Reformation Day Sermon: Sunday, October 27, 2013

Reformation Day Sermon: October 27, 2013

PREACHER: Pastor Carrie Smith

Romans 3:19-28; John 8:31-36

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Yesterday, I was in Chicago for the wedding of a dear friend. At the reception, I mentioned that I would be going home soon to finish my sermon for Reformation Sunday. There were a few blank stares from the non-clergy in the room. “You know, Reformation Day,” I said, “It’s kind of a big deal.”

One friend-- an Episcopal priest—responded: “Preaching on Reformation Day shouldn’t be too hard! I mean, isn’t it just “Grace, Luther, Bible, Beer, and repeat?” Another clergy friend helpfully offered, “The best sermon ever is ‘God loves you—pay attention—Amen.’”

To which Luther might respond: “This is most certainly true!”

But this is indeed Reformation Sunday, and it is kind of a big deal for Christians in the Lutheran tradition. This is the day we remember how, on October 31, 1517, a priest named Martin Luther posted 95 talking points (we call them the 95 Theses) on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. He posted them to start a conversation, and instead started a movement. Luther’s ideas, combined with the invention of the printing press and the advent of general unease with the excesses of the church across Europe, resulted in what is known as the Reformation. We, who call ourselves Lutherans, are Christians whose ways of worshipping, reading the Bible, and structuring ourselves as a church, spring directly from this period in history. We are a Reformation church, still proclaiming 500 years later “ecclesia semper reformanda est”—the church is always to be reformed. Amen!

I love Reformation Day, and not just because we get to sing “A Mighty Fortress” and hang the Luther Rose banner and witness fifteen of our young people affirming their baptisms at this afternoon’s Confirmation service. I love Reformation Day because it’s an opportunity to preach, loud and proud, about God’s gift of grace. This is the day when I get to stand here and say, along with the author of Romans: “There is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift”; and again, “We hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law”; and, with John’s Gospel, I get to proclaim to all my brothers and sisters in Christ, ““If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free!”

Sisters and brothers, say it with me: Grace alone, Faith alone, Word alone.

As a church of the Reformation we proclaim that we are saved by grace alone, faith alone, and Word alone. This is the saving truth that changed Martin Luther’s life and began a reforming movement within the Christian church: that no human being is made right with God by being good or following the rules, but that we are good and acceptable and worthy of being loved because God said so. In fact, God’s opinion on the subject of you and your worthiness is made clear on the cross, where our brother Jesus, Son of God, willingly gave his life for the sake of the world. This is grace, given as a gift, and revealed to us again and again through the Word. Jesus said, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Amen!

But the truth revealed to us through the Holy Scriptures is just so good we can hardly believe it! The gift of grace is so beautiful, so bountiful, and so boundless that we spend our lives making up rules, laws, excuses and exceptions to explain it away.

It’s like this: Do you know that annoying commercial that comes on every year (In fact, starting in about a week…) where the husband goes out to get the morning paper and finds a luxury car sitting in the driveway with a giant bow on top? Or maybe you know the one where the wife goes to get an ornament off the Christmas tree and finds a diamond ring? Or, most annoying of all, the one where the kids come downstairs to find a perfectly adorable puppy under the tree with a set of tickets to Disneyland in its mouth? 

Are you with me? Well, I hate those commercials. I hate what they do to our brains and hearts, how they change our expectations of Christmas and gift-giving. I hate them because then, on Christmas or a birthday, when we present our friends and family a lovingly knitted scarf or a carefully chosen sweater or whatever other gift we can truly afford to give, somewhere in the back of our minds we are thinking “It should have been a puppy. Or a car. Or a car with a puppy in it.”

These commercials are crazy, and especially crazy is the way they undermine our appreciation of every reasonable, thoughtful, and true gift given or received in love.

But here’s the thing: what we do with God’s grace is the exact opposite. God has already given us the gift to beat all gifts. God has given us the luxury car with the bow, complete with the puppy in the front seat and carrying the tickets to Disneyland, and what we say is “Dear God, thank you SO much for the new car floor mats. They’re just what I wanted.”

Can’t you just hear God saying, “Wait, what? Didn’t you see the car? And the puppy? And the Disney tickets?”

