Luke chapter 16 and hear Jesus teach some remarkable lessons on stewardship.

^“Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. ²So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’

³“The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— ⁴I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’

⁵“So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

⁶” ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.
“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’

⁷“Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’
” ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied.
“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’

⁸“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. ⁹I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

¹⁰“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. ¹¹So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹²And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

¹³“No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

¹⁴The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. ¹⁵He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.”

This was the text for a sermon on stewardship a couple of weeks ago. I thought it would be helpful to summarize the main points for our readers. You can actually hear the sermon on our AFiM website.

The parable is shocking in that Jesus seems to be commending some very shady financial dealings on behalf of a ‘shrewd manager’. This would be someone working as an executive manager for a wealthy landowner. He would have complete control of every detail of the master’s complex estate and daily intake and outflow of goods, services and especially money. He would be trusted to work independently. In this story he is found to be remiss managing; we are not told if this is incompetence or dishonesty. So in order to protect his position after being fired he allows the master’s debtors to discount their bills from 20% to 50%. His motive is to win friends while he still has this privileged position so that the new friends will take care of him when he is unemployed and homeless. To everyone’s surprise the master commends this cunning strategy!

Jesus makes several teaching points after telling this parable which we are meant to apply to our stewardship.

First Christians, ‘children of the light,’ can learn from the non Christian world about using resources effectively, especially the willingness to invest resources in order to make friends. The Lord qualifies this by stating that our interest is not just friends in this world but in the next where we can enjoy the company in heaven. How can we use our homes and other resources to build healthy friendships which lead people towards Christ?

Second money is a test the Lord gives us. If we can be trusted with little then we will be given much to look after. The resulting blessing is not for the purpose of indulging our selfish desires, but to continue to use them in a responsible way for sowing into the kingdom of God.

Third we can’t serve God and Money. We will always be pulled towards greed unless we are very clear and determined to put God first in every situation. We need to commit afresh to this principle every pay check and every visit to the mall. The desire to protect our interests and feed our greed is so basic to the fallen human nature that it is the default condition of us all.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ time thought you could serve God spiritually and keep personal finances out of the equation of their relationship with God. But Jesus shows us that our financial stewardship is a strong indicator of our spiritual health. Once we invest our dollars in God’s kingdom, our time and talent will follow because we will be determined to see those dollars be as effective as possible.

The best way for a Christian to get serious about this teaching of the master is to begin to tithe (that is giving 10%) to the work of your local church. Then determine to support the local church and other worthy charities with time treasure and talent. Giving 10% means taking control of the 90% remaining. Serious Christians are forced to be good managers of their resources. They are going to have to budget for a lifestyle which used less than 90% of the disposable dollars while our non Christian friends are actually living on 105% and digging themselves deeper into debt and consequently slavery to the world. We have an opportunity to witness to our friends on this very sensitive point of flawed human nature.

Pastor Robin

From Grace to Glory I peter 5:8-14

Living as stewards of grace I Peter 4:1-11

How to be a good shepherd I Peter 5:1-7

Live in Hope 1 Peter 1:3-12

Live in Holiness 1 Peter 1:13-2:3

Live in Harmony 1 Peter 2:4-10

Obeying Heaven and Earth 1 Peter 2:11-17

Memorial Day with the Marines

By navy Chaplain Rev Jay Cayangyang

Jesus take the wheel