Daily Scripture
Luke 16:1
Speaking to the talmidim, Yeshua said: “There was a wealthy man who employed a general manager. Charges were brought to him that his manager was squandering his resources. 2 So he summoned him and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Turn in your accounts, for you can no longer be manager.’
3 “‘What am I to do?’ said the manager to himself. ‘My boss is firing me, I’m not strong enough to dig ditches, and I’m ashamed to go begging. 4 Aha! I know what I’ll do — something that will make people welcome me into their homes after I’ve lost my job here!’
5 “So, after making appointments with each of his employer’s debtors, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my boss?’ 6 ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. ‘Take your note back,’ he told him. ‘Now, quickly! Sit down and write one for four hundred!’ 7 To the next he said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. ‘Take your note back and write one for eight hundred.’
8 “And the employer of this dishonest manager applauded him for acting so shrewdly! For the worldly have more sekhel than those who have received the light — in dealing with their own kind of people!
9 “Now what I say to you is this: use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves, so that when it gives out, you may be welcomed into the eternal home. 10 Someone who is trustworthy in a small matter is also trustworthy in large ones, and someone who is dishonest in a small matter is also dishonest in large ones. 11 So if you haven’t been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who is going to trust you with the real thing? 12 And if you haven’t been trustworthy with what belongs to someone else, who will give you what ought to belong to you? 13 No servant can be slave to two masters, for he will either hate the first and love the second, or scorn the second and be loyal to the first. You can’t be a slave to both God and money.”
14 The P’rushim heard all this, and since they were money-lovers, they ridiculed him.
(Complete Jewish Bible).Reflection Questions:Jesus told of a careless, dishonest steward who faced firing. Asked for a final report, the steward instead “cooked the books” more, earning himself favor by costing his master more money. Jesus said, “The master commended the dishonest manager because he acted cleverly.” Did Jesus favor cheating? No (it’s a parable). The swindler won the master’s (grudging) admiration for pursuing his crooked values with all his energy. Jesus asked: if even a swindler can look down the road, wouldn’t you be wiser to use wealth for eternal purposes than for short-term earthly gain?
- Pastor Bruce Larson wrote, “This rogue bought friends with money. Jesus is suggesting we act with the same kind of foresight and use our money for that which is lasting.”* What are some ways you can pursue things that will truly last? What would it look like for you, as Jesus' follower, to seek to live out Jesus' values every day with as much ingenuity and vigor as the servant gave to assuring he’d have people who “owed him” after his firing?
- One writer suggested that this parable could inspire stagnant ministries to think original thoughts, make new friends across old barriers, and throw needless caution to the winds. Where do ministries and organizations that you are a part of need creativity and a focus on ultimate goals? How can you be a force to bring the servant’s shrewdness (and perhaps more of your earthly treasure) to bear on kingdom causes you care about?
Lord Jesus, am I giving my best energy and creativity to my service for you? Help me apply as much thought and energy to your kingdom’s purposes as I do to my career or retirement. Amen.
* Bruce Larson, The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 26: Luke. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Inc. 1983, p. 242.
Read today's Insight by Janelle GregoryJanelle Gregory serves on the Resurrection staff as a Human Resources Specialist. Janelle finds that her heart is constantly wrestling with the truth that she needs a Savior, and the times when she's at her very best are when she's just too tired to put up a fight.
Have you ever used an online review site or app to pick a restaurant? It gives you multiple choices in any geographical location. As you’re scanning down the long list of options, your eyes are immediately drawn to two pieces of information. 1. The rating: how many stars have people given it? 2. The cost: how many dollar signs does it have?
If you’re looking for a fine dining experience, you’re not going to be searching amongst the single dollar sign options. While I’ve not been, my guess is that Pigwich is not an upscale eatery.
In a way, this is how people view one another. We give each other dollar signs. This assessment starts with the cost and location of the house. Depending on the number of cars in the garage and their model and make, the number of dollar signs might increase. You then add your estimate of their salary to give you the initial dollar sign rating. The number of dollar signs might increase once you throw in ancillary options such as lake houses, vacation destinations, and clothing brands. That’s the basic calculation of how we financially rate each other and even ourselves. Whether we like it or not, there is, at the very least, a subconscious awareness of the number of dollar signs we each have. For example, unless you have the money to pay for it, you’re probably not asking your one-dollar-sign friends to join you for a meal at The Capital Grille.
We know the number of invisible dollar signs each of us carries. Even God sees our dollar signs. The difference in God’s perspective from ours is that he doesn’t see the number of dollar signs as our significance, he sees them as potential means for bringing good and light into the world. In God’s eyes, a person with one dollar sign is just as precious as someone with three. That being said, we must recognize that these dollar signs are one of many resources we can use to make earth look more like the kingdom of heaven. To accomplish this, we must stop placing our value on our dollar signs. It’s more difficult to give money away if we believe we’re giving away our worth. Our value comes from being a child of God. The more we can see ourselves and our dollar signs through the lens of belonging to the ultimate Creator of goodness and restoration, the more apt we are to use our generosity to bring God’s love to all.
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- Or download this week's printable GPS.
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
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