And we just respond, “Well, I saw all that, but I didn’t think that was for ME.”

Friends, God has given the world this amazing gift of grace for all through the cross of Jesus Christ, and we look right at it and say “Thanks for loving all the good people, God.” We even read it in Scripture and don’t believe it. We think “Yeah, it says that, but that can’t be for ME.” 

So we make up our own rules:

“God loves everyone: but I can’t kick that addiction, so I’m the exception. Jesus is present in the bread and wine: but I’m not sure how that works, so he must not be there for me. Jesus died to save the world: except for my neighbor, because he’s a real jerk. I know grace is free: but I’m gonna earn it, gosh darn it.”

But friends, on this day of all days we can remember that Martin Luther (along with so many others) has already been down that road. He struggled with those same questions and tried to follow those same rules and even made up a few of his own. But it was through diligent prayer and study of Scripture that he was convinced of the magnitude of God’s gift of grace. He was so convinced that he stood in front of princes and church authorities to say, “Here I stand!” I cannot and will not take it back! For this Good News is just too good to ignore. It’s too good to hide. It’s too good not to share.

Theologian and food writer Robert Farrar Capon, who passed away just a few weeks ago, said this about the Reformation:

“The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar full of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two-hundred proof Grace–bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. The word of the Gospel–after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your bootstraps–suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home before they started…Grace has to be drunk straight: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale; neither goodness, nor badness, not the flowers that bloom in the spring of super spirituality could be allowed to enter into the case.”

 (― Robert Farrar Capon, Between Noon & Three: Romance, Law & the Outrage of Grace)

Sisters and brothers, my message to you this morning is that being Lutheran has nothing to do with Jello or casseroles or upper-midwestern culture. It actually has nothing to do with beer, either! Our understanding of God’s grace is the true gift and heritage of the reformation. We are Lutherans when we live into that grace. We are evangelical Lutherans when we share it with others! And we are truly free when we can look at ourselves and say “I’m not perfect, but I’m enough, because I am loved by God. Jesus has it covered. And this truth sets me free! I am free to love, free to live, free to appreciate each day I am given. I am free to drink deeply from the never-ending well of grace, and to bring others who are thirsty to the same waters. For if the Son sets me free, I am free indeed!

Today, on this Reformation Day, we gather to receive again God’s gift of grace through Jesus Christ. Together, we sing God’s praise, and pray that the gift of grace would continue to be a reforming presence in our lives, in the church, and in the world. This is what it means to be a Reformation people. This is what it is to be a Lutheran. This is most certainly true. Amen.

Sermon for Global Church Sunday: October 6, 2013

 Sermon for Global Church Sunday

October 6, 2013

PREACHER: The Rev. Dr. Robert Smith from ELCA Global Mission

Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ!

It is a pleasure to be with you today to celebrate Global Church Sunday. As Christians in the United States, we are strengthened by our engagement with sisters and brothers in Christ around the globe. Since its beginning 25 years ago, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has constantly sought to answer God’s call to participate in God’s mission of reconciliation and to touch people’s lives to promote the flourishing of human community.

With the 10,000 congregations in the ELCA, Bethany Lutheran has been responding to that call. 2013 marks the tenth anniversary of Bethany's relationship with the Kiutu Parish in Tanzania. This relationship has deeply enriched the lives of both communities, mutually building our capacities to participate in God’s mission of reconciliation.

 

Pastors from the ELCT prepare for the worship service honoring the 50th anniversary of the church. Photo by H. Martinussen, LWF Learn more here: 50th anniversary

I am privileged to serve in the Global Mission unit of the ELCA’s churchwide organization. Part of our responsibility is to maintain the church-to-church relationship between the ELCA and Christian companion churches throughout the world. Another focus is to build the capacities of congregations and synods to best accompany parishes and churches outside the United States.

So what is this all about then? Why do we work so hard to establish and maintain relationships with congregations and churches across time zones and continents? Is it all about charity and sharing the best of what we have with less fortunate people? And if that’s the point, don’t we have enough to do here at home?

For me and for the ELCA as a whole, the answer is simple: the God we are called to serve is a God of relationships. The Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is a God of everlasting and essential relationships. Through the Good News of Jesus Christ, this God calls us into relationship with the very being of God, catching us up into divine reality. But it is not just for us alone. Our divine parent calls the entire world into loving and reconciling relationship, making all of us into sisters and brothers. The God we serve is a God of relationships.

