Becoming good stewards of your Lord’s wealth

Sermon for Trinity 9

1 Corinthians 10:6-13  +  Luke 16:1-9

It’s time to talk about money. Just saying the word in church makes some people start to squirm. But those of you who have been here for a while know that we don’t talk about money like some megachurches do, always appealing for more and more, with one fund drive after another, seeking pledges and commitments and demanding tithes. No, we talk about money as God talks about money in the Scriptures. There are two Sundays in the church year where the topic of money or “Mammon” comes up, and today is one of them. And the message we learn from today’s Gospel is simply this: Your Lord expects you to become good stewards of His wealth.

Jesus tells the parable in today’s Gospel of the unrighteous steward who first misused his lord’s money by squandering it, and then misused it again to save himself from ruin by purchasing the goodwill of others, lowering the amount of money they owed to his lord, although the lord ended up praising him for that second misuse of funds, because it was actually pretty smart, pretty wise. The people he helped ended up with a favorable attitude both toward the steward and toward his master for the “kindness” they were shown.

It’s a very simple story, with a very simple message. First of all, there is a money-related sin that God would have you confront in yourself. That sin is, very simply, idolatry. Idolatry? Where do we idolatry in the parable of the unjust steward? The steward wasn’t bowing down to any idols! He wasn’t trusting in money (which is a form of idolatry) or greedy for more (also a form of idolatry)! Well, we see his idolatry—his worship of another god—in this: that the steward forgot he was a steward—a hired servant, charged with managing well the wealth of his lord. He failed to honor his lord in that he haphazardly managed his lord’s things, squandering his lord’s wealth, as if his lord’s business didn’t matter at all, as if his lord didn’t matter at all. We aren’t told what it was that kept this steward so occupied that his lord’s wealth didn’t get much of his attention. Whatever it was, it wasn’t his lord whom he was serving first and foremost, and so his lord was about to fire him from his stewardship.

The same idolatry dwells in our flesh. The fact is, God is the One who made us. God is the One who redeemed us by the blood of His Son and made us into children of the light, heirs of heaven and of all the good things that await us there. That same God, whom we call Lord, has entrusted us all with a portion of His goods, with material things, with money. But He remains the owner of it, and no matter how much wealth He has put at your disposal, whether a little or a lot or in between, He has made you a steward, to use that wealth for His purposes and for His glory.

And what are those purposes? First is the ministry of the Word, the offerings that are given to God to support ministers and the spread of the Gospel. And here I’m going to also include the needs of fellow Christians in general. There is no New Testament command to give 10% of everything off the top, as there was in the Old Testament. Just a command to put God and His kingdom first and to give willingly and generously to support His kingdom. Then, He has also given us directions to support ourselves and our families with the wealth that He owns and that we manage for Him. Then, He has commanded us to consider the poor in general (not just believers but also unbelievers). And He has even given us the direction to use what’s left for our own enjoyment.

Have you managed God’s wealth haphazardly, forgetting sometimes that He is the owner of all things and that you have a responsibility to manage His things carefully and thoughtfully? Then repent and turn to Christ, who died for that sin, too, and who offers to the penitent full and free forgiveness and the Father’s love and acceptance for Christ’s sake.

The second lesson in today’s Gospel, related to the first, is that special emphasis God places within the first category of stewardship: the care of your Christian brothers and sisters as members together with you of your Lord’s kingdom. That’s the lesson the steward learned in Jesus’ parable.

He’s called an unjust or unrighteous steward. He didn’t do anything with God in mind. But after he was called to account for his sloppy stewardship, he started thinking quite a bit about both his lord and his lord’s other servants. He did it for purely selfish reasons, so that by lowering the debts of the lord’s debtors, they might think kindly of him and welcome him into their homes after his stewardship was done. But that’s just the point. Even an unrighteous steward knows that it’s the right thing to do to help others with the wealth at his disposal, even if it’s only the “right thing” because it helps everyone involved. Why is it that the children of God are so slow to recognize that? As Jesus says, The sons of this age are wiser toward their own kind than are the sons of the light.

And so, Jesus concludes, I say to you, make friends for yourselves with unrighteous mammon, so that, when you become destitute, they may welcome you into the eternal dwellings. Having abandoned the idolatry of self when it comes to Mammon, having found forgiveness with Christ, having then determined to manage the Lord’s wealth wisely and not haphazardly, we are guided by Jesus to apply ourselves to helping our fellow Christians with it, lightening their burdens, because it’s the right thing to do. Right, not primarily because it helps us in return, but because all believers in Christ are children of the heavenly Father and brothers and sisters for eternity. And yet, there is a benefit to us when we help our fellow Christians. The result will be that, when your money runs out together with your earthly life itself, you will have a group of believers in heaven who will thank you for your generosity with God’s wealth and who will gladly receive you as a friend in those heavenly mansions. Don’t discount that, as if you don’t need any friends in heaven, as if you’ll be content with God and a few people you were close to here on earth. The families we have here on earth will seem very small once we reach those mansions, and we’ll realize that we’re part of a much, much bigger family whom our Lord Jesus redeemed with His blood, brought to faith, and sustained in the faith just as He has done and is doing for us.

So learn the lesson today of the unjust steward, to worship God not only with your mouth and with your heart, but also with “your” money and wealth, which are really God’s, and to think carefully about how you will use it to benefit the rest of God’s children here on earth, until we join them around the throne of the Lamb in perfect harmony and peace and love. Amen.