A sermon for Sunday
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
And the lord commended the unjust steward, for as much as he had done wisely: for the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.
Today’s gospel from St. Luke is the parable of the Unjust Steward. It tells the story of a rich man who had a steward whom he accused of wasting his goods. He called him and told him that he needed to given an account of his stewardship or he would face dismissal. The steward therefore said to himself that he needed to act quickly before his role was taken from him. He was not prepared to be a manual labourer or rely on the charity of others. He therefore called each one of his lord’s debtors. He asked the first how much he owed the man. He said a hundred barrels of oil. The steward therefore told him to take his bill, sit down quickly and write fifty. He said to another man who said he owed a hundred measures of wheat to take his bill and write eighty. “And the lord commended the unjust steward, for as much as he had done wisely: for the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. And I say unto you: Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity, that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.”
What is the meaning of this parable? Why does it apparently endorse the blatantly unethical behaviour of the steward? It is important to emphasise that what is being commended is not the unscrupulous financial dealings of the steward, but rather his ability to think quickly and salvage the situation in a crisis.
The use of parables was not unique to Jesus, for it was common to many other Jewish teachers. What was distinctive was the sense of urgency which the parables of Jesus convey. His message was not the leisurely exposition of a founder of a new school of scribal interpretation. Rather he spoke of the time in which he lived as the supreme crisis of all history, and it was marked by his own appearance. In his words and mighty works, the Kingdom of God, future in its fullness, was now being manifested in time and history. It was necessary for his hearers to repent and turn away from their past sinful lives and believe in the good news of the coming of the Kingdom of God in Jesus’ person and ministry.
The worldly wise like the unjust steward in the parable knew how to extricate themselves when faced with dismissal for misconduct. But whereas some responded to Jesus’ message, most did not. They failed to discern the significance of the times and carried on with their lives as normal, foolishly unaware of the depth of the spiritual crisis in which they faced. If the unjust steward knew how to act quickly in a crisis in which he faced potential ruin, how much more should Jesus’ hearers repent and believe the good news of the coming of the Kingdom of God in his person and ministry, or bring judgment on themselves by their failure to respond decisively.
St. Luke has also placed this parable in the context of sayings about the appropriate use of possessions in this world. It is impossible to serve God and Mammon, because possessions are transient and belong to this world, where moth and rust doth corrupt and thieves break in and steal. It is better to seek treasure in heaven, for where our treasure is there will our heart be also.
Why then is the unjust steward praised? Was he not the supreme example of the worldly wise man who was solely preoccupied with that which belongs to this present passing age, rather than the life of the world to come? It would seem that the point being made is that, though his outlook was purely worldly, he did at least have a clear overall aim that enabled him to act decisively when faced by the loss of his livelihood and financial ruin. His overall worldview was totally inadequate and misguided, but at least he had a clear sense of purpose.
Jesus’ message was not that the spiritual is good and the material is bad. It is impossible to give ultimate allegiance to God and Mammon, but that does not absolve us of the need to use the possessions that we have been given wisely. Though they are only transitory things they are not in themselves evil. They only become snares and distractions to us if we misuse them. If they are put in to the service of the Kingdom of God and his righteousness they can be blessings that help to further our proclamation.
In our own time we rightly deplore the ruthless capitalist interested, like the unjust steward in the parable, solely in making a profit, or the political activist preoccupied with promoting a particular temporal agenda or party. But we can learn an important truth from them, and this is that it is necessary to be focused and have a clear sense of purpose and goal in our actions. The mistake made by the unscrupulous businessman or the purely political agitator is that they are interested solely with that which belongs to this world. But if we deplore their outlook we can at least admire and learn something from their passionate commitment to a cause. In this sense the children in this world are indeed wiser in their generation than the children of light.
The Christian ethic is not simply an impractical utopianism, an impossible ideal divorced from the realities of day to day life and business. Rather, it gives us the true perspective and the aim by which to direct all our actions. The wordly wise, like the unjust steward, manage to do this for the merely transient possessions of this present age. But we are called to seek above all the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, for “solid joys and lasting treasure, only Zion’s children know.”
