September 23, 2007; The 17th Sunday after Pentecost Readings: Amos 8:4-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16:1-13; Psalm 138.   The Rev. Dr. Hilary B. Smith Walk as a Child of the Light Today we are welcoming Hailey Grace and Corbin Joseph into the fellowship of the church, into the body of Christ through baptism. They have been God's beloved children, and today they move deeper into God's life through Jesus Christ. They will be marked as Christ's own forever. What will that mean for them? As Christ's own they will face all the challenges of life with Jesus at their side. They will know who they are in Christ-they will know that they are beloved not because of anything that they do but because of who they are as children of God. As the community of faith, we pledge today to uphold them and support them as they grow into the full stature of Christ. We, who walk as children of the light, will show them the way of life, the joy and grace of life that we know as Christians. The parable of the dishonest manager may have gotten your attention as you wondered if you heard it correctly. Is Jesus telling us to be dishonest? No, the focus of the parable is on the idea of being shrewd in the sense of being wise about our lives. The manager is faced with a realization that the life he has been living is not going to bring him what he needs in the future. So, he decides to get on the good side of the people who are in debt his master. Scholars disagree about the nature of the manager's actions here. He may have canceled the interest on the debts, which would have been a righteous thing to do in the context of his Jewish faith-thought it was not really his right to make that decision. Still it would have made his master look good and it would have been difficult for the master to go back on that promise. Or the manager may have been forgoing his portion of the profit to be made, which would have been an honest way to accomplish his goal of having a future. But, more likely, as he is characterizes as "dishonest," the manager was simply reducing the debt owed to his master haphazardly for his own benefit, which obviously was not legal. The point of the parable is not to recommend dishonesty, but rather to emphasize that we are in the position of the manager in the sense of needing to make a decision about our future based on what we know of our situation. Our situation is that of living in the material world but knowing that our true citizenship is in the kingdom of God. Our situation is that we have many needs and wants that are met by money and things but our only true need is for relationship with God. As a Christian, being shrewd with money is a matter of realizing that we have been entrusted with resources in this life not for their own sake but to use them to serve God by caring for, certainly ourselves, our families and friends, but, also those who are in need. The Hebrew prophets, including Amos, are clear that we have a responsibility to help others. You cannot serve God and wealth, we hear in the gospel. That might seem to be a difficult saying at first consideration. But when you think about it, wealth is never going to meet your deepest needs. Wealth lets you down because there is never enough money according to our culture-wealth is a master who cannot be satisfied. We serve wealth when we give it more value than it really has. We serve wealth when we give it more power in our lives than it should have. For those who make a god out of material gain, it is difficult to share because the person's reason for being is to serve wealth. In the gospel reading we hear also, "for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light." It is true, isn't it, that one who has invested everything in achieving material gain in this life is often very focused and makes good decisions to meet that end. Through this story, this parable, Jesus is encouraging the children of light-those who have the light of Christ burning within them-to be equally focused on what is best for us given what we believe about life and God. What we believe about life and God is expressed beautifully with words and images in the service of baptism. For Hailey and Corbin, this is their day to receive the light of Christ. We will light candles from the paschal candle, the Easter candle, and present the candles to them following their baptism to symbolize the light of Christ that will be with them always. That one will be engaged with the spiritual life, a life of faith, is no longer a given in our culture. Many grow up without a faith tradition of any kind. There are many things in our world today, such as money and power, which will demand our devotion and may have a god-like place in our lives-but they will not do for us what God can do-what God wants to do for us. Brian Taylor in his book, Becoming Human: The Core Teachings of Jesus, states that "the spiritual life...promises something...radical, in the true sense of the word: that is going to the root, the core [of human life] (Cowley Publications, Cambridge Mass., p. 14)." Today, Jesus promises Hailey and Corbin a life of deep meaning and fulfillment. Hailey and Corbin give us a gift today by reminding us of our true life that is in Christ. Amen.