Luke 13:6-9
In the course of civilization, the fig tree has been one of the most valuable trees. It is naturally productive, bearing three crops a year. April and May are normally the only months that the tree does not bear. In the Middle East, because of its consistent productivity, fig trees were planted among the vineyards as standby should the vines fail. Normally the fig tree does not bear fruit for the first three years. The point of this parable we just read is the master had waited the requisite three years waiting for the tree to bear fruit. Since the tree did not bear fruit, the master wanted the tree cut down. But the vinedresser pleads for another chance that would be the last chance.
To the crowd that Jesus told this parable, it undoubtedly had an immediate effect. The people of Israel had heard the voice of God in the Law with Moses; it had come through a long line of prophets; it had been pounded in the preaching of John the Baptist; and now it is coming with the Son of God. Just as the fig tree was to receive one last chance, Israel was to receive one last chance to take God’s way. The coming of Jesus was a last chance for the simple reason that God could do no more. God could not make a more urgent or moving appeal than the very sending of His Son. To reject Him was finally to reject God.
This parable teaches many lessons. Because the fig tree was useless it was threatened with destruction. It teaches us that uselessness invites disaster. The ultimate test of any man is, “Of what use is he to the world and God?” Being useful does not mean doing “big” things. It is possible to be of greatest use to God by doing what looks like little things.
Alexander Whyte of St. George’s Church in Edinburgh tells a favorite story. A salesman named Rigby use to travel regularly to Edinburgh. Rigby was not a preacher; as a matter of fact, he found it hard to talk about religion. But he always attended St. George’s on Sunday and before he left the hotel he always invited someone to come to church with him. As usual, on Sunday, he invited a man and the man angrily refused. But Rigby persisted and finally the man went. He was so impressed with Whyte’s preaching that the man invited Rigby to go with him for the evening services. Something happened to this man at the evening service; he determined to become a Christian.
The next morning business took Rigby past Whyte’s house. He had nover met Whyte, but on the impulse of the moment he knocked and asked to see him. He told Whyte what happened the day before. Whyte said, “God bless you for telling me. I thought Sunday night’s sermon fell flat and I was depressed about it.” And then Whyte went on, “I didn’t catch your name. What is it?” “Rigby,” said the visitor. “Man,” said Whyte, “I’ve been looking for you for years.” Whyte went to his study and came back with a bundle of letters. He read one. It began, “I was spending a weekend in Edinburgh and a fellow salesman called Rigby invited me to come with him to St. George’s; and the service has changed my life.” Every letter in the bundle carried the same message. Whyte went on to say, “Out of that bundle, twelve came from young men and of those twelve four have already entered the ministry.” It does not seem a great deal to invite a man to come to church and yet of what infinite use to God were the invitations of that salesman named Rigby.
Abraham Lincoln said, “God must love the common man because he created so many of them.” When God wants somehting done or someone helped, He has to find a hand to supply that help. By doing the simple things we are of use. By being of service in the ordinary everyday things, in the end, we serve God.
A second point of the parable is the barren fig tree risked destruction because it was taking up space and nourishment without giving anything in return. One of the most fundamental teachings of Jesus about life is that goodness is a positive thing, not merely the absence of doing harm. Jesus doesn’t ask, “Have you done no harm?” He demands our answer to “What good have you done?” Even if we are debtors for life, it is a sin not to try to repay a debt we owe for kindness and goodness heaped upon us along the road of life.
The Christian test is, “What did I put into life?” George Bernard Shaw put it this way, “I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community. And as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.”
We live in a world where the tendency is to try to extract more and more reward for less and less work; this is not so much an economic problem as a moral and religious one. Nearly all the world’s problems would be solved if men and women everywhere attempted the Christian duty of putting more into life than they take out.
As the fig tree had a champion in the person of the vinedresser, we have an advocate in Jesus Christ. He had tremendous belief in us. He believes us capable of the highest goodness and of the greatest heroism. And He believes that, even when we have let Him down.
The great example is Peter. No one can ever have hurt Jesus so much as Peter did and yet when He rose from the dead Jesus sent a special message to Peter to tell him that He still believed in him (Mark 16:7).
There remains one final thing, and it is a stern warning. There is a limit! After one year more the limit for the fig tree came, so we too have a limit. As the fig tree had a final chance, we also have a final chance. We are governed by the laws of life. If we fail to use a faculty, we will lose it. If we live long enough in the dark, we will become blind. If we fail to use our arms and legs, the muscles will atrophy and the limbs will become paralized. If a man consistently refuses the invitaion and challenge of Christ, he can in the end make himself incapable of accepting it. It is not God who has condemned him, he has condemned himself.
So, in the end, this parable tells us that so long as we keep trying to follow Christ, however inadequately, we are never shut out, but when we refuse to make the effort, we can shut ourselves out.
In a friendly game of golf, if one’s opponent messes up a shot, his friend will say, “take a ‘mulligan’,” that is to say,”take another shot and the first shot will not be counted.” God gives us an endless number of ‘mulligans,’ so long as we make an effort to play His game of life.
September 24, 2007
September 17, 2007
September 9, 2007 - Elizabeth Gibbs Zehnder
Luke 14:25-33
I grew up in a family as the eldest of three daughters. My sister Barbara was only a year and a half younger than me and my memories of our childhood are filled with stories of me trying to convince her to do what I wanted her to do…If she got more of the 100,000 candy bars for Halloween, I would wax on eloquently about the delicious whipped chocolate filling of the 3 Musketeer bar (of which I had a surplus) and try and convince her to trade. I would stretch and shape and pull the truth to change her perceptions and inspire her to reach the conclusion I desired. I was good at it and as a result the doll with the red gingham dress was mine, I landed in the front seat for road trips, I got the bed by the window in the room we shared…
I know how to spin the message. If I was going to try and convince you to be a disciple of Jesus – I would most definitely NOT use this passage. Clearly Jesus was not giving the crowd the glossy hard sell on the upside of being a disciple. Luke repeats Jesus’s formula three times in the passage – whoever does not ___dadada, they cannot be my disciple. It doesn’t make for a great brochure for the life of the disciple. – Jesus isn’t sugar coating the Gospel here.
As we enter into this morning’s text we need to remember that Jesus is often cryptic - His teaching was so bold and so challenging to the religious establishment that he often hid the core of his message in plain sight by using metaphor, parables and stories.
So, in addition to Jesus walking the earth and teaching about 2000 years ago, and in addition to the lack of tape recorders and transcripts of the speech and in addition to the fact that when Luke did write this down he wrote about what Jesus had said in Aramaic in his own language of Greek, which we translated into English – in addition to all of those things that can thwart our understanding, Jesus admits that he was talking in code – crafting his words to pierce the hearts of some and fly past the ears of others.
Because we want to be among those who’s hearts are pierced by Jesus’ words, let’s tread carefully as we wrestle with this passage a bit and find out about being Jesus’ disciple.
We can start with his opener: “Who ever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” What kind of family values are these?! Jesus leads with if we don’t hate our parents, spouses and children we can’t be his disciple.
When we hear the word “hate” it conjures up images of parents yelling ‘til their red in the face and teenagers punctuating the end of their argument by slamming their bedroom door.
Actually, the phrase that Luke uses here “to hate” is a Semitic expression meaning to turn away from, [i] It describes a turning away from the network of relationships, the obligations and loyalties that our relationship with our families and friends create. Jesus is saying that his disciples need to go beyond making Jesus central in their life, disciples must also redefine their network of relationships and obligations and loyalties in light of Jesus and the Gospel.
In our everyday lives, today as well as back in Jesus’ day, we live from a location of identity that is described by expectations and hooks. We know who we are by what other people expect from us. Eva expects me to help her with her boots, prepare her food, come when she cries out in the night – I know that I’m her mother. The soccer coach expects me to make a team banner and throw a party for the team – I know that I’m a parent of a kid on his team. I get hooked in when Tim wants to spend all of Sunday afternoon working on house projects – I know that I’m his wife.
Some times I find my self being so many things to so many people that its like an endless Virginia Reel and I am in that traditional American square dance continuously extending my hand to the next partner that swings down the line, passing them by and reaching my hand out to the next – it takes the full measure of my attention and energy to meet other’s expectations of me, there isn’t space or imagination for reaching out beyond the narrow circle of my dancing partners. Its hard for me to leave the dance. You know the train wreck that ensues when someone gets out of line! If I don’t meet the expectations and obligations, I feel other’s anger and disappointment. I feel their rejection.
Some describe the journey of discipleship and spirituality as dying to all of these selves, a dying to all of our identities, a falling through our many selves to come to the core of who we are, free from hooks and expectations. Free to step out of the line of endless partners. Freed then to serve the one who has called us.
Jesus goes on to say “Who ever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple”.
As people who have read the bible, we know what happens in the final chapters of Luke, its easy for us to jump to an understanding about carrying the cross that relates to the sacrifice that Jesus made when he carried his own cross to be crucified. Actually scholars speculate that “carry the cross” was a saying that refers to the Roman practice of executing criminals by crucifixion, “carry the cross” was a way of describing someone who was clearly done with their obligations of this world and who was moving on to the next.
My grandad’s become a bit like this in the last year or so. He’s 93 and he’ll tell you, he’s not interested in doing things to please other people – not in a mean way, but he’s clear about it, I’m 93, I don’t have much time left, so I’m not going to waste my time, so he does what matters most to him.
