Amos 8:4-7. Psalm 1131
Timothy 2:1-7 Luke 16:1-13
Jesus had a very wistful observation. He in effect wished that good people could be as good with as much zeal and intensity as bad people were intense in their badness.
He told a parable about a very corrupt business manager who was embezzling the funds of his boss. He knew that he was going to be caught, and so he started giving the customers of his boss bargains so that he might have future employment in one of their businesses.
And Jesus wished out loud: I wish the children of light were as diligent about good stewardship as the greedy were selfish and miserly about their wealth.
We see people who are successful at greed today in serving their wealth first. Their wealth has become their master. They have built up so much excess and they can't possible use all their wealth. So why don't they down-size their wealth? Because the wealth itself has become their goal.
Jesus is amazed at the natural tendency of the greedy to be so devoted and passionate about serving their own wealth.
And the point that Jesus is making is a stewardship point. If wealth becomes personified, it becomes a god and a master. Something like in our day when corporations are made into persons with unalienable legal rights declared by our Supreme Court. Corporations are based primarily on the "profit motive," and that means Wealth has become a personal god, when it is declared to a personal entity.
When wealth has become a personal motivating entity, then it is a master.
Hence we have the declaration of Jesus: You can't serve God and wealth.
How does one dethrone wealth as a personal god and master?
The implied answer of Jesus is that we need to convert our zealousness of service for wealth into an equal zealousness of service of God.
If we can put the great personal God above wealth, we can depersonalize wealth and convert it into the gift of resources for grateful living as we learn to distribute wealth to help everyone have enough.
What has capitalism become? It has become permission for the greedy to enthrone wealth as a god, one which is served well by a very few people who have come to control the majority of wealth in the world.
Like Jesus was, we can be amazed at the success of greed in our world today.
Does this mean that Jesus was giving up on humanity? Does this mean that we should give up because the wealthy and greedy are very successful at what they do?
No, because the point is that if humanity has the capacity for evil, humanity has an equal and even surpassing capacity for goodness, kindness, sharing, and good stewardship with the resources of life.
So how do we fulfill the positive capacities of our lives?
We dethrone wealth from being a personal god whom we worship. In so doing, we treat wealth as something less than divine and less than human so that we can attain a stewardship control of both our lives and the resources of our lives.
And how do we do that? By submitting to God as the one we serve and by offering gratitude for the gift of the good resources of life for our sustenance, enjoyment, and sharing
Let us learn to serve God with our wealth as we acknowledge God as creator and owner of all life who shares with us the abundance of life for the common good and benefit of all.
We need to know God as the power who is a greater motivator than the lure of wealth. This is the secret to a truly free market, where we treat all with the dignity of Christ. Amen.
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