Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 28, 2025

by Jeffrey Spencer | Sep 29, 2025 | Sermons

CLICK HERE for a worship video for September 28

Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 28, 2025

Amos 6:1a, 4-7, 1 Timothy 6:6-19, Luke 16:19-31

Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is some question about whether what we hear from Jesus today should be classified as a parable. It is never described or introduced as such in the text. It lacks some key features of parables. Parables are often offered as similes, as in “the kingdom of God is like…” Parables are often playful and sometimes mysterious, laced with ambiguity and layers of meaning, gently inviting the hearer in. What we hear today is more like getting whacked upside the head with a two-by-four! And so it has been suggested that instead of thinking about this as a parable, we should think of it as an editorial cartoon. Those of us from the newspaper generation are familiar with editorial cartoons. They are drawn with exaggerated features and stark contrasts. They are more in-your-face. For those who are of the internet generation rather than the newspaper generation, you might think of this as a dank meme, as an edgy message conveyed through sharply contrasting images.

The contrast is indeed sharp here. On the one hand we have a rich man. He is dressed in purple and fine linen. The dye to make purple clothing was extremely rare, which made purple fabric extremely expensive. Only the super-rich could afford to wear purple. He feasted sumptuously every day, eating the finest of food and lots of it.

On the other hand, we have a poor man. He lies at the gate of the rich man. He was so hungry that even the scraps left on the rich man’s plate would have been a feast for him. He was covered in sores. This could have been leprosy, which was common in the ancient world. It could have been ulcerative lesions, a common affliction of the very poor. It could have been bedsores from lying in the same position on the hard ground for so long. Instead of being waited on by servants, he was being licked by dogs. These were not sympathetic puppy kisses. These were the mangy street dogs that roamed the city in packs. These scavengers were licking him in anticipation of the dinner in store for them when he finally expired. His sores were appetizers.

The poor man had none of the things the rich man had. He had no home. He had no food. He had no clothing by which to cover his wounds. But he did have one thing that the rich man didn’t. He had a name. The rich man isn’t named at all. He is anonymous, unknown. But the poor, suffering man is known. He has a name. His name was Lazarus, which means “God helps.”

And when both of these men die, we see that God does indeed help Lazarus. Lazarus is personally escorted by the angels of God into the arms of Father Abraham, where he is comforted at last. When the rich man dies, he finds that their situation has been reversed. Now he is being tormented. He finds himself in agony, roasting in the flames of Hades. Wham! Right between the eyes. No subtlety here, right?

But as clear as the contrast is between the rich man and his fate and the poor man and his fate, we shouldn’t be too quick to make this about rich verses poor. This editorial cartoon is not about the haves verses the have-nots. After all, Abraham himself is described in scripture as a rich man, and he is on the good side of the great chasm. He is with God in heaven. We have other people in scripture who are both wealthy and faithful, people like Zaccheus and Joseph of Arimathea and Lydia, the dealer in purple cloth. So, this editorial cartoon isn’t some anti-capitalist critique, damning the bourgeoisie and idealizing the proletariat. This is about something else, and this becomes clear as we look at the rest of it.

Even as the rich man asks Abraham for mercy, he still thinks he is in control. Even as he is roasting in the flames, he still thinks he has power to call the shots. He practically orders Lazarus to bring him a Gatorade! He still thinks other people exist in order to serve him. And so he is still acting like the Lord of the manor.

Abraham tells him, “Nope, sorry, that’s not how things work here,” but even then, he still acts like the Lord of the manor, asking Abraham to then send Lazarus to warn his five brothers, who are still alive. He still sees Lazarus as someone who should do his bidding. He is still unrepentant.

And what Abraham says next is the final flourish on this editorial cartoon, revealing what it is all really about. Abraham says that they have Moses and the prophets, and that they should listen to them. The rich man insists that Lazarus would be a much better messenger, coming back from the dead and all. Surely he could get them to repent. But Abraham is unmoved. “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.”

The great chasm is not divided along the lines of rich and poor. It is divided along the lines of those who listen to and trust in the Word of God and repent and those who do not. It is divided along the lines of those who insist on being the Lords of the manor and those who know how desperately they need the Lord’s help.

