Brief synopsis of the readings: Speaking through the prophet Amos, God warns against the wealthy “who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land!” He tells them that he sees their greed and will not forget what they have done. Luke’s Gospel speaks of a speech Jesus gave to his followers. He describes a assistant (steward) to a wealthy man. The steward was caught mismanaging the rich man’s wealth was about to be fired. He panicked, and in the hopes of currying favor with the rich man’s debtors, he discounted how much they owed. Surprisingly the wealthy man commended the steward for acting prudently. Jesus then went on to tell his followers that someone who is honest in small matters will be trustworthy in large matters. He also told them to be trustworthy with “dishonest wealth.” Finally he told them that they cannot serve two masters and they need to choose between God and mammon (material wealth).

Let me be the first to say this: today’s Gospel is confusing. Most of the time when Jesus gives us a parable we can figure it out and we know who the good guys and bad guys are. But here it the greedy steward doesn’t sound like a good guy. He’s in trouble with his master because of his mismanagement. He attempts to fix things through further cheating, and then his master compliments him for his prudence. It’s almost as if the master is saying: “You’re my kind of scum” (tip of the hat to Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi). Simply put, I don’t think the steward is a good person and I don’t think Jesus is telling us to save our skin at all costs. It flies in the face of the self sacrifice that we normally hear from him.

But it does raise an interesting question: what do we do when we find ourselves working in greedy or self serving environments? I once spoke with someone who served on the finance committee of his church; the pastor moved out of the rectory (calling it “unlivable”) and rented a palatial home in a gated community and charged the rent to the parish. My friend didn’t think this was an appropriate use of parish funds, even though it was a wealthy parish and could afford it. But he was afraid to speak up for fear the pastor would react badly. Another friend once worked for a hospice that he felt made decisions that benefited the bottom line and didn’t serve either the patients or the staff well but knew that if he spoke too loudly he’d lose his job.

So what do these friends do? Do they serve the masters of security or the masters of integrity? And what if serving integrity does no good and creates harm for them? Well, buried in today’s Gospel is a line I keep coming back to: If “you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth?”

I think we can glean much from our first reading from Amos. Amos was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores (he pruned fig trees to make the figs bigger) who saw injustice around him and couldn’t help but speak. He prophesied against the wealthy who ignored the needs of the poor; they observed necessary rituals but cared only for themselves and Amos is often called the prophet of social justice. Martin Luther King often quoted him (Chapter 5, verse 24): “Let justice surge like water, and goodness like an unfailing stream.”

As you might expect things didn’t go entirely well for Amos as he was criticized by those in power. I’ve often spoken about our need to speak truth to power when others speak power to truth. For what it’s worth we still revere Amos all these centuries later.

Please understand I’m not saying we need to be reckless about our jobs and we do need to be aware of what we have to lose. Government and corporate whistleblowers will often wonder if it was worth it. But there is value in speaking the truth and when we do this we gain the respect and loyalty of those who aren’t rich. We know better than to speak up with the expectation that our words will cause complete and immediate conversion of the rich and powerful. But fear should never cower us into silence, complacency or fear. When I hear about members of Congress who whisper their concerns about an issue but don’t speak up for fear they won’t be reelected I wonder about their moral compass. Can we ever fully trust them?

But when someone stands up and proclaims his beliefs and is willing to take his chances I think we all notice. I just wish there were more who emulate him or her. Simply put, silence, fear and complacency are examples of dishonest wealth. They serve us in the moment and we can easily believe that wealth is wealth, no matter how good or bad.

Honest wealth is long term wealth, for ourselves and those who watch us. It may not be pretty and it’s certainly not fashionable but at the end of our lives it’s the memories that we want to look back on. It’s the memories we want our children and grandchildren to know about; they won’t care about the vacations we weren’t able to take or the boats we couldn’t afford.

And ultimately, honest wealth benefits everyone around us, even those we don’t know. We’ll never know this for certain but I like to think that over the centuries people have read Amos and taken it to heart. It’s always dicey to name names but it’s generally understood that Dolly Parsons has been pretty generous over the years. She has a net worth of about $650 million and it’s clear she doesn’t need to clip coupons or balance her checkbook. But through the Dollywood Foundation she founded in 1988 she has given millions to fund scholarships, provide disaster relief, and other needs. She has been clear about her strong faith and I like to think that much of her generosity comes from familiarity with Amos and other parts of Scripture.

I hope Amos and Jesus are smiling over this. And for the dishonest steward? Well, I guess I hope he eventually got the message.