Proper 20 Series C study notes

Proper 20 Series C –
September 18-24

O Lord, Keep your Church in Your perpetual mercy; and because without You we cannot be fail, preserve us from all things hurtful and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation.

The Lord Is Rich in His Grace and Mercy

Because God our Savior “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4), He urges “that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people” (1 Tim. 2:1). Christians should so pray “without anger or quarreling,” but “adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control” (1 Tim. 2:8, 9). For the Lord does not forget “the poor of the land” (Amos 8:4). He remembers them according to the foolishness of the cross. “For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). Though we try to justify ourselves “before men,” God knows our sinful hearts and calls us to repentance (Luke 16:15). Though we are “not strong enough to dig” and are “ashamed to beg” (Luke 16:3), He justifies us by His grace and welcomes us into His “eternal dwellings” (Luke 16:9). More shrewd than even “the sons of this world” (Luke 16:8), He requires His stewards of the Gospel to bestow forgiveness freely.

Luke 16:1-15

1.      This world knows the value of planning ahead.  
A.    The steward knew that a rainy day of reckoning was soon to come.
B.    He acted with foresight to ensure his welfare beyond that day.
C.    But a day will surely come when that in which he had placed his trust will fail.

2.      The sons of light have the light that enables them to plan for eternity.
A.    They have been transferred by grace from darkness into the kingdom of light.
B.    They know that a day of change is soon to come.
C.    They are given the things that will not fail on that day.
    1.      The Word of the Gospel abides forever.
    2.      The unshakable kingdom is the gift of God.
    3.      The Holy Spirit is the down payment of life.
    4.      Work of the new life will not be forgotten.

Mercy is unjust The manager is busted for his wastefulness, you can no longer be my manager – he expects obedience. He is just. But he does not throw him into prison - the manager latches on to the owner’s character, gambles everything because of his mercy. 

The farmers go along with it.   They expect him to be merciful. Money is temporary so be merciful in acts of mercy – be faithful with true riches – the Gospel – It makes no sense in the economy of men.  Greatest injustice.  God forgives our debts and wants to give the kingdom away. Makes no sense in the economy of man. God is wasteful in showering this upon us, unjust in forsaking his Son and declaring us righteous.  

Miserable = in need of mercy

We expect the rich man to be outraged but instead commends the man for stealing. Parables tell us that God is not like us – the surprise - God does not act like we do. God wants to give his kingdom away to the very people who would steal from him and killed his own son. Who can receive you into eternal dwellings only God.

Bestow his kingdom on rebels who sought to kill his son

What wealth can you use to bribe God –stolen wealth that which belongs to another that is not yours which you cannot earn that which you cannot buy or earn wealth that which is stolen.    The innocent dies for guilty – that injustice  is  the foundation of the kingdom   the shocking character of grace – he gives the kingdom away.

The Father forsakes the son to have you. He accepts payment from the son as payment for your son.  More than you stole. He adds to your account adds a credit. End up with more than you attempted to steal.

He welcomes us when creation fails. Faithful in thievery – keep on taking it. Keep on receiving it. It is the currency of heaven.  What shall I give to the Lord. Take the cup of salvation. 

The Father wants to give the kingdom away. Bestows it to rebels who plotted to kill him.  The Steward makes no barter makes no excuses.  Did not plead for mercy. The penalty at least prison, or execution.  The Master shows his character. 

The steward is fired and has no authority. The steward has no legal binding authority. He knows what he’s doing is illegal.  Rent – reducing their obligations. Not a one-time thing but an ongoing thing. He puts the Master in an awkward position. If Master enjoys the praise he cannot fire him. 

This shows the character of the Master – who does not fire the steward and the steward banks on the character and the generosity of the Master. There are not Master in the world like that. He goes too far. A Master we can ever imagine. He is please with the Steward because of what the Steward has done is given the Master’s things away for free. The parable of the Merciful master – NOT unjust steward – gives away the kingdom for free –

What shall you pay for your sins – what gift must you bring – nothing for you everything for Him everything for the Son who gives up his life for you.  This makes no sense in the economy of men. Redeems rebels no variety; he gives mercy not justice.  How much do you owe? Write down nothing. He gives the kingdom away for free to those who do not deserve or understand it.