Our other lectionary readings help clarify this for us. The prophet Amos convicts those who lounge and feast and drink wine from bowls, not merely because they do those things, but because in doing them they have come to see themselves as their own Lords who can safely ignore the ruin of Joseph. St. Paul says it isn’t money that is the root of all evil, but the love of money which causes people to wander away from faith. That’s the key problem – wandering away from faith! Those who are rich in the present age, Paul warns, should be careful not to place their hopes on the uncertainty of riches. We should instead place our hopes on God, who richly provides us with everything.

The great chasm then, is divided along lines of unfaith and faith. It is divided between unfaith which leads to indifference to those in need, and faith, which inevitably moves hearts towards love of neighbor, noticing especially the ruin of Joseph and the beggar at the gate.

Editorial cartoons can evoke a variety of responses. The same cartoon can make one person squirm and another person laugh. It depends on where you see yourself in the cartoon, right?

Many of us should probably see ourselves as the rich man. We have been given so much that it is easy to be lulled into thinking that we are the Lords of our own manors. It becomes easy to feel that we are in control. Our wealth and our comfort make it easy to wander away from faith in God. And once we wander away from faith, we no longer see that everything we have been given comes from God, to be used not to numb ourselves with overindulgence, but to serve others, especially our neighbors in need. How we do that is complicated and demands wisdom. It does not necessarily mean indiscriminate handouts, which can often make things even worse. But it does begin with noticing the need. It does begin with seeing the person behind the problem. To shut ourselves off to the needs of others is a sign that we have shut ourselves off from God. It is that serious.

There are others among us, however, who may well see a bit of themselves in Lazarus. I’ve had conversations with people this past week who are experiencing great suffering. Some are sick. Some are hurting. Some feel alone and abandoned. To those I want to point out that just as God knew Lazarus’ name, so too does he know yours. You are not forgotten. You are not abandoned. God’s help will come, even if you can’t see it now.

You might identify more with one or the other of the contrasting characters in this editorial cartoon, or even a little bit of both. But where we all should find ourselves reflected today is in the five brothers sketched lightly in the background. You see, like them, we are still alive. And because we are still alive, we can hear the Word of God. Because we are still alive, we can listen to Moses and the prophets. And do you know what they have to say to us? They tell us that what we really need is not more money or more wine or more status or more control. What they tell us is that what we really need is a savior. What they tell us is that we all need God’s help, and that this help has come in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Jesus has planted an Easter egg in this editorial cartoon. The reference to one who comes back from the dead is an Easter egg hidden in plain sight, pointing us Jesus himself, who is the fulfillment of everything spoken of by Moses and the prophets. Jesus did indeed rise from the dead, and he came to the living with a message. He called people to believe. He called people to trust in him as their Lord and not themselves. He called people to relinquish control and to receive his peace. He called people to feed his sheep.

In this editorial cartoon, Abraham didn’t think anyone would believe even one who rose from the dead. But this is Jesus winking at us, because when Jesus rose from the dead many did believe in him.

And this risen Jesus is still bringing people to faith today. Our risen Lord continues to come to the living through his Word. He comes to us even now. He comes to us as the God who helps. He comes to us as the savior who heals both hardened hearts and open wounds with his forgiveness and his mercy. He comes to us as the one who has ultimately conquered death for us all, so that we can one day be carried by the angels to his side, where we will receive eternal comfort on the safe side of the great chasm. He calls us to repent of our love of money, to repent of trying to be our own Lords, so that we can take hold of the life that is really life – a life lived with faith towards God and fervent love towards one another.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer

Oak Harbor Lutheran Church

Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 21, 2025

by Jeffrey Spencer | Sep 23, 2025 | Sermons

CLICK HERE for a worship video for September 21

Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 21, 2025

Luke 16:1-13

Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

One of the great archetypes in all of storytelling is the antihero.  An antihero is a character who is utterly lacking in all the qualities you usually see in a hero, and yet, you can’t help but root for them. An antihero is a character who lacks typical hero qualities like, oh, say, morality or honor or respect for the law, and yet, you can’t help but like them.

One of the most famous antiheros of all time is Robin Hood, a character who has been around in various forms since at least the 15^th century. Robin Hood, of course, breaks laws left and right. He is constantly on the run from the Sheriff of Nottingham and Prince John. He steals from the rich and gives to the poor. While he is a thief and a lawbreaker and exceedingly crafty (and thus portrayed as a fox in the Disney classic), he is also a beloved hero.  There are plenty of other examples we could point to. Han Solo was a smuggler. Jack Sparrow was a pirate. Sherlock Holmes describes himself as a “high functioning sociopath.” These aren’t “good” guys, but somehow, they’re the good guys! You can’t help but admire their craftiness, their cleverness, their shrewdness.

