Sermon - Proper 14, Year C, 2025 - Luke 12:22-40

The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, Jose Juarez, 1650

Be faithful, so that you may obtain a better treasure

1. Faithfulness under trial

1. Example of Lawrence

2. The better treasure we are looking forward to

3. What it means to be faithful today

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Take heart, brothers and sisters in Christ, and do not be anxious about the cares and worries of life. Trust me, I’m fully cognizant that there are many things which make us anxious, and for good reason. The Lord knows about all of these things as well, which is why He speaks as He does; the Lord, knowing your griefs and worries, encourages you to be faithful in the midst of so many sorrows, so that you may obtain a better treasure than could be found on earth.

Jesus admonishes us: “Stay dressed for action.” Or quite literally, He says: “Let your loins be girded.” This is battle language meant for a soldier, or instructions for someone about to engage in hard physical labor requiring a lot of movement. To gird up your loins was to tie up your robes around your upper legs so that you could move more freely and rapidly, without tripping on your robes. The instruction here for us Christians is to be tough and ready to face adversity at a moment’s notice. The saint commemorated on August 10th, today, is a phenomenal illustration of this. 

St. Lawrence was a 3rd century deacon in Rome. The job of a deacon, as described in Acts 6, was primarily to tend to the collection, management, and distribution of gifts for the poor. Lawrence was a close friend of the bishop (pope) of Rome, Sixtus the second, during the reign of Roman emperor Valerian. Rome was not a great place at the time, and Valerian was a bad dude. Rome claimed to be a shining example of perfection and the height of human achievement and progress, yet rejected natural law and embraced very wicked practices. Doesn’t sound at all similar to America in the 21st century!

Valerian had made a policy that those denounced as Christians were to be executed and their possessions seized, and all Christian clergy killed. On August 6th, 256, Sixtus and a bunch of clergy were arrested and beheaded because they were caught worshipping God. Lawrence, who was known to be managing the treasures of the church, was ordered by the prefect to surrender those treasures. Lawrence asked for a few days to gather the treasures. So he spent those days giving away all of the church’s money to the poor, and then brought the poor of the city to prefect, saying “These people are the treasures of the church.”

The prefect was so enraged at Lawrence’s response that he wasn’t going to give Lawrence an easy death by beheading, but ordered that Lawrence be placed upon a large gridiron over a fire so that he could be slowly grilled alive. After suffering for a while, our plucky martyr joyfully mocked those who were executing him, saying: “Turn me over, I’m done on this side.”

The words of Hebrews describe Lawrence to a T: “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.”

Lawrence did not receive an earthly treasure nor kingdom. He was not treated well nor fairly. The city he lived in on earth, Rome, which was considered the greatest at the time, treated him terribly. Like the Lord Jesus, he had no place to lay his head. All of his closest friends had been executed. Yet, none of that could steal away his joy. For in faith he had a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. Following Nehemiah’s instructions, he was not grieved, “for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

How did Lawrence and other martyrs maintain such joy and faith even while suffering so severely? Because they trusted Jesus’ promises, who tells us that it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom. Life is more than food and the body is more than clothing. That’s not just a nice saying, but it means that there is more to life and my body than what happens on earth. It means that there is a kingdom, a homeland, a treasure beyond what I can see today. The sorrows of today will give way to joy hereafter.

This is not something that you can see. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Paul gives a great example of faith by talking about creation. None of us were present at creation, and therefore it requires faith to believe that God created the universe out of nothing through the power of His word in six days. Likewise, I haven’t seen Jesus, I wasn’t there at the foot of the cross nor in the room to stick my finger in his side, and yet by faith through the Word I believe that Jesus died and rose for me for the forgiveness of my sins. I haven’t seen the new heavens and the new earth, I haven’t experienced God’s eternal kingdom and everlasting treasure in all of its glory and perfection, and yet I have faith in the Lord’s promises.

This faith brings me to joy! “Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in Him, because we trust in His holy name.” Knowing all that the Lord has done, is doing, and will do for me, that leads me not just to faith in His promises, but to joy knowing that the Lord is truly going to give me all good things in due time. Knowing what is awaiting me, how can I help but be happy about it?! I cannot help but rejoice knowing what God is doing for me. Christians rejoice because we have faith in God’s promises. 

But what does this all mean for us? What does faithfulness look like today? You’ve heard about Abraham’s faith, Lawrence’s faith, the faith of other saints and martyrs, and Jesus instructing us to be faithful. But what ought we to take away from all of this?

Firstly, let us learn to be tough. Jesus tells us to gird up our loins, keep our lamps burning, and be like men. This doesn’t mean we all have to literally be soldiers, keeping the lights on, and be male. But it does mean we have to have a high level of spiritual preparedness and resiliency for whatever comes our way. We cannot afford to be soft and complacent in our faith. To help you become stronger: do hard things. Jesus gives an example: “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy.” Do that! Don’t just struggle with that word of God, but struggle with all of it. God’s word is not comfortable. It says a lot of things that are hard to hear, so wrestle with that in humility; it will make you stronger. Sometimes the pastor says something that’s hard to hear, and he doesn’t say it because he’s just mean, but he wants you to be spiritually tough, strong, resilient and to remain faithful unto death.

Secondly, let us learn a bit of levity and humor as we deal with the devil. The devil is prideful and takes himself completely seriously, so let’s not fall prey to his delusions of grandeur, and let us learn to laugh at him and mock him. Elijah mocked Baal, “He’s relieving himself, he’s asleep and needs to be awakened.” Lawrence mocked his executioners, “turn me over, I’m done on this side.” Of course we need to be prudent when doing this, but we must remember that Jesus has already defeated sin, death, and the devil by dying and rising again. Our enemies are strong, sure, but God has already won the war against them! Don’t let the devil drag you into despair, because you’ve already conquered with Christ.

Thirdly and finally, let us also learn joy. Of course we shouldn’t treat God’s things like a joke or be irreverent towards Him, we laugh at the devil, but not at God. We should however be joyful! Faith leads us to joy! How do we show this joy? The Bible tells us to do it with singing! “Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre!” When you come back victorious from war, you jump up and down and dance like King David. When you go to a wedding reception, you jump up and down and dance like a child. When you come to the Divine Service you don’t have to jump up and down and dance, but you do have to sing, and sing with gusto and joy! I don’t care if you think singing is embarrassing, just sing louder to cover up your embarrassment. Sing because the Lord Jesus Christ has come in the flesh! Sing because He’s saved you from sin and death! Sing because He rose and will raise you! Sing because no trouble can trouble you anymore! Sing because He’s made your life worth living! Sing because death has lost its sting! Sing because the Son of Man is coming!