I love the Gospel of Luke. He might be the best writer in the New Testament and his gospel is peppered with endearing stories – Mary singing the Magnificat, the Benedictus and Nunc Dimittis, the manger and shepherds, young Jesus in the temple, and the parables of the Good Samaritan and Prodigal Son to name a few. He seems to be the most egalitarian, as he presents a generally favorable view of women. But within that beautiful writing and those lovely stories lie some very hard truths.
And if you doubt that, think about the past several weeks: Whoever comes to me and doesn’t hate father and mother, wife and children . . . When you give a banquet, invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind . . . From now on five in one household will be divided, two against three and three against two . . . And from today, “make friends by means of dishonest wealth.”
Luke can be hard.
But the gospels (in general) and the message of Christ (in particular) aren’t meant to be easy. The gospel is meant to challenge people and systems. The gospel is meant to change the world. The gospel is meant to overturn worldly powers in favor of God’s justice. And that is hard.
Part of that difficulty is knowing how to manage our stuff, and that’s what today’s gospel is all about.
We have this parable of a dishonest manager handling the accounts of a rich man in such a way as to secure his future after he has been terminated. Within the parable itself, it seems the rich man has learned that his manager has been cooking the books or has otherwise been involved in illegal activity. So the manager starts plotting on how to save his skin.
Jesus interprets this parable by saying, “Make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.”
The best interpretation I have for this is not about dishonest wealth but that we handle our material possessions with an eye to the future, or with an eye to using our wealth and possessions for the benefit of the kingdom of God. And just how might we use our wealth and possessions for the benefit of the kingdom of God? Well, Matthew 25 has a pretty good list: feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, visit those in need. There are others, but that’s a good place to start.
Wealth is an interesting thing. It seems the more we have the more we want and the more we focus on ourselves. The desire for more becomes a focus. In extreme cases, the desire for more comes at the expense of others. Even so, it is possible to manage and use our wealth and possessions appropriately for the kingdom of God. As I mentioned, Matthew 25 is a good place to start. But Jesus also asks us to examine our own lives to determine how we actually act.
“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful in much.”
As followers of Christ, we are asked to be faithful. More often than not, we are asked to be faithful in small ways. Very few of us will be asked to make large sacrifices for the Church or for the kingdom of God. But are we faithful in all those small ways? Are we faithful and trustworthy in our prayers, in our pledges, or in treating people as we want to be treated? Do we reach out to those we miss?
We will probably not be called on to make large sacrifices. But almost every day we are all called to live out our faith in small ways. The small act of buying an extra item of groceries to put in the baskets by the front door will add up to a large act of generosity if we all did it. And maybe, over time, we learn to adjust our budget to allow us to donate more than one can of soup. That’s but one example.
It will be in the faithfulness of small matters that will determine if we can be trusted and faithful in large matters. Hopefully, as we begin placing a higher priority on the small things, they will slowly change and shape us to where we understand that it’s impossible to serve two masters.
And once we learn and live into that, living into the difficulties of the gospel will get that much easier.
Amen.
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