Jesus’ teaching in today’s Gospel reminded me of a scene from the movie Moonstruck. Loretta, played by Cher, is a young widow who is anticipating an evening out with a man with whom she has just fallen in love. She begins doing her ordinary tasks of the day which include going to the family business to pick up the deposit on the way to the bank. But on the way… she gets distracted. She stops to get her hair done… and then does her nails, goes shopping and basically spends the whole day getting ready for this evening.
The next morning, her aunt and uncle, the owners of the family business show up at breakfast looking as if their best friend has died. Loretta asked them about it and then they said we went to the bank….
Suddenly… it clicks. A look of horror crosses her face as Loretta races to her coat pocket and says, “The deposit! I forgot to go to the bank with the deposit ! As she pulls it from her coat pocket, they all breathe a sigh of relief. It’s still there.”
Crisis averted. But still her aunt and uncle then felt a need to affirm that of course they trusted her – they had always trusted her but they had been worried for her and they couldn’t imagine what they would do without that money, their retirement money… For them it was a crisis of both financial hardship and of relationship. For if Loretta had used the money from the store to pay for her new hairdo and spa treatment and the new clothes that she bought it would also have either created a rift between the families or with her. Either way, her reputation would have been destroyed.
It was just an errand to the bank. But, that little errand – was a big deal.1
Whoever is faithful with very little is also faithful with much.” Luke 16:10
Last week we had some workmen come into our house to replace our cracked kitchen counter. When they were done, I noticed a dime sitting precariously on the window sill. I thought it was odd --- but then I remembered what my boss told me when I worked as a house cleaner on a summer job years ago. She said, “if you ever find money on the floor or on the couch or anywhere, even if it is just a penny, be sure to put it in an obvious spot on the table or counter close by where you found it. Never ever ever ever put it in your pocket. You might forget it. And then your reputation and mine will be ruined.” Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much.
In this Gospel teaching, Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees and scribes. They are the ones who have been entrusted with money and power in their community. And they like it. But Jesus challenges them -- who do they love? Who do they serve? Is it God or money?
It’s the same challenge that we read about in the lesson from Amos. There the rich people were eager for the Sabbath and the new moon festival to be over so that their market could open again and they could make more money by dishonest means. They clearly had put their thumb on the scales. They were not faithful or trustworthy. They were being dishonest and as a result, they were getting richer… and the poor were getting poorer. Amos warned them - the Lord sees what you are doing… and would remember. Later, Amos reports, it doesn’t turn out very well for them.
God cares about how we use the money we call our own– because our relationship with money affects our relationships with God and with one another. As Jesus says, “You can’t serve God and money.”
But unless we enter a monastery, we can’t live without money – and even there, someone is paying the light bill.
So what does this mean for how we use money and how we treat it? We all need it. And yet…money can so easily become the thing that we put first in our life. And that’s when money becomes a problem.
It is a bit ironic that the words “In God we trust” are written right on US coins and bills. I wondered why? So I looked it up.
Apparently, “In God we trust” was first added to U.S. coins in 1864 when religious sentiment was on the rise and Americans wanted to know what their country stood for. Roosevelt felt it was “vulgar”, so he tried to take it off – but a backlash ensued and instead of getting rid of it, in 1957, the slogan was added to paper money. According to a Times article, “Today even ardent separationists seem to agree with retired Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, who wrote in 1983 that slogans such as ‘In God We Trust’ have ‘lost any true religious significance.'”2
That slogan may not pack a punch anymore in the country at large – it’s like the back of the cereal box. You’ve seen it so many times you don’t read it anymore.
However, rather than depend on our government’s slogan, I believe that the key to how we are to treat money is found in our opening verse, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.” I also like the NRSV translation that is on the cover of the bulletin: Whoever is faithful in a very little, is faithful also in much.” Faithful. Trustworthy. Jesus is calling us to be faithful and trustworthy in all things – including or maybe even especially with the money and resources that God has entrusted to us.
Money has so much power in our world and this is why Jesus spends a good deal of time talking about money – and how we use it. Jesus calls the Pharisees, the scribes, his disciples, and all his listeners and followers including us -- to be faithful, to be trustworthy with the money and resources that God has entrusted to us.
We are to be faithful and trustworthy – because everything we have, all that I claim as “mine” and everything that you claim as “yours” -- belongs to God. As the saying goes – “You can’t take it with you.” Theologian NT Wright puts it this way: “Money is not a possession, it’s a trust. God entrusts property to people and expects it to be used to his glory and the welfare of his children, not for private glory or glamour.”
God expects us to be good caretakers, to be trustworthy. This is why God got mad at the rich people cheating the poor in Amos day and that is why Jesus says, “You can’t serve God and money.”
God knows our hearts. And, while when we’ve been working hard, and the financial numbers are good, it is tempting for us to trust in our selves and to think of it as “my” work and in “my” money, “my” bank account – regardless of the resource -- it all belongs to God. Everything we lay claim to is a trust from God. God not only entrusted to us resources – but the skill and talents and educational abilities in order to do what we do. And so, it would good if we trusted not in the money that we receive, but rather, took to heart, in the words written on our money – “In God We Trust.”
Brothers, sisters, siblings in Christ, God entrusts to us so much – time, talents and yes treasures too. In response, let us seek to be faithful in all things – both great and small– and to put our trust in God. Amen.
- Pamela Stalheim Lane
1. Moonstruck Written by John Patrick Shanley and directed by Norman Jewison. 1987.
2. N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Great Britain, 2001 p.196
3. Sarah Begley, January 13, 2016. Time Magazine, Online Version