Sunday, November 19, 2023

Today’s Scripture Reading
Luke 16:1–13

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. 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.’ 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. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ 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.’ 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. 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. “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. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 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.” (NRSV)

Reflection

This parable is an easy one to be uncomfortable with. The main character of it is hardly exemplary, and yet Jesus makes him an example for the disciples’ consideration. However, if we take a look at the way the story unfolds, the master praises the steward’s shrewdness, not his dishonesty. Jesus wants disciples to pursue the kingdom with as much initiative and decisiveness as the steward pursued his interests.

This parable is intended to grab the listener’s attention, because losing a job was just as threatening or more so in Jesus’ time as it is now. After all, there were no unemployment checks in the first century! One of the approaches used by Jesus was to tell stories about everyday life (parables with characters who are a mix of good and bad characteristics just like everyday life) where something essential from it could be applied to the spiritual life. This steward was issued a wake-up call. He had to act decisively and swiftly to save himself. This parable is about sitting up and taking notice. It is about waking from spiritual slumber and being summoned to spiritual attention, acting swiftly and decisively to rescue or preserve your spiritual life.

The inference is that just as this steward acted swiftly and decisively to save himself from what jeopardized his financial life, so we are to act swiftly and decisively in matters that work at cross-purposes with our spiritual life. We might ask, “What do you mean working at cross-purposes with my spiritual life?”

It could mean a person who has worked hard to provide for family or another person or even themselves and then all of a sudden they realize that money matters preoccupy them and at the end of the day there is little energy for anything else, leaving them feeling burned out, numb and looking for more.

Or it might refer to a person who is quite active in life but doesn’t find that they share substantively of themselves. They feel incomplete because there is not enough self-donation in their life.

It could involve a person who has lived a good life but feels they have lost their purpose and have drifted from having a palpable sense of meaning in life.

It could refer to a person who has gradually felt out of touch with God, or that their prayer life has slipped, and they feel a yearning to reclaim a deeper connectedness to God and their spirituality.

Or perhaps it refers to a person whose relationships leave them feeling empty, estranged, or wanting something better, more genuine, where there is greater expression of love. Jesus intimates that the kingdom person is as enterprising and shrewd as that steward, who, when his back is to the wall, gets cracking, acts swiftly and decisively, and makes things happen. The kingdom person will be just as shrewd and discerning in matters spiritual. In fact, the master praises the steward for his action, and the intimation is that it is pleasing to God when we act deliberately to do what is needed to reclaim our spiritual life and to tend to what will nourish it.

Prayer
O God, allow this Gospel to awaken us from any spiritual slumber and to open our hearts with wisdom and insight. It is about waking up to what needs to be tended to and acting now! Amen.

Written by John Moulder, Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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