The Lord must honor the deals the manager has made.  Even if he has cheated.  Master does more than honor the contract yet commends him for giving his possessions away. We have debts. Justice demands punishment.

God is not like us. He does not get us. God understands. He know who a really am. We do not get him he does not get us. He overcame temptation. We cannot overcome temptation – shocked by God’s mercy – grace and mercy are a surprise.

Unjust steward is just what we need.  

Vs.4 contains the point of the parable. The steward is within the context of his knowledge and values planning ahead. He must behave now in such a way that will benefit him when (after) he is “removed” (metastatho). For this he will be commended (v.8) as phronimos, far-sighted.  

Pr. Ken Kelly notes

“Then Jesus said to the disciples…”

He was speaking to his disciples, and strictly speaking, anyone following Jesus would have been called a “disciple,” so it is entirely reasonable to assume that those in the crowd would have been those our Lord had personally called, and perhaps others not personally called, but who, having heard the message of Jesus, had decided to follow him in a limited way. The point is that there were not theologians, seminary professors, professional interpreters of scripture, academic theologians or philosophers in the crowd.

I say that because this particular parable, more than any other parable in the Gospels, has caused nothing but interpretative mayhem for centuries. Everyone has an idea, a different take, an analogy, an interpretive/hermeneutical key, and-the best part-every other idea is wrong. This week I read through dozens of these analyses, and you would need a professional theological education to understand most of them, yet our Lord was not talking to “professional people,” you know the occupations of most of the disciples: tax collector, doctor, fishermen, and remember St. Paul was a tent maker, and they knew nothing about “hermeneutical keys.” So it seems reasonable to assume that the assembled crowd knew what Jesus was talking about, and that there was nothing puzzling about it. So let’s go through the parable itself quickly and then see what to make of it.

First there’s rich landowner, a person who would have been familiar to the people Jesus was speaking to, in fact some of those assembled may have even worked for such a man. We don’t know a thing about him, at least at the start, but we know that someone, either one or more, came to him and told him that fraud was taking place with the accounting.

Now we meet the steward. You no doubt remember Joseph from the Book of Genesis, and when he was sold as a salve, Potiphar bought him and made him the head of his household, as such, Joseph was responsible for how the money was spent as well as its accounting. Our steward has the same kind of task, but on a much larger scale.

The owner comes to the steward with these accusations-no proof that we have been shown-demands the final accounting of the books, and then summarily fires the steward.

Next we are shown the dilemma of the steward: there isn’t much he can do in the real workforce. He’s had a good job for a number of years, suddenly he finds himself unemployed with no skills to fall back on. He isn’t a strong man, so digging is out, but he is a proud man, so begging is also out.

So a plan is hatched, but hatched with a purpose. It’s not a plan to work, but a plan to be able to free-load from wealthy people. The steward wants to be able to go from home to home, to be fed, entertained, and perhaps even to live for a while. Notice what the steward is not interested in: money, for the sake of money. For him, money is a dispensable tool to reach the end of securing friendship with those powerful parts of society that can make his life easier.

Since he’s been fired anyway, there is nothing more for him to lose, he decides to change the amounts owed to his master by his debtors. So the debtors are called in, and one by one, the amount they own is substantially reduced. It’s like going down to Giant Eagle with a cart full of groceries and having the clerk tell you, “I’m only going to scan every other item.”

Now the master finds out-we don’t know how-and he’s not angry. In fact, it’s the master’s reaction that causes so much of the controversy around this parable, to say nothing of the fact that Jesus himself does not condemn the steward, but uses him as an example of how Christians should behave! So what’s going on? How could the master possibly commend a man, who in addition to enriching himself by keeping a double set of books, decides to give more of the master’s possessions away so that he could be wined and dined?

