Stewards
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 18, 2022
Amos 8:4-7 • 1 Timothy 2:1-7 • Luke 16:1-13
This parable is perhaps the most confusing we read in the Gospels. This parable invites us to reflect on our relationship with our material resources, through the wealthy master and the dishonest manager. Although not explicitly stated, we can imagine that the wealthy master may be using his wealth and position to exploit the illiterate masses, and that the dishonest manager has been swindling the master for personal gain. Here are two people who do not have healthy relationships with money!
Let’s explore the actions of the dishonest manager a little bit more. The manager’s devotion to money at the expense of relationships has led to his imminent downfall. He cannot undo what has already been done. He chooses to seek right relationship with his neighbors, by reducing the debt they owe. He seeks reconciliation with his employer, whose trust he has betrayed, by collecting debt owed, and restoring his employer’s honor. Perhaps his path toward forgiveness and reconciliation earns him the unexpected commendation of his master.
Our relationship with money is so complex. We need it to survive. Sadly, it is often used as a tool of oppression and corruption. Disagreements over its use can fracture relationships. The desire to pursue worldly goods can become all consuming. Rather than using money and loving people, we get it backwards: loving money and using people (St. Augustine).
The practice of Christian stewardship can help us reimagine our relationship with money. As stewards, we are charged with the care of things that do not belong to us. Acknowledging God as the source of all that we have, we are called to right relationship with our material wealth as a tool for good rather than the object of admiration. The frame of reference that “our money isn’t really ours” helps to put some healthy distance between us and our money. Jesus leaves us with this thought. “If you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? You cannot serve God and wealth.”
One of the most surprising things that I have experienced when it comes to stewardship is an evening when I was teaching in Phoenix some 20 years ago. A certain senator’s wife came up to me after we had done our presentation on the annual appeal. She handed me an envelope and said, don’t call the senator, this should help. When I got back to the Jesuit community room, the President of the school asked me what they had donated. I was expecting a thousand dollars or so. I opened the envelope and almost passed out. There was a check for one hundred thousand dollars. The opposite of this had happened when I had a similar job at the Jesuit high school in Los Angeles. A famous movie star whom you would recognize had a son at our school. He could have afforded to give an equal gift to the Arizona senator. He gave a check for 200 dollars. I was stunned to say the least.
As you know our own parish stewardship campaigns begins very soon. It presents us with a personal opportunity to be good stewards of God’s bounty to us. Davey will have more information but this gospel today is a very appropriate introduction to our upcoming campaign.