A Gospel Parable About Wealth
by Mark S. Roberti, Director of Stewardship
Heartland Parishes of Ellis County

The parable of the dishonest steward points out that there are two types of wealth: honest wealth and dishonest wealth. With regard to wealth, all of us would agree that our wealth is honest wealth. And most of us believe we are not particularly wealthy. We would like to be able to live like the wealthier people we know. But even the wealthiest person we know doesn’t think he is particularly wealthy. He travels in different circles. He thinks some of the wealthier people he knows are wealthy. He would like to be like them.

You remember the parable story of which I speak. It’s from the Gospel of Luke 9:1-15. The rich man has a steward who was wasting his goods. So he asks him for an account of his stewardship. The steward knows he has been less than honest in the service of the master, so he cuts a series of deals with the master’s debtors to curry favor with them, because he knows he will soon be out of a job.

The master commends him for his shrewdness. He says, "for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light." You and I, we are supposed to be the sons of light to which the master is referring. The Master is God. He is the one who owns all the treasure of which we are meant to be stewards.

The Master states, "He who is faithful in very little is faithful also in much: and he who is dishonest in very little, is dishonest in much." Here, God is talking to us. The passage goes on to say, "If then, you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches?" In other words, if one is selfish with the grace of financial wealth, why should God bless him with the spiritual blessings of a healthy and wholesome relationship with the Master?

It would seem like this Gospel parable climaxes with the warning which then follows, "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." Most of us stop paying attention after that verse. It is such an overpowering statement.

But looks what comes next. "The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this and they scoffed at him. But he said to them, ‘You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts; for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.’"

Think about it honestly; what do we exalt in this life? We may not be lovers of money, but we certainly love those things, conveniences, and securities that money can buy. Aren’t those the very things of which Jesus is speaking in this parable... the things we often put even before God?

My guess is that in this parable -- to a greater or lesser degree -- most of us are the dishonest steward. We are trying to play both sides of the fence with this life and the next. In this juggling act, we are cheating the Master of the due that is rightfully His. The Holy Spirit is trying to lead us to true wealth, true happiness, life in God. But we will not let go of what is in our hands to take His. We don’t value our relationship with the Lord enough. We just don’t want to make that kind of sacrifice.

God, the true Master, has gifted us. Yet, we think our abilities and possessions are ours. We think we have "earned" them. Besides that, many others have more than we; they do not share theirs. These reasons, at least sub-consciously, seems to be our rationale for not being as generous in sharing our gifts as we ought to be. We do not seriously weigh the fact that so many others have much less than we. We’re not overly inclined to return the first fruits of our labors with God through the Church. We think we need what we have. What about a rainy day?

Yet in putting ourselves first and in not trusting in Jesus, we cheat God -- and we unwittingly cheat ourselves -- in the process. There is a passage in the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. It is the bridge between the Old and the New Testament. It reads as follows: "Dare a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me! And you say, ‘How do we rob you?’ In tithes and in offerings! You are indeed accursed, for you, the whole nation, rob me." (Mal 3:9)

It is not two or three of us doing this. It’s pretty much the whole nation, the whole people of God. No wonder the Church is in crisis. No wonder faith and commitment are at a near all-time low. We have put ourselves, our wants, before our sacrifice of obedience and thanksgiving due to God.

What the solution? It comes in the very next verse. "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, That there may be food in my house, and try me in this, says the Lord of hosts; Shall I not open the floodgates of heaven, and pour down blessing upon you without measure." (Mal 3:10)

Stewardship is not for just the other person who we think is rich. It is for us; and it is for us today. It adds substance, it adds meaning, it adds blessings to our lives. But if we choose against stewardship, someday, sooner than we think, we are going to be asked to give an account our stewardship.

Will God see us as honest, or dishonest, stewards? The parable is for us.