25th Sunday Year C - Dishonest Steward

It was only a few short weeks ago when we had the massive student move-in days happen here on campus.  It's hard to imagine the volume of people moving the volume of furniture, books, computers, and all sorts of crates of their belongings into town in, for the most part, the span of a single day.  I remember as I talked to one student who had asked her friends to move her rather large bookcase around in her apartment.  This one tiny little girl asking two very large guys if they could move it for her.  One of the boys looked at her…and simply said…So what's in it for me?  The girl thought for a minute until she finally said….umm, I can make brownies…and so the bookcase was moved.

I think a lot of times in our own lives we seem to ask ourselves that question any time we decide to act.  If we're doing what we want to do, well, great.  If we're going to work…of course, ultimately we're working to get a paycheck, and feed our family.  If we're studying for school, it's  to better our lives in the future.  The vast majority of what we do, we judge by how well it serves our own interests.

Of course, sometimes I think we can get carried away with self-interest, and find ourselves in desperate need of friends, with no one around.  How can we expect others to treat us as we would like to be treated if we do not first model the behavior we're looking for?

Today as we hear the parable of the unjust steward, this was always a parable that I think I could never quite wrap my mind around.  The master is about to fire him…and he suddenly summons in his master's debtors, forgives part of their debt, and the master praises him for it.  It always struck me as very odd.  Shouldn't the master be terribly upset that the steward gave away a fair portion of his debt?

Yet, as I was reading a commentary today, that's probably not really what happened at all.  A steward, in those days, might be roughly equivalent to a stock broker today.  Certainly they invested in different things, but he took care of investing the master's money.  When he cuts the  olive oil loan in half, but only cuts the wheat loan by 20%, that should give us a clue.  If he were really simply giving away the master's stuff, why not forgive the loan altogether.

Yet, that probably wasn't what he was doing at all.  Stewards would generally collect a commission on each transaction, depending on what the going rate was when it was sold.  Most likely, this steward was simply cutting out all of his commission out of the purchases.  In effect, he was saying to each of his master's debtors.  Look, I know you owe a lot and are having trouble affording it, but I will do my part.  I'll give you what I can…my share of it…and then maybe you can pay it.  That's why the master commended the dishonest steward, he has taken away the unfair commissions that he had been charging. 

When push came to shove, that servant was faced with a choice…If I'm going to lose my Job, I can either try to force collection on all of these people and try to round up enough money to live on for a little while, or I can forgive my portion of their debts, and hope that they will forgive me for my past sins and welcome me into their homes.  It's a pretty big gamble either way.  Sometimes it can be very scary to try to put our faith in others, to realize life isn't going to be completely under my control.

Yet, then again, let's face it, when is life REALLY ever under our control.  We've got to do the best we can, foster relationship and help each other through whatever happens.  Perhaps that's the real danger Jesus it pointing out when he says you cannot serve both God and Mammon.  Mammon is usually translated money, but a better translation would be wealth.  We can find security for our future through trust in our own resources and wealth, or through trust in God.  The dishonest steward took a huge risk.  He gave up his earthly resources in the hopes that someone would take him in.  He sacrificed wealth for relationship.  When push comes to shove in our own lives…which one would we choose?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Out of Egypt

It's ok to doubt - it's what we do with it...

The Prodigal Son