(Luke 16: 1-13)
When I joined the Houston Police Department, I certainly didn’t do it for the money. The pay barely kept up with the rising prices as Houston attracted more and more people from out of state with the promise of better paying jobs in the oil industry and housing boom. What the City of Houston offered that was attractive to me was retirement plan that would provide for you in your golden years, if you made it that far. When I left after twelve years the city cut me a check for what I had contributed to my pension. They, of course, kept their contribution plus the accrued interest. In any event, I was wise enough to attend an investment seminar and put my meager drag up into some investments that would provide a long-term yield that could keep me in beans and bread in my golden years. It’s been interesting to watch it grow over the years and, during economic cycles beyond my comprehension, actually lose some of the earnings. But we didn’t panic, we didn’t take it out, we let it ride.
And being wise with your money and investing in your future, letting it ride, is what Jesus is talking about in our scripture reading for this morning. Apparently, the love of money was as big a problem two thousand years ago as it is now, and Jesus wanted to address the issue of wise money management and how it impacted the coming kingdom. In today’s reading Jesus tells a parable designed to give instruction to his disciples regarding their wise use of the resources given them by God. He starts out by telling them about a certain rich man who learned that his household manager was wasting his estate. Jesus tells them that the rich man called in the manager and said to him: What is this I hear about you? Give me a report of your administration because you can no longer serve as my manager. Essentially, the rich man is firing the manager and is demanding an accounting, an audit so to speak. The manager, knowing he is not trained up to make any other sort of living, concocts a plan to secure his future by contacting some of the rich man’s account holders and currying favor with them by offering some sweet discounts so he can call in some favors after he becomes unemployed. When the rich man reviews the accounting, he realizes what the manager has done and commends him for his cleverness in cooking the books. Jesus makes the observation that people who belong to this world are cleverer in dealing with their peers than are people who belong to the light. That’s an interesting observation and it suggest to me how Jesus viewed the elite and their business dealings in their quest to get richer while the poor all around them got poorer. The economic trickle-down philosophy didn’t work then anymore than it works now. He’s implying that people of the light are prone to deal more fairly with one another. He says: I tell you, use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves so that when it’s gone, you will be welcomed into the eternal homes. He’s telling his disciples, and us, to use what we have to help others, don’t hoard it, and your future will be secured when you are welcomed into your eternal home. Put your money to work for God. That’s a sound retirement plan.
At this point the disciples are thinking to themselves that this is a nice parable and makes perfect sense, but the fact that very few, if any of the disciples, have anything to their name they really can’t relate to the rich man or the corrupt manager in Jesus’ parable. “Yeah, Jesus, if I ever hit it big one day, I’ll do just that, I’ll share the wealth.” Jesus knows what they are thinking, which is why, I think, he says the following: Whoever is faithful with little is also faithful with much, and the one who is dishonest with little is also dishonest with much. He’s talking about integrity, and integrity often meets its match in money matters. Jesus knows this and he calls us to be honest even in those small details we could easily rationalize away. It’s what we call the slippery slope. Once you go down it, getting back up is difficult, and seemingly impossible. Every embezzler I ever represented always said they fully intended to pay it back some day. But some day is always another day.
Jesus’ words resonated with John Wesley, the founder of our Methodist denomination, who also recognized the corrupting nature of putting the amassing of wealth ahead of God. His sermon: The Use of Money, contains his three principles about how you should handle your finances; gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can. And he warned that to gain all you can should not be done at the expense of life or your health. Furthermore, one should not seek gains that could hurt one’s neighbor. Rather, he encourages gaining wealth by honest wisdom and unwearied diligence. To save all you can fit Wesley’s own lifestyle as he encouraged Methodists not to be wasteful, and not to be excessive in their spending. He felt that one should make sure that they and their family’s basic needs are provided for, but the rest of the money gained should be given away.
Money can and should be used in ways that promote good relationships such as in our support of the Tri-Area Food Bank, ECHHO: Ecumenical Christian Helping Hands Organization, OlyCAP: Olympic Community Action Program, UMCOR: United Methodist Committee On Relief, and Bayside Housing and Services, just to name a few. Jesus urges his followers to use their money to the present help of others and thus to one’s own long-term good. This is the eternal value of money and how we best serve the least of Jesus’ brothers and sisters. To hoard one’s resources is to be dishonest with someone else’s property, that is, what belongs to God. When we are financially blessed by God, he wants us to share in our blessing. One can truly love either God or money, but not both.
Our use of money, our financial resources, is a good test of the lordship of Christ whether we are acting as an individual or a congregation of believers. We must realize and understand that the money, our financial resources, belongs to God, not us, and it is incumbent upon us to use it wisely. Money can be used for good or evil so we must do all we can to make sure it is used for good, the advancement of the kingdom. And money has a lot of power so we must use it carefully and thoughtfully in those areas in which it will do the most good and have the greatest impact. We must use our material goods in a way that fosters faith and obedience. We must make wise use of the financial opportunities we have, not to earn heaven, but so that heaven, eternal dwellings, will be a welcome experience for those we help.
Jesus asks the disciples: If you haven’t been faithful with worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? If you haven’t been faithful with someone else’s property, who will give you your own? No household servant can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. Jesus is warning his disciples, and us, that money can easily take God’s place in our lives and can easily become your master, a hard and deceptive master. Wealth promises power and control, but often it cannot deliver. So how can you tell if you are a slave to money? Do you think and worry about it frequently? Do you give up doing what you should do or would like to do in order to make more money? Do you spend a great deal of time caring for your possessions? Is it hard for you to give money away? Are you in debt? Tough questions, but if you let God become your master you will find the freedom you thought wealth could bring.
How much better it is to let God be your master. His servants have peace of mind and security, both now and forever. If we use our money and our resources both as individuals and a church to help those in need, or to help others find Christ, if we let it ride with Jesus, our earthly investment will bring eternal benefit beyond our greatest expectations.
Let us pray.
All to Jesus we surrender; all to him we freely give; we will ever love and trust him, in his presence daily live. Gracious and loving Father, how we praise you for your unmerited grace to us your children who are often so wrapped up in our own little worlds that we forget about those who are living among us with struggles that can be alleviated so easily if only we vowed to use that which you have blessed us with for their daily needs. Move us Father, through your Holy Spirit so surrender all to the upbuilding of your kingdom here on earth. Move us to give ourselves to thee, fill us with thy love and power, let thy blessings fall on us as we surrender all. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.