Luke 17:1-10: (NRSV) Some Sayings of Jesus

¹Jesus^* said to his disciples, ‘Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! ²It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble. ³Be on your guard! If another disciple^* sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. ⁴And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, “I repent”, you must forgive.’

⁵ The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ ⁶The Lord replied, ‘If you had faith the size of a^* mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea”, and it would obey you.

⁷ ‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from ploughing or tending sheep in the field, “Come here at once and take your place at the table”? ⁸Would you not rather say to him, “Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink”? ⁹Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? ¹⁰So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, “We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!” ’

The Gospel reading is such an important passage because the warnings are so clear. Verses 1 and 2 condemn the person who teaches others to sin. The word translated as ‘stumble’ (skandalon) can actually be more literally translated as scandal and according to Barclay has two meanings: (i) originally it meant to entrap and (ii) it then evolved to mean any stumbling block in a person’s way to trip them up. Barclay writes: ‘Jesus said that it is impossible to construct a world with no temptations; but woe to that person who teaches another to sin or to take away another’s innocence.’ People eventually receive their first nudge along the way to sin and ‘... God will not hold a person guiltless who, along life’s road, causes a weaker one to go the wrong way.’

This is why drug pushers are so dreadful and whenever a stronger character misleads a weaker one it is so inexcusable. This is also why the older person who seduces a younger person is wrong. Our society sends out the message that sexual activity is normal and multiple sexual partners are just part of life. As soon as one allows sexual activity outside of a mature adult, life-long, committed relationship – preferably within a marriage - one opens the door to ‘... leading people to stumble ...’ There is such a fine line between equal, voluntary and informed consent and one feeling pressured to do something they are not really comfortable with. Our young people are confused and I sometimes need to help them pick up the pieces. They are bombarded with sexual license and promiscuity that they feel pressured by the media and the film industry. There is a very real sense that especially movie and TV film makers will be held accountable for ‘... leading little ones astray ...’ but also educational programmes and some in the health service.

Nurturing young ones to maturity is the great honour that I have devoted my life to being part of. But there is a profound difference between this and giving the impression that they can choose for themselves, unless they are properly prepared to make informed choices. Society in its post-modernism states that all opinions are of equal value, that there is little that is definitely wrong, and that everything is okay if the people taking part have agreed; yet when one reads the agony aunt columns of teenage magazines (which I did when I started teaching them), one finds that young girls feel that they have been led astray and this leads me to feel a real sadness for them, who feel robbed of something so precious – their innocence. I know it is an unpopular notion, but I believe we should be making it clear that there is a different way, a better way, the way of cherishing innocence, protecting it and making sure that young people are really properly informed so that they can appropriately make life-changing decisions. I remain committed to marriage as the only appropriate place for sexual activity.

But what other examples are there? We cause others to stumble when we behave in such a way that it makes our faith seem unattractive and bigoted by the things we say or more importantly by the things we do. I was away in Oxford for a few days at a Chaplain’s conference. We were met by a worker Priest from the east end of London, who has colleagues working in Canary Warf, both as Chaplains and as bankers. It has been a powerful Christian witness that the reason why one particular bank has not been part of the crisis is because there are Christians working in it, Christians who take their huge salaries and give 90% of what they earn away. This does the opposite, it attracts people to Christ, it does not send them away.

The eyes of the world will always be upon us. We will be judged more by what people see, even more than what people hear. This is why what people like Mother Teresa believed becomes irrelevant, because of the power of her actions, so Roman Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, atheist and stand in awe when they reflect on how she changed the world for good. J C Ryle writes: ‘Let us endeavour to make our religion beautiful in the eyes of people, and to adorn the doctrine of Christ in all things. Let us strive to lay aside every weight of sin which most easily besets us, and so to live that men can find no fault in us ...’

We are going to cause some offence because the way we live is going to be different to the ways of the world. As I alluded to earlier, our sexual ethic is going to be different, our business ethics are going to be different, our speech and actions are in themselves going to cause offence to some who are going to accuse us of all sorts of things. Christians caused offence to the white majority in South Africa by opposing apartheid; Wilberforce caused great offence to the majority in his call for the abolition of slavery. Jesus caused so much offence that he was crucified on a criminal’s cross. This is not what he is referring to here; here he is referring to those who are caused to stumble off the right path – what their consciences, deep down tell them is right – because we have said or done things which bring discredit to the Gospel of Christ. Ryle concludes this section by writing: ‘The Cross of Christ will always give offence. Let us not increase that offence by carelessness in our daily life.’

But he does not leave it there. We have all got things wrong and will continue to get things wrong. And when this happens we need to forgive others.

Verse 3 and 4 refer to the settling of disputes. The injured person must be on their guard against the dangers of resentment and bearing grudges and must rather go to the person who has caused offence and between them sort things out with repentance and forgiveness being the vital ingredients. No matter how often the offence occurs, the same recipe needs to be followed ‘... with tireless goodwill ...’ and without limit.