Jesus is wanting disciples who aren’t busy pandering to everyone, he wants people who are clear about their priorities.
So taking in the picture that he is painting – To be my disciple you need to order your life in a way that reflects your commitment to God.
And then “none of you can be my disciple if you don’t give up all your possessions.”
Ok, this is definitely not the way to sweet talk us in to being disciples. I know that we have more things than our sisters and brothers did in Galilee in 28 A.D. Please, we have more stuff than our sisters and brothers who built this church! Just look at the closets – Tim and I have lived in old buildings – 1900, 1923 and without fail the closets are like postage stamps! New construction is all about the storage space, walk in closets, kitchen pantries. We have a lot in the way of possessions. And they are nice. Its great to have clothes for every occasion and phones to call whoever, whenever, wherever we want, cars to take us where we want to go, but we also know how our possessions can start to possess us. How sometimes our hands and hearts are so busy tending and protecting what we have that we are unable to see or respond to someone else’s need.
So here is Jesus being radical guy. He’s certainly not wooing the large crowd that is following him. He is shockingly blunt about what is needed from us. I imagine what it was like to be there that day. To be in the crowd and have my involuntary gasp join the collective gasp each time he punctuated his thoughts with “who ever doesn’t hate their family, carry the cross, give up their processions, can not be my disciple! as we all took in his jolting descriptions of discipleship.
Clearly Jesus wasn’t about building the membership at the Christian Country Club or creating a global society of well mannered people. He is going for something deeper, something that radically departs from what has gone before. Jesus is calling for a redefining of all of our relationships – our relationships with our families, our processions even our relationship with life itself. Its not that disciples don’t have those things, its just the order in which they hold them. This isn’t a trendy, superficial endeavor. You better count the cost, says Jesus, see what it is going to ask of you to follow me, and if you are serious about it.
So yeah, at this point, I would work my way to the front of the crowd and after Jesus finished talking I would try and tap him on the shoulder and ask for him to help me understand.
As I think about what we know about Jesus, about how he cared so deeply for people, It doesn’t line up for him to be saying forget about people, just focus on me and God. It seems like its more an orientation that he is describing. Like in Tennis, when you line up to hit the ball from the baseline. Its all about planting both feet perpendicular to the net so that your whole body can lend strength to your swing. Jesus is describing disciples as being firmly rooted in relationship with him first so that the whole of that relationship can be brought to bear as we then reach out to those around us.
So it still feels mysterious at best, irritating at worst. It’s a lot to sort out this hating our families, carrying the cross and giving up our possessions in order to be Jesus’ disciples. May God bless us as we wrestle and grow in God’s word to us.
Amen.
[i] Fred B. Craddock, Interpretation, Luke.John Knox Press: 1990. Page 181-182
I grew up in a family as the eldest of three daughters. My sister Barbara was only a year and a half younger than me and my memories of our childhood are filled with stories of me trying to convince her to do what I wanted her to do…If she got more of the 100,000 candy bars for Halloween, I would wax on eloquently about the delicious whipped chocolate filling of the 3 Musketeer bar (of which I had a surplus) and try and convince her to trade. I would stretch and shape and pull the truth to change her perceptions and inspire her to reach the conclusion I desired. I was good at it and as a result the doll with the red gingham dress was mine, I landed in the front seat for road trips, I got the bed by the window in the room we shared…
I know how to spin the message. If I was going to try and convince you to be a disciple of Jesus – I would most definitely NOT use this passage. Clearly Jesus was not giving the crowd the glossy hard sell on the upside of being a disciple. Luke repeats Jesus’s formula three times in the passage – whoever does not ___dadada, they cannot be my disciple. It doesn’t make for a great brochure for the life of the disciple. – Jesus isn’t sugar coating the Gospel here.
As we enter into this morning’s text we need to remember that Jesus is often cryptic - His teaching was so bold and so challenging to the religious establishment that he often hid the core of his message in plain sight by using metaphor, parables and stories.
So, in addition to Jesus walking the earth and teaching about 2000 years ago, and in addition to the lack of tape recorders and transcripts of the speech and in addition to the fact that when Luke did write this down he wrote about what Jesus had said in Aramaic in his own language of Greek, which we translated into English – in addition to all of those things that can thwart our understanding, Jesus admits that he was talking in code – crafting his words to pierce the hearts of some and fly past the ears of others.
Because we want to be among those who’s hearts are pierced by Jesus’ words, let’s tread carefully as we wrestle with this passage a bit and find out about being Jesus’ disciple.
We can start with his opener: “Who ever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” What kind of family values are these?! Jesus leads with if we don’t hate our parents, spouses and children we can’t be his disciple.
When we hear the word “hate” it conjures up images of parents yelling ‘til their red in the face and teenagers punctuating the end of their argument by slamming their bedroom door.
Actually, the phrase that Luke uses here “to hate” is a Semitic expression meaning to turn away from, [i] It describes a turning away from the network of relationships, the obligations and loyalties that our relationship with our families and friends create. Jesus is saying that his disciples need to go beyond making Jesus central in their life, disciples must also redefine their network of relationships and obligations and loyalties in light of Jesus and the Gospel.
In our everyday lives, today as well as back in Jesus’ day, we live from a location of identity that is described by expectations and hooks. We know who we are by what other people expect from us. Eva expects me to help her with her boots, prepare her food, come when she cries out in the night – I know that I’m her mother. The soccer coach expects me to make a team banner and throw a party for the team – I know that I’m a parent of a kid on his team. I get hooked in when Tim wants to spend all of Sunday afternoon working on house projects – I know that I’m his wife.
Some times I find my self being so many things to so many people that its like an endless Virginia Reel and I am in that traditional American square dance continuously extending my hand to the next partner that swings down the line, passing them by and reaching my hand out to the next – it takes the full measure of my attention and energy to meet other’s expectations of me, there isn’t space or imagination for reaching out beyond the narrow circle of my dancing partners. Its hard for me to leave the dance. You know the train wreck that ensues when someone gets out of line! If I don’t meet the expectations and obligations, I feel other’s anger and disappointment. I feel their rejection.
Some describe the journey of discipleship and spirituality as dying to all of these selves, a dying to all of our identities, a falling through our many selves to come to the core of who we are, free from hooks and expectations. Free to step out of the line of endless partners. Freed then to serve the one who has called us.
Jesus goes on to say “Who ever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple”.
As people who have read the bible, we know what happens in the final chapters of Luke, its easy for us to jump to an understanding about carrying the cross that relates to the sacrifice that Jesus made when he carried his own cross to be crucified. Actually scholars speculate that “carry the cross” was a saying that refers to the Roman practice of executing criminals by crucifixion, “carry the cross” was a way of describing someone who was clearly done with their obligations of this world and who was moving on to the next.
My grandad’s become a bit like this in the last year or so. He’s 93 and he’ll tell you, he’s not interested in doing things to please other people – not in a mean way, but he’s clear about it, I’m 93, I don’t have much time left, so I’m not going to waste my time, so he does what matters most to him.
Jesus is wanting disciples who aren’t busy pandering to everyone, he wants people who are clear about their priorities.
So taking in the picture that he is painting – To be my disciple you need to order your life in a way that reflects your commitment to God.
And then “none of you can be my disciple if you don’t give up all your possessions.”
Ok, this is definitely not the way to sweet talk us in to being disciples. I know that we have more things than our sisters and brothers did in Galilee in 28 A.D. Please, we have more stuff than our sisters and brothers who built this church! Just look at the closets – Tim and I have lived in old buildings – 1900, 1923 and without fail the closets are like postage stamps! New construction is all about the storage space, walk in closets, kitchen pantries. We have a lot in the way of possessions. And they are nice. Its great to have clothes for every occasion and phones to call whoever, whenever, wherever we want, cars to take us where we want to go, but we also know how our possessions can start to possess us. How sometimes our hands and hearts are so busy tending and protecting what we have that we are unable to see or respond to someone else’s need.
So here is Jesus being radical guy. He’s certainly not wooing the large crowd that is following him. He is shockingly blunt about what is needed from us. I imagine what it was like to be there that day. To be in the crowd and have my involuntary gasp join the collective gasp each time he punctuated his thoughts with “who ever doesn’t hate their family, carry the cross, give up their processions, can not be my disciple! as we all took in his jolting descriptions of discipleship.
Clearly Jesus wasn’t about building the membership at the Christian Country Club or creating a global society of well mannered people. He is going for something deeper, something that radically departs from what has gone before. Jesus is calling for a redefining of all of our relationships – our relationships with our families, our processions even our relationship with life itself. Its not that disciples don’t have those things, its just the order in which they hold them. This isn’t a trendy, superficial endeavor. You better count the cost, says Jesus, see what it is going to ask of you to follow me, and if you are serious about it.
So yeah, at this point, I would work my way to the front of the crowd and after Jesus finished talking I would try and tap him on the shoulder and ask for him to help me understand.
As I think about what we know about Jesus, about how he cared so deeply for people, It doesn’t line up for him to be saying forget about people, just focus on me and God. It seems like its more an orientation that he is describing. Like in Tennis, when you line up to hit the ball from the baseline. Its all about planting both feet perpendicular to the net so that your whole body can lend strength to your swing. Jesus is describing disciples as being firmly rooted in relationship with him first so that the whole of that relationship can be brought to bear as we then reach out to those around us.
