruler, who asked how to enter the Kingdom of God, to which Jesus replied, “Sell all of your possessions, give them to the poor, and follow me.” Last week we read about a shrewd manager who redistributed his master’s wealth, which got some of the money-loving audience members upset with Jesus. The parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is not different, however, it is unique from the other stories because it is told in the form of an apocalyptic parable, much like A Christmas Carol. Apocalyptic literature, as we know, is not predicting the end of the world. Quite the contrary, it is the disruption of a new beginning. It means to unveil or reveal something. Like peeling back the rug we’ve swept stuff under. Apocalyptic stories are intended to be dramatic, shocking, and exaggerated. They are cautionary tales that show us where we need to change. Interpreting these stories can be confusing, even for biblical scholars. I find it helpful to ask questions and follow my curiosity. Not to find the right answer, but to use it as a mirror to help me see what I need to change. I hope these questions can help you when you encounter a text in your own devotional time (which I’m sure you spend hours at the crack of dawn doing every day). The first question is, who is this God we are a witness to? Next, what is the Kingdom of God like? Finally, what is the Gospel? Who is this God we are a witness to in our text today? Because this story is so dramatic and exaggerated, it is obvious this God is unmistakably and clearly has a preferential bias towards the poor and marginalized. God knows his name, and sees his suffering. In a world where riches were (and still are) perceived to be a sign of God’s blessing, God carried Lazarus away by angels when he died. Probably because he died alone in the streets without a proper funeral, unlike the Rich Man. Lazarus is comforted in the bosom of Abraham, the patriarch of the faith. We also witness a just God, who protects Lazarus from being exploited when the Rich Man was trying to order Lazarus around, even in the afterlife. We are a witness to a good God, even if this story makes us uncomfortable. What is the Kingdom of God like in this story? The Kingdom of God is a world within-a-world where we can experience the reality God intends for us. We experience liberation and abundance in this reality, and we also experience the upside-down and backwards economy of God. Instead of thinking of this parable as a before and after story, or cause and effect relationship between this life and the afterlife, what if these two realities ran parallel to each other simultaneously. In this life, Lazarus experienced unimaginable suffering. At the same time, in the Kingdom of God, he is being elevated and comforted in the bosom of Abraham. In this life, the Rich man lived a lavished lifestyle. At the same time, in the Kingdom of God, he is begging for help. This is what Jesus was talking about in his sermon on the plain when he said, “Blessed are the poor, for they will receive the Kingdom of God.” This is what mother Mary proclaimed in the Magnificat when she said, “He fills the hungry and send to full away empty.” In A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the three ghosts of Christmas. They reveal to him how his greed and withholding attitude bankrupt his soul and affected all of his relationships. It is not until he wakes up Christmas morning, and realized he still had time to make things right with the people in his world. In this moment of grace, he is able to give generously and find joy again. When we are in the midst of suffering, we can tap into the comfort and grace of God through prayer, worship, the sacraments, and in beloved community. When we hoard our wealth and willfully neglect our responsibility to love our neighbor, we are also harming ourselves. When we believe that we are separate, and not interdependent with each other, God, and the Earth, we begin to suffer. Separation ultimately leads to suffering. We create a chasm between us and the people we love, with God, with our coworkers and with strangers. If we do not make a change that chasm will become fixed at the end of your life, and you will not be able to reconcile with the people you affected. This is why Jesus prayed earnestly that we would be one, as he and the Creator are one. What then, is the good news? Just like when Scrooge woke up and realized he had more time, so do we! The Gospel of this text is we still have time to make things right! The truth is, most of us live somewhere in the middle of the Rich Man and Lazarus. We are neither living in poverty nor living in luxury. Sometimes we are begging at the door for bread and healing, other times we are living lavishly, and we forget to be generous with our abundance. What we really ought to pay attention to are the siblings of the Rich Man in this story. The Rich Man begs Abraham and Lazarus to warn his siblings about this chasm, and how he had failed to love his neighbor so that they may be saved. Jacob Marley is not coming to warn you this time! Even if he did, Abraham said that we wouldn’t believe him. Abraham says that his siblings have all that they need to avoid his fate. They have the Law and the prophets to guide them. Not only do we also have the Law and the prophets in Scripture, but we also have Jesus Christ, the embodiment of the Law and prophets. Who is the Word and wisdom of God wrapped in flesh. We have the grace of Christ that empowers us to do good works, recognizing that we are all one in Christ. That whatever is done to the least of these, you have done to Christ who lives in you. So instead of hoarding our wealth, property, knowledge, and presence in people’s lives, we begin to give them generously and invest in Kingdom treasures that Paul names for Timothy: righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. This is what it means to be rich in the Kingdom of God. Who is this God we are a witness to? What is the Kingdom of God like? What is the Gospel? May the God we are a witness to comfort, correct, and carry you when you need it. May you become aware of the chasms you create, and may you have the grace of Christ to close the gap. May you be rich in righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness. And May we be one, as Christ, the Creator, and the Holy Spirit are one. Amen.

