25^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, C           September 23, 2007

If this Gospel leaves you scratching your head, you’re not alone.  The story of the dishonest steward and the lessons that follow it need some serious unpacking to make sense out of them.  So, let’s unwrap them and see what’s here. 

A rich man learns that his manager, the steward, has wasted the rich man’s money, so he calls him on the carpet and says, turn over your records, you’re fired.  So, the steward, knowing he will be out of work and in need of money, concocts a scheme to make sure others will owe him a favor.  He approaches two fellows who had borrowed from the rich man.  Note that in those days interest rates were 100%, but interest was not listed separately on the IOU.  So, if you borrowed 100 bushels of wheat, you would write an IOU for a lump sum of 200 bushels.  The steward returned two such IOUs and let the borrowers re-write them for the original amount borrowed without interest added.  Obviously, once the steward was out of work, these two men would owe the steward a favor in return.

Then the story takes a strange twist.  The rich landowner discovers the scam, and instead of punishing the steward, he praises his steward for stealing from him!  Why?  Because this story is a parable about the kingdom of God where normal standards of justice do not apply.  In Jesus’ kingdom of justice and power, victims of injustice, like the rich man, do not get even, they do not retaliate; they love their enemies.

Then, following the parable are some lessons about the use of possessions.  The first lesson, “the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light” means that people in general, like the steward in the parable, deal with worldly business with enthusiasm and shrewdness.  This contrasts with the lackluster response to the gospel on the part of so many disciples.

The next lesson states, “Make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth.”  “Dishonest wealth” is not the best translation, but it means that all wealth is entangled with the evils of the world and will ultimately corrupt you unless you make friends with it by converting it into heavenly wealth.  This you do by sharing it with others, particularly the needy.  So, the Gospel says, if you can’t be trusted to do the right thing with worldly wealth, that is, share it, how can you be trusted with the wealth of blessings in heaven?

And finally, if you are not trustworthy with, that is, share, what belongs to another, that is, your money, which belongs to God, how can you obtain what really belongs to you, the gift of eternal life?

Post script:  this Gospel is all about money.  Money, money, money.  It seems that all we ever hear about in church is money.  You know, it’s a strange thing.  Jesus himself in the Gospels talks about money more often than any other single topic.  I wonder why that is.