The archetype of the antihero was common in the ancient near east as well. Poverty-ridden peasants of Jesus’ time loved stories about crafty antiheroes who outwitted the privileged and the powerful. Today we hear Jesus use just this kind of character in one of his parables.

“There was a rich man with a manager…” Jesus begins. The rich man accuses the manager of squandering his property and fires him. What’s this suddenly unemployed manager going to do? He knows he isn’t strong enough to dig ditches for a living. He knows he doesn’t want to beg. So he cooks up a plan. Before any of his boss’s clients know he’s been fired, he goes out to them to settle their accounts. He cancels their debts left and right! Oh, I see you owe a hundred jugs of olive oil? Make it fifty. What is that, a hundred basked of wheat? Make it eighty. This manager goes around unilaterally cancelling the debts of his boss’s clients! It is unethical. It is illegal. And it is….celebrated?

Yes, it is indeed celebrated! When the boss finds out what his former employee has done, he COMMENDS him for his craftiness, for his shrewdness! And not only that, but when Jesus himself finishes the story, he lifts this character up as a positive example! Jesus encourages his disciples to emulate him! He says, “The children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 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.”

Now we need to understand what Jesus is saying here. Jesus is not telling his disciples to acquire wealth through illegal and unethical means. Jesus would never encourage anyone to violate the Eighth Commandment, “You shall not steal.” The point here is that the disciples are to be crafty and clever and shrewd in how they manage their money. The word “shrewd” here can also be translated as wise. They are to use their resources wisely, in ways that benefit others, with an eye towards eternity. They are to use what has been entrusted to them wisely while always keeping in mind where their true riches lie. They are to manage their resources well while always remembering that they cannot serve both God and wealth. Only one can have first place, and it cannot be wealth.

Jesus is telling this antihero story to put his finger on what he knows will be the biggest temptation for the disciples, which will be to feather their nest rather than build the kingdom, to worship the almighty dollar rather than Almighty God. Martin Luther writes in the Large Catechism that “Money is the most common idol on earth.” That was true in Jesus’ time, it was true in Luther’s time, and it is most certainly true in our time as well.

You’ve probably heard the old observation that $100 looks huge in the offering plate, but not so significant when you’re spending it at the movie theater or the golf course or the tavern or the yarn store or the bookstore. (Did I manage to poke everyone at least once?) People can be extremely clever and resourceful and driven when they want something. We are to be even more clever and resourceful and driven in the funding of the kingdom of God. We are to be even more shrewd and wise in investing in God’s work in the world and in tending to our neighbors in need.

I’m so grateful to say that so very many of you are. We make a point here at Oak Harbor Lutheran Church to protect your privacy in giving. There are very few people who see your year-end giving statements, and I’m not one of them. So unless a giver specifically tells me, I don’t have any idea who gives what around here. But I do know that we have many people here who have been very clever and resourceful and driven and so very generous in giving to this congregation and to the ministries we support. You have cleverly utilized so many different ways to give. We had people dig deep this summer during our catch-up campaign, which has brought our budget out of the red and into the black. Pete Pedersen has come to me more than once with a huge grin on his face, telling me that he has to make three runs a week to take food to Help House because we have so many donations coming in. You are so quick to respond to needs, both within our congregation and outside of it. You are so wise, so shrewd, so resourceful, so generous in investing in God’s work.

This is all truly wonderful – but it is also true that it is part of our sinful nature for all of us to keep wanting to cling to that idol of money. This is an idol we keep returning to, thinking it will give us peace, thinking it will help us feel secure, thinking it will give us joy. And when we return to clinging to our bank accounts, we are no longer clinging to God.

This story is told to the disciples, and to us, to remind us once again not to cling to that idol. “You cannot serve both God and wealth,” Jesus says. This story with its antihero is told to begin to peel our fingers away from the false god of our bank accounts so that we might take hold of Christ the true riches of his grace.

