Welcome back to the Sunday Mass notes for 9-18-2016. Last week we looked at the Gospel of Luke and discussed the famous parable of the prodigal son.  We saw as in the previous section of this Gospel that Jesus addressed the parable to the Pharisees.  Remember that these people were the religious group who believed in strict adherence to Jewish Law, at least as they interpreted it, and also in life after death.  This week later in this lesson we will return to the Gospel of Luke and pick up where we left off last week and cover the parable of the unjust steward.

Introduction to the First Reading:

We cannot know God apart from His revelation.  One form of this revelation is the prophetic writings of the Old Testament.   The reading for today is from Amos who is known as a “minor prophet.” This is not because he was inferior to the others but because his book is shorter than some of the other prophetic books like Isaiah who is referred to as a “major prophet.” Read the opening verse of Amos to get an orientation to the text. 

The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa– what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel (Amos 1:1).

The text says that Amos was a shepherd prophet, and that he spoke about “what he saw concerning Israel” and this was “when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.”  From this we know that Amos’ prophecy occurred during the time after the division of the people into the kingdoms of Judah in the south and Israel in the north.  The split was brought about by the arrogance of King Solomon’s son Rehoboam and as a result the ten northern tribes formed their own kingdom.  Scholars date the events in Amos to around 760BC. Tekoa is a village located 5 miles south of Bethlehem, in the Kingdom of Judah, and was set upon a hill.  Cities set upon hills were easy to defend and also had the advantage of being able to signal adjacent cities like Jerusalem.  What an appropriate place for a prophet of God to be from, a city which spoke to other cities, not through a smoke signal or lantern but by the Word of God through their own Amos.

First Reading:

Amos 8:4-7 NAS95 4 Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land, 5 saying, “When will the new moon be over, So that we may sell grain, And the sabbath, that we may open the wheat market, To make the bushel smaller and the shekel bigger, And to cheat with dishonest scales, 6 So as to buy the helpless for money And the needy for a pair of sandals, And that we may sell the refuse of the wheat?” 7 The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, “Indeed, I will never forget any of their deeds.

A frequent theme in the Book of Amos was the exploitation of the poor. This was a time of relative prosperity in the nations of Israel and Judah.  The poor were evidently being taken advantage of by the rich.  What was being pointed out here was that even during a holiday, which is what was meant by “when the new moon is over,” and on the Sabbath day, the rich were plotting their future sleazy business deals.  At a time when God called them to take time away from work to reflect upon Him they were plotting how to cheat the poor by “dimish(ing) the ephah”  The ephah was the unit with which they measured grain.  They were also plotting other ways such as cheating on the scales and adding to the value of their money.  These people were the ultimate among unjust stewards.  Even though everything that they ultimately came from God, including the holidays, the Sabbath day, and all that they owned, they even used their worship time to plot how they might defraud the poor.  Their minds were not on God during their worship, but were instead focused upon their planning of how they were going to gain more wealth even at the cost of exploiting those less powerful than they.  Even if their hearts were on God during their worship they would still have been guilty of defrauding the poor.  These people were poor stewards of not only their physical resources but also their immaterial resources. This includes things like their intellect, influence, and power.

I am a high energy person and have frequently had some difficulty in focusing upon one certain thing at a time.  My behavior doesn’t end when the work week finishes and I head off to church on Sunday.  No, I am guilty of frequently bringing all of my worldly cares and concerns into church on Sunday.  I have learned that I need to begin to prepare my heart for worshiping God many hours before I actually arrive at church.  For me this means limiting my consumption of coffee that morning along with consciously focusing upon God to the exclusion of outside thoughts.  I have also discovered that praying before church tends to improve my concentration level for spiritual things before I come to church.  God knows what is going on in our hearts when we go to church.  Part of being a good steward of our time, talents, and treasures involves the stewardship of our mind. 

Often we feel burned out on Sunday morning.  Sometimes when we show up at church on Sunday we have given all we have to our employer during the week and we really need that time to rest, just as God designed that day.  But what about the rest of the week, do the pressures of life wear us down so much that we never get around to doing much to build God’s kingdom?  Have you ever felt like you really needed to do some certain thing for God, but you just never got around to doing it?

When we consider the stewardship of our mind, meaning the responsible planning and management of our mental resources, we need to consider a common fallacy that has come upon the people of America.  The fallacy is that we can compartmentalize one activity in a part of our life while thinking that it doesn’t affect the other areas.  Back when I was teaching business classes inside the walls at several state prisons I used to use an illustration to explain this delusion.  I drew on the board a circle and divided it into compartments each holding a little square. The geniuses in the class soon recognized that my crude drawing was a waffle.  Next I started writing in each compartment of the waffle common activities with which the men may be engaged during any given week.  I wrote things like “Go to class,” “Go to lunch in the mess hall,” “Read my Bible,” and “Go to church on Sunday,” all things that the men did while in prison.  Then I wrote some other phrases, like “Look at a dirty magazine,” and “Gossip about a classmate.”  Do we honestly believe that we can put sin into a little compartment and not have it affect the other activities in our life?  Compartmentalization is nothing new, we can see that this was going on during the time of Amos the prophet. 

