9th Sunday after Trinity + 1 Corinthians 10:6-13 and Luke 16:1-9

Grace and Peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today’s appointed readings present us with examples of carelessness and indifference and where those lead. In the epistle lesson, St. Paul sets the ancient Israelites before the Corinthian Christians. The Corinthians, like the ancient Israelites, had become overly confident in their status as sons of God. Like Israel, they imagined that nothing could disqualify them this special status that God had conferred upon them. So St. Paul has to burst this bubble. In the wilderness, in between their redemption from Egypt and their entrance into the Promised Land, some become idolaters. At the base of Mount Sinai, while Moses was delayed, the people “sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play,” the very words of Exodus 32 when Israel forsook the true God and made a counterfeit God in the form of a golden calf. Three thousand men died as a result of their idolatry. Later in the wilderness they were tempted by Moabite women and committed sexual immorality with them, so many that “in one day twenty-three thousand fell” by a plague the Lord sent as punishment. They tempted Christ by saying that God had brought them out into the wilderness to die of hunger and thirst. The Lord sent fiery serpents among them and many Israelites died once again. Although God had called Israel His firstborn son, Israel continually complained about the good things their heavenly Father gave them and was punished accordingly.

“Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the end of the ages have come.” God punished the idolatrous, immoral, complaining and unbelieving Israelites as an example to the rest, to show them that faith in God cannot coexist with willful sinning. All these things were written for the Corinthian’s admonition, for they were living in end of the ages. This means that all these things were written for our admonition as well. Christ hasn’t returned yet so we are also those upon whom the end of the ages have come. Paul’s point in rehearsing these episodes from Israel’s past is to show the Corinthians, and all Christians, that although God has given us a special status, called us in Holy Baptism, and entered into a covenant of grace with us, we must be ever vigilant against falling away from that covenant through carelessness and indifference. “Therefore let him who think he stands take heed lest he fall.” The Israelites thought they stood because God redeemed them from Egypt with ten plagues and baptized them in the Red Sea. What they failed realize was that they must live each day in that redemption and baptismal covenant. Instead of living each day by faith, trusting in God’s promises, they assumed that their salvation was secure and that nothing they could do would jeopardize it. They thought they stood firm, that nothing could remove them from their status. That over confidence lead to careless and indifference which led to their fall.

The second example of carelessness and indifference comes in the parable. A rich man hired a steward, as was the custom in Jesus’ day, to administer his property, business, and possessions. This was a position of the utmost respect and dignity. He had been given a great responsibility to administer all that the master owned. But this steward wasted his master’s goods. He used them on himself for his own pleasure and enjoyment. He thinks he stands firm, believing he can get away with his malfeasance forever. He’s blinded by his greed and reckless enjoyment of things that have been given to him to serve others. When judgment finally does catch up with him, he’s shocked. He thought he stood firm, but how quickly he falls. Only in that moment does he realize what he should’ve been doing all along: using his master’s good faithfully to ensure his own future.

Israel and the faithless manager, the word of warning from both examples is clear: “Let him who think he stands take heed lest he fall,” because a fall is most certainly possible. For you and I, and all Christians, this means we must take heed to our faith and life, so that we don’t receive the grace of God in vain. This means that you can fall away from faith. You can lose the salvation that God has freely given you. This does not mean that God will revoke His promises or renege on the covenant of grace He entered into with you when He baptized you. God cannot renege on His promises. It is written in Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent.” God’s redemption of Israel was complete and true. But they lost that redemption, not because God changed His mind but because they walked away from it. The steward’s job was secure, as far as the master was concerned, but he fell from his high rank because he turned his back on his status and lived contrary to the position the master had given him. When Christians fall away from faith, it is not the Lord who revokes His promises. It is always the sinner who, in cocky certainty and careless indifference, rejects God’s grace and walks away from it. 

“Let him who think he stands take heed lest he fall.” You take heed first by acknowledging that a fall is a possibility. It is possible to receive the grace of God in vain. It’s possible to receive the adoption as sons in Holy Baptism, but then come to believe that because of great promise of the Lord, everything is bound to be ours no matter our behavior. Many believe and teach that once God saves us and gives us His promise we can never lose that though willful sin or by abandoning the Word and ignoring the sacrament. St. Paul himself, the Apostle to the Gentiles, admits that it is possible even for him to fall away from the faith. He says in the verses before today’s Epistle, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified” (1 Cor. 9:27). He knew the power of sin, the temptation to indulge in one’s desires, and how those desires, if willfully gratified, would lead him away from faith into the false belief that because he is God’s, he can do whatever his flesh desires.

Take heed in temptation. Israel gladly received his redemption and baptism, but was then quickly enticed by temptation because he relaxed his guard. The steward enjoyed his status and all the benefits that came with it but let his guard down and was quickly overcome by greed. So it is for us as well. Christ has freed us from the servitude of sin. He has baptized us, forgiven our sins and made us sons of God. It is all freely given. It will not be taken away. But it can be easily lost if we do not watch for temptation and earnestly pray for God’s deliverance in the midst of it. The Lord has promised: “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

Then finally take heed by striving to be what He has called us: sons of God and stewards of His gifts. That’s where the end of Jesus’ parable comes in. Use the gifts, blessings, and time God gives you, not selfishly but for the sake of others. Don’t waste your master’s goods, but use them faithfully for the ministry of the church and the good of your neighbor. Both examples show us how to lose our salvation. So take heed. Be watchful in prayer. Be diligent in using Scripture. Be regular in receiving the Sacrament. These are where God strengthens your faith so that you can resist temptation and stand firm in the sure and certain promises of God for your salvation. Shake off carelessness and indifference. God has called you sons. Live each day in that Word. Amen.