More pondering

9-22-10 still thinking brain
My confusion on business, the economy and taxes may be resolving a bit. It happened Sunday in church. The Scripture lesson was Luke 16:1-13, the story of the dishonest steward/manager” (oh good I thought, I have never understood this story), then our minister also admitted that he has never fully understood this either (darn, I was disappointed that I would not get some new brilliant insight from him).... maybe my friend Lori can shed some light on this?

The most well-known part of this passage comes at the end, Luke 16: 13 “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 mammon”. Also I’ve heard this translated, “You cannot serve God and “wealth” or You cannot serve God and worldly things”…. OK that seems straight forward enough…. But as I pondered more and more the rest of the story….. why was the dishonest steward/manager “commended/praised” by the master ?… after all the steward was “wasting his goods”.

When the dishonest steward/manager got in trouble, he did some wheeling and dealing with the master’s debtors, trying to keep himself in the good graces with these other business people, so once he was fired by his master, he still might have other options opened to him. But then why wasn’t his master really mad at him? Why was he commended by this master?

So that got me thinking, maybe I have been trying to project my own integrity and to put an ethical personification on the business world, where-as really the whole point of business is not about kindness, fairness, love and helping others…. It is about profits and looking out for number one, yourself.

For that reason alone, the constitution should not give corporations the same status as it gives the people- human beings who have consciences and feelings, but that is a whole other topic.

So maybe the master was impressed that the dishonest steward had been making these deals to keep his business connections after he would be fired by his master. This action showed clearly that the dishonest steward/manger had chosen to serve mammon/wealth, just like his master…. And it showed he was not a total looser in the business world.

So I guess in my mind, you either look towards “business” to give you salvation and hope, to be the light in the world, and to give you comfort and be your “provider”…. Or you choose God to do supply those things.

This point might just help me clarify all my other pandering of late!
OK tomorrow... onto a new topic.... I promise!