The Bible uses several images to describe our relationship with other believers. Hebrews says that we are connected with all saints past and present in a “great cloud of witnesses.” Paul makes it even more intimate, saying that we are all part of the same body, the Body of Christ. Just as God exists in intimately connected relationship, Paul reminds us that “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it” (1 Cor. 12.26).

Our bond is most apparent in Holy Baptism. Today [at the 10:45 service], Oliver and Jordyn are being baptized. In this sacrament, Oliver and Jordyn will be joined both to the death and resurrection of Jesus and to the global Body of Christ. Our God is a God of relationships!

Most of you probably know me as Pastor Carrie’s Husband. You may not know what I do outside the home. I’m a pastor in the ELCA serving in ELCA Global Mission as Area Secretary for the Middle East and North Africa. You might want to know what in the world that means! In short, it means I am responsible for maintaining ELCA relationships in the Middle East as well as supervising our mission personnel serving in the region, including Danae and Steve Hudson in Jerusalem, who are sponsored by this congregation.

In addition to that primary role, I work closely with colleagues in the Lutheran World Federation and the World Council of Churches. All of this means I have become intimately involved in the lives of Arab and Middle Eastern Christians, especially in recent years as they have experienced the deep optimism and deep disappointments of the so-called Arab Spring.

But I am not the only member of this congregation involved in our denomination’s global work. We are blessed to have Bishop Emeritus Rafael Malpica Padilla, Executive Director for ELCA Global Mission, along with the entire Malpica family, as long-term members of Bethany. The global reach of Bethany Lutheran is extended and deepened through Rafael’s life and work.

All of this is important for you to know since your offering dollars directly support the work Rafael and I do on your behalf. When Rafael is hosting international guests for yesterday’s installation of PresidingBishop Elizabeth Eaton or visiting church leaders in Papua New Guinea with our colleague Franklin Ishida, or when I am in Geneva meeting with Christian leaders from Iraq, Bethany Lutheran Church is present. Our God is a God of relationships!

 

Rafael and Franklin on their most recent trip to Papua New Guinea

Now, through the 25^th Anniversary Campaign of the ELCA, congregations have the opportunity to participate even more directly in global work. In the Global Church section of the campaign, we have the opportunity to identify and support women leaders around the world, to help establish a new Lutheran church in the new country of South Sudan, and (my personal favorite!) help build the capacity for religious education among Protestant Christians throughout the Middle East.

Our God is a God of relationships. Ideally, our global relationships are informed by the call to shared suffering and rejoicing with fellow members of the Body of Christ. As we experience together the radical hospitality of Jesus, we accompany one another in the journey of discipleship. While our communities may experience different needs in different ways, we are not defined by what we lack but by the riches we have in Christ Jesus. In my work with Christians around the world, I have found tremendous riches in the midst of what most of us would describe as profound need.

In Russia, I have sat with Lutheran Christians still struggling to overcome the effects of Communism. The Cathedral in St. Petersburg was converted into a competition diving pool, but the community is persevering throughout Russia’s vast land.

Slovak and Hungarian Lutherans experienced Communism as well, but remember just as well the difficulties of the counter-Reformation and Ottoman occupation. Today, they are joining efforts throughout Europe to stand up for the civil rights of their Roma neighbors, a persecuted group still known by some as Gypsies. Remembering their own experiences of oppression, they are lending their voice to those who have no voice. Our God is a God of relationships!

In Palestine, I have seen how the Evangelical Lutheran Churchin Jordan and the Holy Land—by their own admission a poor church, a small church—provides a powerful witness for the wellbeing of all communities trapped by political conflicts. I have seen Palestinian Lutherans proclaim that creativity will overcome destruction, that relationships will overcome political divides. Our God is a God of relationships!