Introduction to the Second Reading:

The second reading is from First Timothy. This is the first of what is called the Pastoral Epistles consisting of this Book along with Second Timothy and Titus. In the Letter, Paul is ministering to his spiritual son Timothy by advising him on spiritual matters in the church that was plagued with false teaching. This is evidenced by the opening of the letter in which Paul warns against false teaching in verse 3 of the first chapter. Paul said, “As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines” (1 Timothy 1:3). Today’s reading in the second chapter address the subject of prayer but also reveals some timeless spiritual truths.

Second Reading:

1 Timothy 2:1-8 NAS95 1 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself as a ransom for all, 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) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. 8 Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.

Paul urged the young Pastor Timothy to pray for everyone, not just believers including the government officials “so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity” (v. 2). Paul had taught earlier in Romans how God had ordained civil leaders. There he said, “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God” (Romans 13;1). Paul’s admonition to pray for them in this Letter with his saying “so that we may lead a quiet life” accords with what Paul said just two verses later in Romans. “For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil” (Romans 13:3a). Paul affirms that prayer on behalf of civil leaders is ordained by God in verse 3, then transitions to some timeless, spiritual truths.

Paul begins this section with saying how God wishes all people to be saved (v. 4). Next, he affirms that God is the only mediator between Himself and man, something that contradicted the teachings of the false teachers who placed mediators as intermediaries between themselves and God. This was because the Gnostics, among others who held to these false beliefs, taught that matter was bad and spirit was good. Therefore, there had to be another mediator other than Jesus because Jesus was a man in the flesh. Alternatively, they taught that Jesus couldn’t have been God in the flesh because since the Spirit of God is good and the flesh is evil then Jesus couldn’t have been God in the flesh. This necessitated various mediators including angels or ministers that intervened between God and man. This is a key point that Paul addressed with Timothy because another of the heresies being confronted was the Galatian heresy which held Christians bound not only to uphold the Jewish Law but also the continuance of a form of Levitical priesthood that interviewed between God and man. The emergence of this priesthood directly contradicted God’s clear teaching on the priesthood of all believers as evidenced in 1 Peter 2:5-9. Paul closes this section by affirming his status as a leader of the church and especially to the Gentile believers (v. 7). Finally, he again calls upon the church to pray together in peace (v. 8).

There are two key points of application that arise from the reading. First, we are called to pray for all people including our civil leaders. “All me” means everyone, even our enemies (Matthew 5:44) and those with whom we don’t agree. Second, we are to come to God directly and not through any intermediary because as believers there is no one who stands between God and us. The Holy Spirit said in the Book of Hebrews, “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). God teaches us to come boldly to Him in prayer through the one mediator, Jesus Christ who died for us (v. 5).

Introduction to the Gospel Reading:

The Gospel reading from Luke is the parable of the unjust manager. As in all of the parables, we seek to determine the main central truth that Jesus is teaching in light of the surrounding context. In this case the audience included the Pharisees who typified unjust managers and who were themselves lovers of money (Luke 16:14).

Gospel Reading:

Luke 16:1-13 NAS95 1 Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 “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; I am ashamed to beg. 4 I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes. 5 “And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 “And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ And 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?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 “And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. 9 “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings. 10 “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. 11 “Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? 12 “And if you have not been faithful in the use of 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 else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

This parable has been puzzling to many, but the interpretation is really quite simple.  Had we read the next two verses we would have found that the Pharisees to whom this was addressed understood the parable quite well.

The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.

He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight. (Luke 16:14-15)

The rich man in the story is God who is the provider of all things, both to believers and also non-believers.  The unjust steward is a lazy but creative, non-believer who used his God-given creativity to achieve his worldly self-satisfying purposes.  The children of light represent all believers.  The big idea is quite simple. God calls believers to use everything that he has given us to build up His kingdom.  If non-believers are creative for worldly purposes then believers are called to a higher standard of stewardship for the kingdom of heaven. The parable also address the trap which the Pharisees fell into, for they were lovers of money (see Luke 16:14). As believers we are to use our money to worship God and not worship money and use God. This was where the Pharisees went wrong, the used God and worshipped money. Again, we are to use money to worship God, not worship money and use God.