So it still feels mysterious at best, irritating at worst. It’s a lot to sort out this hating our families, carrying the cross and giving up our possessions in order to be Jesus’ disciples. May God bless us as we wrestle and grow in God’s word to us.
Amen.
[i] Fred B. Craddock, Interpretation, Luke.John Knox Press: 1990. Page 181-182
September 12, 2007 - Forgive as God forgives you - Hayward Fong
Matthew 18:21-35
This is one of the parables that comes directly from its context. It all begins with a question asked by Peter, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Peter probably expected Jesus to say, “Good fellow; you could not have acted more nobly than that.” After all, Peter was offering more than twice what the Jewish Law required of him. However, Jesus used the situation to answer Peter in the form of a parable.
The story is of a king who held a day of reckoning with his servants. He found that one owed him ten thousand talents. He was about to cast the servant into prison and sell his wife and family and all his goods. But in answer to the servant’s pleadings for mercy, he forgave the debt and let him go. Immediately that servant went out and found a fellow servant who owed him one hundred denarii. He would not listen to the request for time to pay, but threw him into prison until the debt was paid down to the last penny. The other servants, enraged by this injustice went to the king and told him what had happened. The king sent for the servant and told him he should have forgiven the debtor as he had been forgiven, and because he had been merciless, treated him without mercy until the debt of ten thousand talents was discharged.
This parable has some very interesting comparisons. Ten thousand talents would be about $12 million. One hundred dinarii would be about $25. When you consider that the annual taxes collected by Rome from all the provinces in the region amounted to less than 1,000 talents, it helps to put the respective debts in perspective.
Adjoining the entry to the Good Samaritan Hospital here in Los Angeles is the Dosan Hall dedicated to Korean culture. When I last visited a friend who was a patient there, I saw an art exhibit in tribute to Korea’s first community leader, Dosan Ahn Chang Ho, for whom the Hall is named. The exhibit documented his many contributions in America, his participation in Korea’s independence movement, and his death in a Japanese prison.
From his life here in America, he realized that Korea would never be a strong, united country until its people developed a sense of personal pride that would create the basis of a cohesive country. He began by instilling this resolve among his fellow immigrants picking oranges in Riverside. He taught them to have pride in the most mundane tasks, even that of picking a single orange. He opened schools to educate Koreans about pride and civic duty. and developed four guiding principles – “Mooshil” (Truth/Sincerity), “Ryukhang” (Achieveing Truth), “Choongeui” (Loyalty) and “Yonggam” (Bravery), and developed his now famous quotes, “Love oneself, love others,” and “We must correct our own mistakes, and be indifferent on others mistakes.”
One of the faults of the unforgiving servant was that he demanded standards of others that he was not prepared to demand of himself. Of all human faults this is most common. We are, for instance, very critical of others and very easy with ourselves. We are often open-eyed to the faults of others and unwilling to see our own. What is candid frankness in us is discourteous speech in others. What is selfishness in others is standing on our indisputable rights in our own case. What is cheapness in others is thrift in us. Should we fail in something we produce a half dozen valid reasons that in others would be feeble excuses. We should think more of Jesus commandment to do to others as we would have them do to us. If we treat others with the same understanding charity with which we usually treat ourselves it would be a happier world with fewer conflicts. Confucius, the Chinese sage, taught his followers, “If you want to be treated nicely, you must be nice to others, too.”
The main lesson of the parable is that we cannot receive the forgiveness of God until we have shown forgiveness to our fellow human beings. The parable may be said to be a commentary on two things Jesus said. First, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). Second, “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).
At this time two years ago, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton attended services for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, at the Temple of the Arts in Beverly Hills at the invitation of Rabbi David Baron and spoke about a subject close to her heart, forgiveness.
She said, “I’ve had quite a bit of opportunity to think about forgiveness. Forgiveness is not a luxury. It’s a responsibility. Forgiveness may not take away our pain, but the act of offering it will keep us from being sucked into the downward spiral of resentment. Learning the lessons of forgiveness is hard. It takes years, if at all, for them to become rooted in our own souls and hearts in a way that opens our minds and our souls to the real profound meaning and opportunity that forgiveness offers.
She continued, “My first real experience with observing the power of forgiveness came at the 1994 inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa. Mandela said he was especially honored to have in the audience three jailers from the prison on Robben Island, where he had served 27 years. I was dumbstruck that in the midst of this historic moment, the three people who were asked to rise – amid all the royalty, presidents and prime ministers and other important officials – were three of his former jailers.”
The incident made such an impression that when she saw Mandela in ensuing years, she broached the subject. He told her that he got the insight about what hatred was doing to him as he was breaking rocks in a quarry one day. He realized that his abusers had taken everything away from him except his mind and heart. At that moment, Senator Clinton said the former South African president told her, he decided he did not want to live in bitterness and anger.
He said that when he finally walked out of prison a free man, he knew he had to leave the feelings of anger and bitterness behind or he would remain imprisoned.
Senator Clinton concluded with these final words, “Now, most of us will never face years of prison and hard labor at the hands of those who denigrate and degrade our very beings, but all of us will confront feelings of resentment, of being wronged. How fortunate we are to have an opportunity to take time out as you are doing here on Yom Kippur to think of the large issues that really matter in life. Each year, going back to Leviticus, the Jewish people have recognized both the psychological and theological power of atonement and forgiveness.”
Though forgiveness is a wonderful thing, we find in life, it is not forgiveness that governs our actions but the bitter heart and desire for vengeance. God’s inflow of mercy to us must coincide with our outflow of mercy to others. The Lord’s Prayer is very definite in this respect. It follows that when we pray this prayer with bitterness in our hearts, with a quarrel still separating us from another, we are deliberately asking God not to forgive us, because we have not forgiven others.
The contrast of the unpayable debt which the servant owed the king compared to the trifling sum owed by his fellow servant serves to remind us that any wrong done to us is nothing compared to the wrong we have done to God.
When we disobey God, when we disregard Him, when we move Him out of any part of our life, we are not so much sinning against law as we are sinning against love. We are not so much breaking God’s law as we are breaking God’s heart. It is possible to pay some kind of a legal penalty to compensate for breaking a law, but it is impossible to do anything to atone for a broken heart. Therefore, the debt we owe to God is infinitely greater than any debt anyone can owe us.
We have the privilege of being forgiven by God and the duty of forgiving others. That is what a real Christian life demands of us. If we would enter into real fellowship with God, we must learn by His grace to forgive as He forgives.
This is one of the parables that comes directly from its context. It all begins with a question asked by Peter, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Peter probably expected Jesus to say, “Good fellow; you could not have acted more nobly than that.” After all, Peter was offering more than twice what the Jewish Law required of him. However, Jesus used the situation to answer Peter in the form of a parable.
The story is of a king who held a day of reckoning with his servants. He found that one owed him ten thousand talents. He was about to cast the servant into prison and sell his wife and family and all his goods. But in answer to the servant’s pleadings for mercy, he forgave the debt and let him go. Immediately that servant went out and found a fellow servant who owed him one hundred denarii. He would not listen to the request for time to pay, but threw him into prison until the debt was paid down to the last penny. The other servants, enraged by this injustice went to the king and told him what had happened. The king sent for the servant and told him he should have forgiven the debtor as he had been forgiven, and because he had been merciless, treated him without mercy until the debt of ten thousand talents was discharged.
This parable has some very interesting comparisons. Ten thousand talents would be about $12 million. One hundred dinarii would be about $25. When you consider that the annual taxes collected by Rome from all the provinces in the region amounted to less than 1,000 talents, it helps to put the respective debts in perspective.
Adjoining the entry to the Good Samaritan Hospital here in Los Angeles is the Dosan Hall dedicated to Korean culture. When I last visited a friend who was a patient there, I saw an art exhibit in tribute to Korea’s first community leader, Dosan Ahn Chang Ho, for whom the Hall is named. The exhibit documented his many contributions in America, his participation in Korea’s independence movement, and his death in a Japanese prison.
From his life here in America, he realized that Korea would never be a strong, united country until its people developed a sense of personal pride that would create the basis of a cohesive country. He began by instilling this resolve among his fellow immigrants picking oranges in Riverside. He taught them to have pride in the most mundane tasks, even that of picking a single orange. He opened schools to educate Koreans about pride and civic duty. and developed four guiding principles – “Mooshil” (Truth/Sincerity), “Ryukhang” (Achieveing Truth), “Choongeui” (Loyalty) and “Yonggam” (Bravery), and developed his now famous quotes, “Love oneself, love others,” and “We must correct our own mistakes, and be indifferent on others mistakes.”
One of the faults of the unforgiving servant was that he demanded standards of others that he was not prepared to demand of himself. Of all human faults this is most common. We are, for instance, very critical of others and very easy with ourselves. We are often open-eyed to the faults of others and unwilling to see our own. What is candid frankness in us is discourteous speech in others. What is selfishness in others is standing on our indisputable rights in our own case. What is cheapness in others is thrift in us. Should we fail in something we produce a half dozen valid reasons that in others would be feeble excuses. We should think more of Jesus commandment to do to others as we would have them do to us. If we treat others with the same understanding charity with which we usually treat ourselves it would be a happier world with fewer conflicts. Confucius, the Chinese sage, taught his followers, “If you want to be treated nicely, you must be nice to others, too.”
