“THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS”
Saint Luke 16: 1-9
9th Sunday after Trinity: 13 August Anno Domini 2017
Father Jay Watson SSP
Which means in the Name + of The Saving One.
And what does the Savior save you from? The end result is deliverance from Satan, eternal death, and damnation to be sure. But the causative reason is that The Savior saves you from your sins. The wages of sin is death writes the Blessed Apostle. The debts you daily incur by sinning in thought, word, and deed are infinitely large because they are committed against the infinitely perfect Holy Trinity. And make no mistake about it, no cleverness, guile, quick action, or effort on your part will save you from your “old Adam” sinner. You as you are doomed.
So, Saint Luke 16. 1-9 is most definitely NOT about you being as adept and swift of mind as the unjust steward. The Lord is not countenancing theft, embezzlement, or more “fire-sale” closeouts so that you can prepare for your “habitations.” Thou shalt not steal is the first and last word on property issues. Thou shalt not covet is the first and last word on greed and envy issues.
The Lord’s parable is about forgiveness. All of His parables are either about Himself or His Kingdom. And since the King is The Kingdom they are all about Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins. And where there is the forgiveness of sins there is also life and salvation. This parable is not about you it is about Christ…Christ “for you.”
Sinners, you, are “like” the steward in so far as you’ve also screwed everything up; made a mess out of the good gifts, bounty, and responsible vocations you’ve been blessed with. We all fail miserably as thieves and cowards in our “offices” as fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, siblings, parents, children, workers, students, friends, men and women. If an account was to be given of our deeds, our works, our filthy rags, at the Final Judgment, we would be gnashing our Billy-goat teeth in tears of agony forever. But The Judge has cancelled out that bill, that indictment, that judgement of guilty by forgiving it Himself in His own Body and Blood, given and shed.
Jesus The Savior saves by forgiving…forgiving your debts and dastardly misdeeds—your thefts of not loving God perfectly and loving your neighbor perfectly.
At the end of the parable Christ does speak true and proverbial wisdom—“good” works flowing from first being forgiven (i.e. “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”) If pagans are shrewd in using unrighteous mammon to minimize deadly fallout and to insure themselves as “soft a landing” in disastrous times as possible…than so too should a Christian use unrighteous mammon for the things that a Christian should be about. So, use your earthly 1st Article gifts and possessions to honor and worship God, your parish, The Church; and use these same resources to love your neighbor by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and all the other physical things that The Judge will tell you that you, in fact, did do, at the Judgment Seat during that final separation at the great resurrection of all flesh.
But we don’t make “friends” with “unrighteous mammon” do we? Not as the perfect Law of “Heavenly Book-Keeping” demands, do we? No, we tend to hoard, spend only on ourselves, gaze rapturously in the mirror, and then when we do “use” our wits and wills we take credit where no credit is due.
The point of the parable is the “certain man,” the Master, the Lord, who at the end of his stewards’ shenanigans, clever though they were, worthy of a “wink & nod” “commendation” for hutzpah, is the one who does the forgiving. That Master forgives the steward. That Master allows the discounted debts paid by his customers to stand…more forgiveness.
In an added piece of felicity, Jesus also lets the “12” and all of you now today, know about the Divine agency of ambassadorship of atonement; of the durable power-of-attorney to bind and loose. The steward points also to pastors who likewise “in the stead and by the command” forgive debts…in The Name of The Lord: Jesus.
“Do you unjust stewards, do you debtors of damnable debts…do you believe that my forgiveness is Jesus’ forgiveness?”
Then be it so unto you…for The Lord hath done it. His digging and his laboring. His begging, intreating, and pleading to His Father while He bled out on the tree for remission of your sins…is enough. It is everything. “I forgive you + all your sins…”
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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