Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 23, 2007
Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
Psalm 79:1-9
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Luke 16:1-13
If ever there were a Sunday that I would rather be anywhere but in this pulpit, it is this Sunday. As I poured over the gospel lesson early this week, I couldn’t imagine how I could preach it. And when I began reading background material to prepare this sermon I discovered that I am not alone. Clergy and biblical scholars alike indicated their own problems with this passage, and their efforts to explain it were not only wildly different, but also apologetic. So you can imagine how relieved I was to know that this past Wednesday, for the first time, clergy from various churches in the Southern Berkshires would begin getting together on a weekly basis for a clergy bible study. And none too soon. We plan to meet weekly to reflect on the lections for upcoming Sundays in preparation for preaching them.
I was especially relieved to find that the clergy sitting around the table at the UCC church in Stockbridge on Wednesday were having the same difficulty with this parable as I was. We all agreed that the story just doesn’t seem to make any sense when you compare it with the many other parables and teachings of Jesus. In fact, it even seems to contradict them. So it was not surprising that by the end of our hour long session, we had almost as many ways to look at this parable as there were people around the table. And, yet, we began to feel some confidence in the ways we might preach this text. We agreed that we could, indeed, place this parable into the context of Jesus’ many messages about the ways money and material possession impact on our relationships, with God and with each other.
If you really heard what Jesus was saying in his parable, you know why this passage from Luke causes clergy and biblical scholars alike to wince. Because, frankly, this text doesn’t sound like Jesus at all. After telling a parable about a greedy landlord and his dishonest manager, Jesus advises people to make friends of others with the dishonest money we make, so that when our money is gone, we will be welcomed by those we have helped by that money. Jesus has just shown us how the dishonest manager in this parable does, indeed, make friends of his laborers by forgiving a large percentage of the debt they owe the landlord. The result is that the laborers hold their manager in high regard. The manager also receives the commendation of his boss for his shrewd business deal because he is able to collect much of the debt he is owed. All in all, the landlord becomes a hero to his laborers, and the manager becomes their friend. It is clear that everyone comes out a winner in this parable. The problem is it all happens by dishonest means.
Could it be that Jesus is condoning such dishonest and disreputable practices for good end? I mean, after all, the landlord in Jesus’ parables is generally absent from his business because he is squandering his profit in high living. He makes his money off the backs of laborers who become increasingly indebted to him because of his self-serving business practices. By any of Jesus’ standards, the landlord comes by his wealth dishonestly. And so does his manager. The manager gets a percentage of what he collects in rent from the laborers. It is to the manager’s advantage to collect all that he can, and to bring usurious penalties on those who cannot pay on time or in full.
Both the landlord and the manager in this parable are incredibly self-serving. Money serves only their own purposes, and the dishonest ways they come by it is fair game. Until the source of the business owner’s money begins to dry up and the dishonest means by which the manager does business threatens everyone’s job security. If the laborers cannot pay their debt, and the manager can’t make any money for the landlord and the landlord loses his business, then what! Where do you turn for help? If Jesus were alive today he might quote a well-known song by the Beatles: When you are down and out, “You get by with a little help from your friends.”
How true that has been for any of us who have gone through such hard times in our life. But only if you HAVE friends. Because in the end, it is not money that will save us; it is people. It is not money which gives us our value or worth; it is the value and worth of our relationships. It is not money that brings deep meaning and lasting joy to our life; it is deep and lasting friendship. That is the message Jesus conveys to us throughout scripture. Value in life comes from being in right and good relationship with God and with each other. And there is nothing that can harm our relationships more than our self-serving attitude toward our money and possessions. In my reading, I came across a quotation which I believe summarizes Jesus’ message in this parable: “The things of this world do not have ultimate worth; but they have ultimate consequences.” In Jesus’ parable ultimate consequences come to us in the ways our money and possessions impact on our relationships with God, and with each.
