Luke 16:2
He summoned him and said, 'What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.'
I remember an incident once where my parents left my brother and I at home for the evening while they attended a dinner party. I was probably 16 at the time, my brother maybe 12. The folk quipped as they left, "Don't burn the house down!" We didn't, but we made a mess of things. We started goofing off and next thing you know we had marred the wall and ceiling with food (a mini food fight). Spinach was on the ceiling and when you try to wipe it off, the green soaks into the white ceiling. No hiding this. We did our best to fix what we'd messed up, but we knew we couldn't hide everything. Believe me, when they got home, there was an accounting in full measure!
The dishonest steward in today's reading was given a task and he failed. But instead of beating himself up, he did his best to make amends and clean up the mess he'd made for his master. He went through a lot of effort to atone for his mistakes; the master recognized this and conveyed his appreciation. I believe this is the lesson Jesus is trying to teach. As humans, we spend too much time 'goofing off', or sinning, and then try to hastily clean up our mess. We must first recognize that we messed up, do our best to clean up our act and apologize for our blunder. The Master will hopefully recognize this and show his love for us in eternity. The other side of the coin is that we should strive to live in the light of Christ instead of living in a world where we continually sin. When we sin to excess, we spend our entire lives in clean up mode instead of living in the spirit of love Christ wants us to share.