Forgiveness needs to be a central feature of Christian living. These verses speak of forgiving seven times. The ancient rabbis spoke of forgiving three times and if one did, one was a perfect man. Christians need to take the rabbinic standard, double it and add one. Barclay writes: ‘... but it is not a matter of mathematical calculation. It simply means that the Christian standard of forgiveness must immeasurably exceed the best the world can achieve.’

Karl Menninger, the famed psychiatrist, once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75 percent of them could walk out the next day! (Today in the Word, March 1989, p. 8.)

Jungle Aviation and Radio Service (JAARS), the flying department of Wycliffe Bible Translators--had flown thousands of hours over a 25 year span without one fatal accident before April 7, 1972. On that day, a Piper Aztec lost its right engine and crashed in Papua New Guinea, killing all seven persons aboard. The Aztec had just rolled out of the Wycliffe maintenance hangar the day before following a 100 hour inspection. The chief mechanic was stunned when he heard the news of the crash. Reviewing in his mind each step he had performed in inspecting that right engine, he suddenly recoiled in horror. He remembered that he had been interrupted while tightening a fuel line and had never returned to finish the job! That faulty connection had allowed raw fuel to spray out and catch fire while the Aztec was in flight. The mechanic's guilt at being responsible for the deaths of his companions crushed him. For days he did not know what to do. The other mechanics tried to help him, as did his own family. But when the family of Doug Hunt, the pilot who was killed in the accident, was preparing to return to their home in New Zealand, the mechanic knew he had to see them, talk with them and beg their forgiveness. He could barely get out the words as he sobbed in their presence. "That hand there," he said, looking at his right hand, "took Doug's life." Glennis Hunt, Doug's widow, embraced him. "Glennis sat by me and held the hand that took her husband's life," he later wrote, "and another JAARS pilot sat on my other side with a demonstration of love, comfort, and forgiveness. That was the most significant first step in the healing process." (Max Lucado, God Came Near, Multnomah Press, 1987, p. 101.)

To some people today, this forgiving attitude of the dead pilot’s wife is offensive thinking rather than she should have sued both the organisation and the mechanic concerned. But it was an honest mistake and the most costly one anyone could ever make. The man truly repented and was truly forgiven.

This sort of living requires faith; something that we cannot do for ourselves. We know that faith is a gift that God gives us, and all that is left for us to do is to accept it. Confronted with examples of forgiveness like this – which amplify what Jesus was in effect trying to get across to his disciples – I too need to ask Jesus as his disciples did in verse 5 – ‘Increase my faith ...’

Verses 5 and 6 tell of the centrality of faith. Implied in these verses is typical ancient hyperbole suggesting that what might look impossible becomes possible. This is true even in the realm of science and medicine. Today there are many operations that are commonplace which would have been deemed impossible 50 years ago.  Barclay adds: ‘If we approach a thing saying “It can’t be done,” it will not; if we approach a thing saying, “It must be done,” the chances are that it will. We must always remember that we approach no task alone, but that with us there is God and all his power.’ Caird adds: ‘... faith in God is a power that takes impossibilities in its stride.’

Verses 7 to 10 tell us that we can never do things that make God indebted to us and we can never have any claim on him. When we have done our best, we have only done our duty, and when we have done our duty we have done no more than we could have been compelled to do. Barclay concludes: ‘It may be possible to satisfy the claims of law; but every lover knows nothing can ever satisfy the claims of love.’

The parable of the slave and the master ‘... is a warning against the bookkeeping mentality, which thinks it can run up a credit balance with God.’ The slave’s labour belongs to the master, and a full day’s work is not more than the slave doing what is expected of him. Nothing the slave can do give him any claim on his master’s gratitude or can put his master in his debt. The same is true of Christians: we cannot earn God’s approval nor can we put God in our debt. Even the best service we can offer ‘... is no more than God is entitled to expect, since it gives him nothing that does not belong to him by right. The whole idea of merit is to be abandoned in our approach to God.’

But this is never something we do because we are afraid of punishment. Our obedience is that which flows from having received loved and so we desire to love in return. We care for others when we teach them the ways of Christ and the Gospel, both my word, but more especially by the example of our lives. Amen.

An early one on the Epistle for next week ...

1 Timothy 6.6-19 (NRSV)

⁶Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; ⁷for we brought nothing into the world, so that^* we can take nothing out of it; ⁸but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. ⁹But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

The Good Fight of Faith

11 But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. ¹²Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made^* the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you ¹⁴to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵which he will bring about at the right time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. ¹⁶It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen.

17 As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. ¹⁸They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, ¹⁹thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.

