{"id":41,"date":"2019-08-04T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-04T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/partridge.site\/rum\/?p=41"},"modified":"2025-08-19T14:42:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:42:21","slug":"sermon-on-luke-1213-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/partridge.site\/rum\/index.php\/2019\/08\/04\/sermon-on-luke-1213-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith and works"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eight Sunday of Trinity, 2019. Year C.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reading: Luke 12:13-21<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the face of it, this is a pretty straightforward exchange\nbetween Jesus and someone in the crowd. \nThe unnamed person in the crowd appeals to Jesus as a rabbi \u2013 the law is\npretty straightforward and all he wants is a ruling in accordance with the law.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus\u2019 response is interesting on several levels though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First is his response question \u2013 yet another example of Jesus\nanswering a question with another question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This seems like a strange response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer, we know in the light of John\u2019s later revelation,\nis God.  Jesus has indeed been appointed\nto be our judge.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is interesting that here he seems to be refusing that\nrole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike some of his other interactions though, where people do\nrecognise Jesus as the messiah, this questioner doesn\u2019t respond in that manner,\nor possibly isn\u2019t even given the chance to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike some of his questioners, who are at least heading in\nthe right direction – like the rich young man who wants to know how to get into\nthe kingdom of heaven, and is unable to because there are earthly things that\nhe holds too dear – Jesus discerns that this person isn\u2019t even interested in\nliving his life in the right way. \n\u2018Beware! Don\u2019t be greedy\u2026\u2019 He says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For ancient societies like Israel, especially predominantly\nagrarian ones, and that was most of them, wealth was land, and land was\nwealth.  And in order to use the land\nefficiently, it would stay in the common ownership of the family unit.  So, not a \u2018nuclear\u2019 family like we are used\nto, but an extended family, 4 or even 5 generations living under the same roof.  And this was a very sensible idea.  Because this would give you the capacity to\ncope with the vicissitudes of fortune \u2013 one working adult hurting themselves\nwouldn\u2019t mean starvation for their dependents. \nThis was your safety net; your social security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pentateuch is full of laws designed to uphold this\nextended family unit, reaching up to the law of Jubilee \u2013 the sabbath year of\nsabbath years, when every 50 years, debts were forgiven, slaves were released\nand land was returned to its original owners. \nEvery generation, there was a chance to begin afresh, no matter how\nthings had gone for the previous generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet this questioner is seeking to break up this system.  He is asking Jesus to rule on splitting his\ninheritance with his brother.  He no\nlonger wants to be part of this extended family unit \u2013 Like the Prodigal Son, he\nwants to strike out on his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now it\u2019s possible that he had had a major falling out with\nhis brother \u2013 brothers can be pretty insufferable at times, certainly in my\nexperience.  And I\u2019m hopeful that when\nthe Kingdom of Heaven fully arrives, then they won\u2019t be insufferable, or at\nleast not nearly so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the meantime, this is what we have to put up with in\nGod\u2019s world.  God made us to live in\ncommunity, not alone.  In community with\nGod certainly, but also in community with each other, and often we see God most\nclearly when we see him in each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why Jesus responds with the parable of the rich man\nwho pulls down his barns in order to build larger ones to store all his\nabundance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On one level, Jesus\u2019 audience may have thought that the rich\nman deserved it \u2013 Proverbs tells them that the good will prosper, and the\nwicked will suffer.  So those that\nprosper are obviously blessed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Jesus tells them this is not so.  God calls this man a fool, because he is\nstoring up earthly goods against a future that doesn\u2019t exist for him.  People prosper who are not good \u2013 Israel\u2019s\ntheology and understanding of God have moved on and become deeper, and they\nunderstand now that it is not just about rewards in this life, but also\nrendering an account of oneself to God after that as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So this man isn\u2019t thinking about his eternal soul \u2013 he is\nonly thinking about this life and a future that doesn\u2019t exist for him.  Specifically for him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this is the critical thing about this I think \u2013 the rich\nman is storing up goods for himself \u2013 not for his community.  Like the man who is asking the question, he\nis thinking only of himself \u2013 not of God, and certainly not of others, the\ncommunity around him, the members of his family and his tribe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this is a surprisingly easy trap to fall into.  Obviously it is easy on a superficial level,\nwith worldly goods.  I\u2019m sure many of us\nhave an abundance of \u2018stuff\u2019, material goods that we may or may not need for\nthe future \u2013 stuff that will be worthless to us if an account were to be\ndemanded of us this very day.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But at the same time, we know this.  At the level of material possessions, we know\nthat our wealth will be of little account when we stand before God.  What we have done with our wealth will be\nwhat counts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many people here are very generous with their money and time\ntowards the church, and towards each other.