I remember an occasion while teaching in the prison during which I caught a student cheating on an exam.  He had completed the exam using a pencil.  When I handed back the paper the following week showing the errors, he came to me after class and said that I had made a mistake.  He said that I had marked several answers wrong when really he had entered the correct choice on the multiple choice questions.  I could see that he had neatly erased his answer and circled the correct one.  He showed great ingenuity in his cheating.  I didn’t think that anyone would try this again but just to be sure the next time I gave an exam I ran copies of all of the exams.  Sure enough the same student approached me with the same complaint.  Imagine his surprise when I pulled out the copy of his original exam and compared it to the one that he had just handed back to me!  Some people are creative for worldly, sinful purposes.  In contrast imagine God’s joy when we use the talents that He gave us for the greatness of His Kingdom. 

God calls us to use the ingenuity that He granted to us in the same measure that was given to us.  He also calls us to use our talents to further His kingdom.  The business people mentioned in the Book of Amos evidently believed they could compartmentalize their thinking and succeed in using their creativity to steal from the poor.  God condemned them not only for their actions but also for their thoughts.  These “unjust stewards” were creative in the use of their God-given resources but used their creativity to steal from the poor rather than in doing what God commanded them by helping those less fortunate. This NT parable gives an example to challenge how we approach our own stewardship of the resources God has given to us. If ungodly people are motivated to use their resources for their own selfish benefit, how much more should Christ followers use their resources (material and immaterial) for higher purposes and God’s glory?

Examine some insights that I put together as well as insights mu business students shared when we talked about this particular parable. 

• The manager was willing to go to great, very creative and insightful lengths to secure his position in some future job or living situation.  As spiritual people are we willing to go to these great lengths to grow the kingdom of God?
• As believers in Christ we must be aware of the struggle between God and money, we can’t worship two gods, only the True God.  Money can become our god, and compromise our way of life.
• As Americans we struggle with compartmentalized thinking.  We may practice the things of God on Sunday but not give them much thought the rest of the week.  How many of us read some devotional materials this morning?  We put the things in God in several compartments but they don’t “flavor” or run over into the others like work, school, driving to work, working out, relating to our family members, and how we spend our free time and money.
• Often times when we look at a church website we will find something of grade-school quality, when unbeknown to us we have a half-dozen web developers that attend our church and would never let something like this get posted on the web while at their workplace.
• We should not be surprised to find out that our boss was a Christian, this should already be evident to us.  If we ran into him at a church event we should not be surprised.  The same should be true in reverse about us, do others KNOW that we are a Christian?
• We should be willing to go to great lengths to grow the kingdom of God using whatever worldly resources are available.
• We should evaluate how compartmentalized our lives are, and where do we fall on a scale of worshiping God vs. money?  The worship of money is very subtle, so asking this so directly is not helpful because we defend ourselves and say, “of course we don’t do that.”
• These changes come about through God, we must pray and ask Him to deliver us from our false thinking.  We are new creations in Christ, and old things have passed away.  Any empowerment that we have towards true change will only come from God.
• Jesus gave us two metaphors – salt and light, that teach us that Christianity is designed not to just be a minor part of the society, but the defining part. Salt permeates! It flavors! It arrests corruption! Similarly, Christianity should influence everything it touches and arrest the decay of a society that is tending toward corruption.

In closing let me tell a story about a special person in my life.  After I moved to Indiana I met a man that worked in the cafeteria at the local college.  He was a gently and unassuming kind of man and he had a certain unusual look about him.  I struck up a conversation with him one day and over a period of years built a relationship with him. Dean had a mild learning disorder but continued to be a very diligent employee at the college and is one of the longest serving members of the school.  As I got to know Dean I realized many valuable lessons. 

Dean was man that used everything that he was given to serve God.  He worked hard in the cafeteria and was a friend to many students.  He volunteered to film every basketball game and served the team in other ways.  He worked at his church on Wednesday night and Sunday morning in the children’s ministry.  Dean began volunteering for the local jail ministry and used his excellent singing voice to praise God to the men in the county jail.  This requires his attendance at an early morning meeting on both Saturday and Sunday.   On Sunday he goes to the local retirement community to sing at their afternoon church service.   Dean also offers his house for a very nominal rent for students to stay.  These are just the things about which I am aware, the list goes on.

Well, one day we were at an evening church service and a lady gave a moving testimony about some difficulties she was having in her life.  All of us sat there listening with what we thought was deep compassion but Dean got up and walked out.  Everyone wondered why he would interrupt the focus at that critical time by leaving.  He came back a minute later and walked up to the woman and handed her a couple of tissues with which to dry her tears.  That says it all about Dean. Dean uses his time, talent, and treasure in serving God.  If anyone in the community tried even half as hard as Dean they could change the world.  I tell my wife that, “It doesn’t really matter because when we get to heaven we will all be working for Dean anyway.” 

Bottom Line: Questions for Reflection

1. In the first reading we saw how in the reading from Amos some teaching on honest stewardship. This dovetailed nicely with the Gospel lesson on the parable of the unjust manager. What are some ways in which people cheat in our modern society? How does knowing understanding God’s high regard for “honest scales” and proper treatment of the poor enable you to counter these modern ways of cheating?

