Clothesline 266 "We belong to God"

Jesus often spoke in parables and many times they seemed impossible to understand. Like last Sunday’s message about the dishonest manager. It’s a story about a dishonest manager who gets fired and then cooks the books so his former boss gets cheated out of even more money, and Jesus says we should be like him. Well, sort of…

He says “children of this age are more shrewd than are the children of light.” And we should “make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.” Still confusing…

There is a lot going on here, but if we pull all the threads together, we have a common thread: We belong to God. Pure and simple. And here’s what puts it all together. If we belong to God, we have a moral responsibility to take proper care of whatever we’ve been entrusted to us, like a manager caring for someone else’s stuff. If we belong to God, we will be spiritually-minded, like a one who thinks of the heavenly realm in all things. If we belong to God, we will develop friendships for the right reasons, not by cheating someone else. If we belong to God, we will be trustworthy in all we do, as Jesus said: “If you are trustworthy in small things, you will be trustworthy is big things.” And if we belong to God, our wealth, our relationships, all our stuff …will never be more important than our relationship with God. It makes sense, doesn’t it.

Now, what if we were to put the same effort into these managerial responsibilities as we put into so many other things in our lives? Jesus refers to this when he comments on the actions of the manager who is told that he is fired. He commends him for his shrewdness and pretty much says that it’s too bad the “children of light” aren’t as shrewd. We are…the “children of light!”

God has made us to be children of the light, but sometimes we need more wisdom, don’t we. How can we balance our needs and wants with those of the needy around us? It’s all about priorities. Jesus calls us to balance our priorities in favor of what will last.

It is only our relationship and connection with Almighty God that will endure. We belong to God.

In C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, the lion Aslan, who represents God, says this to those assembled in front of him, “Creatures , I give you yourselves… I give to you forever this land of Narnia. I give you the woods, the fruits, the rivers. I give you the stars … and I give you myself.” For no other reason than pure, unconditional love, we have been given everything—to enjoy, to share, to preserve. The question is: How are you doing with what God has given you ?