Text: Genesis 14:8-24
Date: October 12 & 13, 2019
Event: The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C
Genesis 14:8–24 (EHV)
8The king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out and lined up for battle in the Valley of Siddim 9against Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goyim, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five. 10Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell there. Those who survived fled to the hills. 11The raiders took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food, and then they went on their way. 12Because he had been living in Sodom, they took also Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, and his possessions and went away on their way.
13One person escaped and came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks that belonged to Mamre the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and Aner. They were allies of Abram. 14When Abram heard that his relative was taken captive, he led out all his trained men who were born in his house, three hundred eighteen of them, and pursued them as far as Dan. 15During the night he divided his servants into groups to attack them. He struck them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus. 16He brought back all the possessions. He also brought back his relative Lot, and his possessions, and the women also, and the rest of the people.
17After Abram’s return from the defeat of Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was a priest of God Most High. 19He blessed Abram and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, 20and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.”
Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
21The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and take the goods for yourself.”
22Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted up my hand to swear to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, 23that I will not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, so that you cannot say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ 24I will take nothing except that which the young men have eaten and the share belonging to the men who went with me, namely, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. Let them take their share.”
We Use God’s Gifts in Faith
Maybe you’ve felt this in the past. You receive a gift from a friend or family member, but it’s not an actual item you can use but a gift card. Perhaps you hem and haw about what you would use it on. It should be something fun, right? After all, it’s a gift, it’s probably not intended to buy groceries or something. But maybe it would be the responsible thing to use it to buy groceries. If you’re anything like me, perhaps you go back and forth about this for a while until you put the card in a drawer and forget about it entirely.
That’s not exactly using the gift to the best of its ability, is it? The person probably doesn’t care if you use that gift to blow on something unnecessary or buy something vital for your family, but they probably didn’t give it with the intention of it collecting dust somewhere, unused and thus unappreciated.
God doesn’t give gifts for us to waste or ignore, either. We shouldn’t lock up anything that God has given to us, be it skills and talents or other gifts. God gives these gifts that we should use them to benefit ourselves, our families, our fellow Christians, and everyone around us.
This morning we take special note of the financial blessings that God gives to us. We want to be wise managers of what God has given, neither wasting what he’s given on things that are worthless nor hiding those gifts under a rock. Instead, we use the gifts to faithfully carry out our responsibilities and, as in everything, bring glory to God.
Our lesson for this morning is perhaps a bit unfamiliar. Abraham (here, before God changed his name from Abram—for the sake of simplicity we’ll refer to him by his more common name) and his nephew Lot have settled in the region that would become the home for Abraham’s family some 500 years later. But, for now, they have settled in the area. Lot opted to live among the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, cities famous for their evil deeds. But, the land was good, so he figured it was worth it. Abraham went to another part of the region, a land not as good, but with some separation from the evil thoughts and attitudes of the people living in the area.
The region is in a bit of unrest, though. The rulers, or kings, or several city-states had agreements with each other. The five weaker kings paid tribute and honor to the four stronger kings. But eventually they got tired of doing that. They rebelled against those stronger than them. And, well, it didn’t go well for them. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, they fell there. Those who survived fled to the hills. The raiders took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food, and then they went on their way. But this wasn’t just local current events for Abraham; there was a more personal hardship. Because he had been living in Sodom, they took also Lot, the son of Abram’s brother, and his possessions and went away on their way.
Abraham can’t have his nephew captured by these kings, so he rounds up the many skilled fighting men among his household servants (318!) and went out to fight. Abraham on his own faired better than these other kings. God allowed him to defeat the kings rescue Lot, bringing a significant amount of spoils with him.
And here’s where things get interesting. A man named Melchizedek, whom we had not heard of before this nor do we hear of after this (save for references to this event), appears. He holds a two-fold office of both priest and king of Salem (the city that would later be known as Jerusalem). And he serves the true God, evidence that there were people who followed in the faith of Noah after the flood who were not directly related to Abraham.