You might logically ask: Is Jesus telling us to act like crooks, and the answer would be “No,” but what he is saying is to think like a crook, a very specific crook: the “unjust” steward.

So that’s the outline of the parable, now what do the words Jesus speaks at the end of it mean for us, right here. St. Augustine famously said that all Scripture had as its goal the correction of our love, so what this parable should do is to somehow show us how to correct our love toward God; now how?

The parable has a great deal to do with money, and money exists to increase one’s pleasure and security. In this understanding, “the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” The sons of the light, on the other hand, often fail to recognize that money is merely a means to an end. Their “end” is different than that of the steward for example, largely because the security for the “sons of light” is not to be found in a neighbor’s mansion, but in God, and it is God they should seek to make friends with, and God’s house they hope to be invited into…eternal dwellings.

But…we’re not very good at realizing this, and if we realized-like the steward-that money is just a dispensable tool to be used for securing friendship with powers that make our life secure-we might then ask, “How can we use our money to make friends with God?” Remember, the steward was not a lover of money, but only what it was that money could bring.

So here’s what we need to ask ourselves: How can I, as a child of God, make the best use of my money now, so that when I am unemployed—dead—I will have a new employer in the age to come—God—who will give me an eternal home?

If we had pew bibles, I’d ask you look ahead to vv.19ff, the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus-for the answer to the question just posed can be found there. You know the story, so I won’t repeat it, except to say that the Rich Man passed by Lazarus each and every day—wearing his finest, while Lazarus was licked by dogs. The Rich Man died and went to hell, Lazarus went to heaven.

The question is this: Could the Rich Man have gone to heaven, had he used his money better in this life, that is, helping Lazarus? Could he have secured for himself a home, when he became “unemployed”? The answer from today’s parable is “Yes.”

For if we have not been faithful with the treasures of this world-again, think Rich Man and Lazarus-then “who will commit to your trust true riches”—or heavenly blessings? That’s from v. 11, and it sums up nicely both our parable and the rational for why the Rich Man went to hell. God was not about to hand over to the Rich Man the keys to the riches of heaven, when the Rich Man was so terrible with managing the wealth he had been given.

We too have “Moses and the prophets” to tell us clearly and plainly how to make friends with God, yet we often advocate strictly for ourselves, or advocate a political ideology that in one way or another-perhaps even politely-discriminating against a portion of society that is less well off. When we do this, we become, The Rich Man. Of all the people in the world, “children of the light,” you and I, Christians, should know that money is never an end in itself, but only a means to an end. We should also know that employment doesn’t last forever, retirement doesn’t last forever, and no matter the level of security anyone has amassed, all of us, sooner or later, will end up in a plot of earth. Given eternity, how can any thing of a material nature have any lasting consequence? You may recall that for decade upon decade, those in the ministry of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod wouldn’t buy life insurance, for this very reason.

But, as Jesus makes clear, even a crook like the steward-a person with no moral compunction or compass-recognized that the ultimate value of money lay in the acquisition of job-security and to insure his well-being.

So, back to Augustine: How does this parable help us to correct our love toward God? It presents us with an unconventional and perhaps even uncomfortable truth: since the manner in which we use the resources we have been given will ultimately impact the type of “eternal home” we have, the best course of action is to do as the steward: use those resources for the improvement of those around us, thus making a friend of God. 

Proper 20

Our Merciful Master

Law/Gospel Theme: God gives us every blessing we have. Whether physical or spiritual. He wants us to be wise in how we interact with one another. And He wants us to use our gifts to give back to Him and to one another. We have many choices. To deny and reject. To say yes or no.  But God wants nothing to interfere with our love for Him. That is why in our story today we find a merciful master who gives us everything we need and more. 

Prayer: Lord, keep us in Your perpetual mercy. And because without You we cannot but fail preserve us from all things hurtful and lead us to all thigs profitable to our salvation.  

