Take a look at our currency

Homily for September 18, 2016 (25th Sunday in Ordinary Time)
Amos 8:4-7; Psalm 113; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16:1-13

The prophet Amos in our first reading strongly condemned those who “trample upon the needy” by exploiting them and their poverty.  They manipulated measures, forced people into peonage and took what little they had in payment of debts.  Unfortunately, Amos would still have plenty to talk about today.

Not long ago a woman came to her pastor’s office with a problem.  She had come to ask for some assistance with her rent, and as they talked it became clear that her financial struggles were exacerbated by a payday loan that she had taken out for $700.  She feared that she would never get out of debt.  Trying to ease her fears by breaking the problem down, her pastor asked, “What are your payments?”
 
“Two hundred dollars, every two weeks,” she replied and added that she had been making such payments for four months—a total of $1600.

The pastor wanted to know the remaining balance on the loan.  It was still $700.
 
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is now considering federal rules that would tighten the regulations governing financial institutions like payday loan and auto title loan companies.  In states where there are no regulations, such loans can have annualized interest rates that average 300%!

Such scandals, of course, aren’t limited to non-traditional financial institutions.  A major national bank recently paid $185 million in fines and reported that it had fired 5300 employees for creating 2 million bank and credit card accounts for customers without their authorization.  Only a few years earlier that same bank had paid a $67 million settlement (without admitting wrongdoing) in a “robo-signing” scandal in which employees signed off on home foreclosures during the Great Recession without even reviewing the documents.  Much of this misconduct was driven by the desire to meet performance goals established by the bank, along with the extra compensation attached to those goals.  It also generated millions of dollars in fees for the bank.

Greed is one of the Seven Deadly Sins and lying and other forms of dishonesty are violations of the Ten Commandments, so it might seem odd that Jesus in our gospel reading uses the example of a shady steward to move us toward virtue, the right priorities and “heavenly dwellings.”  It may help to understand a little bit about what some scripture scholars say were common economic practices in ancient Palestine.

Although it was officially frowned upon, the practice of usury was fairly widespread.  One of the jobs of stewards like the man in this parable was to collect on debts owed to their masters.  In so doing many would “pad the bill” with interest payments—in this case, extra measures of wheat or oil—give what was owed to their masters and keep the rest for themselves.

When he was about to be fired for “squandering” his master’s property (not unlike the Prodigal Son did with his father’s property in last Sunday’s gospel reading), he needed to find a way to ingratiate himself to others.  So he lowered their bills to what they actually owed his master.   Although it’s fair to say that he backed into doing the right thing rather than intending it, the steward was certainly creative as well as prudent. These were the qualities that the master commended and Jesus wanted his disciples and other followers (“the children of light”) to have in proclaiming the kingdom.

At the same time, Jesus also emphasized the need for them to reflect on their own integrity and trustworthiness, along with who or what they would ultimately serve.  Recognizing that honesty is a habit, he called on them to pay attention to small matters as well as large.  What do we do when no one is looking or the stakes aren’t so high?  Have we turned success and high achievement into such idols that we are teaching our children that cheating is OK as long as one doesn’t get caught?  If recent doping scandals in the athletic world or reports of rampant cheating and cutting corners by college students are any indication, too many young people are learning the wrong lessons and, perhaps without fully realizing it, are serving not God but mammon. 

Mammon is the Greek translation of a Hebrew or Aramaic word for “that in which one trusts.”  We all need to make a living, and there’s nothing wrong with working to meet our families’ needs, trying to get ahead, and striving to make things better for those who will come after us; but if we turn material gain and wealth into what theologian Paul Tillich called our “ultimate concern,” we will find ourselves missing the purposes and ends for which we were created.  At the end of life we will find that the opportunity for true and lasting wealth slipped through our fingers.

In our second reading, St. Paul encouraged his young fellow minister Timothy and the church he led in Ephesus to be a community of prayer, remembering not only their own needs but also those of “kings and all in authority,” thus promoting the social peace and harmony that support and are the manifestations of human dignity and spiritual devotion.  We all need prayers, especially when we are tempted to succeed at all costs or to misuse the trust that others have placed in us.  As we have seen all too often, none of us are immune to these temptations.  They can come in the church as easily as in the boardroom, classroom or locker room.

The next time you are in the store and make a purchase with cash or when you are preparing to throw a bill or two into your envelope or the collection basket at church, pause and take a look at our currency.  It includes the motto:  In God we trust.

May it be so.  May we spend ourselves for what really matters. +