2.    God has provided our time, talents, and treasures. With your answer to the first question in mind, pray that Jesus would show you what He would have you do for His Kingdom as a steward of those three areas.  After you pray record your thoughts in your journal.  What are some things towards which God may be calling you to action?  Here are some thought starters:

Time: Where are you spending your time each day?  What are the largest time wasters in your life?

Talents:  What talents has God given you? 

Treasures:  Where are you spending your money or using the things you have or inherited? 

Note: For a listing of readings for the Roman Catholic Mass, visit this web site:

 http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/091816.cfm  

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 135

Source(s):

Online Scripture verses for most Bible versions can be found at:  http://www.biblegateway.com/

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB

Welcome back to the Sunday Mass notes for 11-16-2014. This week we open with the first reading from Proverbs in which we see the wise stewardship of God’s resources by a godly woman. Then we move to the second reading from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians. Finally we close with a kingdom parable from Saint Matthew in which we also see God’s call for careful stewardship of the resources He has given to us.

The first reading is from the Book of Proverbs. This Scripture was written by King Solomon and is a book of wisdom regarding practical and godly living. The main theme in the reading is how a godly person is a careful steward of their time, talents, and treasures given to them from God. This is the same theme that we will explore later in the Gospel lesson.

Note: All of the skipped verses between 31:13-31 were included in order to provide the full context.

10 An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. 11 The heart of her husband trusts in her, And he will have no lack of gain. 12 She does him good and not evil All the days of her life. 13 She looks for wool and flax And works with her hands in delight. 14 She is like merchant ships; She brings her food from afar. 15 She rises also while it is still night And gives food to her household And portions to her maidens. 16 She considers a field and buys it; From her earnings she plants a vineyard. 17 She girds herself with strength And makes her arms strong. 18 She senses that her gain is good; Her lamp does not go out at night. 19 She stretches out her hands to the distaff, And her hands grasp the spindle. 20 She extends her hand to the poor, And she stretches out her hands to the needy. 21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household, For all her household are clothed with scarlet. 22 She makes coverings for herself; Her clothing is fine linen and purple. 23 Her husband is known in the gates, When he sits among the elders of the land. 24 She makes linen garments and sells them, And supplies belts to the tradesmen. 25 Strength and dignity are her clothing, And she smiles at the future. 26 She opens her mouth in wisdom, And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. 27 She looks well to the ways of her household, And does not eat the bread of idleness. 28 Her children rise up and bless her; Her husband also, and he praises her, saying: 29 “Many daughters have done nobly, But you excel them all.” 30 Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. 31 Give her the product of her hands, And let her works praise her in the gates. (Proverbs 31:10-31)

This “Proverbs 31 woman” is one who fears the Lord (v. 30). The big idea from the reading is that a godly person is a careful steward of the gifts they receive from God. Several points arise from the text.

• The godly woman works willingly, not under compulsion (v. 13, “in delight”). She also goes to great lengths in order to get things done (v. 13b-ff).
• The godly woman is a servant to others, even to her own servant (v. 15). She is not a sluggard, but works hard in her service to others.
• She is an entrepreneur (v. 16). In that era her husband would have had to make the actual transaction for the purchase of land, but she was the instigator of it and the one who took care in planting and tending the vineyard.
• She understands that what she gains is from God (v. 18). 
• She is optimistic about her future, because she knows that she belongs to God (v. 35, 30b).

The bottom line is that the godly woman is like Jesus, a servant, Someone who came not to be served but to serve (Matthew 20:28). She is a faithful steward of the gifts that God has given to her. Faithfulness and careful stewardship are common themes throughout both the Old and the New Testaments. We will see this theme continue later in the Gospel lesson.

The second reading is from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians. The context is Paul’s discussion of the Day of the Lord that we discussed in a previous edition of Mass Notes. This is the period of time at the end of the tribulation period in which Israel finally returns to worship of their Lord. The reading today is a warning to the people living in that era to be watchful for the Lord’s return. Watchfulness for the return of the Lord Jesus is a continuing theme in the New Testament.

1 Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. 2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 3 While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; 5 for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; 6 so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. (1 Thessalonians 5:1-6)

Just like the parable of the virgins that we will discuss in the introduction to the Gospel reading, everyone is called to be watchful for the return of the Lord. They are to be certain that they find faith in Jesus Christ while they still have the opportunity to do so (Romans 13:11) because nobody knows the hour when the Lord will return (Matthew 24:36). As we move onto the Gospel lesson we will see how God places a high value upon not only being watchful for His return, but also in being a good steward of the things that He has given to us.

