From Deuteronomy 8 (NIV) He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey;
From Luke 16 (RSV) "There was a rich man who had a steward, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. And he called him and said to him, `What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.' And the steward said to himself, `What shall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that people may receive me into their houses when I am put out of the stewardship.' So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, `How much do you owe my master?' He said, `A hundred measures of oil.' And 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?' He said, `A hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, `Take your bill, and write eighty.' The master commended the dishonest steward for his shrewdness; for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations. No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
Money is powerful, and it can be a very destructive power until and unless we make friends with unrighteous mammon. We are to take money with all of its destructive power and bend it to a good use. We are to corral the might of money and make it into a servant. It takes a special kind of shrewdness to do this. Shrewdness is a special insight and is always profitable to the one who has it. The steward was shrewd. He used his master’s money to buy something that money could not buy. He bought some gratitude for canceling debt. He used the tangible to buy the intangible. Do we have that “shrewdness?” Do we know how to use the tangible to gain the intangible?
Be shrewd … make friends with unrighteous mammon. Learn how to use and spend your money so that it brings kingdom living to your life. That is the heart and soul of this parable. Giving helps bring kingdom living into our life, but the parable is not about giving. It is about spending. The parable is a challenge for us to use all of our money to bring kingdom living into our life. God provided manna in the wilderness so that when the people entered the Promised Land they would be armed with the truth that God had provided. Most of us have had the same kind of teaching experience. We receive from unexpected sources and for unknown reasons and are gifted with the material things we need. Can we see through the myths so we can manage our money with Christian shrewdness?
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope November 15, 1992
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell
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