A Famine Not of Bread

"The Dishonest Steward" by Eugene Burnand Click here to listen to this sermon. [Jesus] also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management 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 removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, a...

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is our Gospel lesson, Luke 7:36-50. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. There was a certain creditor who had two debtors.   One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.   And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both.   Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him more? The answer is obvious, at least to Simon the Pharisee: “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”   But though he gives the right answer, Simon completely misses the point.   As we often do!   For this certain creditor does not keep his books according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).   And we are so oblivious to the extent of the great debt that we have piled up over the years that we can take this forgiveness for granted.   So maybe we should modify the parable a little bit.   There was a certain creditor who had ...