Shrewd

Luke 16:1-8

          A few days back, I made note of an old pastor who had his own ideas about tithing, this in a Catholic church. Well it worked quite well, when he retired he left a large physical complex and no debt, no mortgage. He also left a cool million in the bank. He was shrewd. He recognized wealth and how to use it wisely. He used wealth for good. He made money work for good works.

          Sometimes we get very wrapped up in worldly affairs. Big house, nice cars, the right schools, dining in the best restaurants, vacationing at all the "in" places and always looking like a million bucks. I am the first to say that there is nothing wrong with that. I think God would like us all to live like that with a major caveat. That is, wealth should not get in the way of the mission. The mission is to know, love and serve God (remember that Baltimore Catechism?).  The way I look at it, we are to seek our own wholeness and holiness; we must love God as ourselves and all others as well.  Money and objects do not enter into that equation unless they can be used to acheive the end goal.

         Too many times we seek the money and objects as the end goal.  Being shrewd is to take the wealth you have been graced with to acheive the goal of a saintly life and to further God's love and presence in this world. 

         There is nothing clever or shrewd about cheating or spending money as if "it's all about you".  This kind of thinking will get you nothing of real value.

         God wishes us to be shrewd but for the right purposes.  

Then Jesus said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.” Then the manager said to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.” So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” He answered, “A hundred jugs of olive oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.” Then he asked another, “And how much do you owe?” He replied, “A hundred containers of wheat.” He said to him, “Take your bill and make it eighty.” And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.