Today in the Spirit: Proper 20C
Moving forward in the special section of Luke (passages unique to that Gospel) in Year C, we come now to a two-week period of the Pentecost season in which the worshipping church must meditate on the temptation to love money or wealth more than God. The Gospel reading assigned for Proper 20C, Luke 16:1-13, is our Lord’s enigmatic parable of the dishonest steward followed by further plain teaching directed to his disciples. My commentary below hopefully provides some context leading to greater understanding of how the master in the parable could ever commend the dishonest steward for being “shrewd,” and how our Master God wants to say the same for us.
The appointed Old Testament reading, Amos 8:4-12, is among the most severe condemnations of the love of money and the pursuit of dishonest gain in the OT: “Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end…The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: ‘Surely I will never forget any of their deeds” (4,7).
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In the context of our worship, reciting or singing Psalm 138 puts us in the place of a chorus thanking God for his faithfulness in upholding his servants dedicated to his righteous cause. We might imagine ourselves in the choir of the righteous poor who have been abused by enemies and restored by God, or, more like “David,” among the righteous wealthy who can expect deliverance from God for living according to his ways: “The Lord shall make good his loving-kindness toward me; your mercy, O Lord, endures for ever; despise not the works of your own hands” (8).
Continuing with our Year C series in 1 Timothy, we have assigned this week a New Testament reading out of 1 Timothy 2:1-7(8-15). Here, Paul begins in earnest with his instructions to Timothy by urging prayer without distinction “for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions” (1-2) as a discipline of cooperating with God’s mission to bring salvation through Christ to the world. From there, the instructions move into injunctions concerning how men should pray and how women should present themselves and function in the life of the church.
Out of Paul’s great discourse on love in 1 Corinthians 13 comes the inspiration for the first line of the assigned Collect: “O Lord, you have taught us that without love, all our deeds are worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity.” Then, picking up on wording from Colossians 3, the “charity” (love) is described as “the true bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whoever lives is counted dead before you.” We plead to God for assistance in producing the virtue of love in our lives.
The Collect
O Lord, you have taught us that without love, all our deeds are worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the true bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whoever lives is counted dead before you; grant this for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
I Will Never Forget Any of Their Deeds (Amos 8:4-12)
4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy
Amos 8:4-12
and bring the poor of the land to an end,
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over,
that we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath,
that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great
and deal deceitfully with false balances,
6 that we may buy the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and sell the chaff of the wheat?”
7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
“Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
8 Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who dwells in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”
9 “And on that day,” declares the Lord God,
“I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
10 I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on every waist
and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.
11 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,
“when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it.
Our reading from Amos is one among a group of oracles at the end of the book predicting final judgment over the nation of Israel (northern kingdom). What is perhaps most frightening about this depiction of “that day” (9) are the two declarations: 1) “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds” (related to exploitation of the poor); and 2) “they [that is, the nation that refuses to repent] shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the LORD, but they shall not find it” (12).
God will remember every malicious deed and provide no recourse for escaping judgment. The references to “all” and “every” in v. 10 emphasize the universal scope of punishment. Hearing this reading, we may imagine ourselves in a courtroom after committing a serious crime. We stand alone, neither a lawyer to defend you nor even a judge to hear a defense. Nothing is there but the sentence of death hanging in the air.
The wealthy in the West today, like the people of Samaria in Amos’ day, have become desensitized to such a warning of destitution. Devotionally, we do well to place ourselves squarely in the position of those who have no hope before God. Paul describes the situation of the Gentiles in Ephesus apart from the gospel in this way: “…remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). But now the gospel has gone out to all the world. Why should we not grasp onto the gift of Christ and with renewed energy, open our hearts to receive more of him and make ready to share out of his abundance?
Today, in the Spirit who reminds us every moment of our desperate need for salvation, we place ourselves in the position of the people of Israel hearing Amos’ preaching and pray for the grace to respond to the word of God restored to us in the advent of the Son of God.
The LORD Shall Make Good His Loving-Kindness Toward Me (Psalm 138)
1 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with my whole heart; *
Psalm 138
even before the gods will I sing praises to you.
2 I will worship toward your holy temple and praise your Name, because of your loving-kindness and truth, *
for you have magnified your Name and your word above all things.
3 When I called upon you, you heard me *
and gave me increase of strength.
4 All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord, *
for they have heard the words of your mouth.
5 They shall sing of the ways of the Lord, *
that great is the glory of the Lord.
6 For though the Lord be high, yet he has respect for the lowly; *
as for the proud, he beholds them from afar.