The Gospel lesson is from Saint Matthew. The reading today is part of what is called the Lord’s “Olivet Discourse” (Matthew 24:1 – 25:46) in which He describes what is going to happen after the end of the church age. This section contains “kingdom parables” that begin with our Lord saying something similar to, “The kingdom of heaven is like.” This is the way that chapter 25 begins with Jesus saying, “Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to . . .” (Matthew 25:1a). The Lord then went on to tell the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), which has the same theme of watchfulness that we saw in the second reading. Being watchful for the Lord is closely related to being prepared for His return, meaning we must already be a citizen of the kingdom before He comes. In the parable, the Lord described how five of the virgins were prepared for the bridegroom and five were not. In Jewish culture the practice was for the groom to come at an unexpected time. The application of the parable is that half of the virgins were prepared for the Lord Jesus’ return by studying the Scriptures and coming to a saving knowledge of faith in Jesus Christ while the other five were lost and eternally separated from God in Hell. In the context of chapter 25, the application is that at the end of the tribulation period before the Lord begins His millennial reign there will be a final judgment in which unbelievers will be taken away and not allowed to enter the kingdom. Only God knows people’s true hearts so no one should wait to receive God’s plan of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ because it may end up being too late.

The reading today opens with another of Jesus’ “kingdom parable” introductions, “For it is just like” (v. 14a). What Jesus is saying is, “The Kingdom of God is like . . .” As you read, try to determine the main theological idea that emerges from the reading.

14 For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. 16 Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. 17 In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. 18 But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20 The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. 25 ‘And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. 27 ‘Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. 28 ‘Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ 29 For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. 30 Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 25:14-30)

The big idea that emerges from the reading is that stewardship is based on knowing and trusting the heart of the Master. Misguided understanding of the Master’s heart leads to living in self-protective, ungodly ways with one’s talents, as was the case with the man who buried his talent. The ones who understood and trusted the Master’s generous heart were able to take risks and multiply what was entrusted to them. Notice the misconception of the “wicked and lazy slave.” He miscalculated the Master’s heart when he revealed his deep distrust of him: “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground” (verses 24-25). He was blaming his wickedness and laziness on the Master’s seemingly unpredictable and untrustworthy character. But the Master smartly revealed the inconsistency in his argument. If he was truly afraid, it seems that he would have at least been wise enough to produce some interest, even if out of fear, if nothing else. The man made an eternal miscalculation when he did not trust the Master’s heart.

Many applications arise from the text, here are some of them:

• Knowing and trusting the Master’s heart is of utmost importance. We should be spending our time and energy on this endeavor so that we become wise stewards of what is entrusted to us. We look forward to the day when we will enter into our Master’s joy. We can trust that it will all be worth it to hear these words of affirmation.
• Although people in this age are entrusted with different levels of abilities and worldly good, if they are faithful in being good stewards of them they are equally rewarded and entrusted with more responsibilities in heaven. Jesus said to the servant that gained five talents from the original five invested, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master” (v. 21, emphasis added). Likewise, He told the one that was entrusted with only two and gained two, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master” (v. 23, emphasis added).
• The world is a profitable place for investing God’s gifts, both for God and for the people who are entrusted with them. The five talents that God invested in the world became ten (v. 20) and the two talents became four (v. 22). This magical doubling is from God even though it came through the agents to whom He entrusted it.
• Faithful servants have “gifts” to present to their masters, while unfaithful servants have only that which was given to them by God who owns it all in the first place. As believers we are called to invest our time, talents, and treasures in the service of God so that we may have something to present to him when we too stand in judgment before him. Our judgment won’t be for salvation, but for rewards.
• Believers come to the understanding that all that they have is from God, as we saw in the first reading about the godly woman in Proverbs 31. In contrast, unbelievers never come to this understanding, because they are carnally minded (Romans 8:6). Saint Paul said, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).
• The world’s resources flow through a worldly power structure of ungodly masters (v. 24b). Although there are exceptions to this principle, the richest people in the world are almost universally nonbelievers (with an exception being John Rockefeller). Although they don’t understand their responsibility of stewardship of God’s resources during their lives, they will after they die.
• Hell is real, just as heaven is real. Unbelievers will be far worse off in Hell than they are on earth (v. 29). They will be very worried (v. 25) when they stand before the Lord who will judge them for how they used the resources that he gave to them. Though in the parable the unfaithful servant was nagged with worry about giving his report to his master, in the end his judgment will be far worse.

Bottom Line: Questions for Reflection

1.  How do you view the Master’s heart? Is He generous and gracious, thereby freeing you from self-protective ways, so that you can take risks with what He has entrusted to you? Or do you view Him like the one talent servant, who saw God as a harsh task-master, blaming God for his own laziness and wickedness?

2.  The world we live in is unpredictable. We don’t know what each new day will bring, but God has given us some landmarks of the end times. How does the Proverbs 31 woman face the future? How did Paul encourage the Thessalonians to face the future? What truths about the Master’s heart and the future will allow you to face the near and eternal future with confidence?

