Responsible Stewards

The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah is one of my favorite books in the Bible.  Jeremiah is a realist and makes no excuses in his day for the Israelites who have turned from God and have forsaken the poor.  It is evident that much of what he says has implications for our lives today, so many centuries later.

Jeremiah said, “My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick.”  The people had provoked Jeremiah to anger.  They were worshiping foreign idols, and Jeremiah echoed the cry of the poor: "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."   He then explained the reason for his grief and absence of joy: “For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.  Is there no balm in Gilead?  Is there no physician there?  Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?”  

When we hear and learn about the carnage and senseless shootings at the Washington Navy Yard last Monday, and also take into account the great number other shootings and tragic deaths that have occurred during the last few years, we are all hurt and mourn the loss of so many lives.  Our joy is gone and our hearts are sick.

Jeremiah’s grief turned inward and he shared the depth of his own soul: “O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!”  This is true empathy. The Prophet understood the plight of his poor neighbors and mourned because no constructive action was taken to make things right and save the poor in their distress.  Today, we wait for constructive action on the part of our Congress to assure everyone’s safety.

The Prophet asked, “Is there no balm in Gilead?”  Gilead was located in a mountain area near the Jordan River and was known as a place for medical care and healing.  Jeremiah questioned why there were no physicians in Gilead.  Furthermore, if God is not present in the midst of human suffering, there is only hopelessness.  Jeremiah’s “joy was gone, grief was upon him, his heart was sick.”

As we sang before the gospel reading,

Sometimes I feel discouraged
And think my work's in vain
But then the Holy Spirit
Revives my soul again

There is a balm in Gilead
To make the wounded whole
There is a balm in Gilead
To heal the sin-sick soul

Jeremiah grieved because of the plight of his people. Centuries later Jesus told a story about how difficult life is because of the reality of God.  Our world is filled with doubt and unbelief, as well as with false gods as in the time of Jeremiah.  But like it or not, God is deeply involved in the life of the world.

The gospel parable about the dishonest manager raises questions about how we use our time, our possessions, and our money.  For example, will our efforts make the world a better place for the next generation than it has been for us?  Will people have better nutrition, shelter, education, health care and safer communities than they have now?  Do you spend some of your time and energy in improving your community for those who are less advantaged?

           

The parable of the dishonest manager is about a confrontation between a rich man and the manager of his property.  The result of the confrontation is the firing of the manager who was not very astute in managing property.  Our tendency is to interpret this as an indictment of the manager's dishonesty.  The manager's real failure was his inability to function responsibly and faithfully.

As a result of being fired, the manager was forced to make a decision about his future. "What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me?  I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.  I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes."  The manager knew that the loss of his job meant a change in his social status.  He refused to endure the disgrace or humiliation of becoming a laborer or a beggar.  So, in response, he devised a strategy designed to prevent him from becoming a social and economic outcast.  He wanted people to “welcome him into their homes.”

At this point, with the implementation of the manager's strategy, the story becomes ambiguous and hard to understand.  What precisely does the manager do with the rich man's debtors?  Does he unscrupulously reduce the debtors' liability, thereby cheating the rich man while currying his own favor?  Or, does he judiciously deduct the interest payment from the principle that is owed?  There is no clear answer to these questions, and the text is inconclusive.

"Summoning his master's debtors one by one, the manager asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'  He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.'  The manager said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.'  Then he asked another debtor, 'And how much do you owe?'  He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.'  The manager said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.'  The master commended the dishonest manager for acting shrewdly in resolving a crisis and using what was at his disposal to prepare for the future. 

The point of this story is that the material goods of life -- property, wealth, possessions, money, -- are to be included in the discipleship of Christian living.  To squander possessions, as the dishonest manager did, is to place in jeopardy a person's access to anything truly valuable.  "If you have not been faithful with dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?  And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?"

The parable warns against being overly zealous in the management of our possessions.  We are to be faithful and diligent in service to God.  If wealth begins to take on a life of its own, independent of God and perhaps even replacing God, then all is lost.  God alone must be served.  "You cannot serve God and wealth."

What matters in all of this is that we are to be responsible stewards of everything God has given us.  It includes the resources we have, both financial and material; it involves the way we work to care for the poor in our communities and nation and help to lift them out of poverty; and it requires the adoption of ethical policies to assure a safe environment and an adequate quality of life for our children and for future generations.  Amen.