Ordinary Time

Pause

In Lord of the Rings, Frodo the hobbit complains about the times he is living in, and the sage Gandalf agrees and adds, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

We are given this time in history, no matter how you see it.  And, we are all equal when it comes to TIME; all of us have 24 hours in our days, and 7 days in our weeks. But, we are not equal when it comes to MONEY and POWER.

Let us explore some ways God’s Word speaks about the inherent inequalities in our lives and how we can handle (or not) what we have.

Listen

Jesus also said to the disciples, “A certain rich man heard that his household manager was wasting his estate. He called the manager in and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give me a report of your administration because you can no longer serve as my manager.’

“The household manager said to himself, What will I do now that my master is firing me as his manager? I’m not strong enough to dig and too proud to beg. I know what I’ll do so that, when I am removed from my management position, people will welcome me into their houses.

“One by one, the manager sent for each person who owed his master money. He said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your contract, sit down quickly, and write four hundred fifty gallons.’ Then the manager said to another, ‘How much do you owe?’ He said, ‘One thousand bushels of wheat.’ He said, ‘Take your contract and write eight hundred.’”

Luke 16:1-7

Think

Shrewd. No other word for it. The manager was wasting money and was about to get fired. But, he was not powerless. He had misused the owner’s money, so while still possible he abused his remaining power to his benefit. “You owe my boss, let’s reduce that while we can.” The unspoken part is now YOU WILL OWE ME. And that social debt, just like a monetary one, gives him power. He knew who he was and what he was willing (or not willing) to do.

This season with the election and accusations flying, the use and abuse of power and money seem to be more prevalent and worrisome. What is a follower of Christ to do? What is our responsibility? These are hard questions, but if we see who we are in God’s eyes first, then the what to do seems to fall into place.

The Franciscan mystic Richard Rohr puts it this way:

“When you get your, ‘Who am I?’ question right, all the ‘What should I do?’ questions tend to take care of themselves.”

Rock Higgins

Pray

Lord, all my time is in your hands. All my power, all my wealth, even all of myself comes from you. I play at thinking that I deserve any of this, instead of seeing that all that I have and all that I am are a gift — grace from you. Help me to use these good gifts you showered upon me, every second, every penny, every influential word, to your honor and glory this day. Amen.

Go

“When you get your, ‘Who am I?' question right, all the 'What should I do?' questions tend to take care of themselves.”

Richard Rohr, Falling Upward, 2011

The World will tell you to keep score by its rules. Define yourself by who you are in God, and the score loses its meaning.