Note: For a listing of readings for the Roman Catholic Mass visit this web site: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/111614.cfm  

First Reading PRV 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31

Second Reading 1 THES 5:1-6

Gospel Reading MT 25:14-30

Source(s):

Online Scripture verses for most Bible versions can be found at:  http://www.biblegateway.com/

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB

Last week we looked at the Gospel of Luke and discussed the famous parable of the prodigal son.  We saw as in the previous section of this Gospel that Jesus addressed the parable to the Pharisees.  Remember that these people were the religious group who believed in strict adherence to Jewish Law, at least as they interpreted it, and also in life after death.  This week later in this lesson we will return to the Gospel of Luke and pick up where we left off last week and cover the parable of the unjust steward.

Let’s look at the first reading.  We cannot know God apart from His revelation.  One form of this revelation is the prophetic writings of the Old Testament.   The reading for today is from Amos who is known as a “minor prophet.” This is not because he was inferior to the others but because his book is shorter than some of the other prophetic books like Isaiah who is referred to as a “major prophet.” Read the opening verse of Amos to get an orientation to the text. 

The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa– what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel (Amos 1:1).

The text says that Amos was a shepherd prophet, and that he spoke about “what he saw concerning Israel” and this was “when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.”  From this we know that Amos’ prophecy occurred during the time after the division of the people into the kingdoms of Judah in the south and Israel in the north.  The split was brought about by the arrogance of King Solomon’s son Rehoboam and as a result the ten northern tribes formed their own kingdom.  Scholars date the events in Amos to around 760BC. Tekoa is a village located 5 miles south of Bethlehem, in the Kingdom of Judah, and was set upon a hill.  Cities set upon hills were easy to defend and also had the advantage of being able to signal adjacent cities like Jerusalem.  What an appropriate place for a prophet of God to be from, a city which spoke to other cities, not through a smoke signal or lantern but by the Word of God through their own Amos.  Read the text from Amos 8:4-7.

Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! “When will the new moon be over,” you ask, “that we may sell our grain, and the Sabbath, that we may display the wheat? We will diminish the ephah, add to the shekel, and fix our scales for cheating! We will buy the lowly for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!” The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Never will I forget a thing they have done!

A frequent theme in the Book of Amos was the exploitation of the poor. This was a time of relative prosperity in the nations of Israel and Judah.  The poor were evidently being taken advantage of by the rich.  What was being pointed out here was that even during a holiday, which is what was meant by “when the new moon is over,” and on the Sabbath day, the rich were plotting their future sleazy business deals.  At a time when God called them to take time away from work to reflect upon Him they were plotting how to cheat the poor by “dimish(ing) the ephah”  The ephah was the unit with which they measured grain.  They were also plotting other ways such as cheating on the scales and adding to the value of their money.  These people were the ultimate among unjust stewards.  Even though everything that they ultimately came from God, including the holidays, the Sabbath day, and all that they owned, they even used their worship time to plot how they might defraud the poor.  Their minds were not on God during their worship, but were instead focused upon their planning of how they were going to gain more wealth even at the cost of exploiting those less powerful than they.  Even if their hearts were on God during their worship they would still have been guilty of defrauding the poor.  These people were poor stewards of not only their physical resources but also their immaterial resources. This includes things like their intellect, influence, and power.

I am a high energy person and have frequently had some difficulty in focusing upon one certain thing at a time.  My behavior doesn’t end when the work week finishes and I head off to church on Sunday.  No, I am guilty of frequently bringing all of my worldly cares and concerns into church on Sunday.  I have learned that I need to begin to prepare my heart for worshiping God many hours before I actually arrive at church.  For me this means limiting my consumption of coffee that morning along with consciously focusing upon God to the exclusion of outside thoughts.  I have also discovered that praying before church tends to improve my concentration level for spiritual things before I come to church.  God knows what is going on in our hearts when we go to church.  Part of being a good steward of our time, talents, and treasures involves the stewardship of our mind. 

Often we feel burned out on Sunday morning.  Sometimes when we show up at church on Sunday we have given all we have to our employer during the week and we really need that time to rest, just as God designed that day.  But what about the rest of the week, do the pressures of life wear us down so much that we never get around to doing much to build God’s kingdom?  Have you ever felt like you really needed to do some certain thing for God, but you just never got around to doing it?

