And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home

 

 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 

 

On Tuesday, we read that 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."  In response to this, Jesus gave three parables.  On Tuesday, we read the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin.  In yesterday's reading, Jesus gave the parable of the Prodigal.  He 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.'  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."  My study Bible comments on today's passage that a steward (in Greek, οἰκονόμος/economos) is responsible for managing his master's property and looking after the welfare of his servants.  It notes that the point of this parable is that the unrighteous are better at using money to make friends in the world than believers are at using money to make friends for the Kingdom of God -- which is accomplished by spending it on the needy.  At death (when you fail) the needy will welcome their benefactors into the everlasting home.

How do we make friends by unrighteous mammon?  This is really quite an important question, because what it tells us is the truth about how the world works within the spiritual framework of the salvation plan of God.  If we pause to think about "saving the world," and do so in some sort of very rationalistic worldly sense, we might wonder why God just did not come into this world and "fix" everything.  Why not just get rid of the bad people, or put them over in their own community somewhere, and set the good people down somewhere else to flourish?  Why wait for a final judgment?  There are all sorts of things that are perplexing if we think about judgment and salvation in this sort of worldly way of balancing the books and striking off what's not good.  But Jesus' clues here about the beneficial use of unrighteous mammon tell us that God's creation does not work in this applied rationalistic sense of strict lines drawn between what is good and what is evil.  For God usurps and trumps everything; and in God's economy of salvation, even what is unrighteous can be used for God's plans, for what is good.  That is, to serve the goals of God's love.  Therefore, there is nothing evil in and of itself in this sense.  As God created the world and pronounced it "good," so we can use the things of this world for good -- if they are used to serve God's purposes.  And within this paradox is a further image of paradox, that of the "dollars and cents" (so to speak) image of balancing the account books.  Instead of sticking to the details and pursuing every line to come out to a perfect balance, this steward is praised in the parable for writing off debts in order to "make friends."  Well, this is a picture of charitable giving, where we don't add up every debt and everything owed and press it out of the person who owes us.  We give because people are in need.  We give -- serving the ends of God -- in the sense of shoring up community, even creating community.  In the light of the parable of the Good Samaritan, which we read in the reading from a week ago, Jesus is teaching us about being a neighbor, and stressing this importance in the grand economy of salvation -- that place of our everlasting home -- and the perspective there.  Similarly, we're taught to pray in the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matthew 6:12), reminding us that the forgiveness of sin is really not about equaling everything up and deciding what is owed to us by those who've sinned against us.  Forgiveness is about this place of the everlasting home, and the view from there, God's plan for us for salvation.  It's not necessary to make sense in terms of "unrighteous mammon," but instead to be understood from a higher perspective, a more universal doctrine of community and expanded love.  It doesn't have to make sense according to a worldly understanding, but we are called by Christ to this place of God's love, where compassion becomes a rule, and "making friends" -- like being a neighbor -- is how we're commanded to live.  We're asked to discern a way through the world in which we are set free by Christ to practice His compassion with wisdom, to let go of things that we're better off without, and to find good purposes even for "unrighteous mammon."  For God's way transforms all things, and while we are on the way to pleasing God in this sense of following the commands that transcend the worldly, we will find ourselves and our lives transformed as well.