Today I am going to talk about one of the parables of
Jesus
in
a way that you probably haven’t heard before.
So be forewarned.
This is Jesus telling a shady story to the disciples.
The parable is addressed to the disciples
for
the purpose of furthering their discipleship process, that is,
for
their growing awareness of God’s revelation,
for
their readiness for the ministry of service to others,
and
for their witness to the good news of the Gospel.
But the story itself is not at all about holy people,
or even proper people.
Instead here is this fellow,
a business manager,
who
is ripping off his wealthy boss.
We might call him a loan shark,
and
he is using his boss’s inventory of wheat and jugs of olive oil
for
loans to people
and
charging pretty high interest rates.
When he is found out, he gets fired,
and,
of course, the business owner is going to be calling in
all
those bogus loans, and everyone will have to pay up.
This guy’s actions are having
a most undesirable ripple effect.
And the fired manager also finds himself in a desperate
situation.
How is he going to survive?
He’s
not keen on digging ditches
and
he’s too proud to stand out on one of those busy intersections
with
a cardboard sign that reads:
“Down
on my luck. Any little bit
helps. God bless.”
So he “cooks the books,” as we would say.
That
is, he subtracts the interest from the loan
to ingratiate
himself with everyone else also affected in the situation.
Now he may be a crook,
but
he knows the importance of relationships
and
how community works,
and
how that’s what he needs for survival.
than are [you disciples,] the
children of light,” Jesus tells them.
I think one thing this parable is pointing out,
if
we need to look for a moral from the story
-
and there aren’t always morals that can be drawn from the parables,
or allegories -
one thing this parable is pointing out
is
that even crooks and loan sharks
can
understand the significance and importance
of
the community, of being in relationship,
and
how community serves their own best interest.
We are linked to community
and
whether that community is our social setting
or
our family or our cultural/ethnic settings
or
our faith community,
we
are interconnected in a deeply organic ecological system of life,
or
way of being.
We deeply affect each other in all that we do,
and
we are able to function and do what we do
because
of what each one offers.
Life is not possible outside of community.
So on a very foundational, practical and life level,
how
do we, as disciples of Jesus, relate to and function in community?
So starting with this parable,
this provocative story about
pragmatic use of wealth,
Jesus then goes on to talk about the way the disciples
need to be –
being
faithful with even the least amount
of
whatever treasure or wealth is available,
because how you are with the little things
is
how you will be with the greater things.
So if you are to be entrusted with the Kingdom of God,
for instance,
as
a disciple, a follower of Jesus,
better
look at how you are with the least portion of that Kingdom,
and
what is treasured and valued here in the world.
That’s the point.
We are called to faithfulness in stewardship
in
whatever has been given to us,
so
that we can be good disciples of Jesus,
and
fill the nets, reap the harvest, bear much fruit for the Lord,
as
we read in other parts of the Gospels,
for
that is the reason, the purpose of the disciple.
Every disciple, each one of us, if we claim to be
followers of Jesus, it would seem,
is
not living for ourselves alone, but for our Lord,
and
for the sake of the community.
Being faithful in one small area
will
indicate faithfulness in the much larger community.
What might the small thing, the small area be?
We could start with the stewardship of ourselves,
-
that’s one limited and finite area -
who
we are and what we have to offer in service to the world.
How do we nurture and foster and grow the self that we
have been given?
This
is talking about a spiritual process.
One aspect of this, I think, is about integrity –
integrity
of service, integrity in our actions.
Integrity has to do with consistency for the whole:
How
we are with a little
will
be how we are with a lot.
Jesus compared the Children of Light with the dishonest
manager,
and
he observed that the dishonest manager was
more
shrewd, astute, and effective in his operation in this world,
specifically for his
own best interests.
But the key for Children of Light to be as effective,
Jesus tells us,
is
to love just one master: love God wholly.
It won’t work to try to have it both ways.
Total commitment, trust, AND identification with one or
the other, God or wealth.
“No slave can serve two masters – the master of self-interest
AND God as master –
for
a slave will either hate the one and love the other,
or
be devoted to the one and despise the other.”
Well, we can ask ourselves: to whom we are slaves, who
is the master,
who has control over me?
We would like to think that we are the masters
of ourselves,
rather than slaves.
Well, what we do shows more about our core identity
than
what we say.
We may recognize that we are not as committed to God,
as
we may like to say that we are or want to be.
We cannot save ourselves;
we
cannot turn ourselves into good disciples all on our own.
We are in need of God’s love and mercy and grace.
And get this!:
Good stewardship of ourselves as disciples
is
making use of the wealth of God’s mercy and grace,
realizing
this great treasure is abundantly present for us.
The word here in this passage of the Gospel for wealth
is mammon,
which
can be understood simply as treasure,
what
is treasured, what is trusted on,
and in the case of this story
about the dishonest manager,
what
he treasures is dishonest profit, unrighteous profit.
In our case mammon can
be considered to be whatever is trusted upon as treasure,
whatever
is valued, whatever our hearts attach to,
and
therefore whatever can become idolatrous for us
and
vies for our loyalty as master.
What do I treasure?
Is
it that which expresses the values of the Kingdom of God,
or
what serves self-interest and self-aggrandizement?
It may do some good to do some personal reflection
about this!
Personally I do this best by meditating.
Meditation
gives the chance to sit with the truth of myself
to
see where my heart is and my treasure is.
And then meditation as a way to be open to realizing
just how much God loves me,
how
much God is devoted to us,
how
abundant the mercy and grace are,
that
this is the treasure of the
Kingdom of Heaven.
If I can be faithful in recognizing
where I place worth and value
in my own life,
and if I am seeking to serve one master,
not
myself but our Lord,
then
I am cooperating with the process of discipleship, and consequently,
this
has an effect for the whole community of life.
This is being entrusted with greater things, this is
being a child of the Light.
I offer these thoughts and reflections on the Gospel
reading for today
as
some provocation for each of us
to
consider that we all are accountable to the faith community
for
fruitful ministry in service among each other,
to
one another and to the world.
Let those words of the Gospel for today sink in;
think
about it, ruminate on it, if the shoe fits…
But let us with all integrity and astuteness be
faithful as Children of Light.
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