It was a joy to be with God’s people gathered as Calvary Lutheran Church in Scottsbluff, Nebraska on Saturday August 16 and Sunday August 17, 2025. Thank you Pastor Kathy Montira for the invitation and to the whole congregation for the warm welcome. As part of a Nebraska Synod “On the Road Again” weekend, the entire Nebraska Synod staff was out among the congregations of the Panhandle, and I had the privilege of being both with Calvary Lutheran on Saturday evening for worship and Sunday morning for worship, as well as Lakota Lutheran Center and Chapel in Scottsbluff for worship on Sunday too. I was invited to preach on stewardship and the gospel, as well as share about Calvary’s journey as part of the Vitality Initiative. What follows is the majority of the manuscript I preached from at Calvary. A shorter and adapted version of this was also shared at Lakota Lutheran Center and Chapel. The sermon is based on Luke 12:48b-56 and the readings for Lectionary 20- Year C. The gospel lesson for this day is Luke 12:49-56. I added the additional context of the immediate preceding sentence from 12:48, so as to help ground the story but also to think some about stewardship too. If you would like to watch or listen to the sermon and worship service, you can do so via the congregation’s Facebook page here.

Grace and peace from God in Christ, who is with you, for you, and who loves you. Amen.

Digging into a “Hard Word”
There are gospel texts after which we hear them, that we might be more reluctant to respond, “Praise to you, O Christ,” with afterwards. Perhaps this is one of those gospel readings. This isn’t Jesus at his most friendly. This isn’t “feel-good” Jesus that we hear today. This is Jesus, the Son of God, proclaiming hard truths. Knowing that being a disciple is a life of following and deep meaning, but also one that will be full of challenges. Jesus knows the cross lies ahead. And with the benefit of time, we do too. We know that the cross is central. We know that it’s a hard thing. And Jesus cuts to the chase in talking to those who might listen. He continues speaking after sharing the parable we heard last week about treasure in heaven, keeping alert and ready, and being faithful. We skip a few verses from where we left off last week, where Jesus responds to Peter and explains the parable we heard and pondered last week. But we pick up the gospel story where it turns to discipleship and Jesus talks about the harder things of the Mission of God. Things we probably don’t always like to think or talk about. Responsibility. Division. Interpreting the times and paying attention to times of crisis where God might be more readily saying, “wake up.” “This is not good.”

Jesus says, “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”[1] There’s a word here about stewardship and discipleship which we’ll get to. There’s also a word here about being part of the body of believers. We, as followers of Jesus, have been entrusted with much. We have been entrusted with the truth and promise of the gospel. God has come near to you and to me. And because of that we are changed. Everything is changed. We can’t help it.

You and me, and all Children of God, are beautiful and beloved. Claimed in the waters and the word of baptism. Once and for all. This claim and reality means change. It means we can’t and won’t go about life just as we might want to on our own. Once that claim has been made, we are part of this Body together. And sometimes conflict and division will come with that. Jesus was looking at his earliest followers and reiterating that his very presence was divisive. Those early believers either grew to know that he was the Son of Man and were following him and his word, words like, “love God and love your neighbor as yourself,” or they ultimately denied that this could be, saying he’s just another prophet or worse. This message doesn’t just divide communities and nations, it divides households, families and friends. And in some ways, it still does today.

Jesus knew that his presence and his message weren’t always going to be welcome. By now he had already been questioned by skeptics. People have tried to stump him or catch him in his words. Every time though he seems to impress or surprise by telling story after story, parable after parable, and sharing deeper wisdom upon wisdom. But we know where this story leads.  We know what lies ahead for Jesus, the events of holy week. His betrayal, sham trial, crucifixion, death, and resurrection. Things of which Jesus is well aware that are coming, but things he will go through for you and for me.

The Mission of God- to bear truth and love, even if it means division
In looking ahead, he is also a bit surprised, perplexed, or perhaps exhausted at the fact that no one else seems to be seeing what he is seeing. Our gospel lesson today ends with Jesus exasperated as he exclaims, “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”[2] Jesus is trying to make clear that not all is right, and that he has come to do something about it. To show another way. To proclaim that the kingdom of God has come near. To bring “fire” on the earth. Not necessarily the fire of death and destruction that some might interpret it as, but perhaps the fire and passion of the Spirit. The fire that will be set loose at Pentecost. A fire of truth and justice. A fire of new beginnings. Of possibilities. Of imagination. Of God’s love for one and for all. Something that cannot ever be limited or contained. Despite what humanity and those in power might often try to do.

I was in a meeting this week where I was confronted with this reality. At the heart of the Mission of God is a desire to reconcile all of God’s people toward God and each other. But in order to truly bring about the reconciliation as God longs for, we are called and responsible to bear the truth in love, even if it means division. It means to speak the truth, even when its hard. I heard from a colleague this week how much hurt and pain he is feeling. Frustration because he feels alone. Sadness as members of his neighborhood disappear, all because English may not be their first language or because their skin color may not look like mine. Anger, as many who are impacted are citizens of our beloved country, just like you and me. It was hard to hear this. But, we have a word to say to this, siblings in Christ.

