You can tell a lot about a person by looking inside their house. I imagine an anthropologist from the
future doing time travel to our time and visiting someone’s living room some evening in Albuquerque.
Here’s what they might report:
Clearly this is a family with deep religious sensibilities. In their primary living area they orient their
furniture around a shrine that produces colorful images and dramatic sounds. For many hours a day
they passively absorb this sensory input. From time to time they place food offerings in front of the
shrine—usually containers of small, dry grain offerings they refer to as “chips.” Some of the natives
also drink jars of fermented, carbonated beverages, apparently designed to intensify the mind-
altering effect of the shrine. The amount of time spent at these centers indicates a focused culture
with a well-integrated spiritual belief system.
Or, what might this same expert from the future report about Saturday afternoon at the football
game? Crowds of people roaring their approval when people in colored uniforms bowl over people in
differently colored uniforms to advance an inflated pigskin down the field, shouting mysterious
incantations like “Go Lobos!”?
Or what might they report about the posters of sports heroes in front of stadiums? Would they be
regarded as icons, or gods? And the cheerleaders as embodiments of fertility goddesses? I’ll leave
that to your imagination.
Perhaps most tellingly, what would a future anthropologist report about how early 21st Century
Americans spend their money? What would it tell them about our priorities in life?
Remember in the Gospel reading a few weeks ago Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also.” What Jesus was talking about then is our priorities. How we spend our time and
resources. And he’s doing much the same in today’s Gospel reading.
At first glance the parable Jesus tells to lead off our reading can be pretty confusing. He gives a
rather strange story about a rich man who’s just about ready to fire his business manager for
squandering his money. So the business manager promptly arranges to mark down the debts owed
to the rich man. He’s about to fix it so his boss gets even less money.
Apparently he figures that if he’s about to lose his job anyway, he might as well score some quick
points with the people indebted to his boss. Maybe this way he can worm his way into the good
graces of someone who might be able to hire him or something.
But then comes the truly strange thing in Jesus’ parable. Instead of immediately sending him
packing, or even boxing his ears, the rich man commends the manager’s shrewdness. Maybe he’s a
man after his own heart, and he has a little larceny in his soul. But all that’s really not the point. The
manager’s shrewdness really is the point that Jesus is making here. We don’t need to read anything
else into it. Jesus isn’t advocating some kind of situational ethics or encouraging dishonest behavior.
He’s simply pointing out that worldly people often seem to have a kind of shrewdness that people of
the light, as he calls them, lack.
What Jesus is doing is encouraging people of the light to be shrewd as well, but in a little different
way. He even relates this shrewdness to our eternal destiny. Jesus says, “I tell you, make friends for
yourselves by means of worldly wealth so that when it’s gone, they may welcome you into eternal
homes.”
Now, what in the world does that mean? To make sense of this bit of advice, I think we need to
consider a couple of things. First, let us all please note that Jesus is encouraging us regarding the
use of our worldly wealth. This implies that some of us have worldly wealth to use. Are you hearing
that? He’s not saying that wealth is bad, or that money is bad. In one of the most frequently
misquoted sayings of Jesus, we have people telling us that money is the root of all evil. But this isn’t
actually what Jesus said. What he said was, the love of money is the root of all evil. There’s a big
difference. And Jesus drives that difference home a little later in this passage, as we’ll see in a few
minutes.
You see, Jesus’ message is not about wealth being bad in and of itself, but a comment on the
seductive danger of making it a higher priority than eternal things. This was pointed out in the
poignant story of the rich man who lived a basically righteous life, but lacked one thing: the
willingness to give it all up to follow Jesus. When Jesus said that this is what it would take to really be
his follower, the man went away dejected. After this incident Jesus remarked to the disciples that it’s
easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. But
once again, there’s another piece that’s often left out. Because Jesus then immediately says, “With
man this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.”
You see, Jesus was very much the realist. He recognized clearly that there are material seductions
in this world which exert great power over people. Money is probably the biggest. It can draw our
focus away from the One who provides all we have. And really this hearkens back to the basic
dilemma of humanity. What’s the very first of the ten commandments given by God? Do you
remember? God spoke to Moses and said, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land
of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.” Now, I think it’s fair
to say that God wasn’t just talking about deities, but about anything we’re inclined to “worship”. So
the other gods aren’t just Zeus or Thor, but anything that supplants God’s rightful place as number
one in our lives. Because we humans are not entirely in peace or balance until God becomes our
highest priority. He made us that way. So again, Jesus says the problem is not with having worldly
wealth, but how much power we allow it to have over us, & how we use it.
