Proper 15 :: Amos 8:4 – 17 / Psalm 113 / I Timothy 2:1 – 7 / Luke 16:1 – 13
This is the homily
given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, September
18, 2022.
“GOD IS ALWAYS IN THE
ROOM”
(Homily
texts: Amos 8:4 – 7 & Luke 16:1 – 13)
In
our kitchen at home, there’s a little sign over the sink which says, “God is
always in the room…say ‘hi’.”
One
of the challenges of being human is that the temptation to think that what we
can see and what we can experience is all that there is to be seen. We might be
aware that what we can see might be seen, under certain circumstances, by other
human beings. But that’s the extent of others knowing things about us and about
our actions. Such a temptation fails to take into account God’s nature, which
is to be a “pervading presence” (God’s omnipresence) and to “know all” (God
omniscience).
Whatever
we do, and whatever we think, therefore, is known by God, even our innermost
desires and thoughts. No pressure!
Our
reading from the Old Testament prophet Amos (one of my favorites!), and our
Gospel reading for this morning, Jesus’ Parable of the Dishonest Steward, counter
the idea that God isn’t watching, and that God doesn’t know what we’re doing.
In
the time of Amos’ ministry to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, sometime in the
eighth century BC, the wealthy and the powerful were oppressing and dealing
deceitfully with the poor. Our reading this morning recounts how false weights
were being used in business transactions, and how the poor were being sold poor
quality wheat. To such swindlers, Amos declares that God will “surely never
forget any of their deeds”.
Turns
out, Amos says, God was present in all this deceitful stuff, watching,
remembering and recording.
Now,
let’s turn to today’s parable.
The
first thing we might notice is that Jesus’ teaching is directed to His
disciples. However, verse fourteen (following the passage we hear this morning)
tells us that the scribes and the Pharisees, who were the target of last week’s
reading, the Parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, were overhearing
what Jesus said. So it’s possible that Jesus had some of their deceitful ways
in mind as He spun out the tale of the dishonest steward.
At
first hearing, some details of the Parable of the Dishonest Steward don’t seem
to make sense. (In fact, one such detail, the amounts that the steward reduced
from the master’s debts, are thought by some biblical scholars to be the
commission the steward got for his work. Given the fact that one of the
reductions is about 50%, that seems unlikely.)
Whatever
things there might be in the parable that don’t seem to make sense, the basic
outlines of the parable are clear. They are:
·
The steward’s dishonest ways have
already been discovered.
·
The steward seeks to build a network of
future support by enlisting some of the master’s debtors in a scheme to defraud
the master.
Jesus’
teaching is a classic lessor to greater model. He says, making a direct
application of the meaning of the parable to His hearers, “One who is faithful
in a very little is also faithful in much.” Seems like the Lord is telling us
that the small things matter. They matter a lot.
Why
is such a high degree of integrity important. Why is it so critical that those
who claim to be followers of God strive for holiness of life (defined as being
in a state where our “outsides are matched by our insides”, each side
reflecting God’s image)?
Perhaps
the answer lies in the sacramental[1]
nature of life: What we do, what is observable by others, is a reflection of
our innermost self, which should reflect the movement of God’s Holy Spirit to
remake us into the image of God.
We
would do well to remember that, ultimately, it’s going to have to be the Holy
Spirit’s moving within us to effect any sort of change in the direction of
being an image of God. We surely can’t make such changes on our own power and
initiative (I think St. Augustine of Hippo would agree!)
Our
role in allowing such a transformation to occur has to do with our own
awareness of the need for change and the goal that God has in mind for such
change. We are also tasked with allowing the Holy Spirit to begin and continue
this work.
AMEN.