The main lesson of the parable is that we cannot receive the forgiveness of God until we have shown forgiveness to our fellow human beings. The parable may be said to be a commentary on two things Jesus said. First, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). Second, “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).
At this time two years ago, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton attended services for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, at the Temple of the Arts in Beverly Hills at the invitation of Rabbi David Baron and spoke about a subject close to her heart, forgiveness.
She said, “I’ve had quite a bit of opportunity to think about forgiveness. Forgiveness is not a luxury. It’s a responsibility. Forgiveness may not take away our pain, but the act of offering it will keep us from being sucked into the downward spiral of resentment. Learning the lessons of forgiveness is hard. It takes years, if at all, for them to become rooted in our own souls and hearts in a way that opens our minds and our souls to the real profound meaning and opportunity that forgiveness offers.
She continued, “My first real experience with observing the power of forgiveness came at the 1994 inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa. Mandela said he was especially honored to have in the audience three jailers from the prison on Robben Island, where he had served 27 years. I was dumbstruck that in the midst of this historic moment, the three people who were asked to rise – amid all the royalty, presidents and prime ministers and other important officials – were three of his former jailers.”
The incident made such an impression that when she saw Mandela in ensuing years, she broached the subject. He told her that he got the insight about what hatred was doing to him as he was breaking rocks in a quarry one day. He realized that his abusers had taken everything away from him except his mind and heart. At that moment, Senator Clinton said the former South African president told her, he decided he did not want to live in bitterness and anger.
He said that when he finally walked out of prison a free man, he knew he had to leave the feelings of anger and bitterness behind or he would remain imprisoned.
Senator Clinton concluded with these final words, “Now, most of us will never face years of prison and hard labor at the hands of those who denigrate and degrade our very beings, but all of us will confront feelings of resentment, of being wronged. How fortunate we are to have an opportunity to take time out as you are doing here on Yom Kippur to think of the large issues that really matter in life. Each year, going back to Leviticus, the Jewish people have recognized both the psychological and theological power of atonement and forgiveness.”
Though forgiveness is a wonderful thing, we find in life, it is not forgiveness that governs our actions but the bitter heart and desire for vengeance. God’s inflow of mercy to us must coincide with our outflow of mercy to others. The Lord’s Prayer is very definite in this respect. It follows that when we pray this prayer with bitterness in our hearts, with a quarrel still separating us from another, we are deliberately asking God not to forgive us, because we have not forgiven others.
The contrast of the unpayable debt which the servant owed the king compared to the trifling sum owed by his fellow servant serves to remind us that any wrong done to us is nothing compared to the wrong we have done to God.
When we disobey God, when we disregard Him, when we move Him out of any part of our life, we are not so much sinning against law as we are sinning against love. We are not so much breaking God’s law as we are breaking God’s heart. It is possible to pay some kind of a legal penalty to compensate for breaking a law, but it is impossible to do anything to atone for a broken heart. Therefore, the debt we owe to God is infinitely greater than any debt anyone can owe us.
We have the privilege of being forgiven by God and the duty of forgiving others. That is what a real Christian life demands of us. If we would enter into real fellowship with God, we must learn by His grace to forgive as He forgives.
September 10, 2007
September 5, 2007 - God be merciful to me, a sinner - Hayward Fong
Luke 18:9-14
For several years, we have been studying the Gospels through the parables. Parables are said to be earthly stories with heavenly meanings. We have read this morning another story from real life, only the names have been omitted. The action takes place in the temple courts. The Jews are called to prayer four times a day, 9 a.m., noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Two men come to pray.
One is a Pharisee. The literal meaning of Pharisee is “the separated one.” Beginning with the principles of the Ten Commandments, the Jewish scribes and rabbis had amplified the Law into tens of thousands of petty regulations covering every moment and every action in life. They considered these regulations a matter of life and death. Our governmental bureaucrats must have taken a lesson from them.
Take for example, the regulations governing the washing of ones hands. To eat food without washing hands was a grave sin leading to poverty and disaster. Washing hands is obviously a good health measure. But the Law prescribed how much water was to be used, how the hands were to be rubbed, in what direction the water was to be poured, how far to wash up the arm, etc. If anything was changed or omitted it was a deadly sin.
No ordinary mortal could conceivably observe all these details and carry out the business of daily life. So the Pharisees separated themselves from ordinary activities of life and in so doing separated themselves from their fellow men. They considered it a defilement to have any business or social intercourse with anyone who did not observe the law as meticulously as they. They were not bad men. I would consider them earnest masochists. I can’t believe that anyone would make themselves so uncomfortable as they did. They knew they were good and everyone else was bad.
So the Pharisee stood and prayed. Standing is a normal position for Jews to pray. Nothing out of the ordinary, except if we are to read between the lines, he made sure that he was seen and heard. Prayers are acts of thanksgiving to God, but this man was not really grateful to God. On the contrary, he couldn’t find enough words of self praise, of how he was well pleased with himself. He’s telling God how he has gone the second mile in observing all the minutia of the law. The only obligatory fast among the Jews was on the day of Atonement. But people could, if they felt so disposed, fast on Mondays and Thursdays. These were the days of the midweek service in the Synagogue because Moses was supposed to have ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Law on a Monday and to have come back down on a Thursday. The Pharisee gave tithes of all his income; here again he is claiming credit for going beyond what is necessary.
After his litany of self-righteousness, he directs God’s attention to the man in the far corner by comparing his righteous self with the tax collector. The Roman way of collecting taxes was to assess an area and let it out to bid. As long as Rome got the taxes that were assessed, they didn’t care how and what the tax collector got from the people in the area. The unscrupulous ones would come up with all manner of things and activities to tax. Does that sound familiar? Our water and electric bills in Los Angeles include assessments for trash collecting equipment, sewer charge as well as a utility tax. Our telephone bill includes mysterious charges that no one can explain, except to say that they’re just passing through excise charges levied on them by the federal government or recovering costs they had to pay other agencies.
Well these tax collectors in Jesus’ time had innovative ideas. They might levy toll fees for people coming through a gate, crossing a bridge, or entering a harbor, bringing in merchandise from another area. As an aside, Los Angeles and Long Beach are working on a shipping container levy, estimated to bring in tens of millions of dollars each year to be used in reducing the pollution brought about by these ships entering the harbor. Back to the tax collectors, the crowning blow was that they were generally Jews who had sold themselves into the hands of the Romans in order to make a profit out of their fellow countrymen. Tax collectors were classed by public opinion with robbers and murderers. Tax collectors were probably the most hated men in the area.
Having said that, there must have been some grace in this tax collector for why would he be in the temple praying at all? He undoubtedly knew of his unworthiness, for Jesus says he stood far off and he didn’t look up, but stood with downcast eyes. He prayed, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” Bible commentators tell us that in the Greek, it is the sinner, the tax collector regarding himself as the supreme sinner, not judging others, only himself. Yes, this man was closer to God than the Pharisee who was only touting his own virtues.
One of the things that pops out from Luke’s record of the Pharisee is that his goodness is negative. He congratulated himself primarily on the things he did not do. The Golden Rule exists in many other religions in its negative form.
Brahmanism: “This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.” (Mahabharata 5:15:17)
Buddhism: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. (Udana-Varga 5:18)
Confucianism: “Surely it is the maxim of loving kindness: Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you. (Analects 15:23)
Taoism: “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.” (T’ai Shang Kan Ying P’ien)
Zoroastrianism: “That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself.” (Dasistan-I-dinik 95:5)
Islam: “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.” (Sunnah)
Judaism: “What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. That is the entire law; all the rest is commentary.” (Talmud, Shabbat 31a)
Christianity: “Do to others what you want them to do to you. This is the meaning of the Law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12, N.C.V.)
In essence, all the religions other than Christianity and perhaps Islam express the rule in its negative form-“Don’t do to others what you do not want them to do to you.” In its negative form, living the rule is comparatively easy. It means that there are certain things which you must refrain from doing. But in its positive form it means we have to be pro-active; we must go out of our way to be kind to others as we would like them to be to us. It may not be too difficult to refrain from doing things, but it is godlike to do things in the spirit of love. The result is that the person whose religion consists of not doing things may be well pleased with himself; but the man whose religion involves doing things will always realize that he has not done all he ought to have done.
At the end of the day, God will not ask, “What did you not do?” He will ask, “What did you do?” We may say, “I never injured anyone;” but the question is “What did we do to make others happier and their life easier.” A negative religión is only half a religión and leads to a negative life.
The great lesson to be learned from this parable is the need for humility. Humility is of the essence of greatness.
There is the story told of a group of American tourists in Germany visiting the home of the famous German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. They were shown the room and the piano on which Beethoven composed the Moonlight Sonata. A young American girl sat down and played the first movement. When she had finished, the guide said, “You will be interested to know that we had Jan Paderewski himself as a visitor here last week.” And the girl said, “And I’ll bet he did just what I did; I’ll bet he sat down and played the sonata.” “No, madame,” said the guide, “he did not. Everyone besought him to but he said, ‘Ah no! I am not worthy.’” The self-confident girl would touch the notes Beethoven touched; the humble maestro was too humble to do so.
Near the end of his life, the noted English poet Thomas Hardy sent a poem for publication by the London Times, enclosing a self-addressed stamped envelope for its return should it be rejected. The rejection of a poem from this writer would have been incredible but this great man was so humble that it seemed possible to him.
