Gospel Songfest Service, September 22, 2019

 

If you missed a service, you may view them on Charter Cable Channel 980 5:45 pm Tuesday & 9:15 am Thursday or online: Wausau Area Access Media: waam.viebit.com (Left side, scroll to Immanuel Lutheran).

 

 

 

Rev. Dr. Niveen Sarras

Luke 16 the Dishonest Manager[1]

September 22, 2019

 

Is Jesus celebrating dishonesty? What is the positive lesson Jesus might draw out of sinful behavior? Let us paraphrase the parable.

 

The master heard a rumor about his manager that he is dishonest. He made a judgment without having an account on his stewardship. He told his manager “you are no longer be my steward, so give me an account.” The manager is already accused by gossip and condemned. He is done. He is fired on hear saying.

 

The steward said all I know is to be a manager/an accountant. “I cannot do labor work and I am ashamed to beg.” “I am in a situation of having been accused of fraud. I may just do it because I am already condemned to it.”

 

He calls debtors in and makes the book matches the accusation fraud. There is no evidence of wasting his master’s goods. So, he makes the evidence fit the accusation. He calls each debtor in and asks “what is your bill? Hundred? Write down 50, write down 80.”

When it comes to gossip. When those debtors go back out into the community and they hear that he has been put out of the stewardship, each one is going to think, “because of me; because of our hidden interaction, he was fired. What I am going to do?”

 

This manager has an honored claim on each one participated in the fraud. The manager will say, “I am fired because of the favor I did to you.”

What he does, he in involves everyone who has been gossiping in the problem in a way that each one will think,

“I do not want to be exposed as the cause of this problem because everyone knows that the master is my friend or worker in the business. If it comes out, then the master is going to know that I defrauded him.”

 

The manager silences everyone gossip by involving everyone in the accusation. When he is kicked out, he can just say to the debtor,

“you know, my master kicked me out of my work for fraud. Do you remember that fraud? I do not want what happened to that fraud to come out.” “I need a job.”

Everyone is obliged to take him in his own house to cover him and silence him. This commercial situation is about gossip and accusation of fraud.

 

That dishonest manager uses his intelligence to figure out a way to manipulate money to secure his future. When the master found out how shrewd his manager was, he praised him.

 

What Jesus was impressed by? The answer is in verse eight and nine.

Jesus says, “for the children of this age [unbelievers in Christ] are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light” (v. 8). Jesus is saying, “it might be true, you Christians do not know how to be smart in this world affair, but this is insignificant compared to the wisdom I am about to teach you about how to use the money to secure your eternal future.” In other words, maybe you are not shrewd when it comes to the stock market, but who cares. Jesus says, “do you think that is shrewd? Let me tell you the real shrewdness.”

 

Here it comes verse nine. Jesus says “ And 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.” Jesus is telling the disciples not just to secure their earthly future that all what the dishonest manager can do. He hoped to get help when he becomes jobless. This is Jesus’ way of saying, “you need help with your jobless in eternity and I am telling you how to have a place to live, security and joy in fellowship with God’s people forever.”

 

All the shrewdness of this dishonest manager will come to nothing because it based on wealth that will fail. Jesus shows us the way you use your money to secure your eternity. Jesus says, “Use your money, the unrighteous mammon and wealth.” He means this is part of the unrighteous world in which you live. Take hold of it and use it for eternal and spiritual purposes namely to help the poor. In this way, you secure eternal place with friends in heaven.

 

Jesus’ statement triggers Luke 12:33 “Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.” Making friends with money means using your money to meet people’s needs. That is the way you lay up treasures in heaven that does not fail. Some of these people will believe in Christ and go before you into heaven and welcome you in great joy to join them in eternity.

 

Do not worry about being a shrewd investor in this age where you only can provide a future that will fail. Instead, be a really shrewd investor in people’s lives by using your resources to do as much good as you can for the glory of God and the eternal good of others who will go before you into heaven and welcome you into an eternal home.

Rev. Dr. Niveen Sarras

September 8, 2019

Luke 14:25-33, The Cost of Discipleship

 

Jim Elliot was an evangelical Christian who was killed while evangelizing the Huaorani tribe in Ecuador. This tribe was well known for being dangerous and hostile to outsiders. Elliot left Portland, Oregon, and his wife and daughter to share the good news with the Huaorani tribe. He went with his four friends. As soon as they encountered the Huaorani people, the warriors attacked and killed them.

Elliot and his friends knew that their mission was dangerous. They knew that they might be killed. Elliot thought genuinely of his calling and counted the cost of following Jesus Christ and be his disciple. Later, the Huaorani people believed in Jesus, and Elliot’s wife baptized the man who killed Elliot. It is easier to follow Christ, but it is not easy to be his disciple. Jim Elliot was a disciple of Jesus Christ and fully committed to him alone much more than his commitment to his wife and daughter.

