Convert your temporal money into eternal blessings

"You can't take it with you."  That's what we Christians think but I'm not so sure it is strictly true.Do you remember Matthew 6:19-21?

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where theives break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where theives do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

I always understood the general idea of this passage but for a long time, the closer I looked at it the more confused I got.  How does one store up treasures in heaven?  Apparently, there are things you can take with you!  What are they?  And again, just how does one store something in heaven?

A professor in college (Ras!) unraveled it for me:  we know of only one thing that will last forever from our created universe:  you and I and every other being God has decided to make immortal.  We cannot take our money with us, or our houses, or our 'mammon' but we can take each other.  When we commit our resources to the building and strengthening of relationships, we build something eternal.

For years and years I was befuddled by the Parable of the Shrewd Manager (Luke 16).  It is too long to quote here.  The essence is that the master fires his manager who then reasons to himself, "What shall I do now?  My master is taking away my job.  I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg- I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses."

The manager then goes to his master's debtors while still in his master's service, sits down with them, and cuts their debt in half.  In short, the manager is stealing from the master in order to win favor with his master's debtors.

This is all well and good until the real shock comes in verse 8:  "The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly." 

I wasn't expecting that.

I have heard various interpretations of this passage attempting to show that in fact Jesus was not speaking favorably about the dishonest manager but this seems to fly in the face of the text.  Jesus goes on and says:

"For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light."

This is a fascinating thing for Jesus to say.  One would think that it should be the opposite, but Jesus doesn't think so.  In my estimation, little has changed in 2,000 years.  Christians still don't 'get' money (and resources in general).  This is for a variety of reasons.  High on the list is that we simply aren't taught.  Oh sure, we've all sat through multiple sermons on 'stewardship' which we usually knew were not really about 'giving' but about giving to the congregation.  However, we received no comprehensive education in what the Bible says about money.  How could we?  The sermon isn't the place for that kind of in depth examination.  And only 5% of the congregation shows up at the Bible studies.  You do the math.

Dave Ramsey has helped a great deal on the level of the individual family but again, why did it take 2,000 years?

But Jesus is not done with his shocking statements.  He concludes, "I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings."

You see why it is hard to denigrate the 'dishonest manager' when we have Jesus calling us to imitate him.

For years I didn't understand this.  This all changed fairly dramatically when I received a sizable and unsolicited donation for a business project I was working on.  The donor wasn't even a Christian (he was Jewish, actually) but the appreciation I felt was immediate and profound.  The project stuttered to an end but my gratitude persists to this day.

Now I understand this parable.  It has given me a new perspective on 'stewardship.' I see now how one can 'convert' their material 'stuff' into 'eternal' treasure.  It helps me see why it is so important that the Church invest in the people and communities that they are in in a tangible, visible- materialistic- way.  The more personal the better, too, as it is hard to feel gratitude to impersonal beauracracies dispensing food stamps or canned goods.

Christmas is upon us.  Charitable demands are all around us- and for legitimate reasons.  The commercialization of the season is distressing in many important ways.  Nonetheless, at the same time and for the same distressing reasons, it is also an opportunity to openly 'use worldly wealth to gain friends.'  Sometimes 'stewardship' translates to 'stingy' and this season is in part a corrective to that attitude. 

For Christians, it is an opportunity to remember the precise end that Jesus gave for our resources and remember that there is a way to convert our material 'stuff' into eternal blessings... in the form of individuals who will live forever in our company, and that because an act of kindness softened their heart and gave our message powerful credibility in their eyes.

Anthony Horvath is the Executive Director of Athanatos Christian Ministries and the author of the Birth Pangs series. He is also a pro-life speaker and an apologist.