The ultimate consequences for the dishonest manager in this parable is that he is about to lose his job for the wasteful and self-serving work he has done for his boss. The laborers hate him and his boss is about to dismiss him. The consequence for the greedy landlord is that he will likely lose his business if his laborers cannot and do not pay their indebtedness. And when he dismisses his manager it his unlikely that another manager will be willing to get him out of this mess. The ultimate consequences for the laborers, of course, it that they will have no way to make their living. This is clearly a lose/lose situation.
It is the steward who comes to his senses. It is the steward who realizes that his dishonest business practices are now about to do him in. When the landlord dismisses him he will have no money and no friends. He is not willing to beg and he is not able to do the only job he can get—digging a ditch. There is no one else he can blame for his situation. It is time for some serious self-evaluation if he is to save himself. It is time to use his shrewd business skills for better purpose than the dishonest management of money. He needs to apply his skills to the better management of people, including himself. Which he does. This self-serving manager turns into a self-interested manager and that makes all the difference. The manager realizes there are only losers in self-serving transactions. On the other hand, self-interested people know that their own best interests can only be met by serving the best interest of others. This will require the manager to focus not on the money, but what is in the best interest of the laborers as well as the landlord if he is to serve his own best interest. He needs to begin making decisions about their money for their common good.
The common good for the laborers in this parable is fair assessment of debt. The common good for the landlord is the ongoing productivity of his business. The common good for the manager is job security. So the manager comes up with a plan to forgive a fair portion of each laborer’s indebtedness and that has positive consequences for all of them. The laborers become debt free, the landlord’s business is made secure by money he never thought he would be able to collect, and by his own commendation of the manager’s shrewdness the manager will likely remain in the landlord’s employ. But this will not be business as usual. Money will no longer drive business practices. People will. People will be valued for what they bring to a business relationship and how that will best serve the self-interest of each of them for their common good.
So far one can make sense of this parable and find it consistent with Jesus’ teachings. But what about the dishonesty of the steward? Does Jesus condone dishonesty for the sake of a good outcome? Why would Jesus make the hero of his parable an anti-hero? A thief and a scoundrel who brings about much good. Is Jesus really telling us it is okay to use dishonest means for good purpose? I don’t think so. But I do think Jesus takes for granted that money is capable of making us dishonest. And God can even use dishonest money and dishonest people for good purpose. When our whole life becomes focused on our money we take our focus off of God’s purpose for us in making it, in spending it and in managing it. God’s purpose for money is never self-serving. God would have us make decisions about our money which take into consideration God’s self interest. And God’s self- interest lies in the well being of his people in creation.
In the end, Jesus’ parable seems to be about actions and consequences. His parable becomes an if/then statement for our life. If a self-serving dishonest person can reverse the fortune of the people who depend on him for their well-being, then how much can honest, self-interested person serve the common good. Jesus gives us his if/then statement at the end of his parable when he says, “If you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?” And we know what true riches are for Jesus. True riches are not to be found in money; true riches are to be found in relationships. Dishonest wealth in this parable is wealth which is not faithful to God’s purpose for it. Wealth which does not serve the common good of those who work for it, those who own it and those who manage it. Wealth which keeps us from forming good and right relationships with each other, or wealth which destroys those relationships by becoming completely self-serving.
In the end, Jesus’ parable is about the consequences of our dishonesty in our relationship to our wealth. The steward is not aware of the consequences of his dishonesty; the laborers are not aware of the consequences of their indebtedness; the landowner is not aware of the consequences of his greed. Until they came to understand how much they need each other. Until they come to realize how much they depend on each other for their common good. Until they come to value each other in self-interested relationship.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the quotation I used early in my sermon might be worth all the words I have used to try to explain this difficult parable about wealth. I think it is worth repeating. “The things of this world do not have ultimate worth, but they do have ultimate consequences.” The ways we get our money, manage our money and spend our money have co nsequences for so many people beyond ourselves. As followers of Christ there is only way we can be faithful to God for the wealth we have been privileged to receive in our life by the circumstances of our birth and from the resources God has given us creation. We must make decisions for our wealth which value the good it can do and the good it can bring to all God’s people in a world God created for our common good.