When one is in a right relationship with God, things fall into place. I well remember when I came to Christ, my intellect was set free and I rejoiced in the new found liberty to think and question and challenge and grow. But this alone does not always lead to contentment. Barclay suggests that the original word used can best be translated as self-sufficiency. The Stoics, when they used this word, referred to a frame of mind which was completely independent of all outward and external things. Barclay writes: “Content never comes from the possession of external things ... Contentment comes from an inward attitude to life.”

Epicurus, that much misunderstood Greek philosopher stated: “To whom little is not enough, nothing is enough. ... Add not to a man’s possessions but take away from his desires.”

This is echoed in the ancient Rabbinical schools where there was the saying: “Who is rich? He that is content with his lot.”

This is something that our society has forgotten and so, while we might be in a bit of an economic pickle at the moment, we are still (materially speaking) much better off than we have ever been. Yet people have seldom ever been quite as miserable! This is because they fail to realise that  “... it is never in the power of things to bring happiness ...”

Happiness comes from personal relationships. Without friendship and love, no matter how much money we might have, we will never be happy. Happiness lies in people and never in things.

Seneca made the obvious statement: “You cannot take anything more out of this world than you brought into it.” But we can take our ‘self’ and so we would do well to build up a self and a character – a heart and soul – that we are proud to take with us into the presence of God. If the secret to happiness lies in relationships, then the most important of all the relationships is the one we have with God. Barclay concludes:

“Content comes when we escape the servitude to things, when we find our wealth in the love and the friendship and the fellowship of others, and when we realise that our most precious possession is our friendship with God, made possible through Jesus Christ.”

What lovely thoughts from Barclay as he reflects on verses 9-10of this wonderful epistle.

Barclay suggests that there are the following dangers associated with money:

Firstly, the desire for money can become an insatiable thirst. There is a Roman proverb that states that wealth is like sea-water: the more one drinks – the more one needs to drink because the thirst is never quenched. For many people, there never comes a time when they can say that they have enough;

Secondly, the desire for wealth is founded on an illusion: the illusion that wealth will provide security and the illusion that wealth will provide comfort and luxury. But wealth cannot buy security and it cannot buy true comfort and luxury because the most important things cannot be bought: love, health and safety from sorrow and death.

Thirdly, the desire for money tends to make people selfish because this desire makes a person focus on himself and not the needs of others, indeed ‘others’ can becomes mere means to his ends.

Fourthly, the desire for wealth tends to lead to worry and anxiety. The more a man has to keep, the more a man has to loose!

Fifthly, the love of money can lead people into wrong ways of getting money and this leads to pain and regret and remorse. It can even be literally true in that it can affect a person’s health and realise too late the damage he has done to others.

Barclay concludes:

“To seek to be independent, to be able to pay one’s debts and to provide a house and a home and an opportunity for one’s family, prudently to provide for the future, is a Christian duty; but to evaluate everything in terms of money, to make the love of money the driving force of life, cannot ever be anything else than the most perilous of sins.”

In verses 11-16, Barclay sees great significance in the title the author uses for Timothy – ‘... man of God ...’ This is one of the great titles of the Old Testament and was used for Moses, Samuel and the prophets. It is wonderful to note that giving Timothy this title the author is not being reminded of his sin and inadequacy or helplessness, rather he is being reminded of his great honour of being’s God’s man. Timothy is being challenged to be what he can be. Barclay comments:

‘The Christian way is not to fling man’s humiliating past in his face, but to set before him the majestic splendour of his potential future. The very fact that Timothy was addressed as “Man of God” would make him square his shoulders and throw his head back as one who has received his commission from the King.’

The virtues that he needs to aspire to are set plainly before him as we read in verses 11b-12:

‘...pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. ¹²Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made^* the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.’

Timothy is also to ‘remember’: He is to remember the fact that when he came to faith, he made the same confession that Jesus made before Pontius Pilate that he was King. When a Christian confesses their faith, they do what Jesus did, when a Christian suffers for their faith, they suffer what their Lord has already suffered. Barclay suggests that we can say the following:

‘Brothers and sisters, we are travelling where the saints have trod ... I stand with Christ ... and surely such a memory must life up our hearts and inspire our lives ...’

We know that Christ will come again and so it is our duty to make sure that what he finds what we have done and are doing is fit for him to see. We are not working to please people, we are working to satisfy Christ. Barclay continues:

‘We must take every task they do and offer it, not to men, but to Christ. The question which the Christian must always ask himself is not: “Is it good enough to pass the judgement of people?” but: “Is it good enough to win the approval of Jesus Christ?”’

We must remember God! We remember that the one who is king above every other king, and Lord above every Lord, the one who possess the gift of eternal life to give to people this God loves us and only wants what is best for us. ‘...to him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen.’

Good challenging thoughts from our friend William Barclay yet again ...

