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He also said to His disciples: "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.' Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.' So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' So he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.' Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.' So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home."
- Luke 16:1-9
In yesterday's reading, we were first given again the setting: All the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Jesus to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, "This Man receives sinners and eats with them." And then the reading gave us Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son, a parable unique to Luke's Gospel. Jesus said, "A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.' So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants."' And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' And they began to be merry. Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.' But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.' And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.'"
He also said to His disciples: "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.' " My study bible tells us that a steward is "a manager of a wealthy man's household and property. He is called to give an account because he is being dismissed, as his master no longer trusts him." A steward is someone who oversees a household or great estate, even that of nobility. The estate is not his; it is his to manage properly; he's entrusted with another's goods.
"Then the steward said within himself, 'What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.' So he called every one of his master's debtors to him, and said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' So he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.' Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' So he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.' So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly." My study bible says that "the steward is unjust in his actions, which are not condoned, but his shrewdness is praised. This is meant as a lesson for the sons of light, the Christian believers, who ought to be as shrewd about their pursuit of godliness as unbelievers are about their businesses."
"And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home." A note here reads: "The reference to unrighteous mammon is a warning about the dangers of money, which can corrupt. The right use of wealth is to make friends among the poor and needy by sharing it with them. At death, these poor friends will be the first to welcome their benefactor into the eternal Kingdom."
A steward, as we wrote above, is a person who manages another's household, their goods, the wealth of (presumably) a large estate. As such, it's an important position, one upon which a wealthy landowner or property owner depends. Perhaps a modern equivalent for a modern economy is in some sense a manager of a company; the owners may be the shareholders, but it's the manager's duties to run the company well, to oversee. Here the manager or steward is accused of squandering the master's goods. He seems to have lent out quite freely (in this economic system based on lending of goods). But in order to settle the accounts, he doesn't call the the debtors into prison or penury. Instead, he closes the books with favorable terms. Rather than complaining, the master of the house praises him for his shrewd dealings. He's come to an agreement, and closed out the outstanding debts. In this sense, the books are now balanced and the "firm" is ready to move on. So why isn't the master more upset over his losses? Let's consider the parable another way: when we pray "forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" we're essentially giving our books to the owner, and looking toward the future. Whatever ways we're to handle those debts, we give up our own understanding and seek that, instead, of the ultimate Owner, of God. In this sense, we are all stewards of whatever we have in life, whatever we're given as a gift of the Creator. In this same sense, there are ecological movements among some church members (the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church is known as "the Green Patriarch") in which this notion of steward is taken to apply to the whole of the earth, to all the beauty and natural resources entrusted to us by God for good management. In this sense, it's important that we understand that the term steward, as a kind of metaphor for each one of us, doesn't denote ownership. Everything we have is a gift; therefore we are to think of "good management" in all things. So when we pray, "forgive us our debts," we're actually talking about a cosmic economy, if you will, in which the owner of all things is the one to whom we turn for real justice, for a true way of managing the books. Our sense of this is limited. God's economy -- and God's justice -- may not work the way in which we think it does; we simply may not have all the "facts." Therefore here Jesus is encouraging us to understand life as more than a kind of balance sheet based on what we feel that we are owed. It's perfectly consistent with the prayer that He has taught us, the Our Father. It's consistent with His teachings on Judgment, in which it's really a kind of economy mediated by God that we are to be concerned with -- not one in which we are concerned solely about what we think we are owed by someone else. It's a grand sort of exchange system, in which all goods are really owned by the Great Owner, if you will, not by us as individuals, and it's up to us to consider what that really means and how it impacts each of us. How do we use our relationships we're given? How do we manage them? How do we use our talents? Our resources? Our gifts given us, no matter what they may be? In this grand economy, we're only the stewards. But the steward's job is ultimately of great importance. The owner is counting on us, and counting on us to manage shrewdly and well, and in His interests. So let's think about that when we make our choices, our decisions; everything should be mediated by the Master's call, His ultimate take on our "books," and what God calls a good balance, a great profit, a trade. Let us consider His Way.
