Brothers: Here is what you might call a formulaic sermon.
Believing that last week's Gospel (Mt. 25:1-13) and this week's Gospel are
in close parallel, I imposed the structure of last week's sermon on this
week's text.
I am not chagrined by the results.
ER
Sermon for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday After Pentecost
The Word of God Increases and Multiplies
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen. Each of the Gospels for the last few Sundays of the year focus our
attention on the end of all time. Today's Gospel is your Lord's Parable of
the Rich Man Who Entrusted Money to His Servants. Two of these servants did
pretty well with the talents (or money) they had been given. The third
servant enraged his master because he did not even bother to earn simple
interest with the bankers. All three of these servants are looking directly
at you. They want to know from you: Are you a "good and faithful servant"
like the first two servants in this Gospel? Will you be called "wicked and
slothful" like the third servant? Will you be given more, or will what you
have be taken away?
These questions all boil down to one question, and sooner or later you will
be required personally to answer this question-whether you wish to answer it
or not. Good or wicked, faithful or slothful, receiving or forfeiting, it
all comes down to this: What will you have to show for the treasure you have
been given?
The bare reading of this Gospel has already alerted you to how
serious this question is for you:
. his master answered him, "You wicked and slothful servant! You ought to
have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have
received what was my own with interest. . cast the worthless servant into
the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth."
Instruction Instead of Silver, and Knowledge Rather than Choice Gold
(Proverbs 8:10)
God your heavenly Father "entrusted his property" to you when He
baptized you, adopting you to be His own dear child. The property God
entrusted to you is His life-giving and miracle-producing Word FOR YOU. The
property entrusted to the servants in today's Gospel may be compared to God's
Word FOR YOU, entrusted to you at your Baptism, because it is written in the
Psalms, "The law [Torah] of Your mouth [O Lord] is better to me than
thousands of gold and silver pieces" (Psalm 119:72). This entrusted property
may be compared to the Word because King David declares that God's Words are
"more to be desired. than gold, even much fine gold" (Psalm 19:10). The
property may be compared to the Word because your Lord Jesus is the Word
(John 1:1) and Isaiah calls Jesus "a wealth of salvation and wisdom and
knowledge" (Isaiah 33:6, NIV).
God your heavenly Father gave you His Word and promises-that is,
He "entrusted [you] with His property"-on the day He baptized you. Stated
another way, when you were baptized, your heavenly Father implanted His Word
in you (James 1:21), which is now powerfully at work in you (1 Thessalonians
2:13). The Word entrusted to you at your Baptism exerts its divine power
over your sin, not only by assuring you that all your sins forgiven through
Jesus (Acts 13:37), but also by giving you strength to resist the
temptations of the evil one (James 4:7, 1 Peter 5:9). The divine Word
entrusted to you at your Baptism does its good work both in you and through
you because God has promised you: "My Word. shall not return to Me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing
for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11). Because of your Baptism, this Word from
God is continually "near to you, in your mouth and in your heart" (Romans
10:9), empowering your confession of faith so that you may be saved.
[The kingdom of heaven] it will be like a man going on a journey, who called
his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five
talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.
So here you are in the company of those servants who have been
entrusted with their master's property in today's Gospel. Along with all the
baptized of Christ, you each have been given your individual share of your
Master's treasure. You personally have been given your share in order that
you might make good use of it. Your share of your master's property must be
carefully guarded and wisely invested so that you will not be treated like
this third servant in this Gospel, who was called "wicked and slothful" and
who was thrown out of the master's house.
The LORD is My Portion (Psalm 119:57)
Some people will object to my comparison of God's baptismal Word
and promises FOR YOU to the money entrusted to the servants in today's
Gospel. Some people will argue that one servant receives more than another
in this Gospel, but that "God shows no partiality" (Acts 10:34). They will
say that God your Father His forgiving Word and promises to all people
equally. For that reason His Word and promises FOR YOU in your Baptism
should not be compared to the property in today's Gospel. I will not protest
that God shows no partiality. I will not dispute one bit that God's Word is
equally spoken and equally beneficial to all people. To each of you, large
or small, old or young, rich or poor, God forgives you all your sins because
Jesus died and rose from the dead FOR YOU.
While I agree that God's Word is equally for all, I will also declare that
some people in the Church have been given greater responsibility for the
care and preaching of this Word than others. Stated another way, some bear a
greater responsibility than others, just like the man in this Gospel "who
called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five
talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability."