Late - a busy week at School - apologies

Luke 16.1-13 (i) (NRSV)

The Parable of the Dishonest Manager

¹Then Jesus^* said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. ²So he summoned him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.” ³Then the manager said to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. ⁴I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.” ⁵So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” ⁶He answered, “A hundred jugs of olive oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.” ⁷Then he asked another, “And how much do you owe?” He replied, “A hundred containers of wheat.” He said to him, “Take your bill and make it eighty.” ⁸And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. ⁹And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth^* so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.^*

¹⁰ ‘Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. ¹¹If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth,^* who will entrust to you the true riches? ¹²And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? ¹³No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.’^*

This is one of the difficult parables of our Lord. Barclay writes: “It is a story about as choice a set of rascals as one could meet anywhere.”

The Manager was a rascal: he was a slave, but one who had been placed in charge of running the master’s estate. This was common, as In Palestine there were many absentee Landlords. This Manager had made a career out of embezzling his master out of much wealth.

The debtors were also rascals. They probably owed rent. Rent was often paid in kind and not in money. It would be agreed that a portion of what the tenant produced would be given to the estate. The Manager knew that he was about to lose his job and so came up with an idea that he probably thought was brilliant. He falsified the entry in the books so that the debtors appeared to owe far less than they actually did owe in reality. This would result in two effects: (i) the debtors would be grateful to him and (ii) because they were part to this dishonesty, the Steward would be able to blackmail them to keep quite or else face further difficulty.

The Master also seems to have been a rascal, for, instead of being shocked and disgusted by what had happened, he praised the shrewd workings of the Manager.

Barclay suggests that there are FOUR possible lessons attached to this parable.

Firstly, Verse 8 seems to suggest that ‘... the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.’ This implies that if only the Christian was as eager and ingenious in his attempt to attain goodness as the people of this world are eager to attain money and comfort, we would be better people. If only we were to give as much attention to the things of our souls as we do the things which concern our business or careers, we would become much better people.  Barclay writes:

“Over and over again a man will expend 20 times the amount of time and money and effort on his pleasure, his hobby, his garden, his sport as he does on his church. Our Christianity will begin to be real and effective only when we spend as much time and effort on it as we do on our worldly activities.”

Secondly, verse 9 suggests another lesson: ‘⁹And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.’ Barclay suggests that this is saying that material possessions should be used to cement the friendships ‘... wherein the real and permanent value of life lies ...’ The Rabbis had a saying: “The rich help the poor in this world, but the poor help the rich in the world to come ...”

But this verse could also refer to a different lesson. A person can use their wealth selfishly or to make life easier for others. There are many scholars who are grateful to rich people who have enabled them to study through the generosity of benefactors who made funds available to support them through their studies. We also all know of those who helped us through times of need in the most practical of ways. Barclay concludes: “Possessions are not in themselves a sin, but they are a great responsibility, and the man who uses them to help his friends has gone far to discharge that responsibility.”

Yet another reminder that our Lord wants us to struggle to find meaning and so Luke does not harmonise and interpret this difficult passage but invites us to work through it. Fundamentalism / literalism in passages like this would lead to disaster!

G B Caird agrees that this parable ‘... bristles with difficulties ...’ and suggests that there are (in his mind) two possible interpretations:

Firstly, If we say that the transactions described in the parable were dishonest, we can hardly believe that they were praised by the landlord, who would have – in effect – have been a victim of fraud. The Master must be a reference to Jesus who commends the manager, not for his dishonesty, but for his realism and determination in dealing with a sudden emergency. If this is true, then this parable is one of crisis, ‘... a warning from Jesus to his contemporaries to take resolute and immediate action in the face of impending disaster ...’ When the crisis of the crucifixion had passed and the story came to be used in the early church, it was taken as a lesson on the right and wrong use of money. Caird continues: “Stripped of its accretions, it is the story of an engaging rascal who, faced with dismissal for incompetence, and being too soft for manual labour and too proud to live on charity, made provisions for the future by a systematic falsification of his accounts, which put each of his masters’ debtors under lasting obligation to himself.” If this is the case, the debtors were probably NOT tenants who had agreed to pay their rent in kind, but merchants who had bought produce on the strength of a promissory note. The point being made is that people of the world  cope with an emergency with a far-sighted realism and resourcefulness that religious people could do well to emulate in their spiritual lives.

Secondly, it is possible that the manager is called dishonest because of his mismanagement of the estate. This could imply that there was nothing wrong with what he did – as described in the parable - and so the master can praise him for his ingenuity which he used to get himself out of his predicament. This could be feasible if one places it into the context of the Jewish law of usury. The Law of Moses forbade taking interest from Jews on loans. The Pharisees were often very wealthy people and had found ways of evading the Law. They argued that the purpose of the Law was to protect the destitute from exploitation, not to prevent the lending of money for the mutual profit of both the lender and the borrower. The loan could be regarded as a business partnership and interest as a fair sharing of the profits.

