Money – Last week Jesus spoke of lost sheep and lost coins. Yes, they were stand-ins for lost people, but their value to the person seeking them was what made these stories work. Today will continue with a value theme but this time we will discuss money itself. We will have to decide if the money we are talking about is another stand-in or if it is straight up money talk. It sure sounds like the latter on the face of it, but I have found that the Bible is often not so simple.
But let’s assume this really is about money and not what St. Lawrence famously named the “treasures of God,” that is God’s people. Money-talk in Church always makes us a little uncomfortable, especially when we are a Christian preacher. This is only compounded for the Lutheran who remembers that the Reformation was sparked by Luther’s objection of Tetzel’s commodification of forgiveness. He is supposed to have said, “When the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.” It was disgusting to Luther and remains so for us.
