“Serving One Master”...are we???? September 22, 2013: The Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Amos 8: 4-12/Psalm 138/1 Timothy 2: 1 –8/ Luke 16: 1 - 13 Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines, D. D. I can hear water dripping. I apologize to you for the inconvenience that it may cause you. And if it begins to leak near you, move somewhere else or just simply set your mind and realize that God is blessing you with the blessings from heaven. We have complained about the roof a number of times. We have repaired what we can repair. The owners of the building, Greenfield, have told us to replace the roof would cost them a million pesos which to me is not that much for them. But they instead said to us, “Leave.” This is how great the business community is. They only want money. “But don’t ask us for anything ‘cause we’re not giving you anything. You pay us.” Well, just take care of it and move if you have to. God’s blessing is there and we will not deny that. An interesting thing happened in my life this morning, something that I am still trying to evaluate. I don’t have all the answers to it. Normally, on a Sunday morning sometime right after 4 a.m., I begin preparing myself to minister. I’ve done my study, then it’s the prayer, the meditation, other things. And many times, a lot of times, I spend some time in the garden because the beauty of creation, the beauty of God’s hand at work—it’s awesome. It’s a great place to be. Our garden is massive as far as greenery is concerned. Some of the trees are three, four storeys tall. And so the ambiance of peace, the ambiance of creation, is awesome. This morning after we had turned the lights out in the garden (because we keep lights on it at night for safety, security, but when we’re up we don’t need the lights so we turn them off), when I went out it was still very dark. It was in the midst of the darkness. As I was walking through the garden, I noticed there was a brilliance about the garden. And I thought, “Very strange. Here it’s dark, and yet I can see the plants. I can see the greenery. I can see the things that are here.” And I turned to look to the sides and I noticed that one of the large trees was silhouetted with light. And I thought, “That’s strange. Who has a light that big that would do this?” So, I moved to another part of the garden and I looked up again and when I looked at this time, I saw the moon – full moon, shining! There were no clouds. The sky was clear. The moon was showing that the sky was blue. The moon was shining brilliantly. It was lighting up the garden almost as though it was almost ready for the sun to come over the horizon. And I thought, “How strange. We’ve had clouds for days; rain for days. We haven’t seen a blue sky—I can’t remember the last time. But here, this early in the morning, the sky is blue. The moon is shining; it’s bright. And there’s not a cloud in the sky. I turned to another direction to look, to see if the sky was as clear on the other side of the garden as it was on this one side. When I turned to look, I saw ...one... bright... star. Star? How often do we see a star? Not often in the city. The sky also was clear. Clear enough that I could see that star. And I thought, “How unique! How beautiful God is!” And I thought, “This is going to be a great day for God.” After a while, I went and got my shower, preparing. And as I was preparing I heard drips, like what you’re hearing, only more, on the roof. And so I went to the window to look out and I noticed here, just not very long after I saw that moon, the sky is dark. Clouds have covered everything. And the rain had started. And I thought, “What is this? Just a few minutes ago, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the moon was so bright, I saw that one star, more than once I saw that star. As I started to finish preparing, a prayer came to me from Saturday evening vigils. This was the prayer that came into my heart: “Arise, shine, for your light has come. And the glory of the Lord has dawned upon you. For behold, darkness covers the land. Deep gloom enshrouds the peoples. But over you the Lord will arise. And His glory will appear upon you. Nations will stream to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” This is a prayer every Saturday vigil that we pray. I was thinking, trying to figure out what God was saying. Here’s the moon, the star, clear sky, and then, within minutes, the sky is covered with heavy clouds, and it’s raining; and then, this prayer. It speaks to us (God will tell us eventually what it means), but it speaks to us so clearly of His provision, His blessing upon our lives. It does not mean that we will be without opposition, without difficulties, without conflict. But it is saying, “Upon you, My light has shined.” It’s amazing how God speaks to us through creation. How many of us take time to let God speak to us in His creation? We are enamoured with concrete buildings, steel and glass. We think they’re so awesome, but can they even compare with nature? Can they compare with being in God’s creation that which He gave to us, that which He created to bring praise to Him? All of creation worships Him. I saw that moon, I thought, “Yes, all these clouds and all this heavy weather, the rain, over these weeks but yet, God’s creation is greater than all this darkness.” Here’s hope. Here’s God speaking to us to lift our heads high, not in pride, but in security, in peace, and in that which God brings into our being. In today’s