Today’s story is the story of the merciful master. Jesus said, “There was a rich man who had a manager.” When we hear of the term “Manager” think, – of a person who is placed in command. 

Especially when the owner is gone. 

He has been given powers. Privileges. And perks. To act on behalf of his commanding officer. Especially when he is away. 

Notice the problem. “Charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.  And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’  

The manager is brought up on charges that he has wasted his Master’s possessions.  He’s forced to turn over the books and face an audit. He’s told, “You can no longer be my manger.” 

Did you notice the surprise?  The manager is accused. Not good. 

He’s told, “You can no longer be my manager.” Even worse! 

However, he isn’t fired. He keeps his job!

Here is the first surprise! The Master is Merciful!  The manager is busted for his wastefulness. He is told, “You can no longer be my manager.” 

The Master expects obedience. He is just. But he does not throw his manager into prison. 

This does not make sense in man’s economy. It makes perfect sense in God’s.

Whether we like it or not, we have to pay for things in this life.  Even when Jesus was on earth, people had to pay for things. In fact, Jesus talked about money in some of His parables. 

He told this story about a man who was going to lose his job. But the manager latches on to the owner’s character. He gambles everything because of his Master’s mercy. 

And the farmers go along with it. 

Remember the manager acts on behalf of his owner. When he cuts the bill in half the people rejoice.  

Because, they too, expect the Master to be merciful.

This story is about the shocking character of grace – 

The Master gives the Kingdom away. Just as The Father forsakes HIS Son to have you. 

He accepts payment from the Son as payment for our sin.  He adds to your account. He adds a credit. And you end up with more than you could ever imagine.

Jesus shows us the character of the Master –who does not fire the steward and the steward banks on the character and the generosity of the Master. 

There are no Masters in this world like that. He goes too far. A Master we can never imagine. 

He is pleased with the steward.  Because what the steward has done.  He gives the Master’s things away. For free. 

This is the story of the Merciful Master who gives away the Kingdom for free!        

The manager went and changed around some price tags.  

Telling people to pay less than what they were supposed to. 

That might seem kind of strange…but we can learn a couple of things from it. 

For one thing, Jesus didn’t want people to be too concerned or caught up with money.

He reminded people that everything we have is a gift from God. And nothing at all should ever come between us and Him. 

Money fades away. It’s just paper after all.

We also want to make sure that we use our things wisely. Whether it’s money or other things.  

The Manager was placed in charge of something we are given. That means that sometimes we can use our money and our gifts to help one another. Like giving it to someone who is hurt or hungry or needy. That helps God’s work continue!

But you know what else we can do? We can use other things God gives us. Like our abilities or time! You can sing or write or do special things that give back to God and His people. Sometimes a simple smile will do.  

When we make sure we are sharing it keeps our eyes on the most important thing.

After all, it’s God who gives us everything to begin with. We’re just borrowing it for a little while. So we want to make sure we take care of it well!

Jesus concludes His story with this thought - You cannot serve God and money. The steward teaches us a valuable lesson.  Money must never to be seen an end in itself. It is only a means to an end.

Employment does not last forever. Retirement does not last forever. Nothing in this world lasts forever. 

So where do you place your trust? Trust not in princes they are but mortal. Trust not in yourself. Trust not in anything except the mercy of God. Who loves you more than you could ever imagine. Who is content to give you His Kingdom at the price of His own Son.

Today we take a moment to pray and thank God for the gifts He showers down on us. We can ask for His help in using them wisely.

Prayer: Thank you, LORD for your love and care. Thank you for Your words and promises. Help us to follow wherever You lead. Help us remember to love one another. Just as you love each of us. We praise you for your world. And for our time, talents, and treasures. Please help us to use them wisely. And to glorify you with all we have. Let nothing come between us and you.

Ministry to Children  Children's Sermon (The Dishonest Manager) Luke 16:1-15 Lesson

Lutheran Senior Care Ministry