When we consider the stewardship of our mind, meaning the responsible planning and management of our mental resources, we need to consider a common fallacy that has come upon the people of America.  The fallacy is that we can compartmentalize one activity in a part of our life while thinking that it doesn’t affect the other areas.  Back when I was teaching business classes inside the walls at several state prisons I used to use an illustration to explain this delusion.  I drew on the board a circle and divided it into compartments each holding a little square. The geniuses in the class soon recognized that my crude drawing was a waffle.  Next I started writing in each compartment of the waffle common activities with which the men may be engaged during any given week.  I wrote things like “Go to class,” “Go to lunch in the mess hall,” “Read my Bible,” and “Go to church on Sunday,” all things that the men did while in prison.  Then I wrote some other phrases, like “Look at a dirty magazine,” and “Gossip about a classmate.”  Do we honestly believe that we can put sin into a little compartment and not have it affect the other activities in our life?  Compartmentalization is nothing new, we can see that this was going on during the time of Amos the prophet. 

Now let’s read the Gospel lesson from Luke 16. 

Jesus said to his disciples, “A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property.  He summoned him and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.’ The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.’ He called in his master’s debtors one by one.  To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note.  Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’ Then to another the steward said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘One hundred kors of wheat.’ The steward said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.’ And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently. “For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.  I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.  If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth?  If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours? No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and mammon.”  Luke 16:1-13

This parable has been puzzling to many, but the interpretation is really quite simple.  Had we read the next two verses we would have found that the Pharisees to whom this was addressed understood the parable quite well.

The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.

He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight. (Luke 16:14-15)

The rich man in the story is God who is the provider of all things, both to believers and also non-believers.  The unjust steward is a lazy but creative, non-believer who used his God-given creativity to achieve his worldly self-satisfying purposes.  The children of light represent all believers.  The big idea is quite simple. God calls believers to use everything that he has given us to build up His kingdom.  If non-believers are creative for worldly purposes then believers are called to a higher standard of stewardship for the kingdom of heaven.

I remember an occasion while teaching in the prison during which I caught a student cheating on an exam.  He had completed the exam using a pencil.  When I handed back the paper the following week showing the errors, he came to me after class and said that I had made a mistake.  He said that I had marked several answers wrong when really he had entered the correct choice on the multiple choice questions.  I could see that he had neatly erased his answer and circled the correct one.  He showed great ingenuity in his cheating.  I didn’t think that anyone would try this again but just to be sure the next time I gave an exam I ran copies of all of the exams.  Sure enough the same student approached me with the same complaint.  Imagine his surprise when I pulled out the copy of his original exam and compared it to the one that he had just handed back to me!  Some people are creative for worldly, sinful purposes.  In contrast imagine God’s joy when we use the talents that He gave us for the greatness of His Kingdom. 

God calls us to use the ingenuity that He granted to us in the same measure that was given to us.  He also calls us to use our talents to further His kingdom.  The business people mentioned in the Book of Amos evidently believed they could compartmentalize their thinking and succeed in using their creativity to steal from the poor.  God condemned them not only for their actions but also for their thoughts.  These “unjust stewards” were creative in the use of their God-given resources but used their creativity to steal from the poor rather than in doing what God commanded them by helping those less fortunate. This NT parable gives an example to challenge how we approach our own stewardship of the resources God has given to us. If ungodly people are motivated to use their resources for their own selfish benefit, how much more should Christ followers use their resources (material and immaterial) for higher purposes and God’s glory?

Examine some insights that I put together as well as insights mu business students shared when we talked about this particular parable. 

• The manager was willing to go to great, very creative and insightful lengths to secure his position in some future job or living situation. As spiritual people are we willing to go to these great lengths to grow the kingdom of God?
• As believers in Christ we must be aware of the struggle between God and money, we can’t worship two gods, only the True God. Money can become our god, and compromise our way of life.
• As Americans we struggle with compartmentalized thinking. We may practice the things of God on Sunday but not give them much thought the rest of the week. How many of us read some devotional materials this morning? We put the things in God in several compartments but they don’t “flavor” or run over into the others like work, school, driving to work, working out, relating to our family members, and how we spend our free time and money.
• Often times when we look at a church website we will find something of grade-school quality, when unbeknown to us we have a half-dozen web developers that attend our church and would never let something like this get posted on the web while at their workplace.
• We should not be surprised to find out that our boss was a Christian, this should already be evident to us. If we ran into him at a church event we should not be surprised. The same should be true in reverse about us, do others KNOW that we are a Christian?
• We should be willing to go to great lengths to grow the kingdom of God using whatever worldly resources are available.
• We should evaluate how compartmentalized our lives are, and where do we fall on a scale of worshiping God vs. money? The worship of money is very subtle, so asking this so directly is not helpful because we defend ourselves and say, “of course we don’t do that.”
• These changes come about through God, we must pray and ask Him to deliver us from our false thinking. We are new creations in Christ, and old things have passed away. Any empowerment that we have towards true change will only come from God.
• Jesus gave us two metaphors – salt and light, that teach us that Christianity is designed not to just be a minor part of the society, but the defining part. Salt permeates! It flavors! It arrests corruption! Similarly, Christianity should influence everything it touches and arrest the decay of a society that is tending toward corruption.

