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Luke 16:1-13

Parable Of The Dishonest Steward

September 18, 2022

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Lectionary Year C

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ASK (a.k.a The On-Ramp)

Good morning!
Let’s pretend that you want someone to draw pictures for you.
And, let’s pretend that you want that person to draw really good pictures of you and that there are two people who you might pick, but you are allowed to only pick one of them.
How might you choose the person you want to have draw for you? [Listen to their ideas…]
Those were some good ideas. And, whoever said to look at the other pictures that the two people have drawn – that’s a really good idea!
And it just so happens, I have some drawings from the two people you are thinking of picking as your draw-er
So let’s look at those drawings
This picture is by draw-er #1 [Show picture of bird by draw-er #1]
Can you even tell what that is!?
And this picture is by draw-er #2 [Show picture of bird by draw-er #2]
Can you believe these are two drawings of the same thing?
This is another picture by draw-er #1 [Show picture of car]
And this is another picture by draw-er #2 [Show picture of car]
This is the final picture by draw-er #1 [show face picture]
And here’s the final picture by draw-er #2 [show face picture]
So – after looking at these pictures, who would you pick to draw for you [hopefully they pick draw-er #2 – if they don’t, then you’ll want to choose draw-er #2 yourself and explain briefly why you would].

TELL (a.k.a. The Freeway)

I bring this up, because in today's scripture story, Jesus tells a story about a boss who has this person who works for him. We'll call that person a “worker.”
So what’s interesting about this worker is that people looked at that worker and talked to that worker and then decided if they liked the boss (or not) of that worker because of how good of a worker the worker actually was.
This made the worker very important.
Because – when the worker wasn’t a very good worker and was unfair to the people, then the people didn’t like the boss at all.
But when the worker was a really good worker and treated the people fairly and gave them gifts, then the people really liked the boss
In some ways, that is a lot like what we did just a few minutes ago.
When the pictures were bad, we didn’t like the draw-er (or at least I didn’t)
But when the pictures were good, then we really liked the draw-er (or at least I did).

SHARE the Good News (a.k.a. The Destination)

One of the reasons, I think, that Jesus tells this story is because it reminds us that we can be just as important to God as the worker was to the boss and the pictures were to us in choosing a draw-er.
Because, just like the worker shared the boss’ gifts with others, so too can we share God’s gifts with others
Some of those gifts that we can share are God’s love, forgiveness, abundance, belonging, mercy, and grace.
When we do this, when we give away and share God’s good gifts with others, then we can change – in a good way – how people think about God.
And that is the good news for today! Let’s pray.

CLOSING Prayer

This is a repeat-after-me prayer.

Dear God,

Thank you for the good gifts…

…that you give to us.

Help us to share your gifts…

…with those around us…

…so that they, too…

…will know your goodness.

Thank you and Amen

Originally posted September 14, 2013
Updated on August 19, 2022
Written and edited by Nathanael Vissia

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