Our relationships are not only with Lutherans. I am still amazed at the relationship I have developed with His Eminence Jean Kawak, Archbishop for the Syriac Orthodox Church in Damascus. Because of the civil war now tearing the fabric of his country, this church is for the first time in the position of seeking assistance from others. The ELCA has responded to the needs of Syrians with over one million dollars in assistance. But remember what I said about churches possessing profound riches in the midst of great need: the Syriac Church is intensely proud that it is the bearer of one of the most ancient forms of Christian worship: the Liturgy of St. James, the brother of Jesus, chanted in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. In that liturgy, which is very similar to our own, we are joined to all centuries of Christian life. Our God is a God of relationships!

And of course our relationships are not with just Christians alone. In Senegal, the far western tip of Africa, I was privileged to accompany Senegalese Lutherans to a meeting with a Sufi Muslim leader. The Sufi Caliph closed our meeting by saying, “I would love for you to become good Sufi Muslims like us. But since that is not likely to happen, I pray that we will live as cousins every day” and then smiled broadly when the invitation was returned that he could also become a good Lutheran Christian. In a world where US military might is used every day to secure oil to support our lifestyles of excess, we have much to learn from a context where a profound lack of natural resources has led to strong relationships between Muslims and Christians. Our God is a God of relationships!

And then finally, during a conference this past week inWashington, DC, I encountered the strangest Other of them all: the pastoral staff of Willow Creek. Even in my deep suspicion and (I must admit) my envy of mega-church success, I was humbled and inspired by how these faithful leaders were supplementing their traditional pro-Israel commitments with genuine love for followers of Jesus in both Israel and Palestine and committing to political action for peace with justice. We will continue working together. Our God is a God of relationships!

As the prophet Habakkuk saw, “destruction and violence are before” us and our companions. The law has become slack “and justice never prevails.” Our call as members of the Body of Christ is to carry one another’s burdens, so that “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” In this suffering and rejoicing, the ELCA is a global church committed to global relationships since our God is a God of relationships. Amen!

Sermon for Sunday, September 29, 2013: What will it take?

Sermon for Sunday, September 29, 2013

Luke 16:16-31

Lazarus at the gate

PREACHER: Pastor Carrie Smith

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thank you, Creator God, for the gifts of abundant sunshine and gorgeous autumn weather. Amen!

On Friday, which was a particularly lovely day, I spent most of the morning re-painting my front porch. My companion, as usual, was National Public Radio. One of the more interesting stories was a report from the BBC about a brand-new study, just released by the United Nations climate panel, which states more clearly than ever that humans are the dominant cause of global warming. Some of the temperature predictions have changed for the better (it offers a slightly less dramatic scenario of how warm it will actually get over the next 100 years) but overall the report was not favorable to humans and how we do things. Several scientists were brought on for commentary, and what struck me was when the interviewer asked one, “What will it take for people to pay attention to this problem?” The scientist sort of chuckled and said, “Without a doubt, the only thing that will change peoples’ minds is if green energy is cheaper than all other kinds of energy.” That’s it! No dire predictions, no heartfelt documentaries, no incentive program or carbon tax will make a real difference. Make green energy the choice that puts money in your pocket, and we might get somewhere. End of story.

“What will it take for people to listen, and to finally make a change?” This is the question I imagine Jesus asking before he told this parable from the 16^th chapter of Luke. “What will it take for the disciples to hear what I’m saying about money and the poor? What will it take for my followers to grasp the seriousness of this? I’ve already given them the Beatitudes (“Blessed are the poor”); and I’ve told them about the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son and the Dishonest & Crafty Steward, and they still don’t get it.” The way I see it, this parable is the equivalent of one of those scary church-sponsored road signs—a last-ditch effort to get you to pay attention. Repent! Turn back! The end is near! Except that this time, it would be a sign saying: “Money is a gift from God, not to be hoarded but to be used for the good of the poor—and I mean it! Signed, Jesus.”

If you came to church today and groaned when you realized the Gospel text and sermon were about money AGAIN, just know that you’re not alone. I’m fairly certain every preacher did the same thing, too, thinking: “Oh no! I have to preach about money AGAIN? But the stewardship drive is coming up soon! Maybe I can just preach on the Epistle instead.” And then we all turned to the Epistle, 1^st Timothy, and read “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” and sighed “OK, ok…I’ll preach about money.”

