“You
cannot serve God and wealth."
- Is everyone as baffled by this parable as I am? I've had some real problems discovering the Good News here. When I am preparing a sermon for the worship service, I often ask myself “What is the Good News?” In the parable of the dishonest steward, Jesus appears to be almost commending the steward for cheating his employer and telling the creditors to change their bills. Even the man's employer congratulates him on being shrewd in dealing with his situation. How is this Gospel? It doesn't appear to make sense. Yet Jesus recommends that we become just as savvy in our dealings with the world around us. “for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” So what are these dealings about?
- When I was in university, I studied economics... and I did it willingly. In the class, we talked about money and what money is. In economics, money is “both a measure of value and a store of wealth.” Knowing what something costs lets a person know how valuable the item is in comparison to other items. Knowing how much money one has or what the value of their belongings are reflects how wealthy they are.
- Beyond that, money has a potential value. It can be used to purchase goods and services. Money by itself – stuffed in a mattress, as the old jokes would have it - lacks any real ability to satisfy, unless one enjoys just looking at it,
- Money has come to be a lot of other things, too. Sad to say, it has come to be a measure of success and a measure of how valuable a person could be socially. The more money a person has, the more valuable and important they are seen to be in society. The converse becomes true as well: the less money, the less value or importance.
- Money also comes to be seen in a personified way, as a being in it's own right. At it's worst, it becomes an idol, one that must be pursued, chased, and caught as often as possible. It is to be worshipped and obeyed. It actually makes a very good idol, because it can be manipulated by the worshippers and made to do what they would like any god to do.
- Money as a idol is a monster. It always demands more and more – more attention, more time, more acquisition of more money.
- For more than a few people, money has become such an idol. The amassing of money has become the central theme and desire of some people's lives. Even the word used for money in this passage in many translations - “Mammon” meaning wealth in Hebrew - has taken on a character of being a personal being, a demon or devil we might say. It appears that this personification reflects the preoccupation with money found in some lives. In those lives, money has become a jealous and demanding god.
- We may will wonder what the Bible says about money. It says quite a bit.
- here
are at least 300 references in the Scriptures referring to justice
for the poor and the oppressed and the need to take notice of the
plight of the poor as well as how money gets in the way of that.
- The prophets constantly speak to this injustice. As an example, look again at the passage from the prophet Amos, who preaches against those who defraud the poor and cheat those they sell to in the marketplace.
- By contrast, there are at most 6 references in the Scripture that refer to homosexuality. Shear weight of evidence should give us pause.
- Paul's first letter to Timothy holds one of the most well known comments on money and wealth. Paul writes “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil...” (1 Timothy 6:10)
- Luke puts it this way: “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."
- It appears that the Gospel teaches that the search for wealth is incompatible with the service for God. The present, then, is a time of decision as to how important what we say we believe really is to us.
- Luke is the Gospel that puts the most emphasis on the Kingdom of God turning rich and poor upside down. Our text today speaks of a different way of life and a different way of using wealth. It is not simply for looking after our own interests. When all is said and done all our wealth belongs to God and it is in our care for the furthering of God's reign among us. It is a tool to be used for the furthering of the kingdom rather than an end in itself. It can be a dangerous tool and often misused for are always in search of our perfect security, even though we are told that the way to follow Jesus is to give up any commitment to such security.
- The simple, tough truth here is that any commitment we might put ahead our commitment to discipleship to Jesus Christ can be a form of idolatry. We've spoken before about the sin of Adam being what would later be called a sin against the First Commandment, placing himself ahead of God. Any of us might fall to that temptation as well. Maybe this is why Scripture speaks so often about the problems found in the pursuit of wealth.
- For me to say “problems” shows how troubling this issue is. In plain words, it isn't a “problem”, but “sin.” Maybe that is the Good News, since we can't change anything until we realize the need for change and we can't repent unless we realize that we have sinned. Even if we don't want to hear it, the call to repentance is always Good News, because despite what we might feel or think, the call to repentance and change is an invitation to find the love of God - available and powerful – close to each of us.
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