JESUS: A wealthy man had a business manager. He heard reports that the manager was embezzling, so he called the manager in.
RICH MAN: What’s this I hear about you? Give me your account books and get out — you’re fired!
JESUS: The business manager thought this over to himself.
MANAGER: What will I do now that I’ve been dismissed? I’m not strong enough to dig for a living, and I’d be ashamed to live on handouts. I’ve got it—I know what to do so I’ll have people to take me in.
JESUS: Summoning his boss’s debtors one by one, he asked them the same question.
MANAGER: How much do you owe my boss?
DEBTOR 1: A hundred gallons of olive oil.
MANAGER: Here, take your promissory note and make it 50. Here, you—what do you owe?
DEBTOR 2: A hundred bushels of wheat.
MANAGER: Here’s your note. Quick, make it 80.
JESUS: The boss commended this dishonest manager for acting so shrewdly. You see, the children of this age are a lot shrewder in dealing with their own kind than are the children of light. So I tell you, take your ill-gotten wealth and make friends for yourselves so when your money runs out, you may be permanently welcome in their homes.
VOICE 1: Whoever is dependable in minor matters is also dependable in great matters; whoever is dishonest even with a little can hardly be trusted with a lot. If you can’t be trusted even with what you’ve gotten dishonestly, who will trust you with real wealth? If you’ve cheated with what belongs to someone else, who will trust you even with what is really your own?
VOICE 2: 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. Neither can you serve both God and wealth.
Luke 16.1-13
Sunday Readings: Amos 8.4-7; 1 Timothy 2.1-8; Luke 16.1-13