Faithful in a little

Luke 16: 1-13

10 ‘Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 

Today’s story is a bit of a brain teaser. Jesus is challenging us to think things through regarding wealth, its production and distribution. He is urging us to act as members of His inaugurated Kingdom. How should we treat wealth? There is a danger in all this talk of standing in solidarity with the poor and sharing in their struggle for justice and freedom as claimed by Jesus in His Nazareth sermon (Luke 4) that we fall into the trap of glamorising poverty and using it for making ourselves look religious. Poverty is the result of collectively meeting our needs our own way; it’s an assault on God’s good creation.  The fulfilled prophecy that Jesus represents is the abolition of poverty not wealth.  The teachings of Jesus when put into practice transforms those who know they are poor into those who are rich. There must therefore be a ‘righteous wealth’ that represents the fulfilment of the prophecy of the creating, redeeming and sustaining God.  Wealth that is created and used to promote the interdependent interests of people is righteous wealth. Simply loving money and the individual privilege that avarice brings results in suffering of all kinds.  Health, education, work that pays a life promoting wage, housing and social care represent the use of wealth that offers people the hope that another way of life is possible; disciples of Jesus of the Nazareth sermon surely must advocate and practice such principles. Meeting our needs our own way for individual gain creates victims of us all; we all in the end lose. Wealth that is used to end the evils of: ignorance, disease, destitution, squalor and social alienation promote the Kingdom that Jesus inaugurated and promotes the personal and social identity that is God given in His creative and re-creative acts. Disciples need to be shrewd in how they use the wealth that God has entrusted them with as stewards; we can so easily be duped into thinking that wealth is the blessing rather than the test for how we will use that wealth. We are participant builders of a new way of life; surely our wealth producing and distribution acts must be easily seen as acts that promote the Kingdom we claim to be part of.