"Cling To True Riches!" Luke 16:19-31

The First Sunday After Trinity                             11-June-2023
Sermon Text: Luke 16:19-31
Sermon Theme: “Cling To Real Riches!” by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert

I.N.R.I. “What does it mean to have a god? or, what is God?” Dr. Martin Luther asks in the Large Catechism. He answers, “ A god means that from which we are to expect all good and to which we are to take refuge in all distress, so that to have a God is nothing else than to trust and believe Him from the [whole] heart; as I have often said that the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol. 3 If your faith and trust be right, then is your god also true; and, on the other hand, if your trust be false and wrong, then you have not the true God; for these two belong together, faith and God. That now, I say, upon which you set your heart and put your trust is properly your god.” Who is your God? In whom or what do you trust?
    “Matter-ism” the belief that matter is the only thing that has ever been and will ever be is a popular idol. ““The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be.” wrote Carl Sagan, a scientist. Those who worship matter tell us with religious fervor that you cannot question science. Although the scientific method which arose out of Christianity begins with a question than a hypotheses, than experiments that are measurable, observable, and repeatable to prove or disprove the idea. True science is all about questioning. The religion of science-ism elevates scientists to be its new priests whose pronouncements are not to be questioned. Instead of scientific investigation authorities shout down all dissenters as rebelling against “science.”  
    “Matter-ism” is also at the heart of Karl Marx’s religion of socialism/communism. Marx was certain that money made the world go around. He trusted in a redistribution of wealth between the haves and have nots to usher in an utopian paradise. Marx’s religion of communism stands on the graves of over 100 million people slaughtered by authoritarian regimes promising utopias only to deliver death.  
      “Matter-ism” or “materialism” is not a new religion. Jesus preaches against this false god, “Luk 16:13 "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."” There isn’t room in your heart to trust in the only true and living God and to bow before the altars of “matter-ism”. Repent! “Cling to Real Riches!”
      St. Luke carefully researches and records the history of Jesus, the Son of Mary from Nazareth, the Son of God from eternity.   Near the end of chapter nine Luke records, Luk 9:51 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem,” There is only one way to free fallen humanity from its bondage under Satan and his spiritual lies that chain our hearts to man-made idols - the Cross! Jesus the Perfect Man, without sin, fulfills the Father’s will by journeying to Jerusalem to die for you! He will fully drink the cup of the Father’s just wrath for your sins. He will suffer the eternity of hell you deserve, that His stripes might heal you - reconcile you to your God and Father. Mar 1:15"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." Jesus publically preached this message from the beginning of His public ministry.
    In love He preaches: (Lk 16:19-21) The Pharisees were lovers of money and derided Jesus. In love He paints a picture of two men. Is this a parable or the Lord and Judge of all the earth revealing reality to us? Some ancient church fathers didn’t classify it as a parable as many modern scholars. Which of these two men would you prefer to be? A rich man, living in a palace, wearing designer clothing, daily partying with friends feasting sumptuously ? This man had the wealth of a Bill Gates, an Elon Musk, a George Soros. He had the power to influence world rulers - he wore purple - the mark of royalty. Successful truly living what we have been sold as the “American Dream.”
    The other man is homeless. His clothing - painful sores. He is thrown on the street in front of the rich man’s gate. He is weak, powerless, starving. He longs to eat garbage from the rich man’s table - no one gives him even a crumb. Only wandering street dogs come near his stinking rotting flesh to lick the pus from his sores. Would you like to be him? Endure disdainful looks from those walking by treating you as refuse. Never stopping or caring to know your name? What good is a beggar named Lazarus? Eliezer/ Lazarus’ name means, “God is my Help” The world mocked and derided him for trusting in God’s promise in Christ Jesus. What a loser in the eyes of the world.
    In the Large Catechism we are warned against the idolatry of money and stuff. “Many a one thinks that he has God and everything in abundance when he has money and, possessions; he trusts in them and boasts of them with such firmness and assurance as to care for no one. 6 Lo, such a man also has a god, Mammon by name, i.e., money and possessions, on which he sets all his heart, and which is also the most common idol on earth. 7 He who has money and possessions feels secure, and is joyful and undismayed as though he were sitting in the midst of Paradise. 8 On the other hand, he who has none doubts and is despondent, as though he knew of no God. 9 For very few are to be found who are of good cheer, and who neither mourn nor complain if they have not Mammon. This [care and desire for money] sticks and clings to our nature, even to the grave.”