No one likes to hear about money in church, but the problem is, Jesus likes to talk about money! A lot! In fact, he talks about money and greed a heck of a lot more than he mentions some of the other things Christians get so uptight about. And here’s the thing: I can hardly think of a better Scripture text for the Sunday when we’re going to bless the PADS ministry in preparation for the opening of its 25^th season. We don’t have to look too far at Bethany Lutheran Church to see Lazarus at the gate. When Linda, our site coordinator, started with PADS all those years ago, they would serve about five men per night. Last year, Linda tells me, the top number was more than fifty-five in one night. Fifty-five homeless men gathered here for a bit of shelter, food, comfort and caring. Fifty-five Lazaruses lay at the gate—or, in this case, sat under the canopy drive-thru--hoping to receive the crumbs of the feast we enjoy inside these walls. It pains me to know that that those fifty-five only represent the homeless who were able to get here to Bethany, and who were lucky enough to get beds. Thanks be to God for this vital ministry of mercy and compassion, and for all of you who participate in making and serving meals, setting up and taking down the beds, and providing other assistance.

Amen, amen! But, here’s the thing: I also can think of no worse Scripture text for the day when we are blessing the PADS ministry. Why? Because it takes us off the hook. If we hear this parable about Lazarus at the gate, and then hear about the wonderful work of PADS right here in our building, it softens the impact of Jesus’ words. We might think these words aren’t for us. We might think we have nothing in common with the rich man, or that the mere existence of PADS means we’ve got it covered. We might miss the serious call to repentance that we find here in the Gospel of Luke.

Remember, repentance is not about feeling guilty. Repentance means turning around, changing directions, and taking a different path. It means making a choice for something new. This parable is a clear message to all who hear: Now is the time to make a change. Now is the time for showing mercy and compassion to those in need. Soon and very soon, a great chasm will be fixed between the rich and the poor, and nothing will close the gap.

And what does Jesus want us to turn away from? Jesus wants us to repent of our love of money. He wants us to clear away the crap we’ve given places of honor—our money, our cars, our boats, our retirement funds, our privilege—so we can finally see the people whom God has made a priority.

Raise your hand if your child, or spouse, or roommate, has ever opened the refrigerator door and yelled to you “Where is the orange juice?” and you come running, only to discover that the orange juice is right there in front of their eyes, but happens to be behind the milk… My friends, money can be like that. It gets in the way, obstructing our view of the people who are right in front of us. Our pursuit and love of money, comfort, and privilege make it all too easy to miss seeing Lazarus at the gate—or the elderly neighbor whose refrigerator has been empty for a week, or the friend who has stopped taking her medication because it costs too much, or the children in Syria who are at risk of mass starvation because of the ongoing war there.

Jesus, in every way possible, has been telling us and showing us a new way. He invites us to see the world as he does—as a place of abundance, with enough resources for all, if we would only open our hearts and our hands to help those in need.

The Word of God is pretty clear. So what will it take for us to listen, and to choose differently? Sometimes the choice is made for us. I hear often from folks who have had a crisis in their lives – an illness in the family, the loss of a job, or a huge life change – which makes them re-evaluate priorities and discover once again what is truly important. In fact, my own story of being called to ministry includes a year that was unusually full of grief and heartache, which made me finally say “Yes” to God’s call. These are wonderful stories, and the results can truly be an example of how “all things work for good to those who love God.”

But what are we waiting for? Do we really need a crisis to interrupt our lives and change our priorities? Or could we choose to live differently now?

I read a book not long ago called “The Power of Half”, the true story of an affluent family that chose to sell their house, downsizing to one half the size, who then gave the other half to the poor. To be fair, their choice was not out of a sense of Christian responsibility to the poor, but more of a concern for the values they saw reflected in their lives. But that story has stuck with me, because of the way the family took the thing that had become an idol (their huge house) and literally got it out of the way. They cleared away the crap, allowing them to see finally see the people around them: family members, neighbors, and most importantly, the poor.

 So, today, I want to ask you: What would it look like to make some choices to live differently now? You may not be able to sell your house and give away half (in fact, selling a house at all right now is a challenge, amen!?) But what would repentance look like for you and your family today? How could you turn away from the love of money, and turn toward the poor, taking the words of Jesus seriously? Shout out your ideas!...

Amen, amen! Let it be so!

