PROPER
20
September
17-19, 2022
Pastor
Timothy J. Spaude
Text:
Luke 16:1-13
Lutherans Learn
Lessons on Love from a Thief?
1. Yes! The lesson of Today.
2. Yes! The lesson of Tomorrow.
3. Yes! The lesson of First Love.
Luke 16:1-13 (NIV1984) “Jesus 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-- 4 I 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. 9 I 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."
Over the past several weeks the Gospel
lessons from Luke have presented us with some hard teachings of Jesus. His
words remind us that while becoming a follower of Jesus is easy, (God does all
the work), living as a follower of Jesus is not. As one writer put it,
“Christianity is not for wimps!” Jesus has so far gotten in our face a little
bit to make us understand that being a believer is a privilege. God does not
need us. We need Him. He told us that the cost, the price of following Him is
nothing less than everything. We can’t just be in 98%. It’s all or nothing. He
will not accept second place. He changed our way of thinking about brothers and
sisters who have fallen into sin from looking down on to wanting them back with
His parables of the lost. Today He smacks our smugness yet again by urging us
to learn from a thief. "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.”
The naughty kid gets praised? Yes.
Let’s see why. I won’t read the whole parable again as you just heard it but
here’s what happened. There was a store manager who was about to lose his job
because of incompetence. The owner told him that at the end of the day he was
fired. The incompetent manager was afraid. How would he live? He came up with a
plan to gain friends for himself who would take care of him once he lost his
job. The plan? Steal from the owner. Immediately he found customers who owed
considerable amounts of money and discounted their bills. They were extremely
grateful and happy. The owner was robbed of money. Listen to the conclusion of
the parable again. "The master commended the dishonest manager because
he had acted shrewdly.” The master praised the dishonest manager. He
praised a thief. And so Jesus wants us to learn lessons from a thief?
Yes, but not to steal. To be shrewd
and while Jesus has a lot to say about money here what He’s really talking
about is love. Love for God. Love for people.
"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. 9 I tell you, use worldly
wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be
welcomed into eternal dwellings.” Lesson one is the lesson of Today. Urgency.
When the manager found out he was going to lose his job he did not delay. He
went into action. Time was short. Right away he called in customers who owed
money. “Quickly!” he told them. There was urgency.
Good lesson learned for our faith life
and spiritual matters. Today is the day. There is urgency. We don’t know when
our time on earth will end. We don’t know when someone else’s time on earth
will end. Today is the day first to be doing what you are doing, feeding your
faith, listening to God’s word. Today is the day for something else. Do you
have people in your sphere of influence that you have been wanting to have that
“What happens when you die?” conversation, the one that leads to Jesus? As you
have been working on building relationships with other people has the Lord
given you that opening that you forgot to take? You know where they asked you
that question that you thought about later “What I should have said was…?” It’s
not too late to reach out to them and say, “You know I was thinking about what
you asked and what helps me through is Jesus.” See where it goes. First lesson
Lutherans need to learn from this thief is Today. Urgency.
The second lesson is Tomorrow. That
there is a future to be ready for. "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-- 4 I know what I'll do so that, when I lose
my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.” Those of you who
know my frugal nature will get a kick out of knowing I once saw an
establishment that had a sign prominently posted offering free beer
tomorrow…and I went. You can play those games with words but the lesson of
tomorrow is that you have a future life. God does not guarantee any of us more
days on this earth but He does guarantee eternity, for everyone. Souls do not
die. They do not end. They live forever in either heaven or hell. Either fully
with God or full separated from Him and His goodness. Are you thinking about
your tomorrow? When Jesus gives you the gift of heaven how many people there
are going to say, “Thank you! Thank you, friend! Thank you for making sure I
heard about Jesus?”
And that’s why this is really a lesson
on love as the third lesson we learn from this thief is you only get one first
love. "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." This is a lesson we know well but
have trouble putting into practice. Love God first. Bible 101. Love myself
first. Human 101. It’s that nasty sinful nature we have. Even though when God
brought us into His family in Baptism and gave us the new self that is connected
to Christ we still have our sinful nature. It still leads us to value things
wrongly. We can all think of many times in life when something else was first.
Like being a part of a friend group. Like getting to start for a sports team.
Like the latest video game. Those things are fine but need to be valued in
their right place. Kids, who does Fortnight anymore? Two years ago rage is
today’s lame. The thieving manager loved himself first and that’s why he
misused money. Jesus used him to teach us the lesson of loving God first so we
will know how to use money. Not as a rival to God but in service to God. To be
his hands in helping others, yes with physical needs but more importantly with
their need of knowing Jesus as Savior. It might be hard to do that so Jesus
helps us. “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?” There is a promise there. Show yourself trustworthy with the
blessing of money and you will be entrusted with true riches.
I guess it’s true. We Lutherans do
need to learn lessons from a thief. But actually we already have. There is
another thief in the Bible whose lessons we have loved to learn. The thief on
the cross. Today! Jesus words teach us what happens when we die. Heaven! Tomorrow.
Heaven is our eternal tomorrow. First love. All that happens because Jesus
loved us first. We’re His first love. Let’s find ways to let others know that Jesus
loves them too! Amen.
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