This introduction to the worship service gives a broad outline of the sermon themes.
Chilmark Community Church
9 Menemsha Crossroad, Chilmark, MA
Sunday, September 22, 2019
The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Worship Service of Praise & Thanksgiving
Rev. Ernest Belisle, Pastor
Thought for the week:
“We live in a cheating culture, one that encourages us to focus on earthly wealth, short-term profits and worldly commissions.” What about you?
(Homiletics 9-19-04) 2
A Special WELCOME to
Chilmark Community Church!
We trust that you will be inspired by this morning’s worship service and pray that it will bring you some amount of spiritual renewal. Today’s Lectionary Reading (St. Luke 16), “the parable of the shrewd manager” (vv. 1-8a) is associated with present material wealth and future relationships (vv. 10-13).
Was the manager dishonest? At first glance it sounds like he was a card-carrying member of the cheating culture – he was charged with squandering his master’s property, and was given his marching orders – “You’re fired!”
“What will I do,” the so call shady manager asked himself, “now that my master is firing me?” He came up with a plan. In order to guarantee that he would have a safe place to land after his present job, he summoned the master’s debtors and gave them some wonderfully deep discounts. To one who owed 100 jugs of oil, he said “make that just 50.” To the other who owed 100 containers of wheat, he said, “You’re in luck – your bill is now 80!” The whole thing sounds pretty unethical and it seems as if he were running the risk of being thrown in the slammer for stealing. But the master’s reaction sounds rather odd. The master “commended the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly,” which is an unlikely response from a man who has just lost fifty jugs of olive oil and twenty containers of wheat. The Liars’ Club
The parable teaches that the shrewd manager (steward) was willing to sacrifice short-term earnings for long-term security. Many Bible scholars believe that the manager was simply cutting out his own commission. The hundred jugs of olive oil could be broken down into fifty for the master, and fifty for the manager. 3
That explains why the master (God) was not angry. The manager was simply eliminating his own commission, knowing that he would benefit long-term from having a place to stay once he was out of work. At this level the parable is about “make friends for the future”(Luke 16:9). Its focus is on preparing for the next life after the present which was swiftly coming to an end. It is more about securing heavenly riches than about enjoying earthly gain.
May God bless you richly as we worship together!
Pastor Ernest