The two debtors in the parable had received large loans from the manager. What the manager did was return the promissory notes to the debtors and require them to make new ones in which no interest was to be charged on the loan. This would mean that (probably) for the first time in his career, he was truly being obedient to the Law. There were no witnesses and so the master was in no position to repudiate the manager’s action and was able to acquire ‘... an entirely undeserved reputation for his pious observance of the Law against usury.’ Here the master is not a reference to Jesus and the master is just as guilty of amassing wealth in a questionable way. Caird concludes that the master was ‘... ready to make spiritual capital by a munificent gesture, especially as no other course was open to him ...’

This second interpretation is an attack on the nit picking methods of interpreting Scripture by which the Pharisees managed to keep their religious principles from interfering with their business dealings. This parable rather challenges them to cake a much more sincere and honest commitment to the service of God. Just as the manager and the master can see how important it is to keep in good standing with others in a time of crisis, religious people ought to be equally carefully to keep in good standing with God.

The collected sayings that follow are variations on the theme of the parable:

If dishonest men can use the money of others in order to make friends so that will receive him and look after him when he is out of a job, how much more should honest people use their money to bless others so that God will receive them into the heavenly mansions.

Our experiences in this world are tests of character: by one’s behaviour in small matters will show if one can be trusted with larger responsibilities.

Worldly wealth is given to us on trust – it does not belong to us. By our use of worldly wealth we can reveal whether or not we can be entrusted with real wealth, the wealth of the kingdom of God.

There  is also the warning that where there is money, there is also menace but money can be redeemed from its sinister character but only if it is used in order to promote friendship. Caird continues to explain: “... to invest money in benefaction is to exchange it for the currency of heaven.”

Money is the great rival of God – because it is easier to worship money than God. Caird continues: “All men must choose between the road to self-assertion that leads to the temple of mammon and the road to self-sacrifice that leads to the temple of God.”

Bishop Tom also offers some interesting thoughts on this difficult passage. He makes the obvious point that we are dealing with a parable. Parables are not only moral teachings but always symbolise something more significant as well.

If we are faced with a first century Jewish story we had never seen before about a Master and a steward (manager)  a Jew would automatically know that the Master referred to God and the manager referred to Israel. Israel was supposed to be God’s property manager, the light of God’s world to others and responsible to God. But Israel had failed at her task and is under threat of imminent dismissal. What then ought Israel to do. The Pharisees’ answer was to make the requirements of the law even stricter and try to make Israel even more holy in their eyes. This had the wrong effect, because it meant excluding the very people Jesus was trying to include. Jesus, in this parable, is pointing out that Israel is facing a real crisis and so what is required is to throw caution to the wind, forget legal observance and to make friends with as many as they can. This is what the children ‘of this world would do’ and so the ‘children of light’ – in the first instance the people of Israel – ought to do as well – as Wright continues: “... learning from the cunning people of the world how to cope in the crisis that was coming upon their generation ...”

So, instead of hoarding money and land, Jesus’ advice is to use it, as far as one can, to make friends. A crisis was on its way in which alternative homes, homes that should last for all eternity, would be needed.

This is what his first hearers needed to take hold of.

What is the possible message for today?

It has nothing to do with commending shady business practices or personal financial advice. Rather, it challenges us to ‘... sit light to the extra regulations which we impose on one another, not least in the church, which are over and above the gospel itself...’

The church is passing through difficult times and needs (once more) to reassess what really matters and what is of little or no significance. Wright challenges us as follows: “Perhaps we need to learn to live unconventionally, be prepared to make new friends across traditional barriers, to throw caution to the winds and discover again, in the true fellowship of the gospel, a home that will last.”

With reference to the last part of this reading – from verse 10 onwards ...

Wright rightly states that wealth is a killer. The media is full of stories about money and people in the west are obsessed with it. There are also an ever increasing number of scandals associated with it with a range of people – from politicians to others in the public being caught out when they are dishonest. Sadly, the eleventh commandment seems to be the one most feared, which is “Don’t get caught ...!” The lines between legitimate business and illegitimate business are blurred: When does a gift become a bribe? When it is right to use other people’s money to make money for yourself?

From a parable about money, Luke moves on to actual teaching about money. Here we find Jesus using the strongest language about the dangers of money.

Wright suggests that the key to understanding what Jesus is trying to get across is the need to be faithful. Money is not a ours to own and possess, it is given to us on trust. God gives us wealth – or the talents and gifts to earn wealth and he expects us to use it to his glory and the welfare of others, not for our own private enjoyment alone. If we do not rediscover this perspective, we will find ourselves torn between two masters – God or money.

