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Pastor Tom Steers on August 3, 2025

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THE EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

August 3, 2025

Pastor Tom Steers

Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Our Opening Hymn is: “All People That on Earth Do Dwell”

Lutheran Service Book 791 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc4gEC2lInU

The Collect Prayer of the Day:

O Lord,

grant us wisdom to recognize the treasures You have stored up for us in Heaven,

that we may never despair

but always rejoice and be thankful for the riches of Your grace;

through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord,

who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever. Amen.

Our Bible Readings –

Old Testament: Ecclesiastes 1:2,12-14; 2:18-26

Psalm 100 (antiphon v.3)

Epistle: Colossians 3:1-11

Gospel: Luke 12:13-21

The Apostles’ Creed –

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,

Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died and was buried.

He descended into hell.

On the third day He rose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven

and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy Christian Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting. Amen.

Our Hymn of the Day: “Renew Me, O Eternal Light”

Lutheran Service Book 704 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7II-ycF0oc8

1. Renew me, O eternal Light,

And let my heart and soul be bright,

Illumined with the light of grace

That issues from Your holy face.

2. Remove the power of sin from me

And cleanse all my impurity

That I may have the strength and will

Temptations of the flesh to still.

3. Create in me a new heart, Lord,

That gladly I obey Your Word.

Let what You will be my desire,

And with new life my soul inspire.

4. Grant that I only You may love

And seek those things which are above

Till I behold You face to face,

O Light eternal, through Your grace.

The Sermon –

Brothers and Sisters, peace, grace and mercy be to you through God our Father, and our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ.

This Sunday in our traditional Lutheran Church series of readings from the Bible, we have the Parable of the Rich Fool.

It’s a powerful illustration that Jesus provides.

And it can be frightening, if not for our faith in Him and the protection and salvation that faith alone brings us.

Our Bible passages have been used on this day for hundreds of years.

The verses are instructive and carefully chosen.

They speak to the very temporary nature of earthly wealth and the precious gift God has given us in Christ.

Our Redeemer, who alone has earned believers eternal life in Heaven.

But another Bible passage we could add to today’s readings is a very basic one.

The First Commandment.

Martin Luther's Small Catechism section on this commandment reads:

“’You shall have no other gods.’ And What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.”

When we consider idolatry, we usually think of worshipping statues, totem poles, magic talismans.

At the Royal Ontario Museum there are examples of ancient cuneiform writings from the Middle East.

Some tablets not only predate the birth of Christ, but even Moses, and in some cases Abraham.

These ancient pagan writings describe all kinds of false gods – whether they be human kings, celestial objects like stars and planets, or even demons.

These are examples of something called coarse idolatry – the worship of creatures or man-made objects such as golden calves, or statues of Baal.

The Bible has plenty of examples of people who worshipped these things – and condemns them all.

Most in our modern Western culture – even unbelievers – would say this kind idolatry is foolish and irrational.

The type of idolatry that's more likely to affect people in our time is called refined idolatry – the worship of money, popularity, power, and so forth.

For instance, when we put money and physical possessions above God – that's idolatry.

Most of us would agree.

But at times even our jobs, or friends and recreations can come between us and God, and place the Almighty second in our attention and focus.

A friend of mine who’s a missionary in Eastern Europe put it very well.

He said I love my wife and should. But when I make her the absolute center of all my attention, that makes a very poor ‘god.’

In our time, and in North America, we don't have an issue with stone statutes, but we can allow television for instance to come between us and Bible reading time.

In God's eyes when we continually pass over prayer and worship to pursue other activities, no matter how worthy, we may be committing the sin of idolatry.

We might not be carting out bulls to sacrifice on pagan altars, but we're making the same basic error – we are placing other things ahead of, or instead of, God.

At its core, idolatry worships the creation instead of the Creator.

It takes the good gifts God gives us and makes them into false gods that claim His place.

Idolatry is most powerful when it convinces us that this world is all there is.

This is the state of unbelievers, but even Christians can fall prey to it at times.

This thinking basically says – “since the world is all there is, let's place our trust in worldly things, and get the most out of it while we're here.”

Idolatry provides us with all kinds of mottoes:

-- Enjoy it while you can.

-- Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.

-- You only go around once in life so grab with all the gusto you can.

The fallacy is this world is not all there is.

Many people learn that too late, or not at all.

But the Bible tells us again and again there’s a spiritual realm beyond this creation.

As a Pastor I’ve seen how love of money, and preoccupation with obtaining it, can destroy marriages, as well as faith.

