READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
2 Samuel 22:26-34
1 Corinthians 10:6-13
St. Luke 16:1-9
Jesus and St. Peter pay tax (left), while the pope bans taxes on the clergy (right).
from The Passionary of the Christ and Antichrist, L. Cranach, 1521
Grace to you all and Peace from God our Father and our Lord
Jesus, the Christ.
Who speaks to you today, from His Gospel heard in His
Church, saying:
“And I tell you,
make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it
fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”
Speaking of unrighteous wealth: Why then should you fear
poverty? Why hunger after wealth?
You will answer: I fear lest I should ever be forced to come
to another man's door to ask for help. And I hear many making this same prayer,
and saying: may I never come to this, that I shall stand in need of the help of
men”, says St. John Chrysostom, and then continued to laugh at them who prayed
in such a way.
For it is in just such a way that you, in your sin, seek to
capitalize, not just in life, but on God’s Word. You make poor people poor,
because you believe in your absolute right to unrighteous wealth, that what
belongs to you is yours by divine right and others have no hold or claim on you
and yours. As if you saw your brother in need and made him seek b
bureaucracy instead of your charity.
An example of this is the “Kosher” label that is placed upon
many foods in our grocery stores and in our days the “Halal” label, from Jews
and Muslims, respectively. These labels mean that these foods have been
“blessed” for ceremonial use. These labels are fabricated to make money and to
show that the fullness of God which you are seeking lies behind a pay wall and,
unless you cough up the dough, you don’t get it.
This has fooled many a Lutheran as well. Many churches use
communion wine exclusively because of the Kosher label on it, thinking that
somehow they are closer to their Jewish Carpenter Boss by drinking it, than any
other wine. And they pay for it and are laughed at for thinking such things by
those who sold it to them.
Those that hold to this unrighteous gathering of wealth are
not satisfied to ask God to give daily bread. They gather a great store of
riches of which they may depend, in case our God should die today or tomorrow.
They believe that storage will then offer them a way out of this whole God,
forgiveness, and everlasting life thing.
This is our true, sinful fear; that God is not true and that
we have to lay up for ourselves treasure on earth, because we’re all there is.
“Mammon”, the word Jesus uses in our Gospel today, means goods or riches, and
such goods as one does not need, but holds as a treasure, and it is gold and
possessions that one deposits as stock and storage provisions. This Christians
do not do, they gather no treasures; but they ask God for their daily bread.
Mammon shows no such mercy. It lies quiet and lets others
serve it, remaining silent in all matters. And for this reason the New
Testament calls covetousness idolatry, since it thus desires to be served. This
is how you distinguish this false god.
Repent. Either you must love God and hate money; or you must
hate God and love money; this and nothing more. He is a lord over mammon who
lays hold of and uses it for the sake of those who need it and lets God rule,
Who says in Luke 6:38, “Give, and it shall be given unto you”; have you
nothing more, you surely have me still, and I have still enough, yea, I have
more than I have given away and more than can ever be given away.
Mammon, or unrighteous wealth, has to do with trust. Trust
is the root meaning of Faith. Those who trust in wealth’s abilities sin. Those
who have Faith, face this world of sin and distinguish between righteous and
unrighteous service and cling to forgiveness in the Lord’s words, “What God
has cleansed, do not call unholy” (Acts 10:15).
The unrighteousness of wealth does not negate the
Righteousness of God. If we speak of earthly things, such as unrighteous
wealth, then the Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof (Ps 24:1). What
can you find in the whole realm that did not come from God? If we speak of
heavenly things, then anything the Lord gives is a gift from the heavens. God
is not, thereby, unrighteous!
St. Paul explains this a bit in 1 Corinthians 10:
“All things are lawful,” but not all things are
helpful...or build up. Let no one seek his own good, but
the good of his neighbor. Eat whatever is sold in the meat
market without raising any question on the ground of conscience…If
one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat
whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of
conscience. But if someone says to you, ‘This has been
offered in sacrifice,’ then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed
you, and for the sake of [his] conscience” (v.23-28).
“God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and
of love and of discipline” (2 Tim 1:7). They told Jesus, the Jews seek your
life to take it and He said, “I’m going to Jerusalem” (Mt 16:21). Jesus knew
Judas was going to betray Him to a violent subjugation at the hands of men.
Jesus said, “What you have come to do, do quickly” (Jn 13:27).
Jesus knew His heavenly Father was going to have Him
scourged, falsely condemned, and crucified and all Jesus said was, “Where and
when, Father?” There is no timidity or weakness in God. He does not run and
hide if you cook bacon in front of Him (pigs are unclean animals). He does not
shriek in fear if you bring Him kosher wine. He does not exile you to hell if
He smells money on you.
Christ has come to forgive and cleanse from all
unrighteousness and no unrighteousness will be left unturned. The righteousness
of God is found only in Christ and His crucifixion. This atoning crucifixion is
not accomplished through meats, or false idols, or money. It is accomplished
through the Body and Blood of God, apart from the Law.
This in order that the righteousness that pleases God be
found outside of anything we think we can do or put in the way. And unless we
love our sinful thoughts, words, and deeds more than eternal life with Christ,
then the righteousness of Christ cleanses all of life for those who believe.
The crucifixion of Christ produces the Righteousness
necessary to upend and overturn unrighteous wealth and its fruit: death.
Unrighteous wealth demands service, obeisance, and sacrifice or else. The
Righteousness of God in Christ demands nothing, but is of service to you in
keeping Him forever.
You are the prize, having been granted faith in Christ. At
the Word and by the deeds of Jesus, you are the pearl without cost, the
treasure made worthy by the Worthy Lamb of God. This is because He does not
just create righteousness, but baptizes you into His righteousness. He covers
you with it so completely, that even the gates of hell break against it.
His righteousness reaches to the heavens (Ps 71:19). “The
heavens declare His righteousness, And all the peoples have seen His glory”
“glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Ps 97:6,
Jn 1:14).
Grafted into this physical Body of God, you now deal with
earthly and spiritual riches. You are given the shrewd wisdom to be true sons
of light, or rather part of the Body of the only Son of Light, Jesus Christ. In
this Body, Faith rules and by faith all things are clean.
For example, Dr. Luther describes it this way: “You must
hence remember that eternal life consists of two things, faith and what follows
faith. If you go and believe and do good to your neighbor, everlasting life
must follow, although you never think about it. Just as when you take a good
drink, the taste will follow as soon as you drink, even though you do not seek
it.” (Church Postils, Vol II:298)
Belief and faith cleanse the money that you use to the
benefit of God and neighbor. Belief and faith give you courage to walk through
the valley of the shadow of Kosher and Halal, acknowledging only the Triune
God. Belief and Faith grant you the gift of Christ Jesus, His redemption, His
grace, and His salvation by hearing and believing that Faith is to be found in
Body and Blood.
God is not dying anytime soon neither is He going away. The
fulness of His eternal gifts are not behind a paywall neither are they behind a
requirement wall, apart from the Faith He gives. He is not petty. He will not
kick you out because you use unrighteous wealth.
He has given us all good things by becoming unrighteous on
our behalf. He has cleansed our hearts and heads, by becoming unclean. He does
not need to cleanse anything else. If you are clean, all things are clean to
you. Similarly, if you are alive in Him, then all things are alive for you. Or
at least, when you walk through death, as your Savior did, it will have no more
hold over you than it did Him, for the Son has set us free indeed.
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