Gospel (and I hope you will pay great attention to what the Gospel today speaks to us because it’s an awesome proclamation of God’s commitment to mankind),as we would look at this parable, we would think, “What is this? Here is the steward. He has misused the possessions of his master. And the master is now disciplining him and saying, “I’m taking away your job.” And then the steward goes out and he finds the people that owe his master money. And he tells to these people, “Take your bill and change it. Write down less than what you owe so that you will only pay him a portion.” He did this thinking that if he would do something like this for these who owed his master, that they would feel kindness toward him, and they will hire him and he would have a place where he could earn, he would have a job, he would not be without. As he said, he is not capable of digging and he can’t beg. It would seem as though when the master says how shrewd this master is, he is “more shrewd” than the people of God. He is giving his blessing upon what this steward has done. But if that’s your interpretation of this parable, it’s wrong because he is not endorsing what the steward has done. The steward was unscrupulous and he deserved to be removed. He was squandering the master’s possessions and he deserved to be dismissed for even forgiving the debts of those who owed the master. It would seem like everything that he did was wrong and yet we have this word that says he is “more shrewd” than the people of God. Here we have something about the future. It’s not talking about the dishonesty. It’s not talking about the squandering but it’s talking about preparations for the future and how that this steward was more wise than many Christians. May we listen and may we pay attention to what it says because in interpretation (homiletics), we would see that the owner, the master, is really not what we would think but this master is God Himself. The steward, he is talking about mankind. The possessions that have been squandered, he is talking about creation, the things which God has provided. Remember in Genesis, when God put man in the garden, He told him, “Cultivate and keep.” He gave man a direction of protecting and securing creation, not abusing it, not misusing it. God had given to man this responsibility. He tells us in several scriptures that we will be judged not by our salvation but we will be judged by the work of our hands. Why not about salvation? Why, because Christ took care of that. But what did we do with what He gave us? Are we using His creation in a squandering attitude? Taking it and abusing it for ourselves? In Amos Chapter 8, did we listen to what it said? Did we hear what these men were saying? They were hoping that the fasting would be over so they could get back to the fields and they could misuse what God had given. They were going to use scales that were not correct so that they were beneficial to them. They were bringing forth things that were taken from God and yet used to bless themselves or to enrich themselves and taking advantage of others and especially, it mentions the poor. How that man schemes to misuse the things of God in order to enrich himself, in order to bring into his own life the comforts at the expense of others. It’s amazing the nation that is considered to be one of Third World category, our prices are, in some cases, twice of what they are in the developed nations. Is this why we remain poor because we are being “raped” by a few, for their advantage? The rich are becoming richer and richer and richer, and the poor seemingly are increasing. And yet we boast and brag of our GNP (Gross National Product), how we are getting even better than China and yet our poor are seemingly finding life even more difficult. This portion of scripture warns us because God says, “The time will come I will take away My Word from you. You will seek Me but you will not find Me because you have abused, you have misused what I have given you.” The steward had been taking advantage of his master. Now, he was looking to those who owed his master and he was again destroying his credibility with the master. But his mind was set on one thing: a future, looking for a future. It’s amazing how that whatever happens we think only of ourselves. We are considering only what’s good for me. This future that this steward was looking for was temporary. You can imagine that in the minds of these who owed his master, when he came and told them to change the billing, “Take away what you owed and put something else there which is less.” They were happy at the moment but you can imagine in the back of their mind they’re thinking, “If this man did this to his master who he has been with for a long time, will he not also do that to me one day? Will he not also cheat me? Will he not also squander my possessions if I hire him?” Perhaps his employment would have been, at the most, temporary, because his attitude, his heart was wrong. Riches which come from God - they are a loan. They are a loan that God has deposited with us so that we, being His stewards, can build His Kingdom, can minister to the poor and take care of the needs of others. If you remember with Abraham, God told Abraham, “I am blessing you for you to be a blessing.” Is this an attitude in our minds? Is this what we are looking at in the course of our life? Are we realizing that God has blessed us to be a blessing to others? Or is our self-centeredness thinking only about more for me? In many