The parables of Jesus are never just a morality tale. They are never simply a way to cajole people to do something. The parables of Jesus can usually be understood on more than one level, and much of the time they are not just about what we are to do, but what Christ has come to do for us. This story is no exception. Because, you see, Jesus is the ultimate antihero.  It might feel slightly irreverent to think of him in this way, but consider the work of Jesus from the perspective of the Pharisees. They had just been complaining that he ate with tax collectors and sinners. That’s not typical hero behavior! Not to them! They complained that Jesus healed people on the Sabbath, which they saw as a total disregard for the law.  Jesus was going around just announcing that people’s sins were forgiven – like he was God or something! From the perspective of the Pharisees, what Jesus was doing was immoral, illegal, even blasphemous. And so Jesus is the ultimate antihero.  He dined with sinners and he died with criminals. He didn’t have any of the qualities the Pharisees expected their hero Messiah to have.

You could even say that Jesus bears a striking resemblance to the clever manager in the parable. Jesus was going around cooking the books on the debt sinners owed to God. Jesus engaged in some clever accounting as he went around writing off people’s sins, just forgiving them. He made a lot of friends in the process. He made it possible for them to enter into those eternal homes.  This was an epic scandal! And all the while, his boss, God the Father, sat back and smiled. God commended him for it! God patted him on the head and said, “You are my Son, my beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

When Jesus died on the cross he said, “It is finished.” What Jesus said here in the biblical Greek can also be translated as “paid in full.” The word is tetelestai, and it is the very same word that was stamped on the bills of the ancient world whenever an account was settled. This is what Jesus has done for all of us. Jesus is like the clever manager in the parable – only he didn’t just reduce our debt, he paid it in full.

This is where we find true riches. As we receive the riches of his grace, his mercy, his forgiveness, his love, our hearts are set free to live for the Giver and not the gifts, to worship the Giver and not the gifts, the serve the Giver and not the gifts. Our hearts are set free to cling once again to God alone, who is the only one who can give us true peace, true security, and true joy.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer

Oak Harbor Lutheran Church

Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 14, 2025

by Jeffrey Spencer | Sep 14, 2025 | Sermons

CLICK HERE for a worship video for September 14

Sermon for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 14, 2025

Luke 15:1-10

Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

This summer our brothers and sisters in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod had a large youth gathering in New Orleans which was protested by the Westboro Baptist Church. You’ve probably heard of Westboro – a tiny sect made up mostly of Fred Phelps and his family members. They show up at all kinds of events. They were at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Phoenix this summer too. They show up at rock concerts, sporting events, and all kinds of other public gatherings, both sacred and secular.

The youth of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod seem like a very odd target for this group to protest, but the Westboro Baptist Church is all about purity. They see themselves as the pure Christians, the only truly righteous ones. They protested the LC-MS as a lukewarm denomination full of sinners. Their signs made this point using some pretty harsh language. From what I heard from some of my friends in the LC-MS, the chaperones did a great job, and the kids handled themselves well, but it was still a little unsettling for some of them.

In a sermon to the twenty-thousand youth gathered in the Super Dome for the closing worship service, Synod President Matthew Harrison made reference to the protesters earlier in the week. First he quoted from the gospel we hear today. He said, “Jesus’ critics complained, saying “He welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Then he said to the kids, “Those protestors the other day, you know what they said to me? They said, ‘You have sinners in your church.” He paused for a minute and then said, “Well, duh!”

There was laughter and there was applause and there was joy from the crowd, and Harrison went on to assure them that Jesus came into world to save sinners. They could laugh and applaud and rejoice at his “Well, duh!” not only because he was bluntly stating the obvious, but because, as Harrison told them, they have big sins, but they have a bigger Jesus.

They dynamics of all of this reflect the dynamics we see in our gospel reading for today, in spirit if not in scale. Jesus was indeed eating at a table with tax collectors and sinners. And the Pharisees, whose pursuit of righteousness had turned into a self-righteous purity cult, objected. Jesus was presenting himself as a holy man and as a teacher of Israel, and here he was rubbing elbows with sinners, sharing a meal with them.

In response to the grumbling of the Pharisees over the company he was keeping, Jesus tells two parables. (Three actually, but we only hear two of them today.) He tells a parable where a shepherd pursues a lost sheep, and when he finds it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. He calls together his friends and neighbors, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost!”

He tells another parable in which a woman loses a coin. She searches diligently for it. She lights a lamp and sweeps the floor. And when she finds it, she rejoices. She too calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost!”

