Morning worship and Junior Church
- Occurring
- for 1 hour, 15 mins
- Venue
- Kidbrooke, St Nicholas
- Address Whetstone Road Kidbrooke London, SE3 8PX, United Kingdom
A Service of the Word for the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity; leader and preacher Stephen Greenall. Junior Church takes place at the same time in the hall.
First reading: 1 Timothy 2. 1–9
Gospel: Luke 16. 1–13
Today's Gospel has been described as Jesus's most difficult parable - the story of an estate manager who, upon being given notice to quit, fiddles the accounts in favour of his employer's debtors in order to win their goodwill. Surprisingly, this trick earns him a commendation from his master instead of the court case such actions would normally deserve; they are certainly not a literal model for us to follow in everyday life.
A parable is a kind of extended metaphor, and a possible way of understanding the passage is to see it in a symbolic light. Although the parable is often called the 'Dishonest Steward', Luke does not actually say he was sacked for dishonesty: he might previously have been incompetent, lazy, or perhaps just too easygoing with people who owed money to the estate. The master, for his part, seems to have known exactly what went on next, perhaps rather like the Duke in Shakespeare's 'Measure for Measure', and he doesn't pursue his debtors for the discount his former steward had given them. In terms of moral indebtedness, we all owe God far more than anyone owes us, and that might be one message to be taken from the parable, along with the more transparent message that while honesty is essential, material wealth should never be our priority.
The image above, from a painting of c.1540 by Marinus van Reymerswaele, puts the story in a contemporary and quite amusing setting (the whole painting is attached below). The obviously wealthy businessman on the left is pointing meaningfully with his right hand at an account book while he hold up his left as if to stem a flow of excuses and unconvincing explanations. The steward is avoiding his master's eye, but his upward-pointing gesture perhaps suggests that he has been sent a way out, which he can be seen enacting in the background.