 

The evangelist Luke talks about Jesus teaching on the cost of discipleship. Luke describes large crowds were traveling with Jesus. Jesus turns and challenges their commitment to him. He asks them to consider the cost of following him and be his disciples. He gives them two parables to illustrates his point: The first is of a man who estimates the cost to build a tower and a king estimates the cost of engaging in a war against his enemy.  Many follow Jesus, but not many are his disciples. Many enter through the wide gate, but few enter through the narrow gate (Matthew 7:13). Many are interested in cheap grace, and few are interested in costly grace. When Jesus says who do not hate their family and even their lives cannot be his disciple, he does not mean to dislike or despise your family and yourself. “We can never be His disciples as long we allow other attachments to hold us back” (Hardgrove, The Cost of Discipleship, 2006). Jesus invites us to lay aside all earthly attachments like clinging to family or possessions, or personal interests that hold us back from being his disciples.

 

Jesus challenges the large crowds who were following him to go a little deeper in their commitment. He requires full devotion to him. No one should be ahead of Jesus. We live in a godless world where Christianity relates discipleship to health, wealth, and success rather than a commitment to Christ and suffering for his name sake. Dietrich Bonhoeffer teaches in his book The Cost of Discipleship (kindle 1276), “When Christ calls a man/woman, he bids them come and die.”

Jesus requires us to carry the cross or our cross, according to the evangelist Matthew’s version. That said, Christ invites us to endure life’s hardships and challenges for the sake of his name. The cross is a symbol of death, suffering, and sacrifice. As Jesus carried his cross and died for us, the church is also called to carry her cross and be willing to die for her faith. Discipleship means the cross, and the cross means suffering. The church is called to suffer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer explains the deep meaning of suffering,

It is not the sort of suffering which is inseparable from this mortal life, but the suffering which is an essential part of the specifically Christian life. It is not suffering per se but suffering-and-rejection, and not rejection for any cause or conviction of our own, but rejection for the sake of Christ” (Bonhoeffer, kindle 1236).

 

 

Discipleship means we need to be ready to die for Christ. It also involves living for Jesus, not for ourselves. Discipleship means casting our wishes, ambitious, and even our rights before the feet of Christ. The church is called to let go of everything that takes her from Christ. Jesus also says, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). Hence, discipleship is not for those who put their hands to the plow and look back, but it is for those who found a great treasure hidden in a field, and they sold all they have and bought that field (Matthew 13:44). Discipleship means that Jesus is number one in your life. He is first, and all other things are subject to the decision to be his disciples.

 

 

Rev. Dr. Niveen Sarras

Luke 14:1, 7-14.

September 1, 2019

Today, Jesus gives us a lesson on humility and hospitality. He invites us to be humble and not to strive for a place of honor, prestige, and admiration because humility brings us these things. In other words, humility brings you to the place of honor. Jesus was concerned about the troubling of his popularity following his miracles, particularly the miracle of Transfiguration and feeding the multitudes. He refused to become a king or to seek authority or prestige. He is an excellent example of a humble person who lived his life, not for himself but for us. “Following Jesus Christ is not about positions of honor or authority in his kingdom; it is about embracing a life dedicated to loving one another as he has loved us.”

 

Humility and hospitality go hand in hand. Hospitality always requires humility. When we are humble, we open our hearts to share our resources with the poor, strangers, blind, and lame. Humility opens our mind and soul to our struggling neighbor. Humility is God's gift to those who ask for it. It is a divine gift that helps us to walk side by side with our neighbor who is struggling to put food on the table and care for their kids when they may be working three jobs.

 

Many people in this world whose lives and hope to find a small amount of happiness are intertwined with what we think, say, and do. God did not create us to live for ourselves. God did not create me to live for Niveen and only Niveen. God created us to be responsible for each other.

 

The poor and the disadvantage need the leader of the Pharisees to provide them a meal to survive. His wealthy guests did not need his food. The poor need the rich to work with them to eliminate poverty. And the rich need to remember not to take their privileges and resources for granted.

 

We need each other. This is a fact that we cannot ignore. We need each other not only when we face financial crisis, but also when we question our relationship with somebody who is dear to us, or when a member of our family or a friend is sick or is living in an abusive relationship, or when a friend cannot handle the stress at their workplace. There are more and more examples. But the point is that your humility is key to your relationships. Your humility helps you to practice hospitality to your neighbors and friends.

 

Hospitality entails opening your heart to your friends. It also involves listening to your neighbor, their struggles, their pains in every place the Lord Jesus sends you. This act of hospitality is an act of grace. It is an act of love and care. A touch of kindness can make a difference in your neighbor’s life.

 

The 8-year old boy Christian Moore has inspired me with his touch of kindness. This little boy comforts his classmate with autism on the first day of school. His humility and hospitality were very significant. No wonder that his heartwarming photo was all over the news. That little boy Christian teaches us to practice gracious hospitality to those who are in need.

 

Jesus touches our hearts every day. His gracious hospitality is for you every single day. His gracious hospitality is available to you in breaking the bread and drinking the wine. His humility opens to you a great banquet where everybody is welcome to join. Jesus also practices his gracious hospitality at every moment when you go to him to throw yourself into his arms because you know he is the one who is gladly willing to carry you when the road is rough, and your burden is heavy.