CAMINANDO WITH JESUS: Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?
Pentecost 15, Proper 20 | September 22, 2019
By the Rev. Caleb Tabor
CAMINANDO WITH JESUS is a series of reflections on the Sunday Gospel by clergy and laity from across the Diocese.
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Jesus said to the disciples,There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, `What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager said to himself, `What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, `How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, `A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, `Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, `And how much do you owe?’ He replied, `A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, `Take your bill and make it eighty.’ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 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.
Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth”
– Luke 16:1-13
A lot of times in our society the measure or value of our lives is determined by attainment: How many degrees did you get? Are you in a management position? How many homes do you own and what’s in them? Are your church’s vestments real silk? Is that chalice gold or silver? Did your stained glass windows come from Tiffany’s? It goes on and on to issues ranging from questions of how many hours you work at your job to show how successful and necessary you are to the label on your clothes or your car.
At its best, this is all nonsense, according to Jesus. At its worst it will turn you away from God and put you in a way that is not the Way. I find myself being wrapped in these kinds of concerns, and then have to find a way to spiritually pull my head out of the noise and center myself again. I have to make up my mind constantly to side with God, not wealth. And I have to do it daily. I bet a lot of others have to do it too. Wealth is the most tempting of idols. It is idolatry because we are tempted to ascribe Divine Power to something made by human hands for human use (money isn’t even that useful, in truth — can you eat it or wear it or sleep under it?). Money doesn’t even really have the blessed distinction of being a natural creature like a tree or a rock or a sparrow or a human. It is something we make up and give a value to and then proceed to use it to define others and ourselves and waste our lives doing so. Education has virtually become a pipeline to work and too many of us live to work rather than working to live. Both education and occupation have been outfitted to serve wealth. It would be one thing if this system worked, but serving wealth often leads to a hesitation in sharing or outright hoarding of wealth. And that has profoundly negative consequences. How many people die in extreme poverty, of starvation, or of preventable and treatable illness simply because we value wealth more than human lives?
Jesus makes it clear here and elsewhere in the Gospels: we can’t build communities centered on serving money if we are going to build communities centered in God. Wealth is a tool or an instrument for doing good in the world. Money is made to serve humans and humans to serve the Divine Way. Serving wealth is a total reversal of the Divine order.
Money thought of and used rightly in life no more a sin than food or drink or clothing or any other thing. The issue is that a lot of us seem to have a problem with seeing money or wealth as a means to an end rather than an end in and of themselves. And the move from helpful tool to false idol is a path too easily and too often taken.
If we want to follow Jesus, then we have to let go of the veneration of money and wealth. It is a poison we keep taking like medicine. Serving wealth has become an addiction and our broken lives and our broken societies and our increasingly breaking planet show the consequences. Have money, but don’t love it; use wealth, but don’t serve it. This is a difficult teaching from Jesus. It’s as counter-cultural as turning the other cheek, but it is a solid teaching and one he gives a number of times throughout the Gospels. Love and serve God, love and care for others, yourself, and all creation. That is the path to happiness; not more hours in the office, not more things that rack up debt on the credit card and deplete our natural resources, not defining ourselves and others by how much money they do or don’t have. Give value to that which has real meaning — God, people, yourself, the planet and all of its biodiversity of treasures. Imagine Jesus constantly sitting on your shoulder, reminding you that being a slave to wealth is no way to live and it is certainly not his Way. We may abandon God for wealth, but God never abandons us. So, when we find ourselves conflicted, confused, and seemingly trapped by the love of wealth, Jesus is with us, leading each of us away from serving wealth and into serving God. It will make us better disciples of Jesus, better parents, partners, and friends, and the positive ripple affect into the rest of creation could well be what we need at this point in time. We just have to make up our minds and listen to Jesus.
The Rev. Caleb Tabor is vicar of Grace, Clayton.
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