Let us therefore learn the lesson of the parable of the unjust steward, and pray for grace to guide us and enable us to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves, as we proclaim the good news of the gospel in our own time and place. 🔝
Transfiguration of Christ
Today we celebrate the great feast of the Transfiguration of Christ. The Gospel account of the Transfiguration which we heard today follows the scene at Caesarea Philippi where Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah, the fulfiller of the hopes of Israel. Some had seen Jesus as John the Baptist, some Elijah or one of the old prophets such as Jeremiah, but Simon Peter grasped the true nature of Jesus’ identity as the anointed liberator of Israel. At this point Jesus began to teach that his true vocation as Messiah was not to be a warrior and conqueror, but the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, who was wounded for our transgressions and chastised for our iniquities. Messianic destiny (enthronement and rule) would come about through reversal, repudiation, suffering and death. Peter still understood the Messiah as a warrior and a conqueror, but Jesus rebuked him and said that God’s Messiah is a suffering servant. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Shortly afterwards Jesus took his three inmost disciples Peter, James and John (the Beloved disciple) to pray on a mountainside. The disciples saw Jesus transfigured before them. In some mysterious way they were suddenly able to see the truth of his divinity, and saw the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. They saw Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah, who represent the Law and the Prophets. It was through Moses that the Law had been given on Mount Sinai. Indeed, when Moses came down from the mountainside a veil was put on his face because the skin of his face shone, for to him God spoke face to face as a man speaks to a friend. Elijah was perhaps the greatest of the prophets before John the Baptist, who had also heard the divine voice on the mountainside not in the earthquake, wind and fire but in the still small voice. In seeing Jesus alongside Moses and Elijah the disciples recognise him as the one in whom the hope of Israel reaches its fulfilment. Peter, overwhelmed by the significance of the occasion suggests building three tabernacles, one for Moses, one for Elijah and one for Jesus. But the divine voice reiterates what was said at Jesus’ baptism, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Jesus was not simply the last in the line of prophets like John the Baptist, but was greater even than Moses to whom God spoke face to face as a man speaks to a friend. He was the Son, the Word made flesh, whose glory the disciples beheld on the mountainside.
But through the disciples beheld the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ they had still not fully grasped that the glory of Christ was most powerfully revealed not in power and might but in suffering and death. It is fitting that Jesus’ disciples beheld his glory on the mountainside at the point when he has intimated to them that he must journey to Jerusalem where he would suffer death at the hands of the authorities. Indeed, the disciples are told to say nothing to any man until the Son of Man has been risen from the dead. Only then would they fully understand what Jesus was saying about his vocation to suffer and die in order to fulfil his messianic destiny. St. John’s Gospel (which enshrines the witness of the Beloved disciple who had seen the glory of Christ on the mountainside) goes even further than the others in saying that his suffering and death is not only the way to his final exaltation, but it is his supreme moment of glorification, the lifting up of the Son of Man on the cross in one who took evil upon himself and somehow subsumed it into good.
Few more dramatic contrasts can be imagined than the account of the transfiguration with the healing of the demon possessed man that follows it in the Gospels, after Jesus and his three inmost disciples come down from the mountainside. Yet it is a reminder that the period of withdrawal on the mountainside to pray is a period of withdrawal in order to return to accomplish the redemption of a world mired in suffering and sin. The scene of Christ transfigured in majesty is very different from the impassive serenity of the Buddha serene in detachment from the world of pain and suffering. On the contrary, the moment of transfiguration while in prayer on the mountainside is a temporary moment of withdrawal from the world in order to return and become more fully involved in it. For without vision the people perish.
We are called to become by grace what he is by nature, to share in the divinity of him who humbled himself to share our humanity. This process of sanctification or deification is not a pantheistic dissolution of our personalities into an impersonal absolute, but rather enables us to become by grace what we were created to be, and so become more truly human than we now are.
Some of the great saints of the Church have by grace experienced this moment of transfiguration while in prayer. It is most commonly associated with the Eastern Church (for example the great Russian saint St. Seraphim of Sarov), but it is not unknown in the Western Church as well. But whether or not we ever witness this moment of transfiguration in prayer, we are all called to become by grace what he is by nature. For we know, as St. John says, that when he finally appears in glory to judge the world at the end of human history we shall be made like him for we shall see him as he is.
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