25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C) – September 21, 2025

St. Margaret Mary – Wichita, KS

Amos 8:4-7; Psalm 113:1-2, 4-8; 1 Timothy 2:1-8; Luke 16:1-13

The Urgent Crisis of Christ

Growing up in the Brungardt household, one thing you had to deal with a lot was realism. We did not fluff things up. It was real. Lotta straight shooting. My dad especially—very direct. Some of you may remember that my dad is a physician here in town, and for most of my life he was the medical director at a small non-profit hospice care provider here in Wichita. And so when you’d ask pops about work that day, predictably (for your father who works at a hospice) you’d talk about death. So death was a very common topic there in the Brungardt household. 

And every once in a while my dad would make little comments about how short life is, how quickly life can come to an end. To us kids, about our own impending deaths. And we would be like, “Dad, we’re twelve!” But, for instance—like for us boys especially he would say, “Heart disease runs in the family, and you just need to be aware of that, be doing things to take care of yourselves: diet, cut down on red meat intake, cardiovascular exercise, no smoking,” on and on.

And I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to tell a bunch of strapping young boys that they’re mortal—but that’s gonna fall on deaf ears! “Dad, look at me. I’m fine. A physical specimen of human fitness! I don’t need to worry about that.” There was absolutely no urgency from us. It seemed like a fairy tale. I was like, “I don’t smoke. I’m not an alcoholic. I’m not a couch potato. I’m gonna be fine.” Sure, I knew about dying, but it wasn’t real. Until one year when I was at college and they had this free blood test clinic, so I went to it—you know, to confirm that I was indeed a physical specimen of athleticism—and it didn’t go well. Went bad! I went back for my results and the nurses’ face—she couldn’t believe that the numbers she was looking at were for a 21 year old kid. I think my cholesterol was something like 5,280. I don’t know, it was bad. I was 21 at the time, still in my “gonna live forever” stage…and that was sobering to hear. But what happened? All of a sudden there was a much great urgency on my part to eat a little healthier, get some exercise, things like that. There was an urgency to respond to the reality of the situation.

Luke’s Gospel—especially this section we’re in—this section of Luke’s Gospel can be hard to read. Because chapter after chapter, page after page—Jesus is so urgent. You are hit with an urgency, a plea, a realism from Jesus. We like the Christmas story and the Easter story. But this section—this section began way back in June, twelve weeks ago, so easy to forget how it started, what the context of all of this is—but this whole section, the context for all of these teachings is Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. We heard, “Jesus resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51b). So the context for everything that we’ve been reading for the past month is that Jesus is knowingly and willing walking toward his passion and death in Jerusalem. And so just like it would for any one of us if our own death was fast-approaching, his coming death brings a great urgency with it. The closer he draws to his death, the more urgent he becomes, the more urgent he is for his hearers to understand that following him, being his disciple, being a Christian—it requires rearranging their views on everything, changing everything in their lives! And not just one day when we’re old and retired and have nothing else to do, but now, today. With each parable, each new teaching, each “hard saying,” Jesus is trying to provoke his followers almost into a sort of crisis mode. Not to scare them, not to guilt them, no! But to convey the urgency of making a real and committed and total decision to follow him. Why? Because only Christ can give us what we truly seek. Only Christ.

The Three Steps of the Parable

So this parable Jesus tells is a famously confusing one. Here is this dishonest steward. A guy is so rich that he has to hire someone to manage all of his money, all of his property—this steward. And his master discovers that he has been dishonest, really cookin’ the books.. So he’s gonna fire him, but first he tells him to make up a report of all his dishonest deals. But instead of doing that, the steward quickly calls in all of the people that owe his master money, and forgives huge portions of their debts. “You own how much? Boom, forgiven.” In other words, this steward doubles down on his dishonest. Why? So that when he’s fired he will have people who like him that will take care of him. And for this, the master commends him! Because even though he did more dishonest things, he had a great foresight into the future, and with great urgency did whatever was necessary to secure his future in the midst of the crisis of being fired.

What we can see happening in this parable are three things. First, 1) the steward sees and recognizes that he is in a crisis. He’s about to lose his job. And since there wasn’t some social safety-net in those days, losing his job was going to be catastrophic. So here’s this crisis. The second thing is that 2) he then makes an honest self-assessment. He recognizes, “I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg.” He knows he isn’t going to be able to make it on his own. And so three, 3) he acts. He doesn’t sit around, he acts; quickly and decisively. He calls in the debtors and forgives large portions of their debts before the master has time to fire him.

