Prompt 23: February 1, 2022
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”
Liver King
Everyone knows someone whose life tells a story of character. Everything they do, and everything they touch seems to glow with the legitimacy of a proper order. This person is likely slow to act, deliberate in their words and deeds, and faithful to what they believe and enjoy. Age tells the story of these people, as it will with all types of people, but their story is consistent at every age, and their character is likely recognizable in every story about them, from every observer. These are people of integrity, people who don’t seek acknowledgement or praise for living the way they see fit. Instead, they see virtue as a reality, not just a judgment, a faith that the simple disciplines of life will lead to that which is good, true, and beautiful.
If only the world were so simple. Virtue does not always prevent tragedy; there will always be injustice. For this, we look to Christ, who through his life and his teaching, he shows us the complexity with which we struggle against. In the parable of the dishonest manager, Jesus seems to be revealing something about integrity that is more than a judgment of right/wrong.
He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.
And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’
And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management a from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.
I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’
So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’
He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’
Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’
The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.
And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.
If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?
And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?
No servant can serve two masters, for 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 God and money.”
Luke 16:1-13
This parable is often used to pit Jesus against wealth, but there seems to be much more to this story. As is always the case in Christ’s parables, he reveals something about the world which he created, but he is concealing something about himself that is only apparent to the faithful.
The thread is open. Create boldly, and may the Spirit guide us all.