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hear and understand the first level of Jesus\u2019 parable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But should we be looking deeper than that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet at the same time, how many of us are procrastinating\nspiritually?  How many of us are echoing Saint\nAugustine of Hippo\u2019s famous adolescent appeal \u2013 \u2018God make me good, but not just\nyet\u2019.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not suggesting anyone here is quite living the life of\nthe young St Augustine, but often God is looking for more from us that we are\nnecessarily giving.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God is always asking for a deeper commitment, the sort of\ncommitment that you think is heading in one direction, but can actually lead\nyou somewhere completely different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Might we be like the rich man? Storing up our gifts for\nourselves?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When in the 16th<\/sup> Century, Martin Luther read his\nBible with fresh eyes, what stood out for him was Paul\u2019s emphasis on salvation\nthrough faith.  Luther was quite an\nunusual character and very much a product of his time, and his theology was\nvery much driven by his personality and how he saw those times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no doubt that the abuses and excesses that he saw in\nthe Roman church at the time were in need of correction.  And he draws our attention to some very\nchallenging passages in Paul\u2019s letter to the Romans, that chimed with his own\nfeelings of complete failure in any attempt to follow the rules.  Like Paul in Romans, he found the Law to be a\ndeath trap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the product of this, his insistence on salvation by faith\nin Jesus, is undoubtedly theologically and spiritually liberating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, but turning so decisively against works as a means\nof salvation, there has been a risk that we have jettisoned too much in the\nother direction, thrown out the baby with the bathwater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is all too easy, and it is a trap that many protestant\nchurches have fallen into, to see salvation not only as the be-all and end-all,\nbut also as a purely personal thing \u2013 a matter between us as individuals, and\nGod.  We are saved individually by our\nown faith, and by our faith alone.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like the rich man, our souls can produce abundant salvation,\nso much so that we have no place to store it all.  We are right with God; we are saved by our\nown faith in Jesus.  Surely this is what is\ncritical \u2013 our justification before God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet like the rich man, maybe we too are fools if we think\nlike this; as individuals concerned only about our own salvation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For what Jesus demands of us is faith, that is true, but the\nword that the New Testament writers use has many more meanings than the simple\nEnglish word faith has.  The word that is\nused, pistis, is more normally used of the relationship between ruler and\nruled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It occurs in the Book of Maccabees in the Apocrypha in this\nsense, where the Jewish rulers are required to have pistis in their Greek overlords.  Pistis here is faith, allegiance, trust.  But importantly, it is something that is not\njust a way of thinking \u2013 it is something that you live out in your life \u2013 you\nare required to demonstrate your pistis, your faith and allegiance in your\nactions as well.  If your overlord was\nattacked, it wasn\u2019t enough to believe in him in your heart \u2013 you had to raise\nyour troops and march out in support of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So maybe when Jesus says to people that their faith has saved\nthem, it is not just their belief, but also their action that has been\nmotivated by that faith that has saved them. \nThey have believed and acted.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not salvation by works \u2013 it is not calculating how\nmany years in purgatory each prayer will save us, but it is seeing that belief\nand action cannot be divided when we truly have allegiance to Christ.  We too must gather our forces and march out\nin support of our Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dietrich Bonhoffer, the German Lutheran theologian murdered\nby the Nazis in 1945, talked in one of his most famous books of \u2018cheap grace\u2019.  \u2018infinite and boundless grace without price;\ngrace without cost!\u2019  He felt that people\nwere asserting their faith privately, assured of their own salvation, while not\nchallenging the spirit of the times they were living in.  He was convinced that religion could not be a\npurely personal thing \u2013 to be a Christian, you had to take a position on the\nsocial and political questions of the day. \nFor him, your faith, your allegiance to Christ compelled it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is one of the key tenets of the modern world that religion\nis a private and personal affair, that should not interfere with public\naffairs, but Bonhoffer saw clearly that it is not possible to truly have faith\nin Christ and ignore the world around us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus\u2019 questioner is trying to live for his own satisfaction\nand on his own terms, rather than as part of a family or community.  He is not confronting the issues and dealing\nwith them, but trying to solve them by dividing the family \u2013 not building\nrelationships, but breaking them.  And\nwhen we break our relationships with other people, we are breaking our\nrelationships with God as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Jesus\u2019 questioner, and unlike the rich man, true faith\nin Christ means acknowledging him as King and showing our allegiance to him in\nour actions, playing our part in his Kingdom \u2013 a kingdom of all the world, not\njust one small corner of it.\n\nAmen\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eight Sunday of Trinity, 2019. Year C. Reading: Luke 12:13-21 On the face of it, this is a pretty straightforward exchange between Jesus and someone in the crowd.  The unnamed person in the crowd appeals to Jesus as a rabbi \u2013 the law is pretty straightforward and all he wants is a ruling in accordance … <\/p>\n

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