[2 Samuel 22:26-34 / 1 Cor. 10:6-13 / Luke 16:1-9]
The explanation to today’s Gospel is at the tail end, Jesus’ wrap up words: “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.”
But even the explanation leaves us asking some questions. Why is wealth unrighteous? When does it fail? Who are these friends who welcome us into the eternal dwellings?
First, “unrighteous wealth.” Luther opined that it was called “unrighteous” simply because our USE of it was so often unrighteous. There’s first of all the unbelief that manifests itself as greed: can’t let loose of that money by giving it away, because who knows if there will be enough for me and mine tomorrow! Forgotten is the lesson of the manna. Remember how God worked that. There was always more for tomorrow, but when you tried to store up and save the stuff (instead of trusting the Lord’s generous giving), it grew worms and stank. There’s a very sound reason that our Lord teaches us to pray for “daily bread” and not “tomorrow, next week, next month and next year’s bread.” Then there’s the silliness of thinking that life itself is all about accumulating stuff: more and more equals better and better. And so the “bigger and better barns” that we build to hold all the stuff, forgetting our Lord’s words that life does not consist in the abundance of one’s possessions. Even the world realizes the folly of this way of thinking when bumper stickers read: “He who dies with the most toys wins.”
But I’ve wondered if the Lord calls it “unrighteous wealth” not merely because of our bad use of it, but because it – all the stuff we call wealth – won’t make it into the Kingdom, the Kingdom that IS righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:7).
What WILL make it into the kingdom are people. People who surround us all the time. People who stand in various kinds of need. People whom we can bless in countless ways. If we have the eyes to see them. If we have the eyes to see their need. And if our hearts have been opened by God to care.
To care, and to be shrewd enough to realize how things will shake down at the end. The dishonest manager was commended – not for his dishonesty – but for his SHREWDNESS. He saw what was coming in the future and he made plans for folks to welcome him when he lost the funds that he once had management of. Those funds wouldn’t be following him into the future; he’d lose them all. But the people to whom he showed kindness and good will, the people who benefited from his generosity (albeit, a generosity that really wasn’t his to share), would be! He made FRIENDS with that stuff that wasn’t his, and those friends would remain even when that stuff was gone.
Do you see Jesus’ point? He says that the sons of this world outfox the sons of light – that would be us, the baptized, the enlightened ones. He says THEY can figure out how to plan for their future – why do we have such a hard time with it?
The wealth won’t make it in the kingdom. There won’t be computers, boats, motorcycles, lake houses, new cars, or whatever other toy you can think of (and what men call “tools” are usually just more expensive toys). You won’t have a stock portfolio, a fat checking account, or a wallet full of cash. Old Job nailed it. You exit this world as you entered it: naked. You carry nothing out with you.
But that day you will be surrounded by all the dead that the Lord raises, and many of them will be people you knew, people whose paths you crossed somewhere on the journey of life. They WILL be there. Invest in your future, Jesus says! LOVE them! Share with them! Give to them, and they will throw their arms around you and welcome you into the heavenly home – you proved yourself their friend because you took the effort to notice their need and to help them.
After all, that is exactly what the teller of the Parable did. He noticed His neighbor – that would be us – in our need, and He didn’t count a single thing that was His as His own, but He gave up everything that He had in order to befriend us, to care for us, to provide us with that heavenly home. And He not only gave up all that was His, but He assumed all that was ours – not only our flesh and blood, but also the horrible debt of sin – and He paid it as His own, with the righteousness that was His alone. His cross is where He has made Himself friends for century upon century. And He invites us into this same way of living. He shows us that giving up everything – even life itself – for the service of others is what love does. And the cool thing about love is that death cannot destroy it – His love proved stronger than the grave. And He rose again to be the first to welcome home His many friends into the eternal dwellings He prepared for them.
In His Supper today He reaches you the fullness of that love, forgiving your sins – also those where you have used wealth unrighteously in greed or fear – and here He strengthens you to believe that a life lived in service to the neighbor is the only sort of life that is worth the living. Because its end is the joyous welcome home of forgiven sinners to the Father’s house. Be shrewd, people loved by God. Remember what lasts and what doesn’t, and by the grace of the Holy Spirit, use the stuff that doesn’t to bless the people that do. Amen.
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