Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Theme: Measure your treasure, and then give thanks

(and God said) This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

Imagine the quandary of the modern atheist. As he becomes the recipient of so many good things - knowing full well he has neither earned nor deserved them, he feels very indebted, but alas . . .he can think of no one to thank. . . . How good it is that we the people of God do not have that problem. We gather this evening and we know full-well from whom all our blessings have flowed, and for that reason giving thanks is both meaningful and fitting. We have not been lucky or fortunate - we have been blessed. Fate has not shined upon us - God has! Thinks have not simply turned out well for us, rather we have a faithful and loving God who has promised us both the Kingdom and all that we need daily for life in this world.

As you prepare your hearts and minds to reflect on those things you find needful and for which you should offer up a special thanksgiving to God . . the parable in our text serves us well to reflect on how we ought not simply count our blessings, but rather how we ought to order them in terms of their real importance. The parable of our Lord reflects an important piece of wisdom: you should value your blessings and treat them in accord with their ability to provide for your needs with the understanding that life is forever.

When it comes to evaluating the material things you need in this life, there are two extremes that you want to avoid. Both are distortions of the major point that Jesus is making in our text. The first distortion is to take the words of our Lord to mean that being materially well off and having a successful business life are contrary to the call for a faithful walk with God. This view has been around in the life of the Church since ancient times. All forms of monastic asceticism are distortions of what Jesus is calling for as he points out that we cannot take anything material with us into eternity and that we are to be in the world, but not of the world. Jesus’ words that life does not consist in the abundance of one’s possessions (vs. 15) does not mean that it also does not consist in the absence of possessions either. Jesus is not teaching that poverty is a virtue. But then, this extreme is hardly the temptation that we face today about our earthly possessions or needs is it? We just are not being inundated with impoverished "hermits for Christ" in our contemporary culture as in ancient times.

Then again, we are also not to make the opposite error - something that is common among many false evangelists today who tout a gospel of success. Jesus is not teaching that the more pleased he is, the greater material wealth he will shower on us. He is certainly not teaching as they do that material wealth is a consequence and sign of belonging to the Lord and possessing a strong faith. He is not advocate of a gospel of name it and claim it. When James said, ye have not because ye ask not, he was not teaching the faithful that riches are ours for the mere asking of the Lord with sufficient faith that we will get them. The Gospel of Jesus is neither a gospel of wealth nor a gospel of poverty. What than is Jesus really teaching us in this parable? The key is to be found in his use of the word, treasure. The fool is a fool because of what he claimed and trusted in as his treasure. About such fools and their foolish treasures, Jesus then generalizes; so is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God (vs. 21).

A person’s treasure is whatever he thinks will secure the good life and a happy, contented future. To be rich means to have your treasure in abundance. The guy in the parable who has been very successful in agri-business is a fool for thinking that from his bumper crops he can secure for himself the good life and a happy, contented future. He was a fool for thinking that by his bumper crops he has secured for himself a treasure that will make for himself a happy forever. And by contrast, Jesus is telling you that there is only one thing you can possess and treasure that can secure your happy forever. You must possess the only thing that you can take with you when you die. It goes by several designations: the robe of righteousness, the grace of Christ, the forgiveness of your sins, reconciliation with God. Jesus sowed his life as a perfect sacrifice for sin on his cross - a life giving seed that has produced a bounty of life as it died and was buried . . . that you may reap them in his Gospel and Sacraments. This treasure makes you rich toward God. This is the priceless treasure that comes to you only as a free gift. . . priceless but free; unmerited but meritorious before God; a gift of righteousness possessed completely that makes you rich toward God. When you appreciate this and hold it dear as your only treasure of priceless worth - your present, your future days, and your happy forever are all secured.

When you seek after and find the treasure that secures for you the Kingdom of God - then . . . then, all the things that make up your daily bread and turkey too! - all the things you need for your daily living will added unto you . . . blessings from God to be sure, yes material blessings! But not riches that should be considered your treasure. This is the other fallacy of the fool in the parable. He thinks that what he has reaped are the consequences of his most excellent sowing. He has failed to understand that God is the Lord of the harvest of all good things. Living under the covenant of grace, it is the Lord Who has given you all your blessings and they are intended to produce in you a harvest of bountiful thanksgiving. Under grace, your labors are to sow your gratitude for all that the Lord has provided you for life and having it abundantly, and what is reaped are gifts and labors of thanksgiving that the Lord uses as gifts and blessings for your neighbor’s benefit. Let us be very clear on how this works. You reap everything you need from the Lord of all grace without any sowing on your part. Everything comes unconditionally to you as favor and gifts from your gracious God. You did nothing to earn them. . . . And then, from your gratitude sowed - from your gratitude invested - you reap cheerful gifts of thanksgiving that benefit others - where their joy can become your joy. God grant us the mind and heart to measure our treasure in the riches of God’s grace, and at the same time praise Him from whom all blessings to us flow, sewing them also with lives that reap a bounty of blessings for others. We have been given so we give thanks . . . and we give thanks by giving.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. A-men.