This was a real issue in Jesus’ day. There were small numbers of very rich people and masses of the very poor. The rich included the chief priests, and many of the Pharisees who believed and taught that being wealthy was a sign of God’s blessing. Jesus taught in chapter 14 this was simply not true, because the standards of God are the opposite to the standards of the world.

I was interested to see that this was the Gospel reading used by the Pope Benedict XVI at the Beatification of John Henry Newman when he was in Birmingham some years ago. I wonder what the average uninformed listener would have made of it?

Luke 15:1-10 (NRSV)

Apologies for this late entry; it has been a busy beginning of the new academic year. I hope to post much earlier in the week in future.

Luke 15:1-10 (NRSV)

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

15Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. ²And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’

3 So he told them this parable: ⁴‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? ⁵When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. ⁶And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” ⁷Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.

The Parable of the Lost Coin

8 ‘Or what woman having ten silver coins,^* if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.” ¹⁰Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’

Some commentators claim that there is no chapter in the New Testament so well-known and so dearly loved as the 15^th chapter of Luke’s Gospel.  This might have been the case in 1975 when he wrote his helpful commentary, but I am not so sure any longer today – as we live in a world of mostly biblical ignorance!

Some have seen this passage as being the ‘... Gospel within the Gospel ...’

The parable arose out of ordinary everyday experiences that everyone could understand and identify with.  It was offensive to the Pharisees that Jesus associated with men and women who were labelled (by them) as ‘sinners’. There were a host of Pharisaic rules saying who they could have no dealings with at all and all of them aimed to ‘... avoid every contact with the people who did not observe the petty details of the law.’ So, it is not surprising that they were shocked to the core at the way in which Jesus met with people who were sinners, in their minds. The Pharisees believed that “There will be joy in heaven over one sinner who is obliterated before God ... They looked sadistically forward not to the saving but the destruction of the sinner.’

Into this context, Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep and the shepherd’s joy at finding it.

Shepherds in Judea had a hard and dangerous task: pasture was scarce as they were on a narrow plateau only a few miles wide to work with. There were no retaining walls and it was possible for a sheep to wander. The shepherd was personally responsible for the sheep so, if one was lost it was his task to, at least to bring home the fleece so that he could show how it died. They became experts at tracking and could follow a straying sheep’s tracks for miles across the hills. But in the process, it often meant risking his life for the sheep.

Many of the flocks were communal, belonging to whole villages with two or more shepherds in charge. Those whose flocks were safe would arrive home with news of any shepherd who was searching for a lost sheep. Often this would mean villagers looking out for the remaining shepherd to return. When he was sighted, they would shout for joy.

It is on this experience that Jesus based his parable. This, he said, is what God is like. God is glad when a lost sinner is found, just as a shepherd is filled with joy when a strayed sheep is brought home.

The coin referred to here, refers to a silver drachma worth only about £1. It would not be difficult to lose a coin in a Palestinian home, as peasant’s houses were very dark and, if they did have a window, it would have been no more than a circle of about 18 cm in diameter. The floor was beaten earth covered with dried reeds and rushes, so to look for anything lost would literally be like looking for a needle in a haystack. The woman swept the floor in the hope that she might see it glint or hear it tinkle as it moved.

Barclay suggests that there are two reasons why the woman might have been so eager to find it:

It could have been a matter of sheer necessity. £1 would have had much more buying power then than it does today as it amounted to more than a day’s wage for a working man in Palestine. These people lived on the edges of poverty. She would have needed to search, because otherwise the family would not eat.

There could have been a more romantic reason. The mark of a married woman was a head dress made of ten silver coins linked together by a silver chain. For years a young girl would save in order to have ten coins to make her wedding ‘crown’. Once she had this and was married, it could never be taken from her – even for the payment of a debt. It could have been that the women in the parable had lost one of these.

In either case, it is easy to think of the joy of the woman when she eventually found the coin and why she would celebrate. This is what the joy of God is like when one sinner comes home – like the joy of a found coin that stood between a family and hunger or of a married woman who had lost part of her most treasured possession.

No Pharisee had ever thought of a God like this. This was something absolutely new which Jesus taught them about God; that He actually sought out people to save. The Jews might have agreed that if a person came crawling home to God in self abasement and prayed for pity, they might find it; but they would never have conceived of a God who went out in search for sinners. Barclay concludes:

“We believe in the seeking love of God, because we see that love incarnate in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came to seek and save that which is lost.”

Throughout this chapter, Jesus is speaking about repentance. I know this conjures up the idea that he is being negative, but for me, repenting is always something positive, because metanoia – having a change of mind and turning from inappropriate things - is always lovely, because we are given the chance to start again.

Here, Jesus is providing a different understanding of what it means to repent from the view of the Pharisees. For them, it meant adopting their standards of purity and ultra-strict law observance. For Jesus, to repent means to follow him and his ways. Jesus is implying that the Pharisees and other religious leaders also needed to repent and they would have views this as an outrage.

