Sermon in Minneapolis 17.08.2014

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, let us begin our evening services with opening prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity this evening to gather around your Holy Word. We thank you for the gift of faith and salvation which you have prepared through your Son, Jesus Christ. We ask that you would be with us again this evening and comfort us, console us, and nourish us with your everlasting Gospel Word. So all of this we ask in the name of your dear Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Today is the 10th Sunday after Pentecost. The theme for today is taking care or being faithful for the gifts that God has given us. Or in other words, stewardship. A Gospel text for today is from Luke chapter 12, verses 42 through 48. And we'll hear these words as follows in Jesus' name.

And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, Whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, To give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom the Lord, when he cometh, Shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, That he will make him ruler, Over all that he hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, And he shall begin to beat his menservants and maidens, And to eat and drink and to be drunken, The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, And at an hour when he is not aware, And he will cut him asunder, And will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant which knew his Lord's will, And prepared not himself, Neither did according to his will, Shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes, Shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, Of him shall be much required. And to whom men have committed much, Of him they shall ask more. Amen.

This short portion that we read is from a larger context where the words of Jesus are telling us of many of the events and occurrences and even signs of the end of times. And it's important to consider and look at the larger context leading up to this text.

Earlier in this chapter, Jesus tells of two children in a family who were to receive an inheritance. And when Jesus is discussing this situation, it almost seems as if Jesus is frustrated. And one of the individuals or a person was bringing this situation for, you know, a child. And it's not just the child, but the mother. And he says, Jesus says, Master, speak to my brother that he divide our inheritance with me. And we know unfortunately, it is so that the dividing of inheritance has been throughout time, often a very challenging, problematic, and often an issue. And so, we know that we are to be divided from our inheritance. And often an issue which causes much grief and hurt and harm and even bickering. It even divides family members among themselves.

So there were two boys in this family, at least two that are mentioned. And it was quite simple. Back then, or according to Jewish tradition, the eldest child received two-thirds of all of the inheritance. That was automatic. And in this case, there were two children. So the second child, the younger one, received the remaining one-third. Well, if there were ten children in the family, the oldest would receive two-thirds. And the other nine children would divide up the remaining one-third of the inheritance among themselves. The eldest one had this responsibility then to take care of the mother if she remained a widow. And the remaining single child would be the second child. And the remaining single sisters.

But now it seems that in this little story, this little case study that is brought before Jesus, the eldest, even though he was going to receive automatically two-thirds of the inheritance, he wanted it all. He wanted all of it. Well, that's going to cause a disagreement. And that's going to cause grief and break the harmony among themselves. So this wasn't only a problem that rose during the time of Jesus. Very similar situations have come up throughout all time. And even unto this time. But Jesus knew all. And he was going to try to address this issue and hopefully solve this issue.

But if we go back a little bit further and look at some of the events leading up to it, Jesus earlier had been in the house of a Pharisee. And he was going into dining with them. And the Pharisee, and they thought that they were perfect in everything that they did. And they tried to follow and adhere to the law of Moses, to the last letter, to the last jot and the last tittle. Or they would cross every T and they would dot every I. And so they happened to notice that Jesus came in and he didn't. He didn't wash his hands. And this was part of the ritual at that time. It wasn't only for hygiene purposes, but it was also a spiritual ritual that should have been done, at least in the mind of the Pharisees. And so this Pharisee took Jesus to task and challenged him. And as a result, a spirited discussion ensued. And Jesus says, you fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is also within?

And so he is saying that you Pharisees, you try to clean the vessel on the outside. It looks beautiful for those who behold it. But don't you realize that underneath, behind the veil, there is still much corruption, much sin and contortion? So Jesus then goes on and he calls these critical listeners. He says, you are hypocrites. And you are actually two-faced yourself. You say one thing and expect people to do one thing. But actually in your own lives, you live another way, which is kept secret from other people. And so he also compares them to a grave that has been washed on the outside. And we know that if a grave is dug up, there is a decaying corpse that is in that grave, if it has been a recent burial.

