The relationship between the Christian faith and the working world has often been uneasy, especially between Jesus’ ethics and the business community.
In many ways the church has contributed to the split between our Sunday life and what we do all week. Its focus tends to be on our individual relationship with God and what happens in the few hours on Sundays.
George MacLeod, the great Scottish preacher and founder of the Iona Community, summed up the central conviction: “I simply argue that the Cross be raised at the center of the market-place as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage heap … at a cosmopolitan crossroad.” Jesus came to minister to the secular, everyday world.
The parable of the “unjust steward” — our gospel text for this Sunday — while strange, it is taken from the business world of first century Palestine. What is Jesus’ point in this story? Is it not that the people of the business community are shrewder than the people of the faith community. While not affirming immoral practices, he is commending shrewdness and boldness in taking risks with the offering of our lives and love in an ambiguous world.
Each week, Bethesda-by-the-Sea attempts to make meaningful connections between our life of faith and our everyday lives. Join us this Sunday when we return to the three-service schedule (8:00, 9:00, and 11:00 a.m.) and formation offerings at 9:45 a.m. and you’re invited to remain after the 11:00 a.m. service this week for the Parish Picnic.
Bob Dannals
Interim Rector