cases, the products that are produced over time, the quality is lessened, but the prices are increased. It used to be that automobiles would last for twenty years or maybe longer. It used to be you could repair them and keep them in a good working order. But now it seems that the minute you pay the last payment on the mortgage, the automobile is programmed to begin to fall apart. It seems as though they have come to a point in society where they keep us in bondage and slavery. They keep coming up with new gadgets. And they keep proclaiming this one is better than the one before--it’s so much this and so much that-- and we keep spending and spending and they keep taking and taking when in reality God has given us ability to go way beyond where we are. When we have given to God, John Chrysostom says, then God gives back to us a hundredfold blessing. But when we hold for ourselves, God has no obligation because we have broken covenant with God. He blesses us to be a blessing. Not to take care of our own but to reach out to others. Remember the widow in the temple, at the treasury, bringing her two mites, and giving her two mites? Jesus said to the disciples, “She has given more than all the rest.” Why? She gave her all. She kept nothing for herself. The others gave only out of abundance but she gave out of need. You can be assured God made sure she was blessed. She was given much. This parable speaks to us about what are we doing with our life. God gave us life. Are we using it only selfishly for ourselves? Or are we using it to benefit others and to bless others so that God can bless us even more. God can provide much for us. We will be in no need, no want, if we have handled God’s provision rightly. He has blessed us to be a blessing; blessed us to multiply, to cultivate, and to bring others into greater ability. This is what this Gospel is challenging us with--telling us the greatness of God and the provision of God and the blessing of God. If we would go to the Epistle today, the Epistle tells us to pray for all because God desires all to be saved and all to know the truth. It’s literally saying to us to change the attitude and change our minds. This is why I mentioned Pope Francis early. We set ourselves up as judges of others. We set ourselves up as condemning others because they are different than we are. But this scripture tells us there is only one God. There is only one Creator. There is only one Church. There is only ONE people. Yet we have judged and condemned each other or divided ourselves from others because we think we are different, we are unique, we are different than the others. But the Epistle says, no, you are one. Maybe the one that you are looking at, maybe he claims he is Buddhist or he is Muslim or he is some other religion, there is only ONE family. There is only ONE God, there’s only ONE Creator and everything He has created belongs to Him. Nothing that is has come from any other source but Him. And yet we look at things as though they are separated. Oh, they are not Christians, they’re not this, they’re not that... This is what Pope Francis was saying; not saying they’re right, I’m saying love overcomes the wrong. Love conquers and covers the sin. We reach out in love because they are God’s creation. We reach out in forgiveness because they are God’s people. They make not see things the way we are, the way we see them, but it does not matter, we still have come from one Father, One God and we reach out to touch them. He says, “Pray without wrath and pray without dissension.” Don’t bring curse upon someone. Don’t put them down because you don’t agree with them. But see how God has created them and see that we are responsible to touch their lives, helping them, giving to them rather than holding on our own and thinking that we are the only one that counts. Notice what it says in Luke 10, “He who is faithful in very little is faithful in much and he who is unrighteous in very little is unrighteous in much.” Notice the character here, if we do not handle the things of God, the way God intended them to be, everything we touch will be affected by it. Even the VERY LITTLE things in our life affect our whole life: our words, our faithfulness, our honesty, our dependability, keeping our word, all these things we might consider them-- oh well, it’s nothing-- even those little things affect our whole life. That’s what the Scripture says. We can make our decisions and we can set our own course not realizing that in so doing that decision to be rebellious puts us in a category that is not of the Kingdom. If, therefore, you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous mammon, who will trust you with true riches? If we are not faithful with money, with material things, if we do not handle them correctly according to God’s plan, if we are not supporting the work of Christ, if we are not supporting the poor, if we are keeping it for our own self-centered means, it says, “God is not going to give you more.” You will be without. You’ll be lacking. You will become a beggar because you have not used the things of God righteously. He goes on and he says, “No servant can serve two masters for either you will hate the one and love the other. Or else you will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Mammon cannot be our goal, it cannot be our master. Yes, we need it, we have to use it but we do it only out of need, out of necessity rather than out of it controlling us. We follow the principles of God. It says