First Lutheran Church

September 18, 2022

The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 16:1-131 Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2 So he summoned him and said to him, "What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' 3 Then the manager said to himself, "What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.' 5 So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, "How much do you owe my master?' 6 He answered, "A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, "Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' 7 Then he asked another, "And how much do you owe?' He replied, "A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, "Take your bill and make it eighty.' 8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. 10 "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13 No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

Sermon

The Dishonest Manager and the Kingdom of God

Pastor Greg Ronning

This week’s appointed Gospel certainly must be one of the most confusing parables told by Jesus. A story about “dishonest management,” “dishonest wealth,” and “shrewdness.”  A story in which what we would normally call bad behavior, is commended as faithful.  A story regarding a subject we don’t really like to talk about.  “The love of it is the root of all evil, but on the other hand without it you can’t do much good .”It’s a tricky and dangerous thing.  Yep, today we’re going to talk about money!

Jesus begins today’s parable, “There was a rich man …”  And right away we know that listening to this story, wrestling with the moral of this story, is not going to be a comfortable experience. Even though we are not among the “One Percenters,” when it comes down to it, from a world view perspective, we know we are among the rich .We have things and we manage things, we live as “the haves” and not the “have nots. ”This is a parable in which we should be able to find ourselves.  But even so, it’s not a simple story with a clear message.  Parables always seem to have a “riddle” quality to them but this one is unique, it’s really quite baffling.

Let’s review today’s story … This manager finds out that his boss, the rich man, is not happy with his work, because he is “squandering” away the rich man’s money.  He seems to have been careless, inefficient, foolish, and wasteful with what he was entrusted. In short, he was not a good manager.  So, fearing he was about to lose his job, he calls in some of the people who owe his boss money, and he cancels portions of their debt.  He does this hoping to win the favor of these people, so that when he loses his job, he will have some friends, that he hopes in turn might do him a favor.

The Rich Man finds out what the dishonest manager has done, and unexpectedly commends him for being “shrewd.”  That’s not what usually happens when you essentially “steal” things at work.  And then Jesus, even more unexpectedly, concludes the story by also commending the “shrewdness” of the manager, adding this curious advice, “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. ”Jesus then concludes the parable, somewhat ironically, “You cannot serve God and wealth."

So, what are we supposed to do with this parable?  What is Jesus “lifting up” as an example of good faith practices, and responsible stewardship?  What is “dishonest wealth?”  What kind of relationship are we supposed to have with “dishonest wealth?” “Do the ends justify the means? ”Are we being called to be “shrewd mangers” with “dishonest wealth? ”I can’t help but think of the legend of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, - stealing from the rich and giving to the poor!  Why is Jesus telling us this story?

So, a few thoughts for you to prayerfully consider ….

First of all, Jesus is calling us to be “shrewd” with our faith life.  To be “shrewd” is to be wise, clever, strategic, and even cunning.  And it strikes me that we rarely use these kinds of words to describe a really faithful person.  Those words just don’t sound or feel right.  They belong somewhere else.  When it comes to faith we prefer words like innocent, honest, gentle, and kind.  We prefer peaceful words over aggressive words.  But today Jesus reminds us that our faith also needs to be strong, bold, and courageous.  In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus tells his disciples, “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” 

All too often the faith of the church chooses the more passive way.  All too often we as Christians choose the more passive way? Today Jesus invites us to be more passionate and aggressive, even forceful and antagonistic, - to live out our faith in the same way that the world pursues its love of money.  And if we’re to be brutally honest, maybe even the same way we love and pursue our money?  Jesus challenges us to make our faith our ultimate concern; and to pursue it accordingly, to summon up all the passionate energy we can, to scheme and strategize, around the things of faith, the values of the Kingdom, the righteousness, the justice of God. When it comes to faith, we need to find a good balance between, “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”  We need to practice “shrewdness and cunning” alongside our “gentleness and kindness.”