Another point needs to be made. The translation Jane read from uses the phrase “dishonest
wealth.” This may actually not be the best translation of the rather obscure Aramaic word that St.
Luke attributes to Jesus. Other translations use the phrase “worldly money” or “unrighteous wealth.”
The idea is that money gained in worldly commerce is subject to God’s guidelines as to how it’s to be
used.
This brings us I think to the main point of Jesus’ parable. Jesus says, “Make friends for yourselves
using worldly wealth, so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into eternal homes.” Again, this
sounds a little obscure to our ears, but there’s no reason to complicate what this means. The rabbis
had a saying that goes like this: “The rich help the poor in this world, but the poor help the rich in
the world to come.” What Jesus is saying is that the proper use of money in this life is to use it in a
way that’s pleasing to God. Helping the poor, relieving suffering, and spreading the gospel. Being a
lighthouse to a darkened world.
And the evidence of money’s proper use is the people who benefit from it. They become eternal
friends. Friends we’ll have well beyond this life. So Jesus depicts them as the people who welcome
the faithful and the generous into the realm of eternal life. “Make friends for yourselves using worldly
wealth, so that they may welcome you into eternal homes.” The “least among us” who we’ve helped
along the way are the ones cheering us into heaven.
Now, this raises another question. Knowing something of the history of the clergy here at
Hope Church, I think I can safely guess that you’ve been taught that it’s not works that get us into
heaven, but God’s grace. At least I hope that’s what you’ve been taught, because this truth is clearly
expressed in the Scriptures. So why does Jesus seem to connect the proper use of money to eternal
life? Is he saying that it’s the stuff we do, after all, that brings us into His kingdom?
I don’t think that He is. I think the simplest way to put the principle that Jesus is trying to get across to
us is that our good actions are not the source of our salvation, but the evidence of our salvation.
Our good works don’t save us, but they’re the evidence of our salvation. They’re the way a saved
person is supposed to act. Do you see the difference? When we trust in Jesus as our Lord and
Savior, we’re born anew and then inhabited by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit prompts us to do
those things God wants us to do through our conscience, or through our circumstances, or through
the still, small voice that plants healthy and helpful ideas in our minds. We are expected by God to
give in response to what we’ve been given.
And we have a natural source of motivation to do this. Because our salvation hopefully creates
within us a sense of gratitude. When we see clearly that we’d been enslaved to sin, and recognize
that the wages of sin are pretty dark, when we’re given the free gift of grace and experience the
freedom it brings to us, how else can we respond than with gratitude?
I know that when I trusted the Lord for the first time I had a sense of freedom and peace that I hadn’t
yet experienced in my life. It’s this freedom and the gratitude we feel in response that inspire us to
serve God and our neighbor.
Jesus sets us free. Have you been in touch with that freedom lately? He sets us free from sin and
death. He sets us free from things that enslave us or addict us. If we’ll let Him, He’ll set us free from
anything that stands in the way of putting Him first in our lives. And that is freedom indeed. The one
thing that we’re required to do is to choose. After His parable Jesus says “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.” And I think that it’s perfectly fair to extend this
saying “You cannot serve both God and any other thing.” OK? “You shall no other gods before Me.”
How very easy it is for us to place other things before God. Tangible things, things that give us
immediate gratification. But the Lord is willing and able to redirect our priorities into those good
things that last forever. The only question is, are we willing to let Him make that change in our lives?
Let’s think again about that anthropologist visiting our homes from the future. What is she likely to
report? Where do we place our attentions and our resources? Would it be clear to her that we follow
Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and with God’s help, strive to follow Him?
I encourage each of us this morning to take a little inventory of the evidence of Christ’s lordship in
our lives.
And I pray that not only would money and “stuff” not have power over us, but that we’d actively
channel these things into what’s pleasing to Him.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
future doing time travel to our time and visiting someone’s living room some evening in Albuquerque.
