Bible Tuesday for Pentecost 18, 2016

Amos 8:4-7

Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
5 saying, ‘When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
and practice deceit with false balances,
6 buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.’

7 The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

The prophecy of Amos was written in the 8th century BCE, a full 100 or more years before the southern kingdom fell to Babylonia. Amos is writing from a southern kingdom perspective, supporting the Temple in Jerusalem as the sole place of proper worship of God. The prophecy addresses social ills more than religious ones and champions compassion and morality.

In the above pericope, God calls out the corrupt merchants. Their crimes are this: They complain about the blue laws of the day, because they were making any money when shops were closed for religious reasons. They were using dishonest scales which always weighed in their favor. “Ephah” is a measurement of volume equal to just over 6 gallons, however, these thieving merchants were skimping on how much they put into the ephah bags. When weighing the silver used to pay for the ephah of grain, the weights used were always light, so the silver was devalued. In addition, these guys were filling the bottoms of the ephah bags with chaff and sweepings, only putting wheat grains on the tops of the bags.

These upper class merchants were feathering their nests with the down and flight feathers of the working class, the vast majority of Israelites who lived hand to mouth and died young. This God decries!

Psalm 113

Praise the Lord!
Praise, O servants of the Lord;
praise the name of the Lord.

2 Blessed be the name of the Lord
from this time on and for evermore.
3 From the rising of the sun to its setting
the name of the Lord is to be praised.
4 The Lord is high above all nations,
and his glory above the heavens.

5 Who is like the Lord our God,
who is seated on high,
6 who looks far down
on the heavens and the earth?
7 He raises the poor from the dust,
and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
8 to make them sit with princes,
with the princes of his people.
9 He gives the barren woman a home,
making her the joyous mother of children.
Praise the Lord!

This psalm is recited as part of major holiday worship services. In its Hebrew iteration, the first verses more clearly suggest that the activity of servants of God is to praise God, this is their service. The psalm also draws on the polar opposites meeting in God, God who is everywhere and hold the top social standing, tends to those who are completely outside social standing, the homeless who haunt the always burning garbage heaps, and the childless woman.

1 Timothy 2:1-7

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings should be made for everyone, 2for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. 3This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, 4who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5For
there is one God;
there is also one mediator between God and humankind,
Christ Jesus, himself human,
6 who gave himself a ransom for all
—this was attested at the right time. 7For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth,* I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

While there is much in Timothy with which to struggle, here the author states doctrine I fully embrace, “God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” The author teaches that as Christians, we are not to pick and choose people we want God to tend to and ignore others, but rather hold everyone in prayer.

Verses 5-6 are a quote from an unknown liturgical source, perhaps a hymn or a litany. Since only a small portion of this source is quoted, we do not know if the source supports the “homo ousius” nature of Jesus: that Jesus is fully human and fully divine.

Luke 16:1-13

Then Jesus* said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2So he summoned him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.” 3Then the manager said to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.4I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.” 5So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” 6He answered, “A hundred jugs of olive oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.” 7Then he asked another, “And how much do you owe?” He replied, “A hundred containers of wheat.” He said to him, “Take your bill and make it eighty.” 8And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 9And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth* so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.*

10 ‘Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 11If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth,* who will entrust to you the true riches? 12And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.’*

First, let’s define “dishonest wealth”. This does not mean “ill gotten gains” as one would assume, but rather “dishonest wealth” refers to the wealth of this life, as opposed to “Store up treasures for yourself in heaven where no moth consumes and no rust destroys.” Jesus is teaching about the false senses of security, status, and self-made-man smugness that frequently accompany wealth.

The parable closely follows the parable of the prodigal son, in which the younger son is described as “squandering” his inheritance, just as the above “dishonest steward.” By using the same adjective, Jesus is telling his now smaller, more intimate audience (the disciples) that he is still on the same theme of sinners repenting, but he’s coming at it from a whole new angle, what sinners get hung up on: wealth.

To better understand the steward’s shrewdness, let’s examine his position as steward. Scholars think this parable describes a common business arrangement in ancient Israel, that of the absentee land owner. The owner hires a steward to manage his property. The steward leases the land out to farmers and orchard managers who pay their rent in crop products, in this case, wheat and olive oil. The New Interpreter’s Bible states, “The amounts in question underscore the rich man’s wealth. The first debtor owes one hundred “baths” (batos in Greek) of oil. Since a bath is equivalent to nine gallons, this man owes nine hundred gallons of olive oil. The second debtor owes one hundred “kors” (koros in Greek) of grain. Estimates of the size of a kor vary from 6.5 to 10-12 bushels, and even Josephus give inconsistent reports as to its meaning. Nevertheless, a hundred kors of grain would have been a large amount. The rich man and his debtors were dealing in large commercial interests therefore and not household amounts.”

But how did the steward’s debt reduction ingratiate himself to the debtors? And was he falsifying records, or was he removing the interest on these debts, interest that was prohibited in Deuteronomy 23:19-20, or was he simply removing his own commission from the debts? There is no way of knowing. But, certainly the land owner cannot rectify what his steward is doing without seriously losing face. In fact, the dishonest steward has ingratiated not only himself to the debtors, but also his master to those debtors. What tenant farmer would not be grateful and loyal to a landlord who cut the rent by 20% or 50%?

In this way, the dishonest steward is shrewd. He has used material wealth to secure shelter for himself. Jesus admonishes his disciples to use material wealth to make friends for themselves, not hoard the wealth but use it to better the lives of people around them.

For Jesus’ disciples, wealth is a tool, not the goal. Wealth is to be used to serve the heavenly Father, to love neighbor as self. If wealth shifts from being a tool to being the goal, then it becomes master, and Jesus clearly states an obvious fact, “No slave can serve two masters.”