Henry Ford was known for both his frugality and his philanthropy. He was visiting his family’s ancestral village in Ireland when two trustees of the local hospital found out he was there, and they managed to get in to see him.
They talked him into giving the hospital $5,000 dollars (this was the 1930’s, so $5,000 dollars was a great deal of money). The next morning, at breakfast, he opened his newspaper to read the banner headline: “American Millionaire Gives Fifty Thousand to Local Hospital.”
Ford wasted no time in summoning the two hospital trustees. He waved the newspaper in their faces. “What does this mean?” he demanded. The trustees apologized profusely. “Dreadful error,” they said. They promised to get the editor to print a retraction the very next day, stating that the great Henry Ford hadn’t given $50,000, but only $5,000. Well, hearing that, Ford offered them the other $45,000, under one condition: that the trustees erect a marble arch at the entrance of the new hospital, with a plaque that read, “I walked among you and you took me in.”
A humorous story about a great man and two other men who were shrewder business men than he was. Our scripture lesson from the Lectionary for 9-22-13 was Luke 16:1-13. The manager who got caught with his fingers in the till –so to speak- and got fired. His next step was to get some of his former debtors to be indebted to him by reducing their debt before the Master got the word out about his dismissal. He took his master in also, and was commended for his shrewdness. Jesus tells us, “for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light”.
I am not sure how we should be more shrewd in dealing with our own generation but I do know that if we are faithful in treating others as Jesus asks us to we will be doing all He wants us to do. More importantly we will be faithful to God’s will for us in a secular world where we are called to take people in.
That is to take people into our churches, homes, and hearts.
Have a blessed day in Jesus Christ,
Pastor Randy
Wesley United Methodist Church, Orange TX 