Jesus calls us to show up with those who are being hurt. With the victims of injustice and inhumanity. For those who it is not safe right now to speak out. Just like we have a word to say on behalf of our siblings in Christ in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, as members of their own community are facing starvation, famine, and genocide in Gaza. Just like we have a word to speak, pray, and act on behalf of our siblings facing war in South Sudan, Ukraine, Israel & Palestine. And those facing the threats and realities of violence in our own communities and schools. When Jesus speaks the truth, knowing that his word will be divisive, he knows it’s so because when the truth is spoken, we are all confronted, and are called to confess, forgive, change, and be changed. This is all of our work and responsibility, and the fire of the Spirit’s presence makes it possible.

We Are Entrusted With This as Stewards!
Now Jesus also talks about responsibility and the fact that the Good News about the love of God has been entrusted. God in Christ has entrusted you and me, and all of the body of Christ with this good news. The news and promise that God has come near, bringing life and love abundant for you and for me. It’s grace upon grace. Abundant love made real through God’s love. It’s a pure gift we could never earn or deserve. What God in Christ has done and will do, we cannot ever earn, or deserve, or even hope to do ourselves. Because God alone can and does do it. But we get to respond, joyfully and gratefully. Jesus says, much is required and expected of us, of all who are entrusted with God’s good gifts.[3] This then calls for a response. Which is our stewardship.

Stewardship is our joyful and grateful response for all that God has done, will do, and promises to do for us. It’s also our responsibility, as part of God’s mission in the world, to care for our neighbors and share God’s love. In Psalm 24, the psalmist proclaims, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all that is in it. The world and those who live in it.”[4] Put another way, all that we have, and all that we are, is God’s. You are God’s. I am God’s. We are all God’s own beautiful and beloved children. And all that we have is what God entrusts to our care. All that makes you the unique and beautiful Child of God that you are. Think about it. All means all here. Your health, body, soul, heart, mind, and relationships. Your time, talents, treasures, and finances of all kinds. Your stories, strengths, passions, dreams, ideas, questions, and your vocations. And all of God’s good creation that surrounds us and we’re a part of. All of this and more, is God’s, and which God entrusts into your care.

God does this because God loves you and God wants life to go well for you. God does this too because God wants life to be meaningful and filled with purpose. In part, through inviting you to use what God entrusts to meet your neighbor’s needs in daily life- here, now, today. With all of this in mind, we are stewards- called to serve and share. Knowing that when we do this, we don’t do it alone. We do it with God. With our God with whom there is always enough. With our God who can take a few fish and a couple loaves of bread, and feed thousands. With our God who meets us where we are at with good news, and sometimes hard news too, so that the promises of God’s love will be made known. With our God who shows daily that abundance is real, and scarcity is not- that abundance is the way of following Jesus in life together, and scarcity is the product of lies and sins the world and powers that be, might have us perpetuate and believe.

You Are Signs of this Good News
Friends, you are living signs of this Good News. Calvary Lutheran, you embody what it means to be stewards of God’s love. The way that you so graciously meet your neighbors needs here in Scottsbluff and around the Panhandle. Through the way you provide office space for Lutheran Family Services right here down the hall; the way you collect and distribute food pantry donations to feed your neighbors. Through the way you quilt, quilt, and quilt some more to keep your neighbors warm and surrounded in love. Through all of the discipleship and faith formation experiences you partake in from Bible Studies, to the Faith and Civic Life 10-part study you just wrapped up, to your participation in the Nebraska Synod’s Journey to Nashville earlier this summer. That’s a lot! Thank you for all of it, but wait there’s still more.

You are signs of the Good News through the way you partner with Lakota Lutheran Center and Chapel through walking together, celebrating together, mourning together, and responding to the needs of your neighbors openly and honestly. You are signs of this too through your congregation’s current journey in the Nebraska Synod Vitality Initiative. Your congregation’s vitality team has been pondering who you are as a congregation, reflecting on your congregation’s story, listening to each of your stories as individual Children of God, and wondering about what God might be up to and inviting. Through the vitality initiative, you will soon do some deep discerning about who your neighbors are today and what your unique vocation as a congregation might be here and now. This is all good work. Hard work, but good work. You are living out the faith, following Jesus as he leads, even as we won’t always know where that might lead to next.

You do this because it’s what God invites. You do this, because you know that when God gives or entrusts us with what we have, God wants us to live deeply meaningful lives and to follow, but also God wants us to share that love and all that God entrusts with the world. To not hoard the Good News and what God provides for ourselves, but to share it abundantly. With arms outstretched like our Lord and Savior. Trusting that with God, there is always more than enough to meet the needs of our neighbors.

How Will You Respond?
To be a disciple and follower of Jesus, to be part of God’s kin-dom building work and mission in the world is a great joy. But as Jesus reminds today, it can be hard. It can be divisive. It can mean taking stands that aren’t popular in our communities and even in our own homes. So, how will you respond? How will we respond? Trust in this, we respond because it’s what Jesus calls us to do. To meet our neighbors where they are at. To call a thing what it is. To stand with the marginalized and oppressed as signs of God’s gracious love and to remember that as we do so, we are doing so because we know that God’s love and grace is not limited. As we’ll hear again around this table in a few moments, God’s love is given and shed for you and for all. May that love fill you. May it challenge you and sustain you. And lead you as God calls you out into the world to grow as disciples and respond and serve as stewards. And may you do so, knowing you are not alone. For God in Christ is with you, for you, and loves you. Always. Thanks be to God. Amen.

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Citations and References:
[1] Luke 12:48, NRSV.
[2] Luke 12:56, NRSV.
[3] As explained in Luke 12:48.
[4] Psalm 24:1, NRSVue.