And so this is one of the discussions that took place earlier, prior to and leading up to this text of ours. And then at the beginning of, that was in chapter 11, beginning of chapter 12, in the meantime when they were gathered together, an innumerable multitude of people. So apparently there were hundreds, maybe thousands of people gathered around to listen to what he had to say and to see what he would do. And there were so many people that they were actually trampling on one another.

And he began to say unto his disciples, first of all, that beware of the leaven, or the corruption of the Pharisees, for this is hypocrisy. But then, he talks about confession of faith, and it's not always easy, especially at certain times during the course of the history of mankind. The confession of faith has not always been an easy one. We know that there have been many martyrs in the history of mankind who have given their life and have had to die because of confessing their faith. During the time of the early church, there were actually millions of Christians who died a martyr's death.

But then Jesus yet wants to give them words of comfort, and he said, I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them, that perhaps they kill the body. And after that, they have no more that they can do. All they can do is kill the physical body, but they can do no harm to our undying soul. For I will forewarn you, whom you shall fear. Fear him, which after he has killed, he has power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto him that fear him.

So beware of the enemy of souls, that he has that ability to kill one's undying soul. This is the greatest, or should be the greatest, of all fears. But yet he wants to uplift them and comfort them, and are not five sparrows sold for two coins, and not one of them is forgotten before God. Wishing to say that we are like in the hands or in the palm of God the Heavenly Father. He wishes to care for us, protect us, and guard us along our way of life.

Also I say unto you, whosoever shall confess me before men, shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God, who are in heaven. But also he says that, who denies me before men, shall be denied before the angels of God. And so, and when they bring you before the synagogues, and unto the magistrates, and before the powers, take no thought of how or what things they say, or what thing you shall answer and say, for it shall be given unto you.

But then he comes, this leads up to that little story about the two brothers. The older brother was already getting two-thirds of the inheritance, and the younger brother would get one-third of the inheritance. And yet, the older brother wanted all of the inheritance. And this then leads up to the topic of greed, and being content with the things that we have in our life.

And if we would take some examples of the time that we are now living, and many of us, all of us have had, or been able to receive an education of, to some degree or another. And just think that our education, some who may feel that their education is very little, compared to others who have much more. But we are, however, nevertheless, very blessed. For there are two billion people living on the face of this earth who do not at this point even know how to read.

So, we can be content, or should be content with, with that, and those opportunities that God has given unto us. And think about our health. When we have woken up this morning, and we are feeling healthy, and feeling energetic, we are more blessed than the millions of people who will not survive for the rest of this week. They will die because of one illness or another.

Or think of, perhaps, the house we have over our head, and the food we have in our houses, in the refrigerator, and that we can put on the table. And a place that we can sleep at night. Even with these few basic needs and provisions, we are richer than 75% of the population of this world. Just with having a house over our head, clothes that we can put upon ourselves, and food that we can feed ourselves with.

And if we think of our money or possessions that we have, if we would just have a few dollars in our pocket, and a few coins in a dish at home, we are among the 8% of the most wealthy people in the world. Just those few, just those few dollars that we would have lying around at home.

And so, with this, with these few examples, this is just an example of how God has richly blessed us. And we should feel thankful for what God, the Heavenly Father, has endowed upon us.

And so, this slowly then leads up to our text, and now reaching toward the end of chapter 12, we then read. And Jesus is talking about the end of times. And He says in this way, and the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward?

As I mentioned, the theme for today is about caring for the gifts that God has given us. And that we should be wise stewards. And the Gospel text, which is assigned for this Sunday, according to Matthew, and on the LLC calendar, if we happen to glance at it, if it's at our homes, or we see it in someone else's home, the Gospel text for today tells of a master who was going away to a faraway country. And he began to give talents to three of his servants, as he was departing.

To one of the servants, he gave five talents. To another, he gave three talents. And to the third one, he gave one talent. And first of all, if we think about a talent, one talent is worth 6,000 days of wages. So divide 6,000 by 365, that's many years of wages. So just thinking of this parable in the monetary sense, each one was given quite a bit of money.