If we are to acquire knowledge we need humility. One who knows it all already will never learn. Long ago the Greek philosopher Plato said, “He is the wisest man who knows himself to be ill-qualified for attainment of wisdom.” The famous Roman teacher Marcus Quintilian once said of certain contemporary scholars, “They would doubtless have become excellent scholars if they had not been so fully persuaded of their own scholarship.” It was the great British scientist, Sir. Isaac Newton, who said, “We are all like children playing with pebbles on the shore, perhaps finding a pebble a little prettier than the other, while the great ocean of truth lay undiscovered before us.” The person who will learn must take as his motto, “Teach me,” for only when he is humble enough to know his ignorance will he begin to learn, and the more he knows, the more he will realize the extent of what he does not know.
So, if we are to know God, we need to have humility.
First, we need a sense of our inadequacy. In my opinión, one of our nation’s greatest presidents was Abraham Lincoln. When people complained to Lincoln that he wasted time in prayer, he answered, “I would be the greatest fool on earth if I thought I could carry the burdens that are laid upon me for one day without the help of one greater and wiser than I.” We need the realization that we cannot cope with life by ourselves.
Second, we need a sense of sin. Paul knew this; in his writing to Timothy, Paul refers to himself as the foremost of sinners. (I Timothy 1:15) Francis of Assisi said of himself, “Nowhere is there a more wretched, a more miserable, a poorer creature than I.”
An analysis of Paul’s writings shows a growing awareness of need for humility. In what was probably the first of his letters, Galatians 1:1, he writes of himself “Paul an apostle.” During the zenith of his work, he refers to himself in I Corinthians 15:9, “I am the least of the apostles, unfit to speak as an apostle.” Then in Ephesians 3:8 nearing the end of his ministry, he speaks of himself as being “the very least of all saints.” The term saint was the early Christian word for members of the Church. Finally at the end, he speaks of himself as “the foremost of sinners.” Paul’s self-assessment evolves from apostle to a feeling he is not worthy of that office to that of thinking himself as the least of all Church members and finally as “chief of sinners.”
As he grew older and came closer to Jesus Christ, Paul could see more clearly the difference between himself and his Lord. The cure for self-satisfaction is to set our life besides the life of Christ. Then there is no room for self-congratulation any more. It has been said that the gate to heaven is so low that no one can enter it except upon his knees. God gives grace to the humble but He resists the proud.
References: Barclay 99105; 021104; Johnston Fellowship 071705; 072005; International Church of Ageless Wisdom: Golden Rule; Thomas Hardy (1840-1928); Plato (c.427-347 B.C.); Marcus Fabius Quintilinus (AD c.35-95); Sir Issac Newton (1642-1727); Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865); St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226); Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1826); Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941).
For several years, we have been studying the Gospels through the parables. Parables are said to be earthly stories with heavenly meanings. We have read this morning another story from real life, only the names have been omitted. The action takes place in the temple courts. The Jews are called to prayer four times a day, 9 a.m., noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Two men come to pray.
One is a Pharisee. The literal meaning of Pharisee is “the separated one.” Beginning with the principles of the Ten Commandments, the Jewish scribes and rabbis had amplified the Law into tens of thousands of petty regulations covering every moment and every action in life. They considered these regulations a matter of life and death. Our governmental bureaucrats must have taken a lesson from them.
Take for example, the regulations governing the washing of ones hands. To eat food without washing hands was a grave sin leading to poverty and disaster. Washing hands is obviously a good health measure. But the Law prescribed how much water was to be used, how the hands were to be rubbed, in what direction the water was to be poured, how far to wash up the arm, etc. If anything was changed or omitted it was a deadly sin.
No ordinary mortal could conceivably observe all these details and carry out the business of daily life. So the Pharisees separated themselves from ordinary activities of life and in so doing separated themselves from their fellow men. They considered it a defilement to have any business or social intercourse with anyone who did not observe the law as meticulously as they. They were not bad men. I would consider them earnest masochists. I can’t believe that anyone would make themselves so uncomfortable as they did. They knew they were good and everyone else was bad.
So the Pharisee stood and prayed. Standing is a normal position for Jews to pray. Nothing out of the ordinary, except if we are to read between the lines, he made sure that he was seen and heard. Prayers are acts of thanksgiving to God, but this man was not really grateful to God. On the contrary, he couldn’t find enough words of self praise, of how he was well pleased with himself. He’s telling God how he has gone the second mile in observing all the minutia of the law. The only obligatory fast among the Jews was on the day of Atonement. But people could, if they felt so disposed, fast on Mondays and Thursdays. These were the days of the midweek service in the Synagogue because Moses was supposed to have ascended Mount Sinai to receive the Law on a Monday and to have come back down on a Thursday. The Pharisee gave tithes of all his income; here again he is claiming credit for going beyond what is necessary.
After his litany of self-righteousness, he directs God’s attention to the man in the far corner by comparing his righteous self with the tax collector. The Roman way of collecting taxes was to assess an area and let it out to bid. As long as Rome got the taxes that were assessed, they didn’t care how and what the tax collector got from the people in the area. The unscrupulous ones would come up with all manner of things and activities to tax. Does that sound familiar? Our water and electric bills in Los Angeles include assessments for trash collecting equipment, sewer charge as well as a utility tax. Our telephone bill includes mysterious charges that no one can explain, except to say that they’re just passing through excise charges levied on them by the federal government or recovering costs they had to pay other agencies.
Well these tax collectors in Jesus’ time had innovative ideas. They might levy toll fees for people coming through a gate, crossing a bridge, or entering a harbor, bringing in merchandise from another area. As an aside, Los Angeles and Long Beach are working on a shipping container levy, estimated to bring in tens of millions of dollars each year to be used in reducing the pollution brought about by these ships entering the harbor. Back to the tax collectors, the crowning blow was that they were generally Jews who had sold themselves into the hands of the Romans in order to make a profit out of their fellow countrymen. Tax collectors were classed by public opinion with robbers and murderers. Tax collectors were probably the most hated men in the area.
Having said that, there must have been some grace in this tax collector for why would he be in the temple praying at all? He undoubtedly knew of his unworthiness, for Jesus says he stood far off and he didn’t look up, but stood with downcast eyes. He prayed, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” Bible commentators tell us that in the Greek, it is the sinner, the tax collector regarding himself as the supreme sinner, not judging others, only himself. Yes, this man was closer to God than the Pharisee who was only touting his own virtues.
One of the things that pops out from Luke’s record of the Pharisee is that his goodness is negative. He congratulated himself primarily on the things he did not do. The Golden Rule exists in many other religions in its negative form.
Brahmanism: “This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.” (Mahabharata 5:15:17)
Buddhism: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. (Udana-Varga 5:18)
Confucianism: “Surely it is the maxim of loving kindness: Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you. (Analects 15:23)
Taoism: “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.” (T’ai Shang Kan Ying P’ien)
Zoroastrianism: “That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself.” (Dasistan-I-dinik 95:5)
Islam: “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.” (Sunnah)
Judaism: “What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. That is the entire law; all the rest is commentary.” (Talmud, Shabbat 31a)
Christianity: “Do to others what you want them to do to you. This is the meaning of the Law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12, N.C.V.)
In essence, all the religions other than Christianity and perhaps Islam express the rule in its negative form-“Don’t do to others what you do not want them to do to you.” In its negative form, living the rule is comparatively easy. It means that there are certain things which you must refrain from doing. But in its positive form it means we have to be pro-active; we must go out of our way to be kind to others as we would like them to be to us. It may not be too difficult to refrain from doing things, but it is godlike to do things in the spirit of love. The result is that the person whose religion consists of not doing things may be well pleased with himself; but the man whose religion involves doing things will always realize that he has not done all he ought to have done.
At the end of the day, God will not ask, “What did you not do?” He will ask, “What did you do?” We may say, “I never injured anyone;” but the question is “What did we do to make others happier and their life easier.” A negative religión is only half a religión and leads to a negative life.
The great lesson to be learned from this parable is the need for humility. Humility is of the essence of greatness.
There is the story told of a group of American tourists in Germany visiting the home of the famous German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. They were shown the room and the piano on which Beethoven composed the Moonlight Sonata. A young American girl sat down and played the first movement. When she had finished, the guide said, “You will be interested to know that we had Jan Paderewski himself as a visitor here last week.” And the girl said, “And I’ll bet he did just what I did; I’ll bet he sat down and played the sonata.” “No, madame,” said the guide, “he did not. Everyone besought him to but he said, ‘Ah no! I am not worthy.’” The self-confident girl would touch the notes Beethoven touched; the humble maestro was too humble to do so.
Near the end of his life, the noted English poet Thomas Hardy sent a poem for publication by the London Times, enclosing a self-addressed stamped envelope for its return should it be rejected. The rejection of a poem from this writer would have been incredible but this great man was so humble that it seemed possible to him.
If we are to acquire knowledge we need humility. One who knows it all already will never learn. Long ago the Greek philosopher Plato said, “He is the wisest man who knows himself to be ill-qualified for attainment of wisdom.” The famous Roman teacher Marcus Quintilian once said of certain contemporary scholars, “They would doubtless have become excellent scholars if they had not been so fully persuaded of their own scholarship.” It was the great British scientist, Sir. Isaac Newton, who said, “We are all like children playing with pebbles on the shore, perhaps finding a pebble a little prettier than the other, while the great ocean of truth lay undiscovered before us.” The person who will learn must take as his motto, “Teach me,” for only when he is humble enough to know his ignorance will he begin to learn, and the more he knows, the more he will realize the extent of what he does not know.
