9-21-25 Luke 16:1-13
1 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2 So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ 3 Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ 7 Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ 8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly, for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
10 “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 11 If, then, you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13 No slave can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
Grace to you from Jesus, who asked: What is this I hear about you? Then even knowing the answer, welcomes you into the kingdom.
It is the time of the year for our annual meeting. It is when we look ahead to see what ministry we can challenge ourselves with, based somewhat on what our past tells us. We may be inspired by new visions and guided by our experience of past endeavors. We are dependent upon our lay leaders and the support of each one of our congregants. So, you may imagine that a useful message would be something full of congratulatory comments regarding our good work and recent accomplishments and success. But you just heard the Scripture lessons for today, didn’t you? Amos berated the business owners who couldn’t wait to get past the Sabbath and holy days to once again open their stores for selling. He exposed their corrupt business practices and greed. Hear this, you that trample on the needy and bring to ruin the poor of the land. ... You practice deceit with false balances buying the poor for silver, selling the sweepings of the wheat. Amos had witnessed how the disadvantaged were being exploited and not helped. I Timothy reminds us we are connected to God in Jesus and the goal of Christ is that all live peacefully together in godliness and dignity, upholding and caring for one another. Then in the gospel, Jesus makes it clear the only way to live, in fact the way God expects, is to serve only ONE master. That master is God. The conclusion is: You cannot serve God and wealth.
It seems our topic for today is going to be about that wealth and how we use it. What often catches our attention are the dollar signs$. Few of us want to be told how to spend our money or to whom we should give it away. It’s ours! We earned it, by golly! What we want to know is how to part with less of it! Such human thinking led Voltaire to once cynically suggest that “when it comes to money, everyone is of the same religion.”
It is that truth that leads Jesus to issue this warning. Too often we don’t accept the premise that money easily becomes a master of us, a god, if you will. We like to think that money serves us, we control it! This world contends that money brings security and happiness. But when our thinking and decisions revolve around how much I have, how much I can get, how much I am worth; we will find that the master served becomes clear. We are not relying on God but have created a god that suits our desire for wealth and that wealth then ends up exerting its control over us, demanding our primary attention and devotion. We bow to its dictates.
In the parable, it is quite a surprise to us when we hear that owner commending this conniving, selfish manager. For it was a fact that it was his property the man had squandered. Jesus surely isn’t promoting cheating. What is Jesus up to, using this deceitful guy as an example when he can’t even keep a job? This fellow did realize he had milked all he could from his rich boss. That sweet set up has come to an end. But inspiration comes to him; he can create friends for himself in those clients he has known, by reducing their debts. In gratitude for the big discounts on their outstanding balances, he will gain himself acquaintances who can be counted on to help him out when he needs it. Even the boss appreciates the ingenuity of this plan; not enough to restore his job, however. He now knows this guy truly can’t be trusted! This new plan shows no change in his basic approach; it is still all about himself. What the boss admires is the man’s use of creative intelligence in a desperate situation.
As Jesus tells the parable, we are to realize, it concerns even more than money, in addition it is about how we utilize all our gifts and abilities. But in what direction are those abilities applied? And then he wants you to consider who will benefit from the ways you make use of those means at your disposal? God wants us to use every gift and resource He has provided us in service to the One who loves us completing – our heavenly Father. So truly serve God we must consider our neighbors and the creation which are our gifts from God. We are to look beyond our own accounts and take into account our community and world. We are being challenged to consider the needs of others and what will build a better situation and life for us all. God loves all He has made.
Here is a positive example in a young man from Malawi, which may help clarify Jesus’ confusing, negative example in the parable. Both are using the ingenuity that was their gift from their maker.
When William was 14 he lived with his parents on a small farm. It was that year one of the worst famines in their history struck their poor southeastern African country. So William had to leave school to help work on their struggling maize and tobacco farm.
Though not able to continue his education, the inquisitive boy continued to read, borrowing books from the village’s small library. One day he found a tattered British science book and read about windmills. He saw the potential of using wind power to pump water to his family’s wilting crops. Despite knowing little English, William worked to construct a windmill using the photographs and diagrams in the book. His parents thought he was wasting his time. The neighbors laughed as he scavenged junk from the dump. But two months later, his windmill came to be. It was made of discarded motor parts, PVC pipe and an old bicycle wheel. It turned and generated enough electricity to power a radio. Then he built a second windmill to power lights in their hut and a third one to pump water to irrigate the farm. After that he made one that provided power for the village elementary school. This teenager went on to help other village farmers build their own small windmills. They had stopped laughing at him by then.
Eight years later, when William was 22, he began studying physics at Malawi’s national university. A group of American entrepreneurs and venture capitalists heard William speak at an international technology conference he attended in California. They began to finance his education and promised to invest in William’s dream of building a system of windmills, to provide reliable electricity to his energy-starved country. (Connections 9-2010)
As we recall the sly and crafty manager in Jesus ‘ story, we understand that Jesus also commends his ingenuity, offering it as an example to us. But there was a missing piece in that manager, a lack of faithfulness and honesty to support his great ideas and abilities. As we hear William’s story of determination and imagination, we can appreciate what more can be done. Should we not use the same sort of skill and cleverness to create good things, not for self alone but to make possible the very things of God? Christ warns his listeners to distrust wealth for its own sake but to use wealth, in whatever form it takes, to bring about compassion and productive results for the sake of others. Then we turn from serving wealth to using wealth in service.
Jesus is concerned with more than your dollars. His concern is with you; your integrity and dependability, your true self. Our Savior is here to offer us opportunities to be part of His kingdom, here on earth, right now. You can begin again today to rebuild or tweak your reputation, as is needed. You don’t need to worry about getting fired, for we are brothers and sisters of Jesus, no matter what. We are not the manager in this story. It is Jesus who took on the position of being a steward for His Father’s creation and He has always been faithful, in the little things and in much. Jesus served God alone, even to forfeiting his life on the cross. He gave everything for your sake and for mine. We have the best servant manager to follow, as we walk in the way of Jesus. Serve God, our Lord, using all you have been given and all you can create with those gifts.