Sermon Tone Analysis

Title

Wealth and Its Uses

Outline

Our Gospel today is a greatly disliked passage

The manager has managed poorly - wasted the rich man’s goods - perhaps using them for his own present benefit

The manager responds to receiving notice by using his position (and the rich man’s goods) to gain future security

The rich man commends the manager for “acting prudently” - I suppose he would not have been fired had he acted prudently before

Now notice that the rich man is God, the manager is each of us (we own nothing, but manage the goods of another), and the point is using the goods at our disposal for our future good versus wasting them in the present.

The punch line is: “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they (the friends) may receive you into the eternal habitations.”

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus at the end of this chapter is a negative example of the principle.

Those who know God are invested in the universal distribution of goods

Goods - mammon, money and possessions - are not usually evil, but they are (1) dangerous and (2) not yours or mine (and here priests are in more danger because they do not have an explicit vow of poverty, but an implicit one).

They are dangerous in that they take control of us and lock us into using them for our desires.

That is why Jesus says that the rich cannot be saved - except for a miracle.

That is the problem of the rich man and Lazarus

That is the problem of Amos 8:4-7 - they are oppressing the poor to gain more for themselves, totally focused on the present

They are not ours because creation belongs to God and from Adam on we are just managers using it for his interests.

That is as true of the laity as well as for the religious.

Of course, one of the things that he is interested in is our good: that we have enough to eat and wear and the like.

We counteract the danger by acting in concert with God and sharing with those who lack.

We are not talking about state coercion (which usually does not produce equality) but about sharing due to hearing the word of God, as John Chrysostom, for example, preached.

That is the point that Paul is making

We share our access to God by praying for all people

That includes kings and those under them (despite their tendency to do evil including persecuting Christians) - we do not butter them up, but pray that they may use their position for God’s purposes

God desires all people to be saved, not just the rich (as those who toady to them think, seeing them as blessed) and not just the poor (as those who damn the rich seem to think)

There is one God and one Christ for both the rich and the poor, the powerful and the oppressed

This Christ gave himself for all - all that he had, himself, for the equal need of all

We follow Christ and give all we have for the needs of those he puts in our path - in Paul’s case it was especially their spiritual rescue, but it costs him plenty in terms of personal comfort and would eventually cost him his head

The teaching is clear but the practice is difficult

We have all sorts of voices out there telling us to invest for our material tomorrow - ignoring that we will leave it all

We have plenty of Christian voices out there allied with those who blame the poor for their poverty, deny the reality of oppression, and cultivate the rich and powerful often for their own advancement.

The celebrity culture quickly turns demonic.

There are plenty of religious institutions that collectively gained possessions or rich patrons and it destroyed them - or at least it required a reformer

We need to keep today’s texts and many others like them before our eyes and refuse to accept the rationalizations that empty them of their radical meaning.

Only in that way, by hearing and then obeying, will be become like Paul or even like the manager who invested what he could in his future reception into eternal habitations.

Readings

FIRST READING

Amos 8:4–7

4 Hear this, you who trample upon the needy

and destroy the poor of the land:

5 “When will the new moon be over,” you ask,

“that we may sell our grain,

And the sabbath,

that we may open the grain-bins?

We will diminish the ephah,

add to the shekel,

and fix our scales for cheating!

6 We will buy the destitute for silver,

and the poor for a pair of sandals;

even the worthless grain we will sell!”

7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob:

Never will I forget a thing they have done!

RESPONSE

Psalm 113:1a, 7b

1 Hallelujah!

Praise, you servants of the LORD,

praise the name of the LORD.

7 He raises the needy from the dust,

lifts the poor from the ash heap,

PSALM

Psalm 113:1–2, 4–8

1 Hallelujah!

Praise, you servants of the LORD,

praise the name of the LORD.

2 Blessed be the name of the LORD

both now and forever.

4 High above all nations is the LORD;

above the heavens his glory.

5 Who is like the LORD our God,

enthroned on high,

6 looking down on heaven and earth?

7 He raises the needy from the dust,

lifts the poor from the ash heap,

8 Seats them with princes,

the princes of the people,

SECOND READING

1 Timothy 2:1–8

CHAPTER 2

1 First of all, then, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, 2 for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.

3 This is good and pleasing to God our savior, 4 who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.

5 For there is one God.

There is also one mediator between God and the human race,

Christ Jesus, himself human,

6 who gave himself as ransom for all.

This was the testimony at the proper time.

7 For this I was appointed preacher and apostle (I am speaking the truth, I am not lying), teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

8 It is my wish, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or argument.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

2 Corinthians 8:9

9  For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich.

GOSPEL

Option A

Luke 16:1–13

1 Then he also said to his disciples, “A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property.

2 He summoned him and said, ‘What is this I hear about you?

Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.’ 3 The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me?

I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.’

5 He called in his master’s debtors one by one.

To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’

He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note.