​Pentecost+15/Proper+20C (Luke 16:1-13)

In the 18th century, convicted prisoners in the UK were sent to develop a newly colonized Australia. To do so, private shipowners were contracted with the British government and paid based on the number of prisoners on board. From 1790 to 1792, 498 prisoners died out of 4082 (12% mortality rate), and in one case 158 out of 424 died (37% mortality rate). No medical support was available to the prisoners on the ship. No doctors, no medicine. Ships were overloaded, which created a shortage of food and poor environmental conditions. Since shipowners were already paid based on the number of prisoners, they didn’t have to care for the well-being of prisoners. 

The British government with economic losses was criticized for being morally irresponsible and even cruel. Two approaches were suggested to resolve this moral and economic problem. One was for the government to intervene by sending a government official and a doctor to each ship. Nothing, however, improved. Officials were bribed by shipowners to reduce costs and do what they used to do. If officials disagreed, they were killed. The other approach was to educate shipowners morally, emphasizing their work as patriotic causes and the sanctity of life for all. This moral teaching also didn’t work. Both government intervention and moral preaching failed. So what would’ve been the solution? 

The British government used the very human nature that we all share: “seek advantages and avoid disadvantages” Instead of paying the shipowners based on the number of prisoners, the government started paying them on the actual number of prisoners who safely arrived in Australia. In 1793, only one prisoner died out of 422. (This story is from the website: www.min.news/en/history/031da6adf2c495020a48d3b78e29b751.html)

In the gospel lesson today, the dishonest manager shows our human nature that seeks advantages and avoids disadvantages. Knowing this self-interest-driven nature of humanity is what the children of this age are more shrewd about than the children of light per Jesus. The dishonest manager understands how to use self-interest to prepare for his life after getting fired. Self-interest, while we might consider selfish, is one of the most essential motivating factors in our decision-making process. The manager’s self-interest before he was about to lose his job was to be comfortable with his role to the point where he eventually got caught wasting his employer’s resources. Now his self-interest is how to save himself from being homeless and jobless. He squanders his employer’s resources for his own benefit. Wealth is no longer important to him but life itself. He clearly sees what matters more. 

The employer in Jesus’ parable of the dishonest yet shrewd manager is an odd character that is hard to exist in the real world. Yet, we get his point: know how one’s self-interest changes, depending on different contexts. Explore my self-interest first and evaluate. How does it change in a different context? The more we’re attuned to our true self-interest, the more we become serious about them. “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.” When we don’t know what we want, we keep missing out. 

Jesus contrasts God and wealth (mammon in Greek) in the lesson. Wealth would be one’s self-interest yet when it comes down to a matter of life or life after death, it changes. We look for what’s better for us and avoid what’s not. Jesus goes deeper. What’s better for us regardless of context is God. God is that which fulfills our self-interest. This sounds like “God knows better” but that’s not the point. 

In our practice of contemplation through which we do bodily feel, wisely discern, and spiritually sense the presence of God within, we experience something that is never shaken or gone but instead is eternally present, connecting us with others through that very presence. The more we cultivate, the more we are convinced and felt that this is the only thing that fulfills our self-interest as well as our existential void. There’s nothing better or more satisfying than this. 

Jesus tells us, “You cannot serve God and wealth.” When we truly experience the joy that comes out of the union between the divine and the human, wealth is nothing to serve but to use for good, for God. Wealth is overrated in our experience of God’s presence in ourselves.