There is a party going on – all heaven is having a party – because people are turning away from their sin. We too should be part of this and be filled with joy. The two halves of God’s creation – heaven and earth – are meant to fit together and be in harmony with each other. If you discover what is going on in heaven, you will discover how things are meant to be on earth. This is why we pray in the Lord’s Prayer ‘... on earth as it is in heaven ...’

The religious leaders of Jesus’ day believed differently: they were of the view that the Temple was the closest thing to heaven. In order to enter the Temple one needed to go through elaborate cleaning rituals and follow the ways of the priests. Now Jesus is saying that Heaven is having a wonderful party every time one sinner sees the light and began to follow God’s ways.

Our lives should be characterised by joy because this is the product of repentance. Each day we need to make a decision to follow the ways of Jesus, and so when we pray we ‘... call to mind our sins ...’ and repent of them.

Tom Wright reminds us that the particular sheep and the particular coin are not of significance – the only thing of importance was that they were lost. This would have been of great significance to the sinners that were gathered there; the realisation that it was not they who had to do something, it was God who came in search of them – as Wright writes: “He loved coming looking for them, and celebrated finding them.” Jesus was doing what God was doing, searching them out and finding them – welcoming them and loving them.

Wright issues a challenge to us in the modern world:

What would we have to do, in the visible, public world, if we were to make people ask the questions to which stories like these are the answer?

We need to be living the sort of lives that are so different to those of the rest of the world, that would make people stop and ask: “Why are you living the way you do?” “Why are you different?”

It would also need to be attractive ... peaceful, loving, gentle, compassionate ... bearing the fruits of the Spirit.

It would seem that the world is lost, and we need to be God’s agents to go out in love and find them and rejoice in the process. At the same time we will probably raise eyebrows because it could involve welcoming those whom society has shunned in their own unique for of Pharisaism.

H.H. Staton in his book, "A Guide to the Parables of Jesus" tells the story of having been on an ocean liner headed to the Middle East.

Nine hundred miles out to sea a sail was sighted on the horizon. As the liner drew closer, the passengers saw that the boat - a small sloop flying a Turkish flag - had run up a distress signal and other flags asking for its position at sea. Through a faulty chronometer or immature navigation the small vessel had become lost. For nearly an hour the liner circled the little boat, giving its crew correct latitude and longitude. Naturally there was a great deal of interest in all the proceeding among the passengers of the liner. A boy of about 12 standing on the deck and watching all that was taking place remarked aloud to himself - "It's a big ocean to be lost in."

Life is also a big thing to be lost in, too. And we do get lost - we get mixed up and turned around. We despair, we make mistakes, we do evil to each other. We deserve the wrath of God and that is what the Pharisees who criticized Jesus maintained. But Jesus understood God more. He knew God as a Shepherd in search of the one lost sheep. He knew God as a woman searching in the dark, in the crevasses, for that valuable coin. In the end it was Jesus' view of God which prevailed and not his critics.

Luke 14:25-34 (NRSV)

The Cost of Discipleship

²⁵ Now large crowds were travelling with him; and he turned and said to them, ²⁶‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. ²⁷Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. ²⁸For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? ²⁹Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, ³⁰saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.” ³¹Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³²If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. ³³So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

The text this morning is written in Luke 14, verse 26:

²⁶‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 

Jesus was on the road to Jerusalem and he knew that he was on his way to the Cross, but the crowds that were with him thought that he was on his way to establishing an empire. The Galilean crowd were keen to see Jesus as a victorious Messiah so that they could bask in his reflected glory. This is why Jesus spoke to them in such a stark and vivid way possible – using hyperbole – because he had to show that that the ways of God are not like the ways of the world – where power and glory are what are sought after.

The way of the Christian is following the path of their Lord, whose way was the way of the Cross. Jesus needed recruits and not spectators and so he had to make sure that the people knew what would be expected of them if they were to choose to become one of his disciples. He needed his congregation to realise that being a Christian is more than just receiving the benefits that are obviously ours; being a citizen of the Kingdom of God makes certain demands on us.

Barclay states that “We must not take his words with cold and unimaginable literalness. Eastern language is always as vivid as the human mind can make it.” Caird explains that the Semitic mind is comfortable only with extremes; their way of saying I prefer this to that would be to say ‘I like this and hate that ...’

This passage often creates a stir because of the use of the word ‘hate’ in some translations, not least some of the most recent e.g. NRSV and REB. While this is a correct and literal translation of the Greek, it hardly conveys the original meaning which is more accurately captured by the translators of the TEV which reads ‘… unless they love me more than they love …’ Jesus expands on what he means by saying that those who would wish to follow him might even have to carry the cross and follow him – indeed they would need to be prepared to do this even if they were never called upon to do it.