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, yet shall you refresh me; *
you shall stretch forth your hand upon the furiousness of my enemies, and your right hand shall save me.
8 The Lord shall make good his loving-kindness toward me; *
your mercy, O Lord, endures for ever; despise not the works of your own hands.
Or, “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever” (8, ESV); or, The Lord will vindicate me (8, NIV). Do you see the wide variations in English translations of this verse? There is a good reason for it. The Hebrew word for “make good” (Heb. gāmar) can also be translated “fulfill” or “vindicate,” depending on context. However, without a clear direct object, there is no easily identifiable context. Is “David” celebrating victory over his enemies, or success in his reign as king, or both? (It’s interesting to note that the original NIV had, “The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me,” and the updated version has, “The LORD will vindicate me.” An able committee of great biblical scholars completely changed their minds on the meaning of the verse.
All this is to say that, devotionally, we need to appreciate the unfathomable fullness of God’s intention to prosper us as his people. When Jesus says, “I came that they (his “sheep”) may have life and have it abundantly,” (Jn. 10:10), what does he mean? Does it include the provision of everything we need materially? What about success in achieving that which he has set out for us to do? And what of vindication over our enemies? Yes, yes, and yes. All of it and more than we can possibly imagine.
Take the full view of this great verse from the psalm and bring it to Paul’s beloved statement in Philippians: “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6). What can we actually expect with respect to “completion” when all is done and Jesus returns? What is he going to do now? Everything! No good thing will be left out. One good is not sacrificed to make way for another in Christ. Suffering there is certainly, but it is all vindicated and compensated.
Today, Holy Spirit, hearing this psalm in our worship, increase our understanding of your “loving-kindness” toward us.
For Kings and All Who Are in High Positions (1 Timothy 2:1-7[8-15])
1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
1 Timothy 2:1-7
We may wonder here about the inclusion of the phrase “for kings and all who are in high positions” (2) in “Paul’s” instructions concerning prayer. Is he simply saying, “Don’t neglect to intercede for people you don’t know but who hold important positions for order in society?” Or, could it also be, “Don’t fail to pray for ‘all’ rulers, even those you dislike.” Nero was a highly unpopular Roman emperor at the time the epistle was written, and it could be that in an age of increasing persecution of the Christian church, many local governors in Ephesus (where Timothy was) were hated by Christians.
In the highly divisive political atmosphere of America today, we need to be reminded to pray for “all who are in high positions” (2). In the past decade or so, in our country, we have seen a growing reluctance to pray for American presidents by name, and for the state of the country in general beyond references in the liturgy to the “nation and the world.” Whether that is out of fear of causing division or disdain for people in office, Paul would argue that in neglecting to pray for all without distinction, we are failing to give proper attention to our highest calling as human beings before God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. There can be no politicizing of the prayer time in the church, even through silence.
Today, in the Spirit, following the injunctions of the apostle to pray fervently and without prejudice, we gather to align our hearts’ desires with those of “our Savior,” that all would come to the knowledge of the truth.
You Cannot Serve God and Money (Luke 16:1-13)
1 He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. 10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
Luke 16:1-13
Many commentators point out that our unfamiliarity with the system of stewardship in Jesus’ day makes this parable difficult to understand. In ancient Palestine, the steward earned his living by surcharging the tenants. It was expected that he would give the master what he expected and keep the rest for himself. The master, the tenants, and the steward all understood the system. The fact that the steward of the parable had so many unpaid bills probably means he was charging the tenants too much, and they were holding back payments until he lowered the surcharge. By collecting only what the master expected after he was fired, the steward received immediate payments. The master commended the steward for being “shrewd” in his moment of need.
It should strike us that Jesus addresses this parable to his disciples. It means we need to meditate on it as a word directed to followers of God. Our Master has given us all we need to live. We are meant to invest our wealth in his service, supporting ourselves reasonably but not making personal gain, neither mischievously nor excessively, in the Master’s name. We receive a living in the Master’s service and by his grace enjoy as much comfort as is provided for us in the world. It is up to our consciences to know when we are, as it were, cheating the system. And make no mistake—God knows, and others too, when we are. The pursuit of unjust gain is evidence of giving allegiance to “two masters”: God and “money” (or “wealth,” NIV), and it is impossible.
Today, Holy Spirit, hearing this parable and our Lord’s direct teaching, we pray, as your disciples, that you speak clearly into our consciences about our use of worldly wealth. Make us, according to Jesus’ spiritual law, “faithful in very little” that we would become “faithful in much,” to your glory, with the Father and the Son.
Today in the Spirit
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