Sermon Tone Analysis

Big idea: The King demands generous stewardship - choose to listen

Intro

Introduce me

Continuing our journey through Luke’s gospel

Jesus speaking, has a gripping story to tell

A tale of reversal in the afterlife - a story meant to teach us something

1:00 Luke 16:19-31 find it, Jemima reading

Like I said, this is a story meant to teach us something.

But what?

What’s Jesus point?

2:30 A great reversal

Listen to Abraham in v25 again: “Son, remember that in your lifetime you recieved your good things while Lazarus recieved bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony”.

What’s Jesus trying to teach us here?

Is it that a total reversal is coming?

That everything will be turned upside down?

Good now, bad later; bad now, good later?

I don’t think so.

I mean for starters that would mean you just have to make sure things are rotten for you here so they are great later; get poor now to lock comfort into your reversal afterlife, right?

Cry now to lock joy into your reversal afterlife.

This isn’t quite so simple as a total reversal - woe to the rich, blessed are the poor - and you can see that because Abraham’s on the right side of the divide - and he was loaded.

Gen 13:2

So this isn’t just rich->bad, poor->good

Good news for us all since whether you feel rich or not, globally speaking you’re all loaded.

If you want to get a handle on that, on where we fit in on a global scale, try out the calculator at givingwhatwecan.org/get-involved/how-rich-am-i

real quick.

It’s easy and profound.

You can do it while I keep talking - I won’t mind.

So if the big message here isn’t just about a total reversal, a new order, curses for the rich and blessings for the poor, what is it about?

4:00 Same King, Same design

If you were with us last week, remember we were talking about how a new age dawns with Jesus - but there’s still the same King, with the same design for his Kingdom?

I think that’s part of the message here in this story Jesus tells.

God’s design for his community, a just and caring community that looks out for the weak and the poor, hasn’t changed.

I think Jesus is emphasising that contuinuity again:

God’s design for his people, Israel, is laid out for them in the writings which have been passed down to them: records of their history, God speaking to them, acting for them - and even against them, sending them instructions and corrections through his messengers.

In this passage, see “Moses and the prophets” in v29 and v31?

That’s a reference to these writings, these teachings.

And they are chock full of care and provision for the poor.

For example, every third year, each person in Israel was meant to bring a tenth of whatever they produced to a special store in their towns which would provide food to the poor among them.

Ancient foodbanks!

Deut 14:28-29

For example, they were required to lend whatever they were asked for to anyone who was poor - but those debts didn’t strangle them like debt does so often today - because every seven years, all debts were to be cancelled.

Deut 15:7-11

For example, when you had a field to harvest, you had to deliberately leave some of the crop behind - for the poor.

You had to do only a rough job so there would be something left for them.

And that’s just a few part of God’s design to care for, and provide for the poor.

God’s design for his kingdom, for this care for the poor, hinges on understanding the foundations have been rewritten: the “mine” of ownership has been replaced by the “yours” of stewardship.

Stewardship is just a fancy way of saying you’re looking after something for someone else - if you’re a steward of something, it’s their stuff, not yours.

The foundation of God’s kingdom is that everything belongs to the king - his people just get to look after it for him, to steward it.

His people just get to use it for a while, to use it how and where he directs.

Anyone familiar with Jewish teachings and their heart would know this rich man, feasting away while ignoring the poor beggar at his gate, was ignoring God’s design for his people, ignoring God’s call to stewardship.

And he’s not going to get away with it.

He’s condemned not because he was rich, but because he ignored his duty to care for the poor with the riches he had been given to steward.

It’s worth noticing that his ommission condemns him just as much as any active comission of wrong would.

There’s a new age dawning, but the king hasn’t changed and nor has his design.

So this rich man’s dereliction of his duty, his failure to live as a generous steward, which sees him punished, has something to say to us, too.

6:45 Generous Stewardship

So what does that generous stewardship look like for you and for me?

What does it look like to live in line with God’s design and to care for the poor - or on the other hand, to ignore our duty, to sit on our hands, like this rich man did?

How can we see which side of that chasm we’re headed?

First, I think it starts with us getting our heads around the idea that we’re handling someone else’s stuff

Imagine if you deposited some of your money with a bank, or put some of your money into your pension, and they just decided to spend it with no reference to you! Imagine you leave your car with a mate while you’re away for a few weeks and come back to find it up on bricks because they’ve sold the wheels.

That’s what it’s like when we forget we’re handling God’s stuff, God’s money, and we’re just stewards.

Here’s a test for you: Do you feel that way when you hold your bank card in front of you? when you think about the home you live in if you’ve been able to buy a home?

when you handle your paycheque or your pocketmoney or your birthday money?

When you’re deciding how you will spend it, are you thinking “mine” or “yours”?

are you thinking “how will I choose to spend this” or “how would God have me spend this”?

Here’s another test: can you be cheerfully generous?

Or does it have to pried out of your cold dead hands?

If you’re thinking “mine” then it’s hard to let go - but actually there’s something almost easier about giving away someone else’s stuff!

Never mine anyway!

So watch out for the “mine!

hands off!” sentiment; God has given it to you.

So pray: what does God want you to do with it?

Be a generous steward, cheerfully generous, knowing God cares for you and will provide for you.

And second, open your eyes to the needy at your door - beware this rich man’s omission of the care he should have given to the poor.

In our modern world this can all seem a little overwhelming - because we’re so aware of so much need here there and everywhere, millions and millions of people - but notice in this parable it’s the poor beggar at the rich man’s gate.

Or think about the good samaritan: it’s not every wounded traveller who’s helped, it’s the one he comes across on his journey.

Has God placed a need right in front of you? don’t close your eyes to it.

How to truly help is sometimes a challenge, though.

Perhaps some of you will have read books like “When Helping Hurts” or “Toxic Charity” which explore the difficulties which can go with helping: how easy it is to breed dependency rather than empower; how easy it is to solve just today’s problem with no thought to the new one you’ve made for tomorrow.

Sometimes it’s harder to truly help someone than it seems - and often doing it right means much more inconvenience than just writing a cheque.

So, generous stewardship to meet the need.

But we have to see that’s not all Jesus is telling us here

9:00 There are consequences

The King wants to warn his original audience and us that there are consequences to ignoring his design

we might imagine one of the big takeaways from this whole story is better understanding of the details of the afterlife, of how that will work - but that really isn’t what Jesus is trying to do here - that really isn’t the stuff he’s trying to teach, the point he is trying to make.

You see Jesus is accomodating himself to his audience, using their mental maps to tell the story.

He’s building on undrestandings of how the afterlife worked that were commonplace when he walked the earth rather than laying out the blueprints for us all to see.

So we should be wary looking for answers to our questions about the afterlife in this story:

do angels carry us to the afterlife?

is half of it on fire?

can people on one side chat to those on the other?

is it a temporary stop for everyone on the way to a final destination?

Jesus’ goal isn’t to detail the layout, or answer our questions

What is clear + consistently taught, just so we know?

death is coming for us all (rich+poor)

judgement follows, based on the life we’ve lived, with bad + good options

no second chances, no mulligans, no do-over

Ignoring the King and his design will have consequences

So what?