Taking a Cue from the Dishonest Steward

So what’s Jesus’ point? To engage in shady business practices? No. Far from. Jesus wants us to learn from the pattern of this steward. He wants us to see ourselves in the same pattern. 1) To see and recognize the “crisis” in which we find ourselves; 2) to make an honest self-assessment of our situation; and 3) to act, quickly and decisively.

Why does Jesus feel the need to tell us this parable? Again, Jesus is trying to provoke a response. 1) Usually instead of recognizing the crisis we find ourselves in, we tend to be a little delusional, a little dismissive. “Oh, I’m a good person. God understands that I don’t really make an effort.” 2) And then instead of making an honest self assessment, we usually distract ourselves, “Oh, I’m good. I’ve got a football game to watch. I’ve got other things to do. I’m really busy at work. My kids have so much going on.” 3) And then instead of acting—we do nothing, we are usually a little complacent, “Oh, I’m good. I’ll get around to following Jesus some other time.” This is why Jesus feels the need to tell us these things.

Again, think of my reaction to hearing heart disease is in the family history. What did I do? 1) Very dismissive. “Eh, I’m young. Heart disease is for old people.” Dismissive. 2) What did I do next? “I have other things to do besides worry about my heart health. It doesn’t even feel bad. I exercise some.” Distract myself from it. 3) And then what did I do? Nothing. I did nothing. “I’ll worry about it when I’m older.” Inaction. What was it that finally got me going, got me up? A crisis. Seeing my cholesterol.

You Cannot Serve Both God and Mammon

And so Jesus provokes a little crisis. Jesus gives another hard saying to provoke a real response. Jesus lays down that famous saying: “You cannot serve both God and Mammon.” That’s an either or. There it is, no middle ground, no moderate option. To compromise is still choosing one or the other. And you can’t avoid the question when it is as practical as your checkbook. If he’s talking about murder? “I’m not a murder.” Tune out. Talking about gluttony? “I’m not a glutton.” Tune out. Money? “Father better not talk about money.” What Jesus has been driving at since June: everything in our life must be viewed as being in service to God, everything in our life must reflect our fidelity and total surrender to God. Our entire life: our job, our hobbies, our free time, our vacation time, our public life, our private life, our political opinions, our moral opinions, and yes, even our checkbook—everything in our life must center on Jesus Christ. Is that the case, or are we compartmentalizing things? Are we saying, “Jesus is everything,” or, “Jesus is that thing I do on Sunday…every once in a while”? Is everything in our life centered on God himself?

So what does this look like?  Well, go through the steps we see in our Gospel today. 1) Recognize the crisis you are in: Jesus isn’t asking for people who don’t murder one another and go to church every now and then. Jesus is asking for disciples that are 100% in, 100% committed to him. Remember the things we have heard in the Gospels since June: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind.” “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” “You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” “Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.” “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.…Anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” None of the actual words from Jesus’ mouth make it sound like he’s asking for “nice people who go to church once in a while.” And so step two, 2) Make an honest self-assessment: Are you 100% in? Or are you still sitting on the fence? I can’t do this for you. But I think most of us can listen to all of those things Jesus said and begin to make an honest self-assessment. I mean, for instance, Jesus is talking about money today: how many of us are tithing 10% of our annual income? Is your tithing check the first check you write each month? If we aren’t serving Mammon, tithing should be super easy, right? And then that leads to step three, 3) act. We have to urgently start taking shrewd and decisive action! Action at every level of our life. Yes, even down to our checkbook.

Commitment to Christ Involves Everything, Because He Gives Everything

Don’t hear what I’m not saying: I’m not saying you have to be in the church on your knees 24/7. But I am saying that we have to give up this idea that our response to Jesus is a casual matter. And why? What’s the incentive? 

And really, that’s the simple part. The lie, the deception of the Enemy from the Garden of Eden up to today—the lie is that the Father cannot fulfill you, He cannot give you the happiness you crave, He’s holding out on you—just go do it on your own. That’s the story of the prodigal son: he couldn’t believe that the father would fulfill him, so he went off. That’s us. 

And so again and again Jesus is inviting us to entrust our entire lives to the Father, to resolutely begin that walk home to the Father. That’s what he is resolutely determined to do, and that’s what he invites us to do. Why? Because the Father will fulfill. We forget that other line mixed into the last twelve weeks: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32-33).

Yes, Jesus is trying to provoke a bit of a crisis in us this week. But at the end of the day, the invitation this week is the same as always: Come home. Entrust your life, your whole life, every part of your life, to the Father once again. The Father wants to give you everything. Come home to Him.