What’s the “weekly mettle maker?”
Training ideas and info supporting Heritage Arts’ programs — Heritage Self-Defense, Wildwood outdoor skills, Heritage Fitness, and Heritage Spirit.
Mettle Maker #321
Self-defense: Can you defend yourself with your chosen weapon or weapons while standing and while on the ground, as well as while moving in the environment? Do some weapon command and mastery work! If you’re looking to build your base fitness and weapon mastery, choose 4 exercises and do 4 sets of 4 reps, taking your time and focusing on form. Sprints, Prisoner Get-ups, Crunch ‘n’ Punch, and Get-ups are a nice choice. if you’re looking to push yourself, choose 7 exercises and do a weapon constitutional (example on the left). Want more training tips? Come out the club here in Richmond VA or sign up for our free distance learning program here.
Click here to sign up for DAILY MOTIVATIONAL text messages!
...
Click here to sign up for DAILY MOTIVATIONAL text messages! ...
Fitness: What is “fitness?” On the right is an 8-minute, practical fitness drill for self-defense and survival. Maybe your idea of fitness is losing 100 pounds, bench pressing your body weight, running your first 10K, or looking good with your shirt off. Regardless of your definition, if you’re looking for a free coach — somebody to help you design a fitness program and to help keep you motivated and on track — Sign up for our free distance learning program.
Wildwood. Sure, you can learn survival facts from books, like first aid info, helpful tricks, and so on. But you can’t learn from a book how to be comfortable in the woods, adaptable when things go wrong, and calm under pressure. You have to face and overcome incremental challenges in order to get ready for a big one. Start small. Spend more time outside so that things that seem big when at first (mosquitoes, ticks, heat, cold) soon become minor. In the process, little things will come up that you have to overcome — like the time my son and I got pinned down by torrential rain for four consecutive days. As you get stronger, you’ll take on and overcome even bigger challenges, like being gripped by panic when alone in a dark swamp far outside cell phone range. Want to start your journey in outdoor skills? Sign up for our free Wildwood distance learning program.
Homily for the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sept. 18th, 2022 – Archdeacon Mitch
Readings: Am 8:4-7, Ps 113:1-2, 4-6, 7-8, 1 Tm 2:1-8, Lk 16:1-13
Luke 16: 1-13 World English Bible Catholic Edition
1 He also said to his disciples, “There was a certain rich man who had a manager. An accusation was made to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2 He called him, and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’
3 “The manager said within himself, ‘What will I do, seeing that my lord is taking away the management position from me? I don’t have strength to dig. I am ashamed to beg. 4 I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from management, they may receive me into their houses.’ 5 Calling each one of his lord’s debtors to him, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe to my lord?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred batos* of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘How much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred cors† of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’
8 “His lord commended the dishonest manager because he had done wisely, for the children of this world are, in their own generation, wiser than the children of the light. 9 I tell you, make for yourselves friends by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal tents. 10 He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. He who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12 If you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You aren’t able to serve God and Mammon.”‡
Today’s readings, at first glance brothers and sisters, are very confusing. They seem to be coming at us from many different angles and proclaiming divergent messages, some of which seem to be at odds with Jesus’ other teachings.
In the Amos reading, the prophet speaks out against rich merchants who can’t wait to get religious obligations out of the way so that they can get back to profiteering. He rather angrily rails against rip-off artists who cheat the poor and put profits over people. But then, in the 1 Timothy reading, we are told to pray for everyone without anger or argument, because God wills everyone to be saved. Is anger justified or unjustified? Let’s be clear, these are not at odds with each other. The goal of Amos is to forcefully confront the rich in the hopes that they will repent, change their ways, and be saved. And that is the hope for which the author of Timothy would have us pray.
With that apparent conflict resolved, let’s see what can do about the ones apparent in Luke 16. Here Jesus tells us a story about money management. Now, why would he do this when, in many other places, he tells us to sell everything we have, give it to the poor, and follow him? Because his messages of total poverty are meant for his apostles, his inner circle. But this parable is being delivered to his disciples – everyday folks who want to follow his teachings.
And so he tells them the story of a steward (what today we’d call a business manager who works for an owner) who is accused of mismanagement, or perhaps embezzlement, probably the same behaviors Amos condemned in our first reading. Knowing he’s about to be found out and fired, the dishonest steward starts making things right – revaluing purchases and writing down the debts he has inflated – in the hopes that he can make a few friends who’ll support him when he’s unemployed. His master praises him for trying to make good, even if it is only for his own benefit. Then, incredibly, Jesus tells us to be like the dishonest steward. He tells us Christians to be at least as wise with our money as the children of this world, to use it to make friends and so on.
If the master in this parable represents our Heavenly Father, and I think he does, the message here is that we cannot serve both God and our own needs. We must align our interests, even our finances, with the will of God as best we can. Jesus knows that worldly riches – he calls them “unrighteous mammon” – by their very nature, put us on the path to greed and avarice. But dealing with money is part of being in the world. And if we can’t be trusted with worldly riches, which so often lead to dishonesty, how can we hope to be trusted with the true riches of the kingdom? Jesus leaves open the question of whether or not the master ultimately fires or retains the steward, a fascinating detail, the implication being that our fate with regard to God’s judgement also remains an open question.
So let us be careful and unconflicted in the ordering of our desires, even our desire for prosperity, in accordance with God’s will.
-----------------------------------------------------------
* 16:6 100 batos is about 395 liters or 104 U. S. gallons.
† 16:7 100 cors = about 2,110 liters or 600 bushels.
‡ 16:13 “Mammon” refers to riches or a false god of wealth.