Unjust stewards must plan accordingly

You, O man, are an unjust steward. You have wasted your master's goods, you are guilty; you have mistreated your wife, your children, your goods, all that you have. You thought they were yours to do with as you please. And your master knows it all, and  therefore you are being put out of the stewardship. You must die, and there is no way to get out of this. It was decreed irrevocably in Eden, when the Lord said to Adam: you must die. So act accordingly, to gain the praise of your master. See what the steward here did: he lessened the amount of what his master's other debtors owed. You can do the same: forgive them  their sins against you, and by that much you can lighten their load a bit, by the amount of your commission. And gain the capacity to do this by knowing another Steward who was not unjust but good. For Christ came down from heaven and wasted nothing. Yet he called you and did not merely lessen the 100 measures you owed but removed it altogether, for he is both a steward and one with the master, his Father. This is what forgiveness means. And he earned this by being put out of the stewardship for you, and rising the third day. So now  there are to be new heavens and a new earth in which the people bound to him shall dwell. So live as those who know this, and by forgiving your neighbors, lessen their load. And you shall gain the eternal praise of your Father. Sermon for  Trinity IX.