The Divine Dialogue (Guest Speaker: Johan Maurer)
Luke 16:1-14
Johan Maurer is a member of our church and also of Moscow Friends Meeting in Russia. He is a recorded minister in Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting of Friends. In his retirement he continues to do freelance translations from Russian to English; and he posts essays every Thursday on his blog, canyoubelieve.me.
1 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. 2 So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ 3 Then 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. 4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’
7 Then 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.’
8 And 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. 9 And 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. 11 If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13 No 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.
Queries:
When I encounter a Bible passage that is unclear to me—or indeed, a passage that is too clear to me!—do I feel the freedom to enter into the Bible’s divine dialogue? And do we feel the freedom to do this as a community?
When I encounter people (including leaders!) whose interpretations are not the same as mine, am I able to give and receive ideas freely? What stops me? What would help me go deeper in my conversations with them? Can the church play a role in providing context, safety, and ultimately reconciliation?