here also, “If you have not been faithful in the use of that which is of another, who will give you that which is your own?” Here, I would inform us this thought -- everything belongs to God! Nothing is exempt. Everything! Do we handle it as a steward in responsibility? Are we aware of the principles of God that have been given to us and how we handle His creation? How we handle what He has given to us? It’s amazing. We think we can do our own thing and everything will be okay. But with God, He says, “No, follow my ways.” These things belong to Him, we handle them rightly. Now, look at this parable just a little differently. This, as I was studying, I came across and it really confronted me. It really just hit me hard, not negatively but righteously. One of the old fathers of the church, Origen, and he says, “The steward says take your bill and rewrite it.” It shows that the documents of sin are ours. But God writes documents of justice. Why? Why do we take the documents of God and negotiate on them and change them, when Christ has taken away our sin, when He has made us righteous - documentation of our forgiveness, the documentation of new life – signed, sealed, and delivered by Christ Himself, under the authority of the Father? Why then do we change that document? Why then do we compromise and find ourselves like the steward misusing what God has given to us? In Second Corinthians Chapter 3, verse 3, this is what it says in Scripture: “For you are an epistle, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone but in fleshly tables of the heart and the flesh. This is what God has given to you and I. He’s taken away our sin. He’s taken away our iniquity. Galatians 4 says He’s put the Spirit of Christ in our hearts. The Spirit dwells within us. Why do we compromise such a gift? Why do we compromise such an awesomeness of our God? Why do we allow things to entice us or to tempt us to fail that which God has paid a high price to gain? Scripture says you are not your own. You were bought with a price. And the price? The blood of God. We belong to Him. We need to be living out His life. We need to be proclaiming His greatness. We should not compromise what has been given to us. As Origen says, “Why do we write our own documents? Why do we think that we have this authority and this power when Christ has already given us documents signed by him?” Righteous, holy, filled with His spirit -- this is our life. This is what He has done for us. We should be walking on the clouds in thanksgiving. We should be bringing honor and praise to His greatness because of all that He has done for us. Why do we think condemnation? Why do we judge one another? Scripture says we have no right to judge another servant. Yet we find ourselves judging -- we don’t like this person, we don’t like that person, we don’t like this country, we don’t like that nationality. We set these divisions among us when we are one family. One family! One Father! One Kingdom! One God! This is what God has given to us. This is His provision and here in Kingdomtide, He challenges us with truth. Will we listen to Him? Will we pay attention to what He says? Or will we choose to set our own course and our own direction? He calls upon us this day to recognize and realize this parable speaks of the future. What are we doing to prepare ourselves for the future? Are we more concerned for today? Are we more concerned for our own good now? Or are we looking forward to seeing that the greatness of God is ours if we prepare for it. It’s like a person being given a scholarship in a university; a scholarship for one of the greatest trainings that could be. That person realizes that they must apply themselves over the years in learning if they are going to make it to the goal of the document of what they’ve accomplished or was given to them. In earthly things, we see this so clear but in spiritual things, we seem to be blinded. Could it be because we are misusing what God has given to us? Could it be that that which was spoken in Amos when we want to seek God, we can’t find Him because we are so consumed with self-centeredness? So consumed with the way of man, the way of the world - that we have not listened to God. And now that we want to look for God, we can’t find Him. When Noah had finished building the ark, he had warned the people the rain was coming and they laughed at him and they mocked at him. He went into the ark, God closed the door. The rain began to come and the people came knocking on the door but it was too late. Are we going to wait? Or will we take what God has given to us and allow it in our lives? Remember what it says in Second Corinthians Chapter 3, “We are in God’s hands a document of new life.” He has enriched us, free of sin, free of iniquity. He has given to us holiness, righteousness, paid for by His son, taken away all that was written against us, the curse and nailed it to the cross so that we may have new life. We are a blessed people. We need to manifest, we need to live it out and we need to bring honor and praise and glory to the greatness of our God. You are God’s people. God has given you a documentation of new life. He has taken away the old. He has taken away the sin. Now, we need to live it out and prove what God has done. Do not negotiate. Do not change the document. Take it in its fullness and walk in a manner worthy of Him. Amen.
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 08:11:37 +0000
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