July 31 2022
July 31st 2022
Old Testament: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-26 “All is vanity”
Psalm: Psalm 85 “The Lord will give what is good”
Epistle: Colossians 3:1-11 “Put to death what is earthly in you”
Gospel: Luke 12:13-21 “Be on guard against all covetousness”.
Sermon Text: Luke 12 Colossians 3
Sermon Title: “Be on guard against … covetousness”
Grace to you and peace, from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Jesus said to them; Take care, and be on guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions”. (Luke 12:15) The Apostle Paul wrote, “Set your minds on things that are above … Put to death what is earthly in you; sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness; which is idolatry. It is on account of these things that the wrath of God is coming”. (Colossians 3:1,5-6) These are our texts for today.
In the Epistle reading, the Apostle Paul gives us a list of sins that we are not only to try to avoid as best as we can, but to actively “put to death”; mortify them. (Colossians 3:5a) These exhortations of Paul cover virtually all of the Ten Commandments. We could go into any (or all) of these at length at this time, for Paul speaks of wrath and malice, of sexual immorality and impurity; of obscene talk and lying and slander, and the many other sins that bring God’s wrath.
But today, I want to focus primarily on the 9th and 10th commandments against coveting and greed; since that is what Jesus also warns against in the Gospel; “be on guard against all covetousness”. (Luke 12:14a) And as you just heard, Paul refers to “covetousness (as) idolatry”. (Colossians 3:5b)
“Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But He said to him, Man; who made Me a judge or arbitrator over you? (Then) Jesus said to them; take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions”. (Luke 12:13-15) As the Apostle Paul also declared, “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil (causing) some to wander from the faith”. (1st Timothy 6:8-10) If that doesn’t get your attention, it should.
In a positive sense, the Small Catechism describes the 9th and 10th commandments as “God’s Gift of Contentment”. So, the Apostle Paul tells us, “there is great gain in godliness with contentment … if you have food and clothing, with these you should be content”. (1st Timothy 6:6) In other words, “be content with what you have, for He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you”. (Hebrews 13:5)
So, what exactly does it mean to covet? Coveting is having a (strong) sinful desire for anyone or anything that belongs to our neighbor. In the explanation, Luther wrote, “We should fear and love God so that we do not scheme to get our neighbors inheritance or house, or get it in a way that only seems right, but help and be of service to him on keeping it”.
An example of getting something in a way that only seems right, cited by Luther in the Large Catechism, is when people use the court system in order to acquire something “legally” that doesn’t really belong to them. Luther said, “the judge and everyone else may let you keep the property, but God will not … for He sees your wicked heart”. (Large Catechism, 9th and 10th Commandments, par. 308)
The Apostle James also speaks of coveting in his warnings against worldliness saying, “What causes quarrels and … fights among you? Is it not that your passions are at war within you? … You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask! You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions”! (James 4:1-3)
In the Gospel reading, “Jesus told them a parable saying; the land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself; what shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops”? (Luke 12:16-17) Nothing obviously wrong or sinful with the man in our text so far, right? A farmer has land that produced a great crop and he is simply making plans for the future of his business.
But what is hidden from our view is the greed that is in the man’s heart; and what is in our heart eventually becomes manifest in a variety of sinful behaviors. “The rich man said, I will do this; I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat drink, and be merry”. (Luke 12:18-19)
Again, these acts are not sinful in and of themselves, and (of course) not all earthly desires are sinful; but here they reflect the misplaced values of the rich farmer. Notice that everything he said was “I, I, I”. That night, “God said to him; you fool! Tonight, your soul is required of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be”? (Luke 12:20) You can’t take it with you, as the saying goes.
So is the one who lays up treasure for himself, but is not rich towards God”. (Luke 12:21) To be rich towards God is to have/receive the wealth that is found only in God; reconciliation and peace with Him in the forgiveness of our sins for Jesus’ sake. “Such a person is truly rich, no matter how little they may have of earthly goods”. (Lenski commentary)
Our obsession with money and property, or the lack of it, can easily and often does crowd out God’s Word and ways in our hearts and lives. This is why Jesus warns so strenuously against the idolatry of coveting what belongs to others. In calling coveting idolatry, Paul is saying that coveting is also a breaking of the 1st Commandment against having other “gods”.
In the Large Catechism, on the 1st Commandment, Luther wrote, “If your heart clings to something else and expects to receive from it more good and help than (you would receive) from God … then you have another god, an idol”. (L. C. 1st Commandment, par. 28) Already in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve coveted being “like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5b) and also committed idolatry. When you begin to think that you cannot live without having whatever your neighbor has; you have committed idolatry.
According to Luther, “This then is the plain meaning of the (9th and 10th) commandment; (we are not to have) designs on our neighbor’s property, luring it away from them against their will, and begrudging what God gave them. We are commanded not to desire to harm our neighbors, nor to assist in doing harm, nor to give occasion for it … just as we would wish others to do for us”. (Large Catechism, 9th and 10th Commandments, par. 307, 309)
Though we have focused primarily on coveting, I would remind you that Paul included all the other commandments warning us to “put to death … whatever is earthly in you … for on account of these things, the wrath of God is coming”. (Colossians 3:5-6) Paul warns that “those who do such things have no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God”. (Ephesians 5:5) “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die”. (Romans 8:13a) “Now, you must put them all away; anger wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk”. (Colossians 3:8)
These words serve as a warning to us in the church, not to take the grace of God for granted; not to give in when we are tempted to live according to our sinful flesh, rather than according to the Spirit of God. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are to fight against the sinful flesh. I think that often we are so concerned with not giving the impression that we earn our salvation, that we downplay or even ignore the Scriptures commands to repent and do good.
So, we fight against the sinful flesh that still clings to each of us, “knowing that (as believers, in our baptism) we have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self … which is being renewed after the image of its creator”. (Colossians 3:9b-10) We gladly keep the law of God and love our neighbor; “because He first loved us”. (1st John 4:19b)
This being renewed by the Spirit of God continues to go on throughout our entire lives as Christians, as we abide/remain in the faith; learning and growing; daily confessing and repenting of our sins and regularly receiving His gifts of forgiveness, eternal life and salvation; through the means of grace He provides; the hearing of the Word and the Holy Sacrament; for this is how God strengthens and keeps us in the one true faith to life everlasting. Amen.
The peace of God …