With these two parables, Jesus is painting a picture of what God is up to through him, through his ministry. He is painting a picture which explains why he welcomes sinners and eats with them. He is doing so because he has come to save sinners! He has come to pursue lost sheep so that he can lay them on his shoulders and bring them home. He has come to recover the lost coin from the darkness underneath the couch, where they are stuck with the spiders and the dust bunnies. He has come to bring them out into the light. All of this is cause for rejoicing, not grumbling! “Just so, I tell you,” Jesus says, “there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” This is what Jesus came to do. St. Paul says it so well in our epistle reading: “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”

And he still is! We are here today not because we have passed some purity test. We are here because our Lord Jesus has found us. We are here because he has rescued us. We are lost sheep who keep chasing the wrong clumps of grass, but our Lord Jesus keeps on pursuing us. He gets hold of us, laying us across his shoulders, bringing us home to God. We are lost coins. We have no power of our own to roll ourselves out of the darkness under the couch, but we have been plucked up, retrieved, and held in the hand of our dear savior. All of this brings much rejoicing in heaven. It brings much rejoicing here in what should be understood as the fellowship of the found.

There should be no grumbling in the fellowship of the found. There should be no complaining that the fellowship isn’t pure enough. It is easy to make an example of Westboro Baptist Church, but I’m afraid this purity test creeps in among us too from time to time. There is a quieter version of Pharisee in each of our hearts. People grumble about those they wish were more active in the church. People grumble about those at church with personalities they don’t like, or traits they find annoying. People grumble that some at church aren’t reverent enough while others grumble that we are too reverent, too stiff and formal. People grumble about the fact that there are those at church who might think differently about politics than they do or belong to a different party. People grumble about what some people wear to church. We preach the great gospel truth that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and then when real, actual sinners show up, people grumble!

Now it is true that part of repentance is turning away from sin. In our first reading, when God forgave the people for worshipping the golden calf, God didn’t say, “It’s okay. You can keep worshipping it if you need to. You do you.” In our epistle reading, as Paul describes his own conversion story, confessing that he had been a blasphemer and a persecutor and a man of violence, it is obvious that his repentance involved turning away from those things. There are some evil things which cannot be tolerated. When Jesus sits at the table with tax collectors and sinners, we should in no way assume that he was affirming their sin or turning a blind eye to it. Part of repentance means turning away from sin.

The greater part of repentance, however, is being turned towards. It is being turned towards the One who has come for us. It is being turned towards the shepherd who has chased us down when we were lost and wandering. The greater part of repentance is simply letting ourselves be picked up by the gracious hand which has come to pluck us out of the darkness and bring us into the light. It is the grace and mercy of our rescuer which finally starts to turn us away from sin and towards holiness of life.

But make no mistake about it – none of us ever achieve a level of purity that we no longer need that grace and mercy! None of us ever achieve a level of personal holiness such that we no longer need to be rescued. We all remain in desperate need of Christ’s forgiveness. As we say at the beginning of worship most Sundays, “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” This is a direct quote from scripture, from 1 John 1:8, and it remains true throughout our lives. We only ever gather here as sinners, and none of us has any standing or status by which to grumble that there are other sinners here too.

The good news for all of us is that our Lord Jesus continues to eat with sinners. The reason you are here today is that Jesus is like a shepherd who pursues the lost sheep until he finds it, and then he carries it back on his own shoulders. The reason you are here today is that Jesus is like a woman who turns her house upside-down to look for a single lost coin, and will not rest until she has it back safely in her coin purse. Instead of grumbling about the other sheep in the flock or the other coins in the purse, this is reason to rejoice! God is not scandalized by the sinners who show up. God invited them! Jesus brought them here!

Do you know what God says when we grumble that there are sinners at church? God says, “Well, duh!” And our response to this should be laughter! Our response to this should be applause and joy – because that is exactly what is happening in heaven! “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents,” Jesus says.

Let there be joy here too. Let there be rejoicing among us. For we who were lost have been found once again. Today our gracious shepherd finds us amidst the anxieties and dangers of this world. He finds us in the midst of our lostness, our wandering, our sin. He comes to us not with a scolding, but with forgiveness. Not with wrath, but with grace. He rescues us from the muck, lovingly takes us up on his strong shoulders, and carries us home to his holy flock, where, with all the other sheep, we can celebrate.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer

Oak Harbor Lutheran Church