Abraham recognizes this man’s position not only as worthy of honor but also a way to thank God for the victory God had just granted him. We’re told very matter-of-factly, “Abram gave him a tenth of everything.”
I’ll go out on a limb here and guess that not a one of you has spoils of war filling your wallets. But you have been given financial blessings from God, even as Abraham received here through these battles. It would be easy, wouldn’t it, to simply say, “I worked hard for this money. I earned it at my job. I earned it through careful investing. It is mine to use as I see fit.” It’s so simple to think that we are the source of the material blessings that we have.
But that’s hardly the case, right? As we jump ahead in our story, the king of Sodom tries to give Abraham some riches for what he did. But Abraham refuses them all. Why? “I have lifted up my hand to swear to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, that I will not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, so that you cannot say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’” Abraham does not want anything that could possibly make it seem like he got his wealth from this heathen king. No, he knows that what he has comes from God and he’s going to make sure everyone else knows that too.
How we receive material blessings and how we use material blessings say a lot about where they came from. If it’s all mine and all that matters is my desires and my preservation, well then, perhaps some dishonest dealing is ok, if it benefits me. If this is just my stuff, then it shouldn’t matter what I do with it. If I want to be completely selfish with what I have, that’s my prerogative.
Of course, all of that presupposes a misunderstanding of where the things I have come from. As Martin Luther explained in the Small Catechism: I believe that God still preserves me by richly and daily providing clothing and shoes, food and drink, property and home, spouse and children, land, cattle, and all I own, and all I need to keep my body and life. God also preserves me by defending me against all danger, guarding and protecting me from all evil. All this God does only because he is my good and merciful Father in heaven, and not because I have earned or deserved it. For all this I ought to thank and praise, to serve and obey him.
When I know that what I have is a gift from God, when I know that he’s promised to give me what I need to survive (and so often so much more than that), then I want to thank him for what he’s given to me. I want to glorify him with the way I use what he has entrusted to me. And I want to always prioritize the Giver of these gifts, not the gifts themselves.
We, then, are called to be wise and shrewd with the gifts that God has given to us. Abraham gave thanks to God with his gifts and rejected the pull toward more wealth from ways that would dishonor God. As we seek to glorify him with these gifts, we know that there is no better way to glorify God than to share what he’s done with others. So when you look at your budgets and you carefully consider a percentage gift to support our work here (and through our congregation’s support of our larger church body, you’re supporting the spread of the gospel around the world), you are sharing that good news. You are allowing children to come to our classrooms each and every day to sit at Jesus’ feet and hear of his love and forgiveness to them. You are allowing those who want to know more about their Savior to have a worship service or a class to hear, study, learn, and ask questions—to grow in their faith and trust that Jesus lived and died to save them as he lived and died to save you. Your support means that missions in our country and around the world can open and continue to function so that people you’ve never even met and are likely to never meet on this side of eternity can hear what Jesus has done for them.
Churches can get lambasted for “only being about money,” and it’s true that there have been churches that have abused this. They’ve wanted more and more and more and so they leaned on their people hard to give and give and give not because they wanted to but because they were compelled to. We should never feel forced into giving, but with honest thought of the blessings that God has given to us, we should seek out generous ways to thank God. No one forced Abraham to give Melchizedek 10% of the spoils of war; he wanted to do it to thank God. In the same way, we look at the blessings God has given us, especially the forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Jesus life and death for us. As we take all those blessings in we must ask the question, “Lord, how can I best use these gifts to thank you and bring you glory?”
Using the gifts that God has given is never about making a name for ourselves, preserving an institution, or embracing our desires. Using the gifts God has given means thanking him, praising him, and faithfully using those gifts to share his undeserved love with others. The ultimate gift that he gives is eternal life in Jesus’ sacrifice for us. Unlike all of our clothes, money, food, drink, or anything else that he gives, that is the one thing that never runs out.
Lord, help us to be wise and faithful with the gifts you’ve given to us. Help us to share the message of your free and faithful love with all! Amen.
