“Being Trustworthy and Clever”

Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost

September 21, 2025

“If you want to be trusted, by trustworthy” Stephen R. Covey

Amos 8:3-7

Luke 16:1-13

Children’s Message:

Come on down for my version of “The Price is Right!”

I have these grab bags, and each one has a price on it. Now, I need your help to figure out whether what we have in these bags is worth the price.

$50 bag (cross)

$25 bag (Bluetooth speaker)

$10 bag (fancy mug)

$1 bag (snack)

Let’s open the smallest amount first. Wow! That’s about right. A snack for $1. Maybe a little pricey at the convenience store, but a lot cheaper than at a game, right? What about the $10 bag? A mug! I mean, it’s nice. But is it really $10 worth? I’m not sure about this. What’s in the next one? Okay…now we’re talking! A Bluetooth speaker for $25! I can’t wait to see what we’ll get for $50.

A cross? I don’t get it. Why is this the most expensive?

You know, in our first reading today, a prophet named Amos warned the Israelites that they were focusing on the wrong things. They were so focused no making money that they didn’t care about taking a break to worship God. And they started charging more for things that were of poorer quality. And all of this ended up hurting the poorest people in their community. That made Amos mad. The same thing happened in Jesus’ day. The same thing happens in our society, too. That makes God sad.

That’s one reason Jesus came to us. He showed us how our ways were hurting others. But instead of listening, the people killed him. I guess that’s why the cross is the most expensive item here. It cost the most, and God invites us to live our lives the way Jesus did—not focusing on wealth but helping others and worshiping God.

Let’s pray. Dear God, we admit that we don’t focus on you the way we should. Help us worry less about ourselves and more about others. Amen.

Message:

There are a few things to nail down about this parable before we try to make sense of it. First, we need to let go of the tendency to assign one of the characters to God. God is neither the master or the steward. Second, a steward is still a slave—one who has been promoted through the ranks, but still a slave. He is not is own person. He may not get paid for his work. So, the steward looks at justice from the bottom, not the top. And third, the accusations made against him are simply that—accusations. Much like those made against African slaves, there is no need for proof, and the accusations are just as likely to be false.

Upon being sent out, the steward has nowhere to go—no one to help him. His cleverness is a survival skill. He renegotiates the debts before word gets out about his circumstances. This puts the master in a bind. He can either fight against the renegotiations and destroy the relationship he has with his business partners, or he can honor the new contracts as if the steward is still on his team. Either way, the steward creates an opportunity to either stay or be taken in by those who see him as a wise businessman—someone they would want working for them.

Jesus lifts this man up as an example of how to deal with this world’s priorities. And, according to Jesus, any priority that is above God is in the wrong place. We can’t serve two masters. We have to choose: either we serve God or we serve wealth. And along with wealth comes power, prestige, and privilege—the unholy trinity. And in between these two pieces of wisdom, Jesus tells us how it’s done.

He says, “One who is trustworthy in little things is also trustworthy in greater things.” There’s a story about how the band Van Halen would expect their venues to provide in their dressing room a bowl of M&M’s. Some stories say they had to be all red candies, and others said they had to have all the brown candies removed. In either case, this wasn’t a case of entitlement. It was about safety.

The band used a lot of pyrotechnics that required a great deal of attention in order to maintain the safety for the band and the audience. The details were outlined in their contracts, as was the detail about the M&M’s. If they saw that the venue had seen to the detail about the candy, they were reassured that they had read the contract line by line and would see to the details about the technology and safety.

It’s like threading a needle. Jesus calls us to be trustworthy and true, regardless how important or insignificant the matter is. Without integrity, no one has any reason to believe the gospel when we share it with others. But he also challenges us to be clever—clever in a way that allows us to see through the injustice that parades itself as honorable and moral. Injustice that, at its heart, always serves wealth, often in the name of God.

Because wealth and power and desire—all those things lifted up in this world—will always make us slaves. But God makes us children. Heirs. Promise-bearers. Recipients of God’s abiding and faithful covenant of grace and love.

Christ came to humanity to turn our world upside down. The things we look to for life never pay up. But Christ—who always places themselves among the least and the last, the vulnerable and the devalued—Christ always and only offers life. Christ—God made flesh—is the only master worth our love. God is the One who loves us back.

Pastor Tobi White

Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church

Lincoln, NE