So, if we are to know God, we need to have humility.
First, we need a sense of our inadequacy. In my opinión, one of our nation’s greatest presidents was Abraham Lincoln. When people complained to Lincoln that he wasted time in prayer, he answered, “I would be the greatest fool on earth if I thought I could carry the burdens that are laid upon me for one day without the help of one greater and wiser than I.” We need the realization that we cannot cope with life by ourselves.
Second, we need a sense of sin. Paul knew this; in his writing to Timothy, Paul refers to himself as the foremost of sinners. (I Timothy 1:15) Francis of Assisi said of himself, “Nowhere is there a more wretched, a more miserable, a poorer creature than I.”
An analysis of Paul’s writings shows a growing awareness of need for humility. In what was probably the first of his letters, Galatians 1:1, he writes of himself “Paul an apostle.” During the zenith of his work, he refers to himself in I Corinthians 15:9, “I am the least of the apostles, unfit to speak as an apostle.” Then in Ephesians 3:8 nearing the end of his ministry, he speaks of himself as being “the very least of all saints.” The term saint was the early Christian word for members of the Church. Finally at the end, he speaks of himself as “the foremost of sinners.” Paul’s self-assessment evolves from apostle to a feeling he is not worthy of that office to that of thinking himself as the least of all Church members and finally as “chief of sinners.”
As he grew older and came closer to Jesus Christ, Paul could see more clearly the difference between himself and his Lord. The cure for self-satisfaction is to set our life besides the life of Christ. Then there is no room for self-congratulation any more. It has been said that the gate to heaven is so low that no one can enter it except upon his knees. God gives grace to the humble but He resists the proud.
References: Barclay 99105; 021104; Johnston Fellowship 071705; 072005; International Church of Ageless Wisdom: Golden Rule; Thomas Hardy (1840-1928); Plato (c.427-347 B.C.); Marcus Fabius Quintilinus (AD c.35-95); Sir Issac Newton (1642-1727); Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865); St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226); Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1826); Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941).
September 3, 2007
August 29, 2007 - Be Humble and Be Exalted - Hayward Fong
Luke 14:7-11
It was at a dinner to which Jesus had been invited that he told this parable. According to Luke, he had already told a parable at this dinner before this one. It may be that Jesus was describing some event that had actually taken place. It was the type of conduct that often happened in this time and place of history.
Feasts in Palestine were held around a low “U” shaped table. Guests would be seated on low couches, or more accurately, they would recline on the couches. The host would sit at the center of the top side. The first place of honor would be at his right-hand side; the second place at his left-hand side. The third place of honor would be the second place on the right, the fourth place of honor the second place on the left, and so forth around the table.
As a side note, this center stage seating arrangement is adopted even today at formal banquets and organizations such as the United States Supreme Court, other multi-member courts and military tribunals, where the members are seated according to seniority and rank.
Usually the exact hour of the feast would not be specified. Those who were eager and grateful for the invitation would come early while those who had a feeling of self importance would come late so people could see their arrival.
It was the norm for the socially unimportant to come early and the really important guests to come last. Consequently, if one of the early comers were to take an honored seat the likelihood is that he would be asked to move when the honored guests arrived. So Jesus was advising on how a guest should conduct himself to avoid the embarrassment of being asked to move. Rather than taking one of the honored places, he should take the lowest place he could find so that he might be invited to move up and thus be honored in the presence of his fellow guests.
Herein, Jesus lays down the importance of humility. There are two areas in which humility is of supreme importance. First is in the realm of knowledge. No man will ever begin to learn unless he realizes that he does not know; the first step in learning is the admission of ones ignorance. The other area is in the realm of the spirit. It has been said that the gateway to heaven is so low that no one can enter it except upon his knees. The first essential of all religion is the sense of need. One who is proudly self-sufficient cannot find God but he who is humble enough to know the need will find the way open to God’s presence.
What we need is to find the pathways that lead to humility.
(a) Our physical makeup should keep us humble. Our society is power and force oriented. Nations manifest this in spending on military might, building bigger gas guzzling automobiles, trying to harness the energy of the atom. But the outstanding characteristic about man is his defenselessness – not his strength, but his weakness. The natural disasters of recent date - the hurricanes that have devastated the Caribbean islands, portions of southeastern United States and the Yucatan peninsula, the torrential rains that have flooded the central states from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico to depths of twenty feet, the earthquake in Peru, the typhoons that struck the Philippine, India and areas of the sub-continent, the forest fires in Greece, here in Idaho and Montana, yes as close as the mountains between Santa Barbara and Ojai burning since the 4th of July – all point up to how puny is man’s might. When the famous poet Alexander Pope was dying, he lost his sense of reason. When he recovered and thought about his weakness and humiliation, he confided to a friend, “I wonder now how there can be such a thing as human vanity.” The very fact that life’s machinery can so easily break down, that life’s strength inevitably decays, that life’s faculties become dull should be enough to make man realize his helplessness and to save him from pride.
(b) The smallness of our achievements should keep us humble. The great English poet, John Keats suggested as his own epitaph, “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” To him it seemed that he had left no mark on life. Even a great servant of the Lord as John Wesley said at the end of his life, “I can see nothing that will bear looking at.” It is not uncommon for people to take pride in what they do, but the question is what difference would it make in the life of the world if they were to die tomorrow? If we think we are indispensable, take a walk in a cemetery. The insignificance of our achievement ought to keep us from pride. This is not to say that we should do nothing with what God has gifted us; rather we should put the glory where it belongs, in God.
(c) The smallness of our knowledge should keep us humble. No great scholar has ever been impressed by the amount of knowledge he has acquired. The truly great scholars have always been humbled by the thought of the wide areas of human knowledge of which they knew nothing. It is a paradox of learning that the more a man learns about a subject the more he realizes there is still much more to learn. At the academy of Athens where the cream of Greek youth came to study, the three year classes were not named Freshman, Sophomore, Senior, but rather, “The wise men,” Those who loved wisdom,” and in the final year simply, “The learners.” The further they proceeded into knowledge the more they realized how little they knew. Of all incomprehensible things, intellectual pride is the most incomprehensible. Any thinking man will find his own ignorance far more staggering than any knowledge he may possess.
(d) The fact that we have so little goodness should keep us humble. Here the most important thing is the standard against which we measure ourselves. If we measure ourselves against a low standard, we may be well pleased. And that is what a lot of people do. They claim to be as good as their neighbors, and they probably are. But that is not the yardstick we, as Christians, are called upon to use. As Christians, our comparison is with the goodness of God as revealed in the life of Jesus. And when we compare ourselves with that there is nothing left to say. If ever we feel pride in our own goodness, a moment’s comparison with the life of Jesus will reduce us to the humility we ought to have.
Finally there is the suggestive question – does your own judgment of your worth coincide with the judgment of your fellow men? The man who took the highest place uninvited set a considerable value upon his worth; but it was a judgment which was not endorsed by his colleagues. The judgment of our fellow men is not to be despised. Men instinctively admire honor and honesty, generosity and kindness, straightness and fidelity, the humble and self-effacing spirit. It would often be a salutary experience to know what others are thinking of us.
It was at a dinner to which Jesus had been invited that he told this parable. According to Luke, he had already told a parable at this dinner before this one. It may be that Jesus was describing some event that had actually taken place. It was the type of conduct that often happened in this time and place of history.
Feasts in Palestine were held around a low “U” shaped table. Guests would be seated on low couches, or more accurately, they would recline on the couches. The host would sit at the center of the top side. The first place of honor would be at his right-hand side; the second place at his left-hand side. The third place of honor would be the second place on the right, the fourth place of honor the second place on the left, and so forth around the table.
As a side note, this center stage seating arrangement is adopted even today at formal banquets and organizations such as the United States Supreme Court, other multi-member courts and military tribunals, where the members are seated according to seniority and rank.
Usually the exact hour of the feast would not be specified. Those who were eager and grateful for the invitation would come early while those who had a feeling of self importance would come late so people could see their arrival.
It was the norm for the socially unimportant to come early and the really important guests to come last. Consequently, if one of the early comers were to take an honored seat the likelihood is that he would be asked to move when the honored guests arrived. So Jesus was advising on how a guest should conduct himself to avoid the embarrassment of being asked to move. Rather than taking one of the honored places, he should take the lowest place he could find so that he might be invited to move up and thus be honored in the presence of his fellow guests.
Herein, Jesus lays down the importance of humility. There are two areas in which humility is of supreme importance. First is in the realm of knowledge. No man will ever begin to learn unless he realizes that he does not know; the first step in learning is the admission of ones ignorance. The other area is in the realm of the spirit. It has been said that the gateway to heaven is so low that no one can enter it except upon his knees. The first essential of all religion is the sense of need. One who is proudly self-sufficient cannot find God but he who is humble enough to know the need will find the way open to God’s presence.
What we need is to find the pathways that lead to humility.