Sisters and brothers in Christ, in today’s parable, the rich man begs for Abraham to send his brothers a sign. He said, ‘Father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ And Abraham said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’

Dear people, we are here today because we have heard the Good News: Jesus Christ is raised from the dead! Alleluia! And because he has been raised, we are convinced! We are convinced that our God is a God of abundance. We are convinced that this world has more than enough: Enough food for all. Enough space for all. Enough medicine for all. Enough energy for all.

And, because Christ has been raised, we go forth in boldness, without fear, turning away from money and toward the people and the priorities God has set before us. We go, trusting that in Christ there is enough love, enough forgiveness, and enough grace to cover us all. Amen. 

Sermon for Sunday, September 22, 2013: God is not the rich man (Parable of the Crafty Steward)

Sermon for Sunday, September 22, 2013

Luke 16:1-13

"God is not the Rich Man."

PREACHER: Pastor Carrie Smith

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

“The parable of the dishonest steward has baffled interpreters since the beginning of time.”

“The parable of the dishonest manager has puzzled many readers.”

“This parable of the Dishonest Steward is one of the strangest of the strange.”

“This one is variously titled as The Parable of the Dishonest Servant, or of the Unjust Steward, or of the Crafty Manager etc., etc. But always, universally, it is referred to as “the most difficult parable of them all.”

Thus began the various Bible commentaries I consulted this week in preparation for preaching on this text. Everyone says this parable is problematic, and not just because it means the pastor has to preach about money on a day when we’re celebrating baptisms and new members (although that does make this pastor tremble a bit!) Why is this parable so hard to preach and to hear? Because Jesus says “You cannot serve God and wealth”, but we consistently come to this parable believing we can.

When Robert was learning to serve God at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, I became good friends with the wife of another seminary student. Kim and I loved to take walks around the neighborhood, mostly because walks were cheap entertainment (we were, after all, married to grad students!) One of our secret destinations was the convenience store a ways up the street, just beyond the seminary grounds. At least once a week we walked there for one purpose: to purchase a lottery ticket.

The most we ever won was a few dollars, which we promptly spent on more lottery tickets. It’s probably good we never won big, anyway, because we had the darnedest time determining what we’d do with the money. Kim suggested we should pay off student loans first (of course). We would make sure our parents’ houses were paid off and our future kids had college funds. But after that we got a little stuck. Our husbands were studying to be pastors! What congregation would call a millionaire pastor who had just won the lottery? Maybe it would have to be a secret. Or, maybe, it would look better if we gave some of the money to the seminary. We knew very well the student housing could have used some updating! We dreamed of putting in full-size ovens that would actually hold a casserole dish no matter which way you put it in.

These were fun walks, mentally spending money that wasn’t ours, but by the time we got home we were always reminded: You can’t serve both God and wealth. Any way we figured it, having all that money was incompatible with the lives we had chosen. If our idea of a happy future was willing millions, we were married to the wrong people for sure! We knew our hope did not reside in lottery tickets, but in God, and our lives were to be about sharing that Good News with others.

Hear again the words of Jesus, who said: “You cannot serve God and money. You will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other.” In other words, as people who seek to follow Jesus Christ in this world, we are constantly caught between two competing sets of rules. One says “Money makes the world go round” and gives us slogans like “American Express: My Life, My Card.” The other says “You shall have no other gods before me” and has as its only tagline: “Blessed are the poor.” (Luke 6) You can’t have it both ways. You cannot serve God and wealth. Who will you serve? And when you decide, what will that look like?

Well, in his usual helpful manner, Jesus tells the disciples a story to clear things up. Except that over the centuries, preachers, commentators and theologians have twisted themselves into pretzels trying to explain what it means.

They say:

God (the rich man) gives us the riches of the world to manage and we squander it all, but just like in the prodigal son story, God welcomes us back anyway.

OR…

God (the rich man) praises the dishonest manager because he collects the money owed (minus the commission) in order to get his job back.

OR…

God (the rich man) doesn’t want us to serve money and wealth, but does want to us to be shrewd with it, so he invites us all to a special presentation by Thrivent Financial after worship.

Each of these interpretations makes sense in a way. But I get nervous when my understanding of Jesus makes too much sense—because parables are more than just stories. Parables are crafted to subvert our thinking, and to surprise us with a twist. The parables of Jesus reveal to us a new reality and a reversal of our assumptions.