I’ve seen middle and even upper-class children become ‘rich orphans’ because their parents are always working.

Sometimes they suffer more emotionally and spiritually than if their parents were working class or poor.

Refined idolatry is tricky.

Most of the time, people who commit it don't think it’s a problem.

People who obsess over material wealth, popularity or fame would never say they worship these things.

But just the same, to God, that's exactly what's happening when created things take His place, and become more important than receiving God's gifts in Word and Sacrament.

Sometimes we can forget that whatever has top priority in our lives is, in fact, our god.

Martin Luther often said, "It's the trust and faith of the heart alone that make both God, and an idol.”

If your faith and trust are right, then your God is the true, Triune one.

But where your trust is false, your god is false as well.

For these things belong together: true faith in Christ and God, Luther said.

Jesus often taught about wealth, and the destruction it can bring when mishandled.

Christ said in Matthew 6:19-20: "Don't lay up treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don't break in and steal.”

The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Timothy 6:10)

The parable of the Rich Fool hits home because not only does this poor fellow never get to enjoy his earthly wealth, he dies as well. God says: "Fool! This night your soul is required of you."

The Lord isn't mincing words here.

Yet the problem was not that the man was rich, but that the man was a fool.

Jesus had many disciples who were wealthy.

The Magi from the east who came to worship Christ the toddler, had the means to offer Jesus gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Joseph of Arimathea who loaned his burial place to Jesus had the money to construct a tomb for himself in the honoured real estate near Jerusalem.

Only a well to do man could do that.

Lydia, one of the early followers of Jesus in Philippi, and Mary the mother of Mark the Gospel writer, were wealthy patrons of the Church.

Wealth isn't the problem.

The error is letting wealth become a substitute for God.

It's making wealth the source of our security and comfort, and our sole concern.

It's forgetting that wealth, like everything else, is a gift from God and not a ‘god’ in its own right.

The sin isn’t in the money, but the way we see it.

Jesus speaks this parable to all of us, even if we're not wealthy.

Christ said, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."

Jesus warns us whether we're poor, working class, middle income, or rich, that the love of money can destroy hearts and souls.

And this means rich and poor alike can be ‘fools’ about money.

The rich can be possessed by their possessions.

The poor can be slaves to the money and other things they want and desire above all else – that they may not always need.

People in every economic class can see money and material objects as ‘salvation’ from their problems.

Our Old Testament reading today comes from the book of Ecclesiastes.

Most of Ecclesiastes is dedicated to describing the emptiness of life "under the sun," a life lived as if this earth was all there is.

In this Book, Solomon carefully documents his experiments with every lifestyle possible.

He tried wine, fast living, and song.

He tried hard work, hard play, travel, as well as education.

In the end, Solomon concluded that if this life is all there is, then everything is vanity and a striving after the wind.

What he was really saying is that without God, there is no meaning to life.

But with God there’s true meaning, worth, and most importantly salvation and eternal life.

There is the real, eternal treasure of Heaven, and that treasure is grander and more lasting than any fortune we can store up on earth.

God proves this in that He revealed Himself to us in His Son, Jesus, and Christ has His own economy.

Although He's the Creator and true owner of all things, He lived among us as a poor person.

Although He has all authority in Heaven and on earth, He lived under the authority of God’s Law.

Although He has all power, He made Himself a suffering servant.

Christ made Himself helpless, submitting to the punishment we deserved, and died nailed to a cross.

And although forgiveness, eternal life, and salvation are worth more than we could ever pay, the resurrected Jesus offers them to us as a free gift.

It's Jesus who makes us rich toward God.

Christ closed the sad parable in today's Gospel with these words, "So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

Jesus is telling us out of love, that if we spend our lives getting ahead and having control, so that God and faith become a nuisance, the end is eternal damnation.

If we live our lives without love for Him and one another, but instead step on the heads of others to get what we want, the result ends badly.

Fortunately, the reverse of these words is also true, and gives us a sweet, lasting hope, the hope of the Gospel.

When the Holy Spirit plants the gift of faith in us, we see the riches of this earth are fleeting and that God is the true, eternal treasure.

Christians will inherit everything God has to offer.

Jesus, our Saviour, has written that heavenly will in His blood.

We will hear the words of Christ in Matthew 25:34: "Come, you who are blessed by my Father,” – and every believer can place their name in that sentence – “come and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

Dearly beloved, in remembering those words, may the true peace that passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ.

Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer –

Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread;

and forgive us our trespasses

as we forgive those

who trespass against us;

and lead us not into temptation,