{"id":5896,"date":"2019-09-23T08:02:53","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T13:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/?p=5896"},"modified":"2019-09-23T08:05:17","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T13:05:17","slug":"sept-222019-parable-of-the-shrewd-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/2019\/09\/sept-222019-parable-of-the-shrewd-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"Sept.22,2019 Parable of the Shrewd Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"

This introduction to the worship service gives a broad outline of the sermon themes.<\/em><\/p>\n

Chilmark Community Church<\/strong><\/p>\n

9 Menemsha Crossroad, Chilmark, MA<\/p>\n

Sunday, September 22, 2019<\/p>\n

The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n

Worship Service of Praise & Thanksgiving<\/p>\n

Rev. Ernest Belisle, Pastor<\/p>\n

Thought for the week: <\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a cheating culture, one that encourages us to focus on earthly wealth, short-term profits and worldly commissions.\u201d What about you? <\/b><\/p>\n

(Homiletics 9-19-04) <\/i>2<\/p>\n

A Special WELCOME to <\/b><\/p>\n

Chilmark Community Church! <\/b><\/p>\n

We trust that you will be inspired by this morning\u2019s worship service and pray that it will bring you some amount of spiritual renewal. Today\u2019s Lectionary Reading (St. Luke 16), \u201cthe parable of the shrewd manager\u201d (vv. 1-8a) is associated with present material wealth and future relationships (vv. 10-13).<\/p>\n

Was the manager dishonest? <\/b>At first glance it sounds like he was a card-carrying member of the cheating culture \u2013 he was charged with squandering his master\u2019s property, and was given his marching orders – \u201cYou\u2019re fired!\u201d <\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat will I do,\u201d the so call shady manager asked himself, \u201cnow that my master is firing me?\u201d 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\u2019s debtors and gave them some wonderfully deep discounts. To one who owed 100 jugs of oil, he said \u201cmake that just 50.\u201d <\/b>To the other who owed 100 containers of wheat, he said, \u201cYou\u2019re in luck \u2013 your bill is now 80!\u201d <\/b>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\u2019s reaction sounds rather odd. The master \u201ccommended the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly,\u201d <\/b>which is an unlikely response from a man who has just lost fifty jugs of olive oil and twenty containers of wheat. The Liars\u2019 Club<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

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 \u201cmake friends for the future\u201d(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. <\/b><\/p>\n

May God bless you richly as we worship together!<\/p>\n

Pastor Ernest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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: \u201cWe live in a cheating culture, one that encourages us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-worship-and-teaching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5896"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5899,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5896\/revisions\/5899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chilmarkchurch.org\/service\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}