This is vital. It is too easy to say to people today that if they are to follow Jesus, all their problems would be resolved. Indeed, I have heard some people – in attempting to evangelise – expressing this heresy. Being a Christian is not always easy; in fact it is often the most difficult thing in the world. People like Maximilian Kolbe, Martin Luther King (and Vernon Johns before him) and countless others bear testimony of this. In effect, Jesus is saying that nothing – not even the ties of kinship - must get in the way of absolute commitment to the kingdom.  

Jesus’ audience would have understood what it meant to carry the cross. They had witnessed the Romans using this cruel form of execution on many of their fellow countrymen – forcing them to carry it to their place of death. The implication here is that there was no place for superficial commitment – following Jesus is a serious business that might even lead to death. This is not what Jesus wanted for his followers – but he knew that this was a real possibility in a fallen world - and he wanted them to be prepared for what might lie ahead of them.

He explains further using the metaphor of a builder. When a builder does not count the cost, or works it out inaccurately, the building cannot be completed. The builder Jesus is referring to in the parable was probably going to build a vineyard tower. These were used to protect the vines from thieves who were intent on stealing the harvest. An unfinished tower was considered a great humiliation. Jesus wanted his followers to know wholeness and this would only come when one counted the cost of what it meant to be a disciple.

This parable is not meant to put people off becoming a disciple, instead it is just using vivid imagery to make the point that this is a most important enterprise and, as Caird explains ‘... deserved as much consideration as he would give business or politics ...’ Caird continues:

‘... nobody can be swept into the kingdom on a flood-tide of emotion; he must walk with clear-eyed deliberation ...’

Most Christians do not have to face severe suffering and premature death. For some discipleship is still difficult to deal with because it involves facing the loss of social status and wealth because some have to give up money, time, a career and even separation from family in order to be obedient to what God has called them to do. These things might happen, but most often do not. The question is – are we prepared to pay the price if it is called for? This is what it means to love these things less than our love and commitment to Jesus our Lord. It is better to know this at the outset.

Why then, would anyone bother? Because, it is in following Jesus that a human becomes fulfilled and can know what it means to have ‘life in all its fullness.’ Jesus is the God that created us. This is made plain in the opening verses of John’s Gospel. As our creator, he knows what is best for us. He knows the secret to life – after all he came and lived it to show us the way. Even though his life ended in persecution, suffering and death – it also led to wholeness and eternal life. This is what he wants for you and me, but his love for us compels him to prepare us for the way ahead.

Barclay reminds us that a person can be a follower of Jesus without being a disciple. It is my experience also as a teacher that there can be some young people who attend my lessons, but never become my students. It is a problem for the church that there are sometimes many distant followers of Jesus, but few genuine disciples.

We have seen that it is a Christian’s duty to count the cost of following Jesus. Building a tower is a big project and is expensive and waging war is the most serious thing anyone can do, and while most of us will never be asked to make massive sacrifices – as Miller suggests – ‘... one must be willing deliberately to face both costliness and danger as Jesus’ disciple ...’ Tinsley adds: ‘It requires something like the careful costing of a building scheme or preparations for a military operation ...’ But when making the decision, a decision to experience the real meaning of life, we must never forget that God never calls us without also equipping us; we are not left to face the cost alone. As Barclay comments: “He who called him to the steep road will walk with him every step of the way and be there at the end to meet him.”

I close with an illustration taken from James Moore’s book entitled, Some Things Are Too Good Not To Be True (Dimensions: Nashville, 1994. pp. 117-118, see, www.sermons.com )

Several centuries ago in a mountain village in Europe, a wealthy nobleman wondered what legacy he should leave to his townspeople. He made a good decision. He decided to build them a church. No one was permitted to see the plans or the inside of the church until it was finished. At its grand opening, the people gathered and marvelled at the beauty of the new church. Everything had been thought of and included. It was a masterpiece.

But then someone said, "Wait a minute! Where are the lamps? It is really quite dark in here. How will the church be lighted?" The nobleman pointed to some brackets in the walls, and then he gave each family a lamp, which they were to bring with them each time they came to worship.

"Each time you are here'" the nobleman said, "the place where you are seated will be lighted. Each time you are not here, that place will be dark. This is to remind you that whenever you fail to come to church, some part of God's house will be dark"

That's a poignant story, isn't it? And it makes a very significant point about the importance of our commitment and loyalty to the church. The poet Edward Everett Hale put it like this:

I am only one,
but still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something I can do.

What if every member of our churches supported the church with wholehearted commitment; what kind of church would we have? What if every single member served the church, attended the church, loved the church, shared the church, and gave to the church; what kind of church would there be?

Jesus challenges us still today with the words:

²⁶‘Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 

Amen.