9/23/2007

Time after Pentecost - Lectionary 25
Luke 16:1-13 (NRSV)


Serving God or wealth

Then 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."