Obviously, the baptized saints of our cradle roll are not given as much
responsibility for the Word as are the pastor and elders of the
congregation. Obviously, parents bear a greater burden for faithful teaching
of the Word than do the children whom they were given to teach.
Nevertheless, each servant in today's Gospel was entrusted with
his master's property. The amount of money does not matter as much as the
trust itself matters. In the same way, EVERY SINGLE BAPTIZED CHRISTIAN has a
share in the Word that has been entrusted to the holy Christian Church.
EVERY SINGLE BAPTIZED CHRISTIAN must give an account for how he or she used
the responsibility and trust that was given.
· You must guard the property entrusted to you. That is to say, you
have a role and responsibility in the preaching of God's Word in this place.
Indeed, my responsibility is to preach and to teach faithfully. Your
responsibility is to listen faithfully, and not one for your personal
benefit or for the benefit of your family. Your responsibility is to listen
faithfully so that God's Word may indeed be carefully guarded and faithfully
preached for the forgiveness and salvation of others as well.
· You also must wisely use and invest the property entrusted to you.
That is to say, your responsibility in the growth of God's Word does not
merely involve your listening, but also your speaking. You proclaim God's
Word to the world with every "amen" you speak in this place. The
miracle-producing Word of God goes out from your mouth with every Psalm you
read with me, with every confession you make in the creeds, and with your
every praying of the Lord's Prayer. You are even investing the divine
property entrusted to you-taking part in its multiplication and growth-every
time you come to Holy Communion. This is why St. Paul has declared to you,
"As often as YOU eat this bread and drink the cup, YOU proclaim the Lord's
death until He comes" (1 Corinthians 11:26).
God your heavenly does not want you to lose this great gift of
His Word that He has entrusted to you, which is more than powerful to save
you (James 1:21). This is why your God so earnestly says to you, "Lay up
these words of mine in your heart and in your soul" (Deuteronomy 11:18). God's
apostle Paul does not wish to have your entrusted property corrupted or
stolen, so he declares to you and to all God's people, "Guard what has been
entrusted to your care" (1 Timothy 6:20). The many people who became
Christians in the book of Acts all want you to make sure that the Word
entrusted to you not be buried. They want you to continue wisely investing
your entrusted property through faithful preaching and faithful teaching and
the right administration of God's sacraments. You do not make Christians. I
do not make Christians. God makes Christians when the Word He has entrusted
to us grows and expands like money carefully invested. This is why it is
repeatedly written in the book of Acts, "The Word of God increased and
multiplied" (Acts 12:24; see also 6:7, 19:20).
In the House of the Righteous There is Much Treasure (Proverbs 15:6)
It always feels kind of strange for me to preach about the
importance of worship to those who have gathered for worship. But there is
more to preaching than correction and rebuke (2 Timothy 4:2). I am telling
you these things for your comfort, in order that you will NOT change your
regular habits of coming to worship. Dear saints of God-faithful servants,
every one of you-think of Sunday morning worship as nothing other than
continued investment and growth of the property entrusted to you at your
Baptism. "Now after a long time the master of those servants came and
settled accounts with them." With the divinely-given interest and growth
that God Himself provides for you in this place-that is, with the on-going
declaration of forgiveness and the promise of life that are credited to you
here-the entrusted property of God's Word and promises FOR YOU shall not
fail. The trust you have been given shall indeed bear its fruit and its
interest FOR YOU and you shall not be cast out of your master's house.
Today's Gospel is your Lord's Parable of the Rich Man Who Entrusted Money to
His Servants. Two servants did pretty well with the talents (or money) they
had been given. The third servant enraged his master because he did not even
bother to earn simple interest with the bankers. All three servants are
still looking directly at you. What will you have to show for the treasure
you have been given?
Don't answer these questions by looking into your heart or mind.
Don't base your answer on how you feel at any given moment. Answer these
servants by looking ONLY at the entrusted property of God's Word that your
heavenly Father gave to you on the day He adopted you in Baptism. Answer
these servants in this Gospel by telling them that your entrusted property
of God's Word gains interest and accrues with each liturgy, each absolution,
each sermon, and each Holy Communion. Unashamedly tell them that your
investment has not been buried in the dirt, but that you hold by faith in
the coming of the Son of Man. Your God shall without fail settle His
accounts with you. Because of what you continue to receive here, in the
on-going preaching of His powerful Word and in the unending administration
of His sacraments, your Master shall most certainly say to you, "Well done,
good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set
you over much. Enter into the joy of your master."
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