Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁴ Listen, you merchants who rob the poor, trampling on the needy; ⁵ you who long for the Sabbath to end and the religious holidays to be over so you can get out and start cheating again—using your weighted scales and under-sized measures; ⁶ you who make slaves of the poor, buying them for their debt of a piece of silver or a pair of shoes, or selling them your moldy wheat:

⁷ The Lord, the Pride of Israel, has sworn: “I won’t forget your deeds!

113 Hallelujah! O servants of Jehovah, praise his name. ² Blessed is his name forever and forever. ³ Praise him from sunrise to sunset! ⁴ For he is high above the nations; his glory is far greater than the heavens.

⁵ Who can be compared with God enthroned on high? ⁶ Far below him are the heavens and the earth; he stoops to look, ⁷ and lifts the poor from the dirt and the hungry from the garbage dump, ⁸ and sets them among princes! ⁹ He gives children to the childless wife, so that she becomes a happy mother.

Hallelujah! Praise the Lord.

2 Here are my directions: Pray much for others; plead for God’s mercy upon them; give thanks for all he is going to do for them.

² Pray in this way for kings and all others who are in authority over us, or are in places of high responsibility, so that we can live in peace and quietness, spending our time in godly living and thinking much about the Lord.^{[a] 3} This is good and pleases God our Savior, ⁴ for he longs for all to be saved and to understand this truth: ⁵ That God is on one side and all the people on the other side, and Christ Jesus, himself man, is between them to bring them together, ⁶ by giving his life for all mankind.

This is the message that at the proper time God gave to the world. ⁷ And I have been chosen—this is the absolute truth—as God’s minister and missionary to teach this truth to the Gentiles and to show them God’s plan of salvation through faith.

16 Jesus now told this story to his disciples: “A rich man hired an accountant to handle his affairs, but soon a rumor went around that the accountant was thoroughly dishonest.

² “So his employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about your stealing from me? Get your report in order, for you are to be dismissed.’

³ “The accountant thought to himself, ‘Now what? I’m through here, and I haven’t the strength to go out and dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg. ⁴ I know just the thing! And then I’ll have plenty of friends to take care of me when I leave!’

^5-6 “So he invited each one who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe him?’ ‘My debt is 850 gallons of olive oil,’ the man replied. ‘Yes, here is the contract you signed,’ the accountant told him. ‘Tear it up and write another one for half that much!’

⁷ “‘And how much do you owe him?’ he asked the next man. ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ was the reply. ‘Here,’ the accountant said, ‘take your note and replace it with one for only 800 bushels!’

⁸ “The rich man had to admire the rascal for being so shrewd.^[a] And it is true that the citizens of this world are more clever in dishonesty than the godly are. ⁹ But shall I tell you to act that way, to buy friendship through cheating? Will this ensure your entry into an everlasting home in heaven?^{[b] 10} No! For unless you are honest in small matters, you won’t be in large ones. If you cheat even a little, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. ¹¹ And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? ¹² And if you are not faithful with other people’s money, why should you be entrusted with money of your own?

¹³ “For neither you nor anyone else can serve two masters. You will hate one and show loyalty to the other, or else the other way around—you will be enthusiastic about one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”