{"id":10946,"date":"2025-09-15T10:17:48","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T17:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=10946"},"modified":"2025-09-15T10:19:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T17:19:00","slug":"we-live-in-two-kingdoms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=10946","title":{"rendered":"We live in two kingdoms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><a href= \"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Pen-C-Luke-16113.pdf\">Select here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The treasurer of a congregation, known for his wit, looked out at the well-attended funeral, and said: \u201cIf we\u2019d known there would be a crowd like this, we would have taken an offering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We don\u2019t pass the offering plate at a funeral. Many a church treasurer no doubt regrets this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our gospel text today is about money: \u201cYou cannot serve God and mammon.\u201d And as the saying goes: \u201cThe hardest part of a man to convert is his pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are hundreds of similar Bible passages about God and money. Here are just a few more well-known texts on this theme:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The rich young ruler (Matt 19:24; Mk 10:25; Luke 18:25). What must I do to inherit eternal life? He had followed all the commandments. Then: Go sell what you possess and give it to the poor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The rich fool (Lk 12:20). The rich man\u2019s crops were so plentiful that he decided to build more and bigger barns. But alas, that night his life was required of him.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The widow\u2019s mite (Mk 12:41-44; Lk 21:1-4) Jesus sat down across the street from the treasury and watched the multitudes giving their money. Many rich people put in big gifts. A poor widow came and put in two copper coins. Jesus: They contributed about of their abundance; she gave her all.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Zacchaeus (Lk 19:1-10) \u201cZacchaeus: Come down for I must stay at your house today.\u201d \u201cBehold, Lord, the half of my good I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>What do we make of all these hard sayings about money?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They make it sound as if it\u2019s virtuous to live a life of poverty and even live on the public dole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is that what we\u2019re supposed to do? As you know, similar ideas of poverty are found in parts of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, although not Judaism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Note, however, the many Bible verses that go in the opposite direction:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cAnd God blessed them, saying, \u201cBe fruitful and multiply\u2026.\u201d (Gen 1:22).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Parable of the talents (Matt 25:15). \u201cWell done, good and faithful servant\u2026\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Parable of the fig tree (Luke 13:6-9). \u201cI have come seeking fruit and I find none. Cut it down.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Parable of the vineyard (Matt 21:33-44; Mk 12:1-12; Lk 20:9-19). \u201c[He will] let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their season.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cBe good stewards of God\u2019s varied grace\u201d (1 Peter 4:10). \u201cWho then is the faithful and wise steward?\u201d (Lk 12:42).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Beware those who \u201cforbid marriage and enjoin abstinences from food which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving\u201d (I Timothy 4:3-4).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Which way do we go? Live a life of poverty, or be fruitful and multiply?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The answer: All these parables and stories seem to be about poverty, wealth, economics, sociology, and the like, but really, they are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rather, they are about idolatry \u2013 about letting things of this world\u2014money, possessions, careers, and family\u2014become gods in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What\u2019s the answer? 1 Peter 5:7: \u201cCast all your cares on him, for he cares for you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This means not letting money, or family, or job, or whatever else become the thing you live for, become an idol. They are good things, but when they become the main thing\u2014then we, like the ancient Hebrews, have fallen into idolatry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Matthew 6:26-30 says: \u201cLook at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them\u2026Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin . . . if God so clothes the grass of the field . . . will he not much more clothe you?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We think of saints as those who are really good, who are \u201cGodlike.\u201d But the great saints don\u2019t say that. Rather, they say how unlike God they are, how sinful and broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was an axiom in the Middle Ages that went like this: God became man so that men could become God. Like attracts like. One had to be like God to be one with God. This was the underlying rationale of the monk, the mystic, and the pilgrim. One was to conform to God so completely that one finally became one with God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Luther saw the error in this thinking, and he found in his study of the Psalms and Romans a different perspective. There union with God is accompanied by awareness of one\u2019s distance from God, of how unlike God one is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Luther turned that medieval axiom\u2014God became man so that men would become God\u2014on its head. He said that God became man so that men would remain men, so that we could be free to creatures, not gods. Sinners, yet one with God through Christ who forgives. As 1 Timothy 2:5 states: \u201cThere is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The spiritual person is not the one who is inwardly and outwardly righteous. The spiritual person is the one who lives by faith alone, faith that God will be true to his promises, and despite all the evidence to the contrary, life is meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In our Gospel text today, the shrewd manager gave thought to the future and it shaped his actions in the present. He was like Jacob who was a cheat and a rascal, and nevertheless, one of the Patriarchs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like the shrewd manager we live with an eye to the future. Hebrews 13:14 states: \u201cHere we have no abiding city.\u201d Paul writes: \u201cOur commonwealth is in heaven\u201d (Philippians 3:20).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Luther put it this way: We live in two kingdoms. We live in this world of evil, sin, and death, God\u2019s left-hand kingdom, with a Gospel sense of where it\u2019s all going\u2014God\u2019s future kingdom where evil, sin, and death are no more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like the shrewd manager, we are to be smart, use our heads, and be prepared\u2014but there\u2019s no <em>quid pro quo<\/em> in heaven. He has done everything, and we shall receive everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Luther writes in his Small Catechism: \u201cI believe in Jesus Christ . . . who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, delivered me and freed me from all sins, from death and the power of the devil, not with silver and gold but with his holy and precious blood and with his innocent sufferings and death, in order that I may be his, live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, even as he is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13<\/p>\n<p>A Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n<p>The treasurer of a congregation, known for his wit, looked out at the well-attended funeral, and said: \u201cIf we\u2019d known there would be a crowd like this, we would have taken an offering.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t pass the offering plate at a funeral. Many a church treasurer no doubt regrets this.<\/p>\n<p>Select <a href=\"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=10946\"> here<\/a> to read more or select <a href =\"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Pen-C-Luke-16113.pdf\">here<\/a> for a pdf version.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10946"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10955,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10946\/revisions\/10955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}