  Pro 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.The ninth and tenth commandments shine the light into the very center of your being - what and whom do you really trust? God knows! Are you honest enough to examine your heart in the light of His Word? What riches do you cling to?
    Death comes to all! It is the great leveler. It is the sure and certain wages that sin pays out. A billionaire may freeze his body in hope of a future resuscitation and medical cure. Or they may dream of uploading their mind to computer storage severing their minds from their bodies. Still all will die. Medical technology cannot cancel the reality of death. Christianity is the truth of reality. Rom 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—“ Here Paul echos Moses’ song in the 90th Psalm, “Psa 90:7-10 For we have been consumed by Your anger, And by Your wrath we are terrified. (8) You have set our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance. (9) For all our days have passed away in Your wrath; We finish our years like a sigh. (10) The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”
    Death visits the homeless and those who live in splendor. (Lk 16:22-23) The rich man, known by many, if you do well you’ll have many friends - dies and receives a grand burial. Homeless Lazarus dies and his corpses is thrown in the trash heap of Gehenna, or buried in a pauper’s grave no one knew his name. No one weeps for the homeless beggar - No one knows, no one weeps - except Jesus.
    He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life now parts the curtain of death for us to give a brief glimpse into what happens when we die. Created by God to be in communion with Him - all humanity is created to live forever. Either with their Creator in fellowship with all the elect or without Him in eternal isolation chained by their conscience in hate.
  God knows Lazarus by name. His name was written in the Book of Life by the blood of the Lamb of God. Lazarus was a true son of Abraham - he clung to God’s rich promise of the Christ to be born from Abraham’s descendants as the One Sacrifice for all sinners. Heb 9:27-28 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, (28) so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.” No Christian ever dies alone. Even now in the divine service we are surrounded with “angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven.” As St. John testifies in Revelation 7. So on our death beds - even if we are isolated away from family and friends in a hospital ward - God’s holy angels stand watch - or if we are in prison tortured and dying for believing and confess the truth of reality - Christianity - you will not be alone. When you breath your last, your eyes will be opened and you will see that those who are with you are more than those who are against you. The Lord’s holy angels will bring your soul to rest in the Word and promise given to Abraham. Rejoicing and waiting for the completion of your baptism in the resurrection of your body from the grave - incorruptible, immortal, glorious, powerful - to feast forever face to face with your God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
    The unnamed and unknown to Christ rich man now reaps the investment of his riches. He is in torments in hell. His conscience. His soul suffers torment. A foretaste of what awaits his body when it is resurrected and reunited both body and soul will be cast into the eternal lake of hellish fire. Now the rich man suffering looks up and sees that the beggar Lazarus whom he despised is honored by God - he suffers. He had imagined that his mammon was a sign God favored him - he was deathly wrong. Lazarus is truly rich by God’s standards and the cross was the sign that God had called him in Christ and preserved him in the faith.
      The rich man even in hellish torment trusts his own wisdom and ways above God’s judgement. (Lk.16:24) He doesn’t pray the Lord for mercy. Instead he prays to Saint Abraham to do what he thinks is right. This is the only prayer to a saint Jesus speaks of..and it does no good. The rich man went through the motions of loving God, knowing Abraham, but his poverty was manifest in ignoring the beggar. He betrays that he knew Lazarus’ name, but never stooped to over him a crumb. Now he wants to command Lazarus to be his servant and cool the torment with a drop of water. It is too late to repent after death and this man stubbornly refuses to admit the truth of his poverty.(Lk 16:25-26)
The rich man’s god could save him. Lazarus’ Christ preserved him through suffering in the riches of His grace. Can your God save you?
There is no second chance - no passing from hell to heaven or heaven to hell by mere human beings.
      Cling to the everlasting Treasure! (Lk.16:27-28) The unrepentant rich man is certain that God didn’t do it right. Send Lazarus back to his brothers to preach to them. He had ignored his responsibility to speak God’s Word to them as they sat at his table. (Lk. 16:29) The Means of Grace are sufficient. The Holy Spirit works through only the Word of Christ preached through Moses and Prophets and the sacraments He has attached His Word and promises to forgive our sins, fill us with His life, and the salvation He earned for us by His perfect life, suffering, death, and resurrection. (Lk.16:30-31). Moses and the prophets preached Christ alone. This is Abraham’s faith. It is gifted you in your baptism. Do not fear the day of judgment - the Father’s perfect love for you in Christ Jesus has cast out fear. Now the Holy Spirit comforts you - as Jesus places not a drop of water, but His living flesh and blood upon your tongue to comfort you in your afflictions - until you join the feast immortal. Amen.