September 21, 2025
The cover of your worship bulletin is a snapshot of the large board that you’ll find near the doors to the sanctuary. On this board you’ll find comments from your fellow members in response to the question: “Why do I give?” This snapshot is from last Sunday. This week, see if some more sheep are added along with other comments, including your own comments about why you give. Since the comments are a little difficult to read, Casey has blown them up a bit and you’ll see them surrounding the photo.
I loved reading them and I am inspired by them. Thank you!
“Why do I give?” Why do I give to God through the ministry of FLCWS? The response are varied and diverse. With a community as diverse as the Body of Christ, we have a diverse set of responses. That’s a good thing! We want to hear from you. Please take a moment to ponder why you give and send your comments to Casey. We want to add them to the board.
Each of our responses finds a place beneath the Cross of Jesus.
We give in response to God’s love poured out for the world in Jesus. We give in response to the great gift of God’s forgiveness. We give in gratitude for God’s many blessings. We give in gratitude for the ministry and mission of this church and the whole church.
“Why do I give?” is a question each of us would do well to ask not only at pledge time but all the time.
There’s another question that follows this crucial question: “How do I give?” Say it another way, “How do I responsibly discern what to give to the church, what to give to my family, friends, charities, causes, keeping up a home, raising children, caring for the neighbor, caring for the poor and hungry, and what do I set aside for leisure and in anticipation of the future?”
How do we use money wisely as stewards of God’s good gifts? How do Christians use money as a tool to further the Kingdom of God? That question becomes especially challenging when Jesus says rather plainly: “You cannot serve God and wealth.”
What does he mean? Other versions of this passage use the word “mammon.” Mammon generally describes wealth but it is used, more specifically, as a way to describe our greedy pursuit of gain and that gets to the crux of what Jesus is saying.
You cannot serve both money and wealth. So, how do we sort it out?
How do we use money in serving God? What is money for? How do Christians use money?
Wealth can be dangerous. Money is something we must deal with wisely but the danger, I think, lies in how we treat money. Money can be an idol and all- consuming one at that, especially we use it to serve only us.
A physician I knew had a placard in his office waiting room that read: “Eat to live. Don’t live to eat.”
We could also say: “Use money to live. Don’t live for money!”
The wonderful and life-enriching opportunity for you and me and all who claim allegiance to Jesus, is that money may be used as a tool to further the work of God’s kingdom. The way we use money is integral to our vocation of following Jesus and placing our trust in God. Regular disciplines of giving, tithing, making pledges, and so on help us become generous people. When generosity falls off the radar screen, and it becomes all about us, we become consumed by the tyranny of wanting more and more and more and never feeling we have enough.
You cannot serve both God and mammon.
Luther remarked that it is the most common god on earth.
“Many a person thinks he has God and everything he needs when he has money and property, in them he trusts and of them he boasts so stubbornly and securely that he cares for no one. Surely such a man has a god – mammon by name, that is, money and possessions – on which he fixes his whole heart. It is the most common idol on earth.”
The prophet Amos spoke truth about our abuse of money for personal gain and how the powerful used wealth only for themselves and for themselves to keep in power. In doing so, they trampled upon the poor. Such business practices were and are clever and shrewd and they serve to line the pockets of those already rich at the expense of the poor, the vulnerable, and the neediest among us.
So, then, why does Jesus in today’s parable commend the shady business practices of a steward who gets fired and then, in order to save his bacon, applies even more shrewdness?
That’s what makes this parable confusing and it is one we struggle with and it has led to hundreds of varying interpretations.
Let’s back up a moment to review the parable – its plot and its characters.
It is widely interpreted that this steward is shady. The title above this passage in many a bible reads something like this: “The Parable of the Dishonest Steward” or “The parable of the Unjust steward” or “The Dishonest manager” or something of that sort. Clearly he is crooked, sly, and crafty. For the sake of clarity and consistency, let’s call him the manager. After all he is steward or a more common term, manger, of the rich landowner’s property.
In the first scene we encounter the manager getting his pink slip. “You’re fired!” said the rich landowner. Clearly, he is not happy with what the manager. He was squandering the rich man’s property. Now, he had to give an accounting of the rich man’s wealth.
Before we cast all our blame on the manager, consider the rich landowner. Remember, in Luke’s Gospel, the rich do not get good press. Recall the rich fool who built bigger barns for himself? Remember how in her Magnificat, Mary sings about the rich being sent away empty? In other words, in St. Luke’s narrative, these rich folks and their actions are alien to the Kingdom of God. We’ll see more of that next Sunday. In Luke, the poor are lifted up. But the actions of landowners like this guy exploit the vulnerable poor.
They did this by charging them hidden interest. They were like what we know to be loan sharks who used investing to make more for themselves. They disinherited peasants from their farm land. They hid the interest costs by making the interest look like principle.
Yes, the manager is accused of squandering the rich man’s wealth. Which he did, but first of all, consider the rich man himself who squandered people’s wealth. The manager served the master’s purposes.
When he was fired, he knew he was done. There was no going back to work for his master, the rich landowner. Not all the different than what we continue to know to be a fact of life.