Here’s what they might report:
Clearly this is a family with deep religious sensibilities. In their primary living area they orient their
furniture around a shrine that produces colorful images and dramatic sounds. For many hours a day
they passively absorb this sensory input. From time to time they place food offerings in front of the
shrine—usually containers of small, dry grain offerings they refer to as “chips.” Some of the natives
also drink jars of fermented, carbonated beverages, apparently designed to intensify the mind-
altering effect of the shrine. The amount of time spent at these centers indicates a focused culture
with a well-integrated spiritual belief system.
Or, what might this same expert from the future report about Saturday afternoon at the football
game? Crowds of people roaring their approval when people in colored uniforms bowl over people in
differently colored uniforms to advance an inflated pigskin down the field, shouting mysterious
incantations like “Go Lobos!”?
Or what might they report about the posters of sports heroes in front of stadiums? Would they be
regarded as icons, or gods? And the cheerleaders as embodiments of fertility goddesses? I’ll leave
that to your imagination.
Perhaps most tellingly, what would a future anthropologist report about how early 21st Century
Americans spend their money? What would it tell them about our priorities in life?
Remember in the Gospel reading a few weeks ago Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also.” What Jesus was talking about then is our priorities. How we spend our time and
resources. And he’s doing much the same in today’s Gospel reading.
At first glance the parable Jesus tells to lead off our reading can be pretty confusing. He gives a
rather strange story about a rich man who’s just about ready to fire his business manager for
squandering his money. So the business manager promptly arranges to mark down the debts owed
to the rich man. He’s about to fix it so his boss gets even less money.
Apparently he figures that if he’s about to lose his job anyway, he might as well score some quick
points with the people indebted to his boss. Maybe this way he can worm his way into the good
graces of someone who might be able to hire him or something.
But then comes the truly strange thing in Jesus’ parable. Instead of immediately sending him
packing, or even boxing his ears, the rich man commends the manager’s shrewdness. Maybe he’s a
man after his own heart, and he has a little larceny in his soul. But all that’s really not the point. The
manager’s shrewdness really is the point that Jesus is making here. We don’t need to read anything
else into it. Jesus isn’t advocating some kind of situational ethics or encouraging dishonest behavior.
He’s simply pointing out that worldly people often seem to have a kind of shrewdness that people of
the light, as he calls them, lack.
What Jesus is doing is encouraging people of the light to be shrewd as well, but in a little different
way. He even relates this shrewdness to our eternal destiny. Jesus says, “I tell you, make friends for
yourselves by means of worldly wealth so that when it’s gone, they may welcome you into eternal
homes.”
Now, what in the world does that mean? To make sense of this bit of advice, I think we need to
consider a couple of things. First, let us all please note that Jesus is encouraging us regarding the
use of our worldly wealth. This implies that some of us have worldly wealth to use. Are you hearing
that? He’s not saying that wealth is bad, or that money is bad. In one of the most frequently
misquoted sayings of Jesus, we have people telling us that money is the root of all evil. But this isn’t
actually what Jesus said. What he said was, the love of money is the root of all evil. There’s a big
difference. And Jesus drives that difference home a little later in this passage, as we’ll see in a few
minutes.
You see, Jesus’ message is not about wealth being bad in and of itself, but a comment on the
seductive danger of making it a higher priority than eternal things. This was pointed out in the
poignant story of the rich man who lived a basically righteous life, but lacked one thing: the
willingness to give it all up to follow Jesus. When Jesus said that this is what it would take to really be
his follower, the man went away dejected. After this incident Jesus remarked to the disciples that it’s
easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. But
once again, there’s another piece that’s often left out. Because Jesus then immediately says, “With
man this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.”
You see, Jesus was very much the realist. He recognized clearly that there are material seductions
in this world which exert great power over people. Money is probably the biggest. It can draw our
focus away from the One who provides all we have. And really this hearkens back to the basic
dilemma of humanity. What’s the very first of the ten commandments given by God? Do you
remember? God spoke to Moses and said, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land
of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.” Now, I think it’s fair
to say that God wasn’t just talking about deities, but about anything we’re inclined to “worship”. So
the other gods aren’t just Zeus or Thor, but anything that supplants God’s rightful place as number
one in our lives. Because we humans are not entirely in peace or balance until God becomes our
highest priority. He made us that way. So again, Jesus says the problem is not with having worldly
wealth, but how much power we allow it to have over us, & how we use it.
