Homily for the Week of September 22, 2013

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2013
Amos 8:4-7; Psalm 113:1-2, 4-6, 7-8; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16:1-13 or 16:10-13

If you listen or read the national news most every day you have heard the comment that the money the government spends is my money. In other words, we the taxpayers are the ones who provide the money that our elected government legislators authorize to spend through the decisions they make in the laws they pass. In a sense this is my money, your money provided whenever we pay our income tax or any other tax.

In a sense that is what the the rich man in today’s gospel wanted: he wanted his money back. The rich man is the employer. The stewart is the employee. A steward is another name for a person who is in charge of the money and property which belongs to someone else. Today a steward could be compared to a business manager or administrator or bookkeeper or banker. He is the one who sends out the invoices and collects the money. He is the one in charge.

In today's Gospel Jesus tells us a story about a steward who is in trouble. Someone accuses this steward of wasting the boss’ money. The rich man had heard that his employee was taking his money. So the stewart was worried that he might be fired. So while he is still employed he makes deals with those who owe the rich man various amounts of money. He changes their invoices. By cleverly reducing their debts, he increases his own chances that the debtors will be good to him when he is jobless. Whether the steward was stealing from the rich man or not stealing isn’t the main point. And whether the steward reducing the debt that various business people owed his master was honest or dishonest is not the point of this story told by Jesus. The main point is that the steward was clever in planning a secure future for himself. He was putting together his retirement plan with someone else’s money.

The story ends with an unusual twist. He looses his job because of this, but instead of the owner being angry at this steward, he congratulates him for being so clever. For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.

That may puzzle you at first. Was Jesus endorsing the underhanded ways of keeping favor or gaining honor? Jesus was praising the steward's cleverness and industriousness. Before we write off the guy as a crook, we need to understand first century Jewish business practices. When we go to a bank to borrow money to buy a house or a car or pay for college the interest on the money we borrowed will probably double our debt. The payments we make include the amount we borrowed as well as the interest. That is how our capitalistic society works. But charging interest was forbidden by Jewish laws. However the boss or owner of the business could charge the interest up front. Those who were listening to Jesus knew what he was talking about. They had been cheated very often by wealthy owners of business. They knew that Jesus was trying to correct what was wrong. Jesus was not approving of cheating or stealing.

In fact, all of our readings today speak of how we are to use what God has given us. We hear the prophet Amos voicing the anger of God at those who get rich by making others poorer. That is not something that exists only in the pages of the Old Testament; it goes on in our world today. Every day TV news is saturated with reports of corporation and bank bosses that get exorbitant bonuses. It was also talked about by Jesus.

This story also applies to each of us. How? Each one of us are stewards of God's gifts to us. Stewardship implies care, proper usage, sharing them and always a reverence for the gifts as belonging to the “master" who is God. In a sense all we have is on loan to us by God. We are offered so many opportunities to act justly, love tenderly and do those things which are of virtue. Many of these are not earthshaking or spectacular. They will probably not be remembered by history, but God will remember these for eternity.

Jesus is urging us to use faithfully all that has been given to us, however small. We are to make the best of all our possessions and gifts of personality. If we begin by being dishonest in little things, we shall apply the same standards to big ones. Truth is not measured by the importance of what is being said. A lie is always a lie. Those who can be trusted in small things can also be trusted in great things.

Each day we make choices as to what is important. In choosing not to be possessed by what we have, we allow God to be present. What do we have? Each of us regardless of age have been given three things over which we are managers: TIME, TALENTS AND TREASURES. How do we use the time, the talents and the treasures which are on loan to us from God. When we die regardless of the age or circumstances, will we leave this world a better place? It is only by freely giving of our time, talents and treasure, without expecting repayment, that we can make a deposit in our heavenly bank.

750 years before Jesus, the Jewish people were very prosperous. Because of their prosperity they forgot about God. who had blessed them so richly. When they lost touch with God, this led to the moral decline of the nation and finally its collapse. Our life in this world is temporary. Eternity is forever. Even the youngest and the poorest among us have been entrusted by God with an abundance of possessions and gifts and personal qualities. The first of these is our life, our physical abilities, our intelligence and our religion. Jesus is telling us today to use the blessings God has given us to help to get closer to God and not let our possessions become a god in themselves.