"You cannot serve both God and money"

                        

Monday musical meditations on God's good news

An opening prayer:

    Lord, may our hearts within us burn

    And grant us grace to intercede,

    To know compassion and concern

    For those in every kind of need,

    Whose lives are seen as little worth,

    The poor and helpless of the earth.

    In God alone his people stand,

    He keeps us in the evil day,

    Our lives are lived beneath his hand,

    His blessings lie about our way:

    In sin or sickness, hear our plea,

    “O Lord, be merciful to me.”

    And when my days on earth shall end,

    Should foes unite against my name,

    Or should my own familiar friend

    Our lifelong bond of love disclaim,

    Should hope decline and courage flee,

    O Lord, be merciful to me.

    Our God shall not forsake his own,

    Stronger than death his boundless grace.

    When with the saints about his throne

    Pardoned we stand before his face,

    “Glory to God,” our song be then.

    “Glory to God! Amen! Amen!”

Luke 16:1–13

• Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. ² So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’
• ³ “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— ⁴ I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’
• ⁵ “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
• ⁶ “‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.
• “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’
• ⁷ “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’
• “‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied.
• “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
• 8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.
•  ⁹ “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, they will welcome you into eternal dwellings.
• ¹⁰ “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. ¹¹  So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹²  And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
• ¹³ “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

•  helpful notes on Luke 16:1–8
• helpful notes on Luke 16:9–12

Good news questions

• Jesus has already told three stories (lost sheep, lost coin, lost sons).  Now comes a fitting fourth, one of his weirdest. 
• A tricktster, commended for dishonesty? Wow! Not really ... the boss commended the man for thinking ahead.
• Would Jesus praise your iniquity? Or your ingenuity?
• Welcomed into eternal dwellings ... wow! How are you making eternal plans with your money, er, God's money?

For others pray

• That God spreads the good news of the kingdom of the Son he loves in Gabon

J.S. Bach's beautiful music for today

• BWV 115 (YouTube, "Lord, do not take your servant to court")
• The cantata starts with David's prayer in Psalm 143: 
• "Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous in your sight."
• A soloist sings, "If I can only makes friends with Jesus, Mammon will have no value to me."
• "Quiet our consciences, Lord Jesus," we pray, "Moisten our hearts with your blood."
• "Fill us with faith in you."