(a) Our physical makeup should keep us humble. Our society is power and force oriented. Nations manifest this in spending on military might, building bigger gas guzzling automobiles, trying to harness the energy of the atom. But the outstanding characteristic about man is his defenselessness – not his strength, but his weakness. The natural disasters of recent date - the hurricanes that have devastated the Caribbean islands, portions of southeastern United States and the Yucatan peninsula, the torrential rains that have flooded the central states from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico to depths of twenty feet, the earthquake in Peru, the typhoons that struck the Philippine, India and areas of the sub-continent, the forest fires in Greece, here in Idaho and Montana, yes as close as the mountains between Santa Barbara and Ojai burning since the 4th of July – all point up to how puny is man’s might. When the famous poet Alexander Pope was dying, he lost his sense of reason. When he recovered and thought about his weakness and humiliation, he confided to a friend, “I wonder now how there can be such a thing as human vanity.” The very fact that life’s machinery can so easily break down, that life’s strength inevitably decays, that life’s faculties become dull should be enough to make man realize his helplessness and to save him from pride.
(b) The smallness of our achievements should keep us humble. The great English poet, John Keats suggested as his own epitaph, “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” To him it seemed that he had left no mark on life. Even a great servant of the Lord as John Wesley said at the end of his life, “I can see nothing that will bear looking at.” It is not uncommon for people to take pride in what they do, but the question is what difference would it make in the life of the world if they were to die tomorrow? If we think we are indispensable, take a walk in a cemetery. The insignificance of our achievement ought to keep us from pride. This is not to say that we should do nothing with what God has gifted us; rather we should put the glory where it belongs, in God.
(c) The smallness of our knowledge should keep us humble. No great scholar has ever been impressed by the amount of knowledge he has acquired. The truly great scholars have always been humbled by the thought of the wide areas of human knowledge of which they knew nothing. It is a paradox of learning that the more a man learns about a subject the more he realizes there is still much more to learn. At the academy of Athens where the cream of Greek youth came to study, the three year classes were not named Freshman, Sophomore, Senior, but rather, “The wise men,” Those who loved wisdom,” and in the final year simply, “The learners.” The further they proceeded into knowledge the more they realized how little they knew. Of all incomprehensible things, intellectual pride is the most incomprehensible. Any thinking man will find his own ignorance far more staggering than any knowledge he may possess.
(d) The fact that we have so little goodness should keep us humble. Here the most important thing is the standard against which we measure ourselves. If we measure ourselves against a low standard, we may be well pleased. And that is what a lot of people do. They claim to be as good as their neighbors, and they probably are. But that is not the yardstick we, as Christians, are called upon to use. As Christians, our comparison is with the goodness of God as revealed in the life of Jesus. And when we compare ourselves with that there is nothing left to say. If ever we feel pride in our own goodness, a moment’s comparison with the life of Jesus will reduce us to the humility we ought to have.
Finally there is the suggestive question – does your own judgment of your worth coincide with the judgment of your fellow men? The man who took the highest place uninvited set a considerable value upon his worth; but it was a judgment which was not endorsed by his colleagues. The judgment of our fellow men is not to be despised. Men instinctively admire honor and honesty, generosity and kindness, straightness and fidelity, the humble and self-effacing spirit. It would often be a salutary experience to know what others are thinking of us.
August 22, 2007 - First Century Parable: Twenty-First Century Crimes - Hayward Fong
Luke 16:1-12
Hardly a day goes by that we don’t read or hear about some crime being committed through manipulations with the computer and how the computer and internet have facilitated what we call white collar crimes.
It is an almost daily event for counterfeit DVDs of first run movies to be on the streets of Asian cities the day after the shows premier in the Western cities.
Nefarious off shore banks have been created on the computer, accumulating billions of dollars in deposits with pie-in-the sky interest promises. The deposits were transferred to various secret locations leaving the institutions bankrupt and the founders disappearing to obscure countries that have no extradition agreements. Thousands of people, mostly Americans, have lost their savings, with no hope of recovering one penny.
Numerous corporations with doctored financial reports that concealed their real net worth have gone bankrupt wiping out the 401(k) investments by their employees in the corporations and thus their retirement nest eggs. These are not fly-by-night entities, but major corporations, major players on Wall Street whose names no longer exist.
Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, October 11, 2005, Business, Wall St. Roundup
CEO Secretly Shifted Assets
Refco’s chief executive is placed on leave after it is discovered that he had secretly transferred $430 million of the company’s assets to a firm he controlled. The news sent Refco shares plunging $12.96, or 45%, to $15.60.
8 Brokerages Are Fined for Taking Kickbacks
NASD said it fined eight brokerages,…, almost $7.8 million for taking kickbacks from mutual funds…..steered clients into preferred funds in return for payments….In return, the fund firms sent their trading business to the brokerages,…”We continue to pursue conduct which puts the interests of firms ahead of the interest of customers.”….NASD has brought 20 actions for similar violations, including a June case against 15 brokerages that were fined $34 million for pushing certain funds.
Los Angeles Times, August 17, 2007, Business Section.
“Dell reveals it manipulated its books”
The scandal tinged PC maker says it has fired some workers and tightened controls. Dell Inc. said Thursday that it fired and reassigned some employees, instituted stricter controls and planned to restate past financial results by as much as $150 million after an internal investigation found the computer maker had manipulated numbers to its performance targets.
The scandal has dogged Dell…ever since it was disclosed last year that the Security and Exchange Commission was investigating its accounting practices.
“IBM, Pricewaterhouse settle U.S. claims”
IBM Corp. and PricewaterhouseCoopers have agreed to paid nearly $5.3 million combined to settle allegations that they made improper payments on government technology contracts, the Justice Department said Thursday. “The payment of kickbacks or illegal inducements undermine the government procurement process,” said assistant attorney general Peter D. Keisler.
White collar crimes are not limited to corporations but we hear of them also being committed by individuals and small groups.
Hardly a week goes by that we don’t hear of peoples checking accounts being raided after a purchase was made at a convenience store with a bank debit card. The raids were made on weekends when people do not normally check on their bank balances. These debits were in small amounts, 30, 40, 50 cents which “flew” under the security radar warning system that has been set up by the banking industry, but cumulatively added up in the hundreds and thousands of dollars. The debits were credited to exotic locations and accounts on the other side of the world.
Several years ago, a teenager was arrested for manipulating the stock market via the internet. He would buy blocks of penny stocks, hyped them on financial message boards and then dump them after the price rose. In some instances, he would place an order just before the market closed to sell at a specified price, which is known as a limit order. He would do this so he wouldn’t miss an anticipated price hike in the stock while he was in school the next day. The Securities and Exchange Commission monitored these activities and was dismayed that the perpetrator was a 14 year old. In a six-month period, this boy made a quarter million dollars through his nefarious activities. When confronted, he agreed to settle for $285,000 and to refrain from similar behavior in the future.
In our reading this morning, we have a rich man with a manager who took total charge of his business, which was a common practice in those days. Though the master was wealthy, he probably couldn’t read or write and had to entrust the management of his estate to this person. From reading the nature of the transactions, the master was probably a money lender and as such loans were often paid in kind as well as in cash.
The setting is a manager in absolute control of a wealthy, but uneducated master’s affairs, who used his position to carry out a program of embezzlement. When the master caught wind of this, he immediately called the manger to account for the money. The manager had no defense. Though he had a position of trust and responsibility, he was in fact a slave and dismissal would be a quick and final disposition. He would be left without a job and it is highly improbable that anyone would hire someone who had stolen from his master. He was staring starvation in the face.
So the manager set out to plan for his welfare after the inevitable firing. He went to the several debtors and had the accounts altered in their favor. By doing this he figured that he would win the gratitude of these debtors. He may well have intended to prevent their testimony against him by involving them in his own dishonesty. Also he could see the prospect of some blackmail after he was fired. The master caught wind of this, and recognizing this fast move, cynically congratulated the manager for being so astute.
What is the first lesson our Lord teaches us in this parable?
Verse 8, “Yes, worldly people are smarter with their own kind than spiritual people are.” Note that this parable deals with the scheming and conniving of people with larceny in their hearts. The manager had embezzled from his master’s business and is now engaged in escaping the full consequences of his misdemeanors by involving others in a set of criminal conspiracies. These debtors were obviously willing to go along with the manager altering the loan agreements in their favor. I’m sure that both the manager and debtors were wholehearted in favor of this arrangement. The manager was bending every effort to maintain his comfort after he’s fired, and the debtors were jumping at the chance to cancel a portion of their debts.
So, what Jesus was telling his disciples and us is, if Christians were as keen on their Christianity as these men were on their nefarious business it would be a greatly different world. We might ask ourselves, how much time do we give to things of Christianity in comparison to our other activities. How much time do we devote to prayer and meditation, in the study of God’s work? Jesus is saying, “Look at the way these worldly persons work for the things they value; if you would work at your Christianity with the same enthusiasm, what a difference you and the world would be.”
Verse 9 gives rise to another lesson. “I tell you, make friends for yourselves using worldly riches so that when those riches are gone, you will be welcomed in those homes that continue forever.”
Saying it another way, “Use your material possessions to make friends for yourself so that in the day of trouble you may reap the benefit of those friendships, just as the manager used his control o money to make friends for himself.”
The question is, “How should we deal with our material possessions?” People and how they treat material possessions generally fall in three basic groupings.
First, there are those who regard money as an enemy and refuse to have anything to do with it. They depend on the charity of others; obviously if all were like them there would be no one to give charity. Jesus’ life refutes this approach. He worked as a carpenter, serving the public and made a living for his family. He would never have dismissed material things as things which man must have nothing to do with.
