the faithfulness test

“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If, then, you have not been faithful with the 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? No slave can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Luke 16:10-13; NRSVue

Chapters and verses in the Bible are not part of the original text, but in the case of Luke 16, it is all about wealth and what we might call the faithfulness test with reference to that. “Follow the money” is a major way to understand faithfulness to God and idolatry throughout the text of Scripture.

Luke 16 begins with “the Parable of the Dishonest Manager” (NRSVue headings; verses 1-13), “the Law and the Kingdom of God” (verses 14-18) and ends with “the Rich Man and Lazarus” (verses 19-31). It is a powerful chapter, worth some serious time, study and meditation. The entire book of Luke is powerful in a similar way, undermining the systems in which we live and challenging us to the core of our being.

The CEB Study Bible summarizes the sayings interspersed between the stories by Jesus, verses 10-13 quoted above. “Jesus’ followers are to consider themselves God’s slaves (Luke 12:35-48) who are asked to manage God’s property according to God’s wishes.”

How we spend and manage our money tells a lot about us. If you want to know your value system or the value system of any entity, be it church, state or nation, start there. It’s not like one can’t enjoy good things with money, not at all. In fact, we should. But we need to see ourselves essentially as stewards of God’s gifts to us, sacrificially loving our neighbor as ourselves.

But we also need to avoid the pitfall of simply throwing money at a problem, thinking that’s enough and actually being more or less disengaged from it all.

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Luke 12:32-34; NRSVue

Unfortunately, like some of the religious, wealthy of Jesus’s day, we can throw even large amounts of money into the coffer and be entirely disengaged, in fact live lives that give the lie to our profession unlike the poor widow who gave all she had to live on (Luke 21:1-4).

Are we faithful or not? Are we growing in our understanding and practice of this? That’s the point. Not perfection, but a passion to come to live in this fully as churches and individuals in our following of Christ.

perspective on poverty and wealth

Let the brother or sister of humble means boast in having a high position and the rich in having been humbled, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the field; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. It is the same way with the rich; in the midst of a busy life, they will wither away.

James 1:9-11; NRSVue

It doesn’t matter where you live, whether in a war torn, famine ravaged place in Africa, with little to nothing to make it through during a North Korea winter, or not having enough to eat with no affordable healthcare in the wealthiest nation in the world, the United States. Abject poverty is bad. With that we see homelessness, totally unnecessary, but part and parcel of capitalism, which prioritizes money over people so that it’s almost like a contest to see who can get the most at the expense of many others.

For most of us, we’re somewhere in between. Many struggle from week to week and month to month to make ends meet with little set aside in the case of an emergency. They are then subject to predatory lending, just another staple of the “rugged capitalism” which is more and more taking its toll. The stock market continues to rise (at this point), stockholders are happy, but workers on whose backs the money is made often don’t have a living wage and so try to work two or more jobs, and add to that, not affordable healthcare being the case for many as well, unless they press through the complicated hoops of the US health system, even after that, tough. A mockery of neighbor love, of justice.

But again, to try to speak of people in between, many will have to watch their money all the time, while some live in relative comfort, with a cushion and along with that tax breaks the poor don’t have, to make life predictable and aside from its normal stresses, manageable. Then the very few who have more than they could ever spend at least on themselves. And all such people meeting together in the name of Jesus as church. Or even those who do not. It seems like James in the above passage is speaking to all.

The poor should rejoice because they are rich as God’s children, God’s loved ones. Ironically with less money, they have less concerns of others stealing them blind. After all, what will the thieves get? But like the poor widow Jesus referred to, they can still give more than all the rich people together, as they trust in God to provide.

On the other hand, the rich can rejoice because they are merely stewards of all that God has given them. They know their time is limited, that they exist to love their neighbor, that while they’re to take care of their own, they’re also to watch out for the poor, for those in need, to help wisely where they can along with others. To try to get to the root of the problem which is inevitably systemic, not stop at giving handouts which too are important.

Rich and poor together can rejoice and glory in the God who gives life to all. Naked they came from their mother’s womb and naked they’ll return. They brought nothing into the world and they’ll take nothing out. The wise remember this, and pray, think, plan and act accordingly.

More to meditate and act on from the book of James.

the true treasure

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and reburied; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.“

Matthew 13:44-46; NRSVue

I’m not sure what people are running after. But here in the United States, I think a lot of people are just trying to survive, yes, in this richest nation on earth. It is not just here.

Not unlike Jesus’s day. What is to motivate us, rich or poor or anywhere in between? When it’s all said and done, Jesus teaches us here that nothing else matters at all in comparison to God’s rule in Jesus. Nothing. Period.

Yes, it’s not like it will be a one off for us, and we’ll be on our way. But it does need to be clear cut. And after that we’ll have to keep after it, even when faint and our hearts tempted to do otherwise. We’ll know even now the worth of what we’re after and about.