September 28, 2025
Rev. Mary Erickson
University Lutheran Church
Amos 6:1a, 4-7; 1 Tim. 6:6-19; Luke 16:19-31
Where Does Your Trust Lie?
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
All of our scriptural passages today have to do with our relationship with and perspectives on wealth. Amos’ words to Israel, Paul’s words to Timothy, and Jesus’ words as recorded by Luke all warn us not to place our trust in worldly wealth.
It’s tricky, you know, because we are physical, earthly creatures. We have needs that must be met. And these needs make us consumers. Air and water, food, clothing, shelter, transportation, education and know-how, tools.
There is great security in having a supply of needful things. When your cupboards are full, a good roof is over your head, and you have a secure income, that’s a good feeling.
But this security can cloud our vision. Where does our trust lie? Does it reside in the security of these needful things? Or do we see the source of our daily bread as stemming from its underlying source, from the divine maker of all things?
It’s very tempting to place our trust in our own securities. And the more we have, it seems like we become even more dependent upon that security and self-reliance.
John D. Rockefeller was the founder of Standard Oil and one of the wealthiest people ever to live. Someone once asked him, “How much is enough?” He responded to the question, “Just a little more.”
When Rockefeller died, his accountant was asked, “How much did he leave behind?” His answer was simply, “All of it.”
Where does your trust lie? Jesus tells a story to illustrate the illusion of grounding our trust in earthly wealth. A very rich man lived sumptuously, he said. Meanwhile, just outside the gate of this wealthy man’s house, there lay an extremely poor man. His name was Lazarus.
Now, interestingly, Lazarus is the only figure in all of Jesus’ parables to be given a name. His name means “God is my help.”
Normally, the poor are nameless while the very rich, like Rockefeller, are household names. But in Jesus’ parable, we know the name of the poor man while the wealthy man remains nameless.
Eventually, both men die, and a tremendous reversal of fortunes takes place. Lazarus finds refuge in the bosom of Father Abraham. The man who had nothing in life, the man whose name means “God is my help” finds solace in the life to come.
Not so with the wealthy man. He winds up in Hades, in misery. In the distance he sees Lazarus and Abraham. And he doesn’t seem to realize that the old hierarchy no longer holds. He still views Lazarus as someone whose role is to serve him, to be his fetching boy.
He knows Lazarus by name. He knew and recognized him from his earthly life. And yet, during his lifetime, with Lazarus suffering right by his very own gate, he did not take measures to share a sliver of his great wealth to help this poor man.
In his letter, Paul shares with Timothy ways to counteract the false hope of earthly riches. He reminds Timothy that we come into this world with nothing, and that’s exactly how we leave it. Paul lifts up the virtues of contentment. There is great peace in being content with what we have, as opposed to straining after more and more. Contentment breaks the addictive spell of the world, always needing more.
Rather than focusing on wealth, Paul encourages Timothy to ground himself in faith. He tells Timothy to SHUN the lure of money. Paul uses aggressive language. He tells Timothy to actively shun the love of money. In this manner, faith is a FIGHT. Fight the good fight of faith, he says. He instructs Timothy what he should pursue instead. They are, basically, the fruits of a faith centered life: righteousness, love, gentleness. Strive after these things.
Paul goes on to discuss those “who in this present age are rich.” Well, friends, from a global standard, that would be us! We may not feel wealthy. We might think of ourselves as being somewhere in the middle. We’re the middle class. But by every global standard, we are the rich of this present age.
Paul has advice for us, too. He encourages us not to set our hopes on the wealth and security we have accrued for ourselves, but rather on God. We are to remember the source of all that we are and all that we have, even our very life. None of it comes from ourselves. Like Rockefeller, when we die, none of what we call our own will go with us.
Paul goes further. He instructs us to be rich in good works. There is great joy in generosity, in being ready to share from our own bounty. First of all, the giving hand does not grasp. It’s open, not clutching. That in itself is a great remedy to the addiction of wealth. And secondly, it shifts our focus away from ourselves and onto our neighbor.
As wealthy people, this is one of our greatest spiritual challenges, to let go of our grasping after ever more, to shun the lure and security of wealth and instead take hold of the life that really is life. And that is a life grounded in faith, faith in God who provides us with every good gift.
Jesus ends his parable with the rich man asking Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to warn his brothers to change their ways. Abraham says, “That’s not necessary. They have the scriptures to guide them, Moses and the prophets.”
“No, Abraham,” the rich man countered. “That’s not enough. They won’t listen to them. But…if someone was to return to the dead, now, that would be altogether different! They would listen to him!”
“No,” Abraham said, “If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen even to someone returning from the dead.”
My friends, there is one who has returned from the dead, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Although he dwelt in the splendor and richness of heaven, he laid it all aside to enter our world as one of us, small and naked. He came in his own poverty. He wasn’t born in a gilded palace, but in a stable where he was placed in a feed trough.
He was raised in a humble setting and then he began his ministry. He gathered very ordinary comrades to share an itinerant life with him. They relied on the goodness of others to provide for their daily needs.
And then, at the end of three years in his ministry, everything went south. Jesus was arrested, tried and condemned. He was flogged and forced to carry his cross to the outskirts of Jerusalem, where he was nailed to his cross. And when he died, his body was laid in a borrowed grave.
He who had everything gave it all, all, for our sakes! He kept his eyes on the life that really is life. And in doing so, the great reversal of his story and ours occurs. Out of his death comes life for us. From his condemnation, we receive his forgiveness. In his sharing all that he has, we have received grace upon grace.
This is the life that is truly life. Where does your trust lie? Will you listen to the one who has risen from the dead?