This little detail, though, identifies how the kingdoms we are so accustomed to are very different that the kingdom of God. In the Kingdom of God, when you squander, like the prodigal son in another parable, you get to come back. There’s always room for you, an open door. You are welcomed back.
Since that’s not the case for the manager, he must act fast and think fast in order to save his life and his livelihood. He is in crisis. He doesn’t know what to do. He can’t dig ditches. He’s not strong enough for that. He is too ashamed to beg for money. What to do?
In this moment of crisis, the manager uses his abilities of shrewdness to his advantage. He decides to ingratiate himself to the rich landowner’s clients. He comes up with a brilliant scheme. He will visit their homes and by fiat reduce their debts, one by one.
In one conversation he asks how much the debtors owe the rich landowner. They say “100 jugs of oil.” He then instructs them to take their bill and erase that figure and pencil in the number 50. To another he tells them to reduce their debt of 100 containers of wheat to 80. And so on.
Once all these visits were done, he knew he could always come back for another visit. He had made friends. The doors were open. He had established a good and solid relationships with them. Not only did he reduce their debts, he widely practiced the ministry of hospitality. The master, the rich landowner, commended him for his shrewdness.
Just so, says Jesus, the “children of light” (the people of God) could learn a thing or two from the “children of this age.” To learn from the shrew manager is to apply shrewdness or cleverness in establishing and sustaining the Kingdom of God. You can be shrewd in a way that doesn’t tear people down but lifts them up.
Taking the example of the manager, use your shrewdness to make friends. The manager was welcomed into homes and became friends with the rich man’s debtors. You see, at the end of the day, he is making the best investment of all. He is investing in people!
When we hear “make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth that they may welcome you into eternal homes,” Jesus is saying the wealth of this age and how it is used is by definition unrighteous, but learn something from this manager who ends up using his smarts to enact a Kingdom of God miracle.
For people in Jesus’ time and place, money or possessions were always used in a manner of reciprocity. Normally, you made money with people who could pay you back.
The manager made friends by reducing their debts.
We know how the creed of the ancient world isn’t so different than what is popularly believed and practiced. Reciprocity is expected. I’ll scratch your back if you scratch my back. What is being meant here by making friends with dishonest wealth isn’t about using wealth dishonestly but being shrewd about how you use what has been stained by the world in a way that is consistent with the values of the Kingdom of God.
The manager’s final actions were not about reciprocity. By reducing their debts he gave his friends an incredible gift. Nothing expected in return! Make friends with those who cannot reciprocate. Ah! There’s the surprise and there’s the radical way the children of light may live in a way that is counter-testimony to the antics of the present age.
Make friends with those who cannot pay you back!
That requires a shrewdness that you can put to work, not to further the unrighteous age, but to further the work of the Kingdom of God.
Make friends with the poor and those who have nothing. Witness to the Good News of God’s love by being generous to all people with no expectation of getting something back. Be generous. Generosity is like a healing balm in a broken and corrupt world.
God has given us the gift of free love in Jesus. Now, live that way, in gratitude. Practice the values of God’s Kingdom. Don’t expect reciprocity. Just live freely and generously and apply a good degree of shrewdness when necessary.
Friends in Christ, we are entrusted to live using the temporary currency of this world, but let this be an opportunity for you, as a follower of Jesus, to use your possessions and wealth in a way that reflects the everlasting world, the life to come.
Spend what you have with abandon to make kingdom of God friends.
This is what God desires the most that we invest in relationships. What is more important than serving wealth is using wealth to invest in the relationships you have formed in this community, and with your neighbors, and the poor, and in your relationship with God.
I will never forget the church council meeting where I witnessed an incredible act of generosity. Two of the younger adults came before the Council to ask for money. If they didn’t get the extra money they would not be able to go on the pilgrimage they had planned for a long time. It was a pilgrimage to Mexico where they would join others in building homes for the poor. They were eager to participate in this Kingdom of God work. They prepared carefully and they raised money by holding two fundraisers. Finally, after all their effort, they reached a dead end. All they could do was ask the church for more.
The young people who came to the meeting talked about their predicament and how much money they needed. Everyone listened. I could sense a long meeting ahead of us that made turns in my stomach. I could just imagine a meeting where we would parse every cent of what had been raised and what was needed and what we could give, but before anyone could say a word a member of the council chimed in: “How much did you say that you needed?” They answered, “$700.” She took out her checkbook and wrote out a check with that amount. She gave it to the young people who came to ask for money.
I know I was surprised because we don’t expect such bold acts of generosity. I think some folks were stunned. Others smiled broadly while a few others looked confused or bemused.
Everyone on the council knew this generous council member well enough to know that her act was not in van. She was generous. She was committed to the values of the Kingdom of God. She was supportive of the church’s ministry. She wanted theses friends to go forth in joy and in the assurance of that their trip was a ministry of this church.
I knew her well enough to know something else. She was more than a little shrewd. She could have written the check in secret. She could have said, let’s meet after the meeting. Instead, she wrote it in front of everybody, not only to avoid a grueling conversation but to demonstrate to her friends around the table something of what generosity looks like. She was a good teacher.
Jesus says it as clear as day. Serve wealth? Serve God? You can’t do both. Amen.