Lectionary for Sept. 21, 2025
15th Sunday after Pentecost
Amos 8:4-7; Psalm 113;
1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13
For my call, I work at a business school. Right now, thousands of young people are finishing their first month of classes as they try to learn the skills and techniques to become the next millionaires. There are many students of faith here who are trying to square their desires to be successful in business with their commitments to the kingdom of heaven. Some say they’ll earn as much as they can, donate a ton to charity and then try to have the best of both worlds. A few graduate and live a life of intentional near poverty, leading vital but underfunded ventures. Many do something in between those two points. Whatever they end up doing, most of the students wrestle with how to serve two masters.
“Serving two masters” is, of course, the punchline from this week’s Gospel reading. Jesus tells a long parable about a dishonest servant and then gives a larger lesson about the use of wealth.
First let’s turn to the parable. A dishonest manager is reported to his boss for financial mismanagement. Knowing that he is in trouble and seeing that he has little to lose by doubling down on his dishonesty, the man buys friends with his boss’ accounts. The boss can’t help but be impressed with the audacity of the man’s graft and corruption. Make no mistake, had the parable continued the man would have found himself in debtor’s prison.
But the point of the parable isn’t to compliment the boss or the manager. Instead, it’s to point out that the wicked are far better at giving away wealth to build relationships than are the children of light (Luke 16:8).
If money has a hold on us such that we can’t give it away to make friends, we worship mammon, not God.
Jesus doubles down and insists that if his followers can’t be faithful in giving away material wealth to serve God and humans, they won’t be given the opportunity to be faithful with true wealth. In language that my students might use: If I don’t trust you with physical capital, why would I trust you with spiritual capital? For Jesus, and therefore for Christians, the greatest use of wealth is to give it away to make relationships. All wealth exists for this purpose. Any wealth that can’t be given away by a Christian has power over them. Instead of money being a tool, we become servants of money. Jesus says, “You cannot serve two masters.” Paraphrasing: You can serve God or you can serve money, not both. If money has a hold on us such that we can’t give it away to make friends, we worship mammon, not God.
What does serving mammon look like? Amos paints a bleak picture of the worship of wealth. The worshiper of mammon is willing, and perhaps eager, to trample and dispossess the needy and the poor. Instead of receiving help and resources, the unhoused are criminalized and driven from sight. The worshiper of mammon hates how religious holidays get in the way of money-making. Any time off, any rest, any moments for humans to be satisfied and not maximize is an affront to the god of “more, more, more.” Do you see how mammon is in direct competition to the God of Sabbath who rests—and provides rest for formerly enslaved people?
Amos goes further, however, and points to the practice of defrauding investors and lying about evaluations. In his day the poor were seen as “for sale” for a pittance. Give them shoes and you own them, Amos notices with disgust (8:6). And then you can remove all standards of health and trust and literally sell the poor garbage instead of food. Does any of this sound familiar?
Humans don’t get to the point where they are buying other humans and looking for ways to defraud others on their own. This is worship of mammon, whhich insists that we should build up wealth at any and every cost. And make no mistake, building up wealth is always relative. If others have as much as we do, we are not wealthy. We all may have plenty. We may have more than enough. But wealth for some requires poverty for others, otherwise it is not wealth.
One of my favorite philosophers, Michel Serres, points out that humans (I would add, “when following mammon”), place a high priority on “abuse-value.” That is, humans prefer to get ahead both by succeeding personally while ensuring that someone else fails. The inequity is the point. This is what Amos was talking about. Making money isn’t enough unless they can sweep away the unsightly and force poor people to do what they want.
Jesus says the best, and only, safe thing that humans can do with mammon is to give it away to make friends. Acquiring wealth is inherently dangerous to ourselves, to others and to God’s mission. Whatever else, humans cannot serve two masters. We will love one and hate the other. Loving God requires hating mammon. Serving mammon is hating God. Choose wisely.