The second group includes those who regard money as a master, people who are slaves to money. This is the case of the miser or one who desires to make money and does not care how it is made. These people may make it by methods which are dishonest or ruin other people. I think the principals in my introductory news articles are marquee actors of this group.
The third group includes those who regard money as a friend. These people use money wisely and unselfishly, thereby doing good to themselves and others. If we use material things properly we will neither worship nor despise them, but use them to bring strength, beauty and comfort to our lives and the lives of others.
Dr. Frank Boreham, one of the foremost preachers and writers of the early 20th century tells of a meeting at which Christian people were describing their religious experiences. One woman sat silent. She was asked to speak but she refused. From the look on her face it was easy to see that something was badly wrong. When asked what the matter was she answered that more than one of the people who had just made glowing testimonies to Christ owed her money-and her family was near to starving. There could be no sincerity in testimonies like that. If we use material things rightly, we will neither worship them nor despise them, but use them to bring strength, beauty and comfort to our own lives and the lives of others.
Finally, Luke sets forth a final lesson in verse 10-12. The essence is in the first phrase, “Whoever can be trusted with a little can also be trusted with a lot…” If this is to be a lesson of the parable, then the meaning is that if we show ourselves untrustworthy, as the manager did, no one will trust us. There is no greater virtue than that of fidelity and no fault which so condemns a person as untrustworthiness.
God needs people of fidelity and trustworthiness to serve Him and his creation. If there is one motto that should always stand before us, it is “Character counts.”
Hardly a day goes by that we don’t read or hear about some crime being committed through manipulations with the computer and how the computer and internet have facilitated what we call white collar crimes.
It is an almost daily event for counterfeit DVDs of first run movies to be on the streets of Asian cities the day after the shows premier in the Western cities.
Nefarious off shore banks have been created on the computer, accumulating billions of dollars in deposits with pie-in-the sky interest promises. The deposits were transferred to various secret locations leaving the institutions bankrupt and the founders disappearing to obscure countries that have no extradition agreements. Thousands of people, mostly Americans, have lost their savings, with no hope of recovering one penny.
Numerous corporations with doctored financial reports that concealed their real net worth have gone bankrupt wiping out the 401(k) investments by their employees in the corporations and thus their retirement nest eggs. These are not fly-by-night entities, but major corporations, major players on Wall Street whose names no longer exist.
Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, October 11, 2005, Business, Wall St. Roundup
CEO Secretly Shifted Assets
Refco’s chief executive is placed on leave after it is discovered that he had secretly transferred $430 million of the company’s assets to a firm he controlled. The news sent Refco shares plunging $12.96, or 45%, to $15.60.
8 Brokerages Are Fined for Taking Kickbacks
NASD said it fined eight brokerages,…, almost $7.8 million for taking kickbacks from mutual funds…..steered clients into preferred funds in return for payments….In return, the fund firms sent their trading business to the brokerages,…”We continue to pursue conduct which puts the interests of firms ahead of the interest of customers.”….NASD has brought 20 actions for similar violations, including a June case against 15 brokerages that were fined $34 million for pushing certain funds.
Los Angeles Times, August 17, 2007, Business Section.
“Dell reveals it manipulated its books”
The scandal tinged PC maker says it has fired some workers and tightened controls. Dell Inc. said Thursday that it fired and reassigned some employees, instituted stricter controls and planned to restate past financial results by as much as $150 million after an internal investigation found the computer maker had manipulated numbers to its performance targets.
The scandal has dogged Dell…ever since it was disclosed last year that the Security and Exchange Commission was investigating its accounting practices.
“IBM, Pricewaterhouse settle U.S. claims”
IBM Corp. and PricewaterhouseCoopers have agreed to paid nearly $5.3 million combined to settle allegations that they made improper payments on government technology contracts, the Justice Department said Thursday. “The payment of kickbacks or illegal inducements undermine the government procurement process,” said assistant attorney general Peter D. Keisler.
White collar crimes are not limited to corporations but we hear of them also being committed by individuals and small groups.
Hardly a week goes by that we don’t hear of peoples checking accounts being raided after a purchase was made at a convenience store with a bank debit card. The raids were made on weekends when people do not normally check on their bank balances. These debits were in small amounts, 30, 40, 50 cents which “flew” under the security radar warning system that has been set up by the banking industry, but cumulatively added up in the hundreds and thousands of dollars. The debits were credited to exotic locations and accounts on the other side of the world.
Several years ago, a teenager was arrested for manipulating the stock market via the internet. He would buy blocks of penny stocks, hyped them on financial message boards and then dump them after the price rose. In some instances, he would place an order just before the market closed to sell at a specified price, which is known as a limit order. He would do this so he wouldn’t miss an anticipated price hike in the stock while he was in school the next day. The Securities and Exchange Commission monitored these activities and was dismayed that the perpetrator was a 14 year old. In a six-month period, this boy made a quarter million dollars through his nefarious activities. When confronted, he agreed to settle for $285,000 and to refrain from similar behavior in the future.
In our reading this morning, we have a rich man with a manager who took total charge of his business, which was a common practice in those days. Though the master was wealthy, he probably couldn’t read or write and had to entrust the management of his estate to this person. From reading the nature of the transactions, the master was probably a money lender and as such loans were often paid in kind as well as in cash.
The setting is a manager in absolute control of a wealthy, but uneducated master’s affairs, who used his position to carry out a program of embezzlement. When the master caught wind of this, he immediately called the manger to account for the money. The manager had no defense. Though he had a position of trust and responsibility, he was in fact a slave and dismissal would be a quick and final disposition. He would be left without a job and it is highly improbable that anyone would hire someone who had stolen from his master. He was staring starvation in the face.
So the manager set out to plan for his welfare after the inevitable firing. He went to the several debtors and had the accounts altered in their favor. By doing this he figured that he would win the gratitude of these debtors. He may well have intended to prevent their testimony against him by involving them in his own dishonesty. Also he could see the prospect of some blackmail after he was fired. The master caught wind of this, and recognizing this fast move, cynically congratulated the manager for being so astute.
What is the first lesson our Lord teaches us in this parable?
Verse 8, “Yes, worldly people are smarter with their own kind than spiritual people are.” Note that this parable deals with the scheming and conniving of people with larceny in their hearts. The manager had embezzled from his master’s business and is now engaged in escaping the full consequences of his misdemeanors by involving others in a set of criminal conspiracies. These debtors were obviously willing to go along with the manager altering the loan agreements in their favor. I’m sure that both the manager and debtors were wholehearted in favor of this arrangement. The manager was bending every effort to maintain his comfort after he’s fired, and the debtors were jumping at the chance to cancel a portion of their debts.
So, what Jesus was telling his disciples and us is, if Christians were as keen on their Christianity as these men were on their nefarious business it would be a greatly different world. We might ask ourselves, how much time do we give to things of Christianity in comparison to our other activities. How much time do we devote to prayer and meditation, in the study of God’s work? Jesus is saying, “Look at the way these worldly persons work for the things they value; if you would work at your Christianity with the same enthusiasm, what a difference you and the world would be.”
Verse 9 gives rise to another lesson. “I tell you, make friends for yourselves using worldly riches so that when those riches are gone, you will be welcomed in those homes that continue forever.”
Saying it another way, “Use your material possessions to make friends for yourself so that in the day of trouble you may reap the benefit of those friendships, just as the manager used his control o money to make friends for himself.”
The question is, “How should we deal with our material possessions?” People and how they treat material possessions generally fall in three basic groupings.
First, there are those who regard money as an enemy and refuse to have anything to do with it. They depend on the charity of others; obviously if all were like them there would be no one to give charity. Jesus’ life refutes this approach. He worked as a carpenter, serving the public and made a living for his family. He would never have dismissed material things as things which man must have nothing to do with.
The second group includes those who regard money as a master, people who are slaves to money. This is the case of the miser or one who desires to make money and does not care how it is made. These people may make it by methods which are dishonest or ruin other people. I think the principals in my introductory news articles are marquee actors of this group.
The third group includes those who regard money as a friend. These people use money wisely and unselfishly, thereby doing good to themselves and others. If we use material things properly we will neither worship nor despise them, but use them to bring strength, beauty and comfort to our lives and the lives of others.
Dr. Frank Boreham, one of the foremost preachers and writers of the early 20th century tells of a meeting at which Christian people were describing their religious experiences. One woman sat silent. She was asked to speak but she refused. From the look on her face it was easy to see that something was badly wrong. When asked what the matter was she answered that more than one of the people who had just made glowing testimonies to Christ owed her money-and her family was near to starving. There could be no sincerity in testimonies like that. If we use material things rightly, we will neither worship them nor despise them, but use them to bring strength, beauty and comfort to our own lives and the lives of others.
Finally, Luke sets forth a final lesson in verse 10-12. The essence is in the first phrase, “Whoever can be trusted with a little can also be trusted with a lot…” If this is to be a lesson of the parable, then the meaning is that if we show ourselves untrustworthy, as the manager did, no one will trust us. There is no greater virtue than that of fidelity and no fault which so condemns a person as untrustworthiness.
God needs people of fidelity and trustworthiness to serve Him and his creation. If there is one motto that should always stand before us, it is “Character counts.”
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