So the first one was given, well, what's 6,000 divided by 365, so it's getting close to say 200, 200, well, 200 days of, well, whatever it calculates to be, several years of free employment or free money, free wages. So they went on their merry way, and the one who had five talents, he put it on the exchange table, and lo and behold, as time went on, that five talents increased to ten talents. It doubled over time. So it's like you put money in a bank and watch it over time, and depending on the interest rate, it begins to grow just automatically.

So the second person had three talents. He put them on the exchange rate, on the exchange table, and as time went by, then interest grew, and after a certain amount of time passed by, they also doubled, and they grew to be six talents.

Well, then the one who received only one talent was quite disappointed in the small amount of money or compensation that he had received. And he was so embarrassed that he buried it. He hid it in the ground and did nothing with it.

And as we remember from that parable, the Lord then returned, the Master then returned, then he was satisfied in the first two who had put their money on the exchange table and both of them had doubled. But then he had words of rebuke for the third one who did not put his talent, single talent on the exchange table and took that, what he had, away, and he gave it to the others and sent him back. And he sent him, do they say, into outer darkness? I don't remember the exact words that were said in the parable.

But if we think of that single talent that one man received and at least one was received by the other two as well. In addition, they received some more. But this single talent has been compared to that one gift that all of us as believers, as believers have received. We have all received at least one talent which is compared to that gift of living faith, that gift of salvation which we can own and possess by faith.

And this one talent is so valuable that when we close our eyes to this world it will open the doors to eternal life there in the glory of heaven.

So here, in a similar fashion, Jesus is talking about not three different servants but he is now comparing two different servants one to another. And the Lord, the Master, said in this way that who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his Lord shall make his way to his ruler over his household to give them their portion of food or meat in due season.

And blessed is that servant whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. And so, here in this parable, in this little story, it is looking forward toward the end of time when Jesus who has ascended into the glory of heaven and now sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and according to scriptures and according to his promise will one day return to judge the living and the dead.

And so, we don't know when that moment will be. Will it be a long time or will it be a short time? But this we know that one day it will occur. It will take place. And when it does take place it will happen in an unexpected way. As the scriptures relate that it's just like a person who is in his house and the house gets broken into.

Well, the robber doesn't come knocking at the door and give a warning ahead of time that knock, knock, beware, here I come. Get prepared and do what you're going to do to protect yourself. No. Unawares, unexpectedly, unannounced the robber will come and break in and pillage the house and steal what he is going to steal.

And so this day is unknown. The time is unexpected. But in the meantime while we are waiting and expecting for this second coming whether it's going to be a united departure at the end of the world or whether we will be called individually one by one we don't know. It happens unexpectedly.

So blessed is that servant whom the Lord, when he comes shall find him so doing. Or he is prepared and he is doing what the Lord has asked him to do. Of a truth I say unto you that he will make him then ruler over all that he has. He will be called to heaven's glory and he will be able to sit there at the right hand of God the Father Almighty there in eternal life in heaven.

But and if that servant say in his heart my Lord delays, is delaying his coming and this is now the unfaithful servant this is the slothful servant this is the unrighteous servant. And what does he do while he is waiting? The time gets long and I'm sure he is getting impatient and feeling weary just like a guard on the guard post all night long.

It seems like the time just slowly, slowly takes by and you are counting the seconds not only minutes and hours but seconds seem to just slowly tick by and you are waiting for your guard duty to end when the sun begins to rise early in the morning. And drowsiness easily overtakes the guard standing alone at a solitary position there at his guard post.

And so this can easily happen to any one of us that we can get impatient and weary and unwatchful. So Jesus says that and if that servant say referring to the unrighteous servant if he says in his heart my Lord is delaying his coming and then what does he do while he is getting impatient waiting for the return of his master?

