Daily Lesson for October 26, 2020

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 16 verses 1 through 9:

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2 So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ 3 Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position 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 dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ 7 Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ 8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

I don't know if this is the wildest parable Jesus ever told, but it's probably one of the most difficult to preach. I remember in the first church I pastored there was an engineer who just couldn't accept that I said Jesus said we had something to learn from this irresponsible and corrupt manager.

But I think Jesus is saying we do. He is inept and corrupt and completely without decency or morals. But, Jesus says, he knows what money is for -- it's for making friends.

Granted, his friendships are all transactional; but there is something shrewd about how he knows that. This "son of this age" is more wise than the "children of light" because he knows that transactions are necessary. Money is necessary. Financial investment is necessary.

This parable provokes us to think on our money. How are we using it to make friends? To build coalitions? To solve problems? To show we care?

Yeah, sure, the money is going to run out. It will mean nothing in the next age. But what did we do with it in this age? Did we use it to help someone. For in helping them, Jesus says, we may just be helping ourselves.

And if a completely rotten mess of a manager like this guy can know that the mammon is there to help others in order to help himself in all the wrong ways, can't the children of light see that it's there to help others in order to help themselves in the right ways?

Something to ponder this Monday morning.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Tomorrow's Lesson comes from Luke chapter 18.