The second thing that came to my mind as I pondered this week’s gospel was my own relationship with money, to dive head first into the last line of today’s Gospel, “You cannot serve God and wealth."  My first sermon thought was to stand up in front of you all and confess that, “I love money!” I love having it in the bank, I love having it in my pocket, and I love the many things it buys me.  Yes, and I confess that I not only love the food and the shelter it affords me, the necessities of life, but I also love the entertainment, the travels, and the toys that it buys me.  Embarrassing but true, I love my money.

But after some deeper reflection I came to the conclusion that I don’t really love money, - I’m actually afraid of money!  I am afraid that I won’t have enough money to pay my bills, take care of my family, do something fun, as well as have enough money to share resources with those in need.  No, I don’t love money, I am a slave to money, I am a slave in a world enslaved by money.  Unfortunately over the years I have come to believe the great lie about money.  The lie that tells us that money saves us, that money protects us, that money defines us, that money is the secret to a good, happy, and successful life. 

I suppose every time Jesus talks about money or wealth, and he does it a lot, he is warning us of the danger of believing those lies. “No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."  Our relationship with money is complicated and dangerous.  And when it gets turned upside down, when money becomes the most important thing, our ultimate concern; it will destroy our faith, our relationships, and even our life.  In today’s Gospel Jesus invites us to be set free from “the love of money,” and to embrace our resources as something to be shared graciously, joyfully, and meaningfully .Jesus invites us to have a “right” relationship with our resources, one that blesses everyone.  We are reminded that money is not the root of all evil, but that the love of money is the root of all evil.

And that leads me to my last thought, “Whose money, is it? ”We often refer to the money in our pockets, the money we have deposited in the bank, the things we have purchased, and the resources we have accumulated, as mine!  As I said earlier, “I love MY money!”

Yet that’s not really true.  That does not reflect what we have been taught, what we confess we believe, our good theology.  The Psalmist declares and reminds us, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it.” Everything in heaven and earth belongs to God. And all that we have comes from God, not as personal possession to be hoarded but as resources to be shared for the common good of all creation.  We are not called to be owners but stewards of God’s gifts.  So it is that the proper relationship with money and resources is not a “private love affair,”(I love MY money)but seeing and understanding our wealth and resources as tools to implement the work of the kingdom.  We have all been given an abundance to do the work of God, to help realize God’s dream for all of creation, a dream of Shalom, that all-encompassing peace that provides meaning and purpose, health and love, prosperity and joy, for everyone, all of creation.

Theologian Lois Malcom suggests that one of the reasons that Jesus “lifts up” the dishonest manager in today’s parable, is that he goes from squandering the rich man’s wealth to redistributing the rich man’s wealth.  Although his motives may not be exactly pure, he is now suddenly participating in the work of the kingdom. He has become part of the vision of God’s reign in Christ, a vision described in the beginning of Luke’s Gospel in the words of the Magnificat, “God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”  Today’s Gospel reminds us that our talents, our opportunities, our resources and whatever kind of wealth comes our way,- ultimately belongs to God and is to be used “shrewdly” for the purposes of God’s reign among us and not simply for our own interests.

I can imagine that the good news of the gospel might be hard to hear this morning.At one level it sounds a lot like “the law,” it even sounds a little bit like “politics,” and maybe it sounds like the church is after your money again.  And in some ways, all those things may be in there in one way or another; but there is also a word of grace, a word of life, a word that invites us, call us into an abundant meaningful life.  I don’t know about you, but I find comfort and hope that I am not defined by my money, I find comfort and hope that there is more to life than money, I find comfort and hope that I don’t have to play the money game to be successful.

Ultimately this morning, I hear a word of love, a word of grace, and a word of freedom And I am excited that we are all invited into a life that is deeper and richer than money, into a life of love and peace, a life of sharing, a life of making a difference, into God’s kingdom that is coming even now, and will come again in the fullness of time.

Let us be “shrewd” for the purposes of heaven, set free from “the love of money” by the love of God in Christ Jesus, faithful redistributors of “dishonest wealth,” and good stewards of all our good gifts, for the sake of the kingdom. Amen.