He shall then begin to beat his fellow servants and the maid. And then he begins to live an ungodly type of life. He begins to eat and to drink and become drunken. And the Lord of that servant will come at a time or in a day when he is not expecting. And at an hour when he is not aware and that poor servant who was not prepared and ready to go he will be cut asunder and he will then be appointed his portion with the unbelievers.

And so Jesus then goes on to say and that servant which knew his Lord's will again now going back to the good servant and he had prepared and that servant which knew his Lord's will and this is yet the evil servant and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes.

But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes for unto whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required and to whom men have committed much of him they will ask much more.

And so outwardly when you look at these two servants I am sure they both maybe seem to be and look to be believers and both of them have been given responsibilities which they should do and are expected to do before God the Heavenly Father not only before God but also before man. And all of them were expected to be faithful and also watchful in faith and to do what the master had expected them to do.

But we see how that unrighteous servant began to behave in the way that he behaved in a very ungodly fashion.

There is an interesting term which appears several times in the Bible Maranatha and it means to as if have your bags packed and ready to go. My in-laws came to our house a few days ago and they are going on a trip along with well a total of over 30 believers are leaving on that trip. They are flying tonight. They are going to Paris and then on to Barcelona and it begins a 12 day Mediterranean cruise.

And this is my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary. And by the way in passing Paul and Florence Parks today in their family setting celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. And June 15th which must have been Friday was their actual 50th wedding anniversary.

But anyways these 31 individuals if they are not on the plane already they will be leaving shortly. And so they have their bags packed and they are ready to go.

So this is actually what this word Maranatha I think it appears in Revelations and it may be in other places in the Bible as well actually means. Maranatha and there are even some churches in the world you can see we have Minneapolis West Stadium Lutheran Church. There are some churches which have Maranatha in the title or the name of their church.

And so there was years ago there was an exploration to was it the North Pole or was it to the South Pole. And a ship brought a group of explorers down to one of these poles and of course there is many icebergs along the way and the ship dropped off this group of researchers and they were supposed to be there for a period of time and eventually then the ship would come back to pick them up.

And in the meantime one of the glaciers was breaking apart and actually it blocked the way so that ship couldn't get back in. But these researchers knew that or were hoping and expecting that one day that ship would arrive again. And so they had their bags packed and they were ready to go at any moment.

And lo and behold that glacier which was blocking the passageway happened to split apart. And the ship was on the other side and it came through it picked up the researchers and they were able to slip back through that open passageway and just as they passed through then the glacier came back together again and blocked off that pathway.

So this is just kind of a little illustration a little example of what this word Maranatha may be or may mean. It means always to have our bags packed and ready to go. Or we should always be departure ready.

The word righteous means to be acceptable before God our Heavenly Father. And in the Swedish language and the German language which I don't know but reading from Bible dictionaries our word righteousness has the connotation that means to be departure ready.

And so when we own the gift of salvation we own the robe of righteousness which has been prepared by Christ Jesus and we have our sins forgiven in peace with God in heaven. We are departure ready. We are ready to go at any moment. We have our bags packed and we are ready to go.

And so this is what Jesus is actually trying to teach in this little parable of ours. That this Master has left us and left all as comparing to two different servants. And he wants us to be a faithful servant and to take care of our own sins. To take care of that talent or talents that have been given unto us. And to put them on the exchange table. To be a light and a salt to the world that we are living in.

And above all that we would cherish our gift of faith and salvation that we own by faith. And always be departure ready. Knowing that our sins are forgiven. Our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life in heaven. And we have peace with God in heaven.

For great is that reward that one day we will be translated from this life to eternal life. Our cross will be exchanged for a crown. And then we will begin that eternal wedding celebration. Which has a beginning but will have no end.

So we can be happy and free when sins are forgiven. We have this assurance that we have the peace of God in our hearts. And are on our way to that eternal wedding celebration one day.

So remain even now believing. Sins forgiven in His name and precious atoning blood. In Jesus name, Amen.

The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make His face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us. The Lord lift up His countenance upon us and give us Your peace. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.