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“True
Riches”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: Luke 16:1-13
“If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will
entrust to you the true riches?”
DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS we have just heard another one of those
fascinating parables. We
are somewhat caught off with the word “dishonest”.
But, we all know Jesus is not telling us to go out there and
break the ninth commandment, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” in order
to get rich. What we are
being directed to is that the truest riches, that will be ours in our
eternal home, is related right here and now to faith in faith; trusting
in faith, faith in trusting, trusting in trusting, faith in another’s
faith.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things
not seen.” You may
have faith in your faith. I
may have faith in your faith. You
may have faith in my faith. And
the most wonderful aspect of trusting in another’s faith is knowing
that we may trust in the faith of Christ, and Christ may also trust in
our faith. Wouldn’t we
love to know that Christ believes in us?
In Mark’s gospel, chapter 2, there is a story telling us that Jesus
was in a house which was so crowded with people; inside and outside,
that there was no more room inside for anyone.
Some people came, bringing a paralyzed man, and when they saw
there was no way to walk in, and they removed the roof above where Jesus
was, and lowered the man on a mat.
“When Jesus saw their
faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.”
Jesus told the paralyzed man that his sins were forgiven.
Then he healed him. And,
it was all based on the faith of the people who brought him there, not
on his faith, at that point.
Last Sunday we read where Paul wrote, “…the
grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in
Jesus Christ.” The faith and love that are in Jesus Christ
overflow for us; they flow out of Christ, into us, for us to experience
it in our lives.
There are not too many of us, who this week, are going to write a book,
end a war, dine with a queen, or convert a whole nation.
More likely, this week will probably present a chance for us to
give a cup of water to someone, share a meal, tell a child a story, or
feed a neighbor’s pet. Life
is not about grandness in this world, but about having the faith and
love of Christ in us to give to a person God has brought us too, and
into our lives.
Jesus said: “Truly I tell you,
just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my
family, you did it to me.” (MT 25:40)
My own father taught me one of my favorite lessons about management.
He was the store manager for Safeway Stores, and he was such a
leader in his district, that every assistant manager that was being
moved up into management was sent to work for 3 months with my dad, to
learn from him. His store
was always beautiful, with filled and fronted shelves, fresh produce,
and wonderful meet displayed. One
time he took me into his back room, and it was as clean, organized, and
managed as his store. There was no stock in the backroom, the floor was waxed, and
every movement trey was setting in line.
And he said to me, “Take care of the back room, and the front
store will take care of itself.”
When it comes to the concept of salvation, what we as Christians think
of, in terms of defining the word “salvation”, is that we are saved,
or rescued, from the damnation of evil or hell.
And this is certainly true.
But, when it comes to God and God’s eternal decree with regards
to who we are and who we are to become, salvation does not start with
being rescued from hell. Salvation,
for God, is to transform us into living with Him in his life and love.
Had Adam and Eve, along with you and me—all of us—never
sinned, God would have stilled saved us, in the sense that the Son of
God would have become human so that He could know God as a human being,
with the mind and heart of a human, and share that with us.
Because we start with thinking about salvation as our being rescued from
hell, we often think of faith as that which God finally requires of us,
in order for us to be saved. It
is almost, as if we realize that we cannot make ourselves right with God
by our works, so we think God brought in something at the eleventh hour
that we may do in order to justify ourselves; that is, believe in Jesus.
So, let’s just imagine another situation.
Suppose there had never been any sin, and therefore no death.
We would certainly have many more people on the earth.
But, God the Father would have still sent His Son to become one
of us, so that we could be in union with God the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. With billions of
people and eternal life spans, in God’s creation, we may still have to
wait thousands of years before we actually could see and touch the Son
of Man in his human form. So,
what would we have done with our faith then and there?
We wouldn’t have had to believe in certain way to get ourselves right
with God because God had adopted us into His life.
Still, we would have trusted in the faith of Jesus, that through
the Holy Spirit, He would show Himself to us and reveal to us the love
that God the Father has with us. We
would have trusted in the faith of Son of God.
And God the Father would have trusted in the shrewd faith of His
Son, that His Son, in the Holy Spirit would reveal God the Father’s
love to us.
The true riches that you and I, and every one of us has, is that God the
Father trusts that Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit is going to
continually reveal God’s love for us and in us.
These are God’s true riches for God.
If we know how to be shrewd and faithful with dishonest wealth—and all
Jesus means by that, is what we value as wealth in the world—then we
can also apply our wisdom and our shrewdness to the true riches we have
just heard about. Jesus was
saying that the children of light are not being as shrewd as the
children of this age. Many of us who are Christian do not applying our shrewdness
abilities to our Spirituality; but people who are not Christian (yet)
apply their shrewdness to their worldly interests.
What is the best thing that we can do for another human being?
Yes, we can minister by reaching out and caring for people in
serious needy situations. As
a church, we think about where God may be leading us in certain kinds of
ministries.
On a personal level, with regard to relationships, have we ever asked
ourselves this kind of question: “How can I use my shrewdness, my
wisdom, my thoughtful, meditative management of myself, to lead a
certain loved one in my life, to reach out in love for someone else?
And this question is not so that we can get what we want from
someone. It is actually a
ministry to them. When a
human being truly reaches out and loves someone else in there neediness,
they one loving is experiencing God living in them.
Trust in the faith of Christ. Choose
a loved one in your life, a family member, a friend, a brother and
sister in Christ, and use your wisdom, your shrewdness to lead them to
love you or someone else in their time of need, and you may trust in the
faith God is going to overflow into their hearts; they will experience
their true riches.
Let us pray…
Amen
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