So let’s start with this assumption: God is the rich man.

Quick, call to mind your image of God. Don’t think too much about it: Just grab the first thing that pops into your head: the image you grew up with. Is God male? Is God white? What does God look like? Does God have a long beard and hair? What does God wear? Pretty white robes? A crown? Does God look powerful or powerless?

 

It’s no wonder, when Jesus starts telling this story, that we immediately identify the rich man with God. We know God is powerful, and money equals power, so obviously God seems to be the rich man in this scenario.

But try as I might, when I read this parable this way – with the rich man as God – even if it makes sense, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because it doesn’t meet up with anything else we know about who God is. Because if God is the rich man, then God praises the manager for bowing to his needs, grabbing as much money as he can, and kissing up so he can get his job back. I don’t know about you, but if this is God, then I might be an atheist.

Jesus clearly says “you cannot serve both God and money.” So where is the money in this story? It’s right there, in the beginning: There was a rich man. If this parable is about how we are caught between two masters (God and wealth) it seems to me the rich man represents wealth. Are you with me?

So who represents the competing paradigm? Who represents the other set of rules? If the rich man is where we see money and wealth, where in this parable do we see what it looks like to choose to serve God?

Hear again the Word from Luke 16, verse 4: “I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes,” said the crafty manager.

Desperate, soon to be unemployed, and caught in a dilemma of his own making, the manager decides…to serve the debtors. By lowering their debts, he chooses to stand in solidarity with the indentured servants, the folks on the edge of town, the people he formerly used to threaten and persecute, and from whom he once extracted taxes and payments.

Caught between two worlds, forced to make a decision, Jesus tells us the crafty manager chose to use what he had to serve the poor. After all, In Luke chapter 6 Jesus said “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.” The poor will welcome us into the eternal homes. As Pastor James Forbes once said, “Nobody gets into heaven without a letter of reference from the poor.”

Let me be clear: we’re not talking about charity. When we give charity to the poor we retain power. If we bring the casseroles and serve up the plates and then eat in the kitchen by ourselves, we’re still on top. We get to feel good about ourselves and our generosity. Making friends with the poor is different. It’s not nice: it’s shrewd. Why? Because these are the folks Jesus has said own the deed to the kingdom of heaven. We have heard, time and again, what Jesus has said about the poor, the oppressed, the ones who live outside the gate, and the ones who are so in debt they’ll never earn their freedom: They are blessed. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Furthermore, Jesus says he came specifically to proclaim the Good News to them.

This, then, is why the name of the parable is not “the unusually nice debt collector” or “the man who did nice things for the poor” but rather “The Parable of the Shrewd Steward” or the “Story of the Crafty Manager.” As Jesus tells it, the manager is commended for using what he was given, working within the system, and then subverting it for the good of the poor. Therefore, we, too, serve God when we choose to stand with the unemployed and underemployed, the uninsured and the undesirable. 

Sisters and brothers in Christ, this morning I hope you will hear that the Gospel of Jesus frees us from the filthy, rotten system which tells us “God is the rich man.” What Jesus does for us is challenge all those messages we’ve grown up believing: That to be rich is to be blessed. That money buys happiness. That to be poor is greater to be feared than all else. That using food stamps is a sign of weakness or laziness. That our credit score and fiscal health give us our identity.

Instead, Jesus frees us to identify ourselves not as who we are in relation to money, but who we are in relation to God. Rich or poor, head honcho, middle manager, or indentured servant, we are all, in baptism, claimed by God, sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked by the cross of Christ forever. This morning, when Amber Sheils and Madison Behrens come to the font, they come to the water the same as we did: as it says in Isaiah 55:1 –

“Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”'

Yes, this morning I proclaim to you the Good News that “God is not the rich man.” Say it with me: God is not the rich man!

And why is this Good News? Why does this give us joy and freedom? Because as long as we believe God is the rich man, we will twist and turn and contort ourselves in our efforts to serve both God and wealth. We will serve, and sacrifice and suffer for whichever god we choose.

So let it be the One who “raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.” (Psalm 113). Let it be “the one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all.” (1 Timothy 2). And let the people say “Amen.”