September 19th - Reflection

Time after Pentecost - Lectionary 25
Luke 16:1-13 (NRSV)
Serving God or wealth

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."

Reflection
Sounds a bit like multi-tasking to me. Multi-tasking that doesn't work at all!

This guy was on the ropes. He was about to lose his job and his means of living. So he made some friends by using what little power he had left. He gave up that power on his friends knowing that all that he had remaining would be lost in a very short time anyway.

Sure, it was a dishonest move by this world standards, but when you think about the reasons for his actions, the story takes a twist. He was really giving up all he had, even if the money wasn't his, he was giving up the power that he had as a manager. Would he have done the same if he weren't in a pinch? I really don't think so.

Sometimes we need to get into a pinch to figure out that we must give up all that we have. We must give it up and concentrate on our relationship with God and neighbor. We must give our lives over to God, because, without a doubt we all have mismanaged the life God has given us.

But thanks be to God, through the giving up of ourselves to God, God sent his Son, knowing that we couldn't do this on our own. So we turn and follow Jesus. We turn and listen to Jesus. The Spirit moves and grows within us and we are changed. Changed into something new and wonderful through the love of God through Christ Jesus. Under new management, not of our own, we become disciples of Jesus and give freely, not on loan, the love of Christ.

Thanks be to God!

Prayer
Lord, take my life and make it yours. Pin that note on the door of my heart --- "Under new Management" --- Amen