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Luke 16:1-8a, 10, 13
By Helen Armiger

Decisions about money make me nervous, especially if the stakes are high.

When I filled out financial aid forms for my son?s college tuition, I became anxious as I tried to complete the requested information. I had so little to report ? no boats, no farms, no second homes, no IRA, no 401k, no trust funds, no, no, no, nothing.

We did not have much of a financial safety net; yet, my son was heading off to an expensive private college. When I read the Scripture passage from Luke about the shrewd manager and his handling of money, my first reaction was to ask for another passage.

This passage pushed some kind of money button for me, because I think I should be shrewder about money, less willing to give it away, more diligent about keeping track of it, more interested in money. Money has power, and for many people there are issues surrounding how we accumulate, spend and relate to the use of it.

Our use of money is a good test of the lordship of Christ in our lives.

In the Spiritual Formation Bible it says, 'We are being trained to be trustworthy with God?s true riches when we are given little and prove trustworthy with it.' Sometimes, however, we struggle to keep choosing 'true riches' over worldly wealth.

The accumulation of money is attractive. Just think of all the things we could have if we just had enough money. Just think of the power and control we might have if money were no object. Just think of all the things we could do.

The building of wealth can easily become a priority over our building of the Kingdom, especially in the United States where commercial enterprises have become our addiction rather than our foundation.

While the Scripture from Luke has some challenging passages, Jesus makes it very clear that we cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve both God and the pursuit of wealth.

Money is a hard master and a deceptive one. Wealth makes many promises ? power, control, security, position and 'glittery things' ? but often it cannot deliver.

Jesus, however, is not condemning money per se; rather, he is helping us learn about faithfulness in how we manage what we have. Money can be used in blessed and glorious ways: to serve the sick and hungry, to help bring people to Christ, to 'practice Resurrection.'

We do not need vast fortunes to bless the world. If we are Christ-like in our stewardship of small amounts of money, we will be like Christ in the handling of the eternal treasures of heaven.

Have you ever heard someone say, 'I would like to give more to the church, but I just don?t have a lot of money?' The amount of money we have is not the issue. If we do not give sacrificially with the little we have, neither will we give sacrificially with more money.

In the parable of the shrewd manager, Jesus asks us to be faithful in small matters, so that we will be faithful in large ones.

While the rich man praised the dishonest manager for his astute handling of a difficult situation, the manager?s unethical handling of his master?s treasure reflected how the manager would handle weightier matters.

Our stewardship, however, is not just about our pockets. Stewardship is also about how we care for one another. Each time we break a promise or don?t keep our word, however insignificant the promise, we lose a grain of sand from our personal beach. We erode our integrity. Bit by bit, our unfaithfulness in small matters adds up; and we lose the trust ? and respect ? of others.

The Rev. Helen Armiger is pastor of St. Paul UMC in New Windsor.

A DEVOTIONAL
for the Discipleship Adventure

Develop: This is a hard, confusing passage. Go to the library and read at least three commentators? notes on the passage. One outstanding commentary series is 'Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching.' Then, read the passage several times again ? out loud. The first time, listen to the passage as if you are the manager and then write a few sentences on how you felt. The second time, listen and write as if you are one of the debtors. The third time, from the perspective of the rich man. After writing from the perspective of each player in the story, read over what you have written and then write about what you learned or insights you gleaned from the exercise.