Good stuff from today’s DS
Good stuff from this morning’s Divine Service:
Gospel reading & sermon text — Luke 16:1-13 (Parable of the Unjust Steward)
While this text is quite Law-based, there is some valuable Gospel as well, and my pastor did a great job of properly dividing the Law & Gospel. In particular, he used a quote from C.S. Lewis,
“Aim at heaven, and you will get earth thrown in; aim at earth, and you will get neither.”
to help explain things & make some clarifying distinctions.
In the text, God is the rich man, and we sinners are the corrupt manager. Seems clear enough. And it’s a pretty standard stewardship text to boot. We need to use our talents to good effect here on Earth. The Lewis quote, though, helps find the proper perspective, lest we lapse into works righteousness, and/or head down the rabbit hole of the “Social Gospel.”
This is powerful stuff. We need not be overly concerned about conditions or success in this earthly realm. No, we need to keep our eyes on the prize of the Heavenly realm which is where the true riches await.
In other words, our stewardship focus should be on using our (Spirit-given) talents to further the (Spirit-driven & enabled) telling of the Gospel, and NOT on achieving man-made & world-pleasing numeric goals.
Neither should our focus lie merely on improving the earthly lot of our fellow man. Mind you, there is nothing wrong with doing such, but the Lewis quote strips bare the folly of the “Social Gospel” and it’s man-pleasing, world-impressing focus. No, the “Social Gospel” does not have Heaven as its aim, and thus falls short of even its earthly goals.
Yes, it was a very good DS this morning. The Word purely preached, and the Sacrament rightly administered. I thank God for the blessings that He has given in Pr. Ostafinski and the saints at Heritage.
-ghp
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