“CHRIST HAS MADE YOU HIS FRIENDS”
Saint Luke 16. 1-9
The Ninth Sunday after Trinity: 5 August Anno Domini 2007
Fr Watson
It is an interesting story that the Lord told to His disciples. You don’t understand it any better than they did. Devout Jews knew the commandments. Christians too know the Law of God. Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not steal. Do not lie, cheat, or embezzle. The will of God is clear, direct and non-negotiable.
The will of God is for all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Redeemer Christ Jesus. Fallen man cannot believe in Jesus Christ or come to him apart from God’s Grace; apart from God’s calling.
Fallen man cannot understand the hidden things of God. Creation, the visible wonders and powerful manifestations of the universe CAN be comprehended by general observation; this “general” knowledge is imprinted (“hard-wired”) into every sinful soul. BUT, the knowledge of Grace; to know the proper work of the Trinity, the “Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world” by His suffering and death on the tree of Calvary, that is only revealed by the WORD. Peter only knew that the Nazarene Rabbi was the Christ of God because God the Holy Ghost gave him that “revealed knowledge” through the Word. Anyone can have a pagan’s understanding of “a god” the creator, but only those, like Peter, who have been enlightened by the Gospel can know God the Savior.
The Word is, of course, the inspired Old Testament texts, but also Jesus’ own teachings and doings. Christ is the Word made flesh.
Rather than try to discern on your own what Jesus wants to teach you in Luke’s Gospel, verses 1-9, the Parable of the Unjust Steward, hear the Word of God. Jesus speaks the proper interpretation:
“…the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when ye fail, they many receive you into everlasting righteousness.”
The “children of this world” are the unbelieving pagans. And, in so far as you still have an “old Adam” sinful nature struggling to sin and rebel, you too have a “child of the world” to be dealt with. Satan is the ruler of this sinful broken realm and the “Prince of the Air.” He is the “strong man” who lies, deceives, murders and destroys. The devil, the sinful flesh, and the broken world, give to their children cunning, self-preservation, memory, ego and a host of other gifts. The children of Satan have anger, lust, conceit, covetousness, idolatry in abundant quantities. The offspring of the snake, “the brood,” have intelligence, foresight, ruthlessness, and a sense of “doing what it takes” to “get what it wants.” The “children of this world” want what they want, when they want, and how they want. The children of this world are simply what they are.
You are children of light. Jesus is that Light said John the Baptist as well as the Evangelist John. You confess in the Nicene Creed that Jesus is not just a reflection or emanation but that He is of the same substance; Light of Light. You are children of that Light; of that Life. Be what you are; do what Light does (and what reflections do); shine. Make friends for yourself out of strangers and even out of family members. A friend, or a neighbor, is someone that you can love as a “child of light” loves; totally and unconditionally. Love your neighbor as yourself. Serve the other and make him a friend for life by shining in their darkness with the light and love of Jesus. Take the mammon, the “stuff” of unrighteousness; the normal, broken, fallible, ordinary things of this sinful world and use them to enlighten, feed, and clothe your neighbor. Take the tongue in your head, which daily is used to curse, swear, gossip, and worse, and use it for the light of Christ. Tell others about the Savior; Who He is and what He did. Use your profane mouth and voice as the broadcast megaphone and speaker of the Holy Ghost and invite people to come here to Christ’s Church that they might be fully radiated in Redemptive Light! Bring them here to His house where He Himself uses your mammon, your money, talents, hard work, contributions and donations to keep this New Testament Temple that place where the Spirit draws the faithful.
Here, mammon, purchased wine and bought bread, become by His creative and saving Word His own Blessed Body and Beatific Blood. When you fail, when you fall, when you daily sin, here at this pulpit and this altar the mammon sanctified and made holy by the Mouth of Messiah forgives, strengthens and preserves. The broken and dead children of the world will here find the light of release, the breath of new beginnings, the comfort of fellowship and family, the satisfying peace of being filled and clothed, and the anticipatory distant glow of the life of the world to come.
Yes you will fail. Your words will fail. Your actions and good intentions will fail. You won’t do all that you want to do. Many times you won’t want to do anything. You will do bad things and attempt to drive others away. You will feel from time to time as if you too are darkness and children of the night, as well as the world.
The Lord never fails. The Light always shines. Jesus is the Righteous One and He is pure righteousness and He gives pure righteousness in Himself. The mammon of a real live, fleshly, normal, earthly body, Christ took to Himself when the Second Person of the Trinity was conceived in the womb of the Blessed Virgin. The uncreated, incomprehensible Light of the Son of God dwelt, and still dwells, in the fleshly body of the Nazarene, Christ Jesus. And although this Light did shine forth in marvelous blasts of miraculous healings and wonders during Jesus’ ministry, it always was there, veiled, yet faithfully and dutifully obeying the Law for you.
That Light is here today to be heard. “You are loved! You are forgiven!”
That mammon of arms, legs, back, shoulders, head, side and heart was routinely callously, and cruelly, spiked on to the wood of the cross outside the City of David. That Light was spit on and then extinguished, snuffed out by the torrents of blood. But, that Light also broke through the stone of the cave and shone forth with the brilliance of Easter Victory! The Christ has made friends for Himself. He has created brothers and sisters from the things which came from His earthly fleshly body. The Water from His side and the Blood from His side, from His heart, is the Gospel in concrete—spoken into your ears, placed onto your + heads, taken upon your tongues, believe on in your hearts.
Today, “This” day you are again received into righteousness by receiving the Righteous One.
In the Name of The Father and of The Son + and of The Holy Ghost