Another point needs to be made. The translation Jane read from uses the phrase “dishonest
wealth.” This may actually not be the best translation of the rather obscure Aramaic word that St.
Luke attributes to Jesus. Other translations use the phrase “worldly money” or “unrighteous wealth.”
The idea is that money gained in worldly commerce is subject to God’s guidelines as to how it’s to be
used.
This brings us I think to the main point of Jesus’ parable. Jesus says, “Make friends for yourselves
using worldly wealth, so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into eternal homes.” Again, this
sounds a little obscure to our ears, but there’s no reason to complicate what this means. The rabbis
had a saying that goes like this: “The rich help the poor in this world, but the poor help the rich in
the world to come.” What Jesus is saying is that the proper use of money in this life is to use it in a
way that’s pleasing to God. Helping the poor, relieving suffering, and spreading the gospel. Being a
lighthouse to a darkened world.
And the evidence of money’s proper use is the people who benefit from it. They become eternal
friends. Friends we’ll have well beyond this life. So Jesus depicts them as the people who welcome
the faithful and the generous into the realm of eternal life. “Make friends for yourselves using worldly
wealth, so that they may welcome you into eternal homes.” The “least among us” who we’ve helped
along the way are the ones cheering us into heaven.
Now, this raises another question. Knowing something of the history of the clergy here at
Hope Church, I think I can safely guess that you’ve been taught that it’s not works that get us into
heaven, but God’s grace. At least I hope that’s what you’ve been taught, because this truth is clearly
expressed in the Scriptures. So why does Jesus seem to connect the proper use of money to eternal
life? Is he saying that it’s the stuff we do, after all, that brings us into His kingdom?
I don’t think that He is. I think the simplest way to put the principle that Jesus is trying to get across to
us is that our good actions are not the source of our salvation, but the evidence of our salvation.
Our good works don’t save us, but they’re the evidence of our salvation. They’re the way a saved
person is supposed to act. Do you see the difference? When we trust in Jesus as our Lord and
Savior, we’re born anew and then inhabited by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit prompts us to do
those things God wants us to do through our conscience, or through our circumstances, or through
the still, small voice that plants healthy and helpful ideas in our minds. We are expected by God to
give in response to what we’ve been given.
And we have a natural source of motivation to do this. Because our salvation hopefully creates
within us a sense of gratitude. When we see clearly that we’d been enslaved to sin, and recognize
that the wages of sin are pretty dark, when we’re given the free gift of grace and experience the
freedom it brings to us, how else can we respond than with gratitude?
I know that when I trusted the Lord for the first time I had a sense of freedom and peace that I hadn’t
yet experienced in my life. It’s this freedom and the gratitude we feel in response that inspire us to
serve God and our neighbor.
Jesus sets us free. Have you been in touch with that freedom lately? He sets us free from sin and
death. He sets us free from things that enslave us or addict us. If we’ll let Him, He’ll set us free from
anything that stands in the way of putting Him first in our lives. And that is freedom indeed. The one
thing that we’re required to do is to choose. After His parable Jesus says “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.” And I think that it’s perfectly fair to extend this
saying “You cannot serve both God and any other thing.” OK? “You shall no other gods before Me.”
How very easy it is for us to place other things before God. Tangible things, things that give us
immediate gratification. But the Lord is willing and able to redirect our priorities into those good
things that last forever. The only question is, are we willing to let Him make that change in our lives?
Let’s think again about that anthropologist visiting our homes from the future. What is she likely to
report? Where do we place our attentions and our resources? Would it be clear to her that we follow
Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and with God’s help, strive to follow Him?
I encourage each of us this morning to take a little inventory of the evidence of Christ’s lordship in
our lives.
And I pray that not only would money and “stuff” not have power over us, but that we’d actively
channel these things into what’s pleasing to Him.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Wile, Wealth, and Worship
(Luke 16:1-13)
(Luke 16:1-13)
September 23, 2007
Fr. Dan Tuton
Fr. Dan Tuton