[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #575, Pentecost 17, 9/23/07

[Roland McGregor]

Pentecost 17 – September 23, 2007

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
Psalm 79:1-9
I Timothy 2:1‑7
Luke 16:1‑13

A RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH WEALTH AND WITH GOD

God created a world that has abundance and poverty.  This would be  
true even if human beings were not involved.  Plants flourish in the  
tropics and languish in the Arctic.  Animals flourish and perish  
according to the cycles of the food supply.  Wealth and poverty are  
built into the creation, but not "dishonest wealth".  The crocodile  
clamps down on the rear leg of a Zebra crossing his stream -- wealth  
for the crocodile, but not dishonest; poverty for the zebra, but not  
unjust.  It is nature.  That is all.  Only human beings can cheat the  
crocodile, the zebra and each other.  It is a step up from nature.   
The prey becomes symbolic.  Kill what you can eat.  Kill more than  
you can eat.  Kill more than you can ever eat -- "dishonest wealth".   
Jesus uses the sinful reality of dishonest wealth to make a point  
that is beyond wealth.  Paul moves beyond wealth, praying for a  
stable human environment not for the sake of business but for the  
sake of the business of proclaiming Christ.

If I had been Luke's proof-reader, I would have written "Halt!" in  
the margin of this one.  It is like a snarl of fishing line.  We  
might be able to straighten it out, but who has the patience?  The  
"rich man" didn't know how to fire the manager.  He should have  
gotten the manager's keys when he told him he was through.  The rich  
man seems to admire the manager's clever dishonesty.  So, why did he  
fire him in the first place?  Because his dishonesty had been too  
boring?  The manager stole from the rich man all along, but he became  
more purposeful when the end was near.  He had his eye on the  
transition from dependence on the rich man to dependence on a store  
of credit in the hearts of a small circle of business associates.  It  
is this transition from reliance on one source of security to another  
that is the point of the parable.  (Don't ask a parable to have more  
than one point.)

When Jesus applies the parable to his audience, he begins to clarify  
the nature of the transition from one source of security to another:   
"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."  (Luke 16:9)  What friends have eternal homes?  Jesus?   
Jesus' disciples?  The poor?  The implication of "dishonest wealth"  
here may not be that you should be dishonest in getting wealth but  
that, in a sinful world, all wealth is dishonest.  Where people are  
left to starve, all wealth is dishonest.  Within the context of a  
sinful world, however, there is still the opportunity to manage  
wealth faithfully or unfaithfully:  "If then you have not been  
faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true  
riches?"  (Luke 16:11)  Again, the transition is at stake, from the  
world's security, which is always just a loan, to spiritual security,  
which is an eternal possession.  The two sources of security with  
their separate loyalties place our lives in tension.  "You cannot  
serve God and wealth."  (Luke 16:13)

What if God blesses you with wealth?  Is the tension eliminated?   
What if you take a vow of poverty and live at the expense of a  
wealthy church?  Is the problem resolved?  As long as material wealth  
looks to you like true riches, there is no resolution to the problem  
Jesus identifies in us.  The choice to serve God rather than wealth  
requires first the insight to see spiritual riches as true riches.

All Paul wants for the church is a chance to make the riches of  
Christ the coin of the realm.  He doesn't want to make the government  
the benefactor of the church.  True riches are to be given away.   
Riches that turn into poverty when they are given away aren't true  
riches.  True riches don't run out.  The good news of God doesn't run  
out.  It enriches the giver and the receiver.  Pray for a stable  
government so that we can give Christ to the world not so that the  
world can enrich the church.  Paul doesn't ask for the church to be  
tax exempt.  He isn't appealing for prayer in the public schools.   
All he asks of God "for kings and all who are in high positions" is  
an environment in which the church can impart the true riches to  
everyone.  He wants this because he sees God wanting it.  Jeremiah  
and the Psalmist want relief for the ravaged poor because they see  
God wanting it.  And, Jesus knows that we will never have a right  
relationship with wealth until we want with it what God wants.


May these thoughts strengthen you.



An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors

 From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor

(an e-mail service)



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