Luke 16:1-13, 1 Timothy 2:1-7
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
Personally, I don’t want to make friends by means of dishonest wealth, no matter what Jesus said. Though I have to admit, I’m not exactly sure what that would be and where I might get this dishonest wealth, but it doesn’t sound like something that I want to do. The treasurer who embezzled from my former church, before we knew that he was stealing from the church, gave to my son a signed Pete Rose baseball, when we found out what he had done, I almost felt like throwing it back at him, but it was my son’s and he was young and it seemed contrary to the way I hear Jesus’ words. Earlier on, this same man helped me find a place where I could buy a piece of furniture, a rattan stand, should I have considered it to be tainted, even though I bought it before I knew what he did? As a pastor, even after I knew what he did, I held out hope that he might restore to the church what he took and then be restored himself, I even continued to provide pastoral care for his parents, was I right to do these things? Is this what Jesus meant by making friends for yourself by means of dishonest wealth or was I simply doing ministry? I can’t say that I made friends with him; I can’t say that I benefited from him, other than getting the two things I mentioned. Even ministry gets confused by life.
And this passage? Honestly every pastor that I know struggles with how to explain what this passage is telling us to do; it sounds like Jesus is condoning something about dishonest wealth. One way of looking at this passage would be, the church using for good, money that was donated to the church by those who came by their wealth by dishonest methods. I don’t know that I’ve ever done that, but I know that the Roman Catholic Church has at times been questioned about its willingness to receive offerings from known mafia members. Are they making friends by dishonest wealth? By doing so are they supporting crime, do they open the door to dishonesty within the church or are they keeping the door open for those dishonest men and women to maybe someday clean up their acts and become law abiding citizens and respectable members of the community of the faithful of Christ?
I don’t like today’s reading; I can understand respecting the dishonest steward’s cunning; cleverness is at the heart of creativity; we all have something we can learn from such cunning, though hopefully in an honest way; but maybe we would be better off were we to concentrate on making friends by honest wealth, if wealth is to be involved. Or is the suggestion here that no wealth is honest? Then I probably have some answering to do, though I did not intentionally accumulate the limited wealth that I have by dishonest means; I’m not poor; I’m not rich, but I’m certainly better off than many; we are, pretty much all of us wealthy by the standards of the world! Is wealth, all wealth, tainted? It seems so, no matter how loving the intention of the individual who comes to wealth seems to be, wealth is tainted; for you see not everyone from whom wealth comes has had such loving intentions; wealth it seems moves back and forth from the hands of those who are more or less dishonest, even to those who are pure in their intent.
I also don’t understand the whole premise behind using wealth, honest or dishonest, to make friends; real friends are not made with money and if in some way I made friends by wealth, why would I want someone with dishonest wealth to welcome me into their eternal homes. Is it that Jesus said all of this, “tongue in cheek”? Maybe Jesus was suggesting that making friends by dishonest wealth, will secure our welcome in an eternal home, but not the place we might want to spend eternity, the place in his mind is where God’s punishment would be forever felt. That, I believe, kind of, makes sense; it sounds a lot more in tune with our understanding of who Jesus is, loving and as honest and obedient to God’s will as can be.
Luke 16:1-13 is not an easy passage for us to understand, but verse 11 may give us an inkling of understanding: “If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches.” A person once wrote regarding wealth that there are no luggage racks on a hearse. With God real wealth is not about things. True riches cannot be stored away in a bank. A person who is loved by family and friends, and loved by Jesus has true riches and is often described as a rich person. We have all heard the stories of very wealthy people who are unhappy; how many stories of very successful people have we heard, who have committed suicide, or have needed drugs or alcohol to make them feel good? True riches are what we find only in relationships, good relationships, relationships that are loving, relationships with other people and with Jesus. These riches bring us what we want in life and take us to Jesus’ home, to which we will be invited, where joy and celebration, not suffering and punishment are experienced.
None of us deserve such happiness but Jesus made it possible for all those who follow him, who love and are loved. In 1 Timothy we read, “… there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human who gave himself as a ransom for all …” Jesus makes it possible by his sacrifice on the cross. Knowing, believing this, we seek after honest wealth; we seek to live lives obedient to God’s will; we seek to live loving lives, not because we fear God’s punishment but because we love our Lord and want to please Jesus. Though true obedience to God and perfect love are beyond our ability, we still strive to be worthy of Jesus love, forgiveness and salvation. We do this as a way of showing our love and showing our thanksgiving to Jesus.