In closing let me tell a story about a special person in my life.  After I moved to Indiana I met a man that worked in the cafeteria at the local college.  He was a gently and unassuming kind of man and he had a certain unusual look about him.  I struck up a conversation with him one day and over a period of years built a relationship with him. Dean had a learning disorder but continued to be a very diligent employee at the college and is one of the longest serving members of the school.  As I got to know Dean I realized many valuable lessons.  Dean was man that although wasn’t given very many talents or treasures used everything that he had to serve God.  He worked hard in the cafeteria and was a friend to many students.  He volunteered to film every basketball game and served the team in other ways.  He worked at his church on Wednesday night and Sunday morning in the children’s ministry.  Dean began volunteering for the local jail ministry and used his excellent singing voice to praise God to the men in the county jail.  This requires his attendance at an early morning meeting on both Saturday and Sunday.   On Sunday he goes to the local retirement community to sing at their afternoon church service.   Dean also offers his house for a very nominal rent for students to stay.  These are just the things about which I am aware, the list goes on.

One day we were at an evening church service and a lady gave a moving testimony about some difficulties she was having in her life.  All of us sat there listening with what we thought was deep compassion but Dean got up and walked out.  Everyone wondered why he would interrupt the focus at that critical time by leaving.  He came back a minute later and walked up to the woman and handed her a couple of tissues with which to dry her tears.  That says it all about Dean. Dean uses his time, talent, and treasure in serving God.  If anyone in the community tried even half as hard as Dean they could change the world.  I tell my wife that, “It doesn’t really matter because when we get to heaven we will all be working for Dean anyway.” 

Bottom Line: Questions for Reflection

1. The second reading today was from 2 Timothy 2:1-8.  Though we did not discuss this in today’s lesson reflect upon this section of the text which coincidentally is one of my theme verse for this series. 

For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as ransom for all.

Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Considering these verses together, since Jesus is our only mediator and God instructs us to approach Him boldly, who should we pray to when we find ourselves in a time of need?

2. God has provided our time, talents, and treasures. With your answer to the first question in mind, pray that Jesus would show you what He would have you do for His Kingdom as a steward of those three areas.  After you pray record your thoughts in your journal.  What are some things towards which God may be calling you to action?  Here are some thought starters:

Time: Where are you spending your time each day?  What are the largest time wasters in your life?

Talents:  What talents has God given you? 

Treasures:  Where are you spending your money or using the things you have or inherited? 

For Further Study:

If you are interested in better understanding your talents you can complete an online spiritual gifts test at: http://tinyurl.com/spiritualgifts

Investigate how God is using very creative people to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the Internet.  A group of brilliant people have formed an organization called Global Media Outreach which uses a series of over a hundred web pages along with pay per click ad campaigns to reach people with the Gospel.  Millions have been reached in only a few years.  Read about it online at: http://www.globalmediaoutreach.com/

Readings for the Week  

Source: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092213.cfm

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 135

Reading 1 AM 8:4-7

Hear this, you who trample upon the needy

and destroy the poor of the land!

“When will the new moon be over,” you ask,

“that we may sell our grain,

and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat?

We will diminish the ephah,

add to the shekel,

and fix our scales for cheating!

We will buy the lowly for silver,

and the poor for a pair of sandals;

even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!”

The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob:

Never will I forget a thing they have done!

Responsorial Psalm PS 113:1-2, 4-6, 7-8

Reading 2 1 TM 2:1-8

Beloved:

First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers,

petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone,

for kings and for all in authority,

that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life

in all devotion and dignity.

This is good and pleasing to God our savior,

who wills everyone to be saved

and to come to knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God.

There is also one mediator between God and men,

the man Christ Jesus,

who gave himself as ransom for all.

This was the testimony at the proper time.

For this I was appointed preacher and apostle

— I am speaking the truth, I am not lying —,

teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

It is my wish, then, that in every place the men should pray,

lifting up holy hands, without anger or argument.

Gospel LK 16:1-13

Jesus said to his disciples, “A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property.  He summoned him and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.’ The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. I know what I shall do so that, when I am removed from the stewardship, they may welcome me into their homes.’ He called in his master’s debtors one by one.  To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note.  Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’ Then to another the steward said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘One hundred kors of wheat.’ The steward said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.’ And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently. “For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.  I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones.  If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth?  If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours? No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and mammon.”

Or LK 16:10-13

Jesus said to his disciples:

“The person who is trustworthy in very small matters

is also trustworthy in great ones;

and the person who is dishonest in very small matters

is also dishonest in great ones.

If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth,

who will trust you with true wealth?

If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another,

who will give you what is yours?

No servant can serve two masters.

He will either hate one and love the other,

or be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve both God and mammon.”