Sermon 9/23/07
Shrewd Faith - Luke 16:1-13
(view lectionary notes for this text)
I love the parables of Jesus. Among them we find some of the favorite stories of our faith. The parable of the lost sheep, which we studied last week. The parable of the prodigal son. The parable of the Good Samaritan. But today, we’re taking a look at what I consider the most difficult, the most confusing, the most puzzling parable. This parable is easily the hardest parable to understand. It’s the parable of the Shrewd Manager.
Some of Jesus’ parables are for the crowds, but this one he tells to the disciples only, perhaps because it is more difficult, or perhaps because he feels they are struggling with specific concerns. He tells them that there is a rich man who has a manager or steward of the rich man’s property, a fairly typical arrangement in Jesus’ day. Someone reports to the rich man that the manager has been squandering his property. We’re not told exactly what that means, but probably, the manager was using the rich man’s property, money, and possessions for himself and his own benefit. So the rich man calls the manager in to give an account. The manager is worried – he realizes that if he has to present the accounts, the rich master will figure out that the manager has been mismanaging. So the manager acts shrewdly to protect himself. He calls in each of the debtors to the rich man, and slashes their bills, sometimes by fifty percent, so that he will ingratiate himself to them and find favor with them – maybe he’ll be able to secure a new position after he is fired by the rich master. Mosaic law wouldn’t allow a lender to collect interest, and so it seems this rich man got around the law by charging for more than was actually given. Essentially, the steward cancels the interest on everyone’s bills.
Now, we expect the manager to be fired for his actions, for his sneaky behind-the-scenes maneuvering. But instead, his master commends him – because he has acted shrewdly, a word that means astute or sharp in practical matters. And most surprising of all: what Jesus tells us we should learn from this story. “The children of this age are more shrewd than are the children of light . . . Make friends for yourself of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.” Jesus holds the shrewd manager up as a model for us to follow. Does he want us to behave like this? Are we meant to be sneaky like this? Will God reward us for this kind of behavior?
Parables are not always easy for us to understand and interpret with our contemporary ears. We try to solve parables like a puzzle, and figure out what each thing means, what each piece represents. But parables are not always “this equals that.” They’re not meant to be picked apart that way. Instead, they’re meant to be read as a whole, and gleaned for what they tell us about the kingdom of God. In his parables, Jesus is always telling us what it is like in the kingdom of God – not what it is like in heaven, but what it is like if we live here on earth as if God’s kingdom is already here. That’s what the good news was for Jesus – God’s kingdom being here already. So, what does this parable tell us about what the kingdom of God is like?
Last week in Sunday School, Penny shared with us that twenty percent of the gospel stories are about healing, which tells us about something that is very important. Well, about forty percent of the stories in the gospel are about money, our stuff, our material possessions, and what we should do with them. That tells us something too! What is Jesus saying here? First, he’s telling us that a manager had responsibility over a lot of resources, and he misused those resources. They weren’t his, but he used them like they belong to him. Second, we learn that when he was called on the carpet, the manager acted quickly – shrewdly – to make amends, which had the good result of helping others, clearing his own name, and pleasing his master.
Still, what does this tell us about how we should live? One of my favorite preachers, Rev. Edward Markquart, writes that this passage is about what kind of long term planning we’re ready for. He says that we all try to be mindful of planning for our future. Indeed, even though I hope to have forty more years in the ministry before I retire, I’m already contributing to my pension plan and trying to choose what is best for my future. Rev. Markquart says most of us will carefully do that – think about retirement, think about our Social Security income, think about our benefits. But he wonders if we’re so interested in truly loonnggg term planning. Are we interested in planning for eternity? Do we take as much care with our resources when it comes to wisely investing in and for our relationship with God? Are we good stewards, good long-term investors, when it comes to discipleship? Jesus says that people seem to act shrewdly when it comes to matters of business, but disciples, children of light, don’t seem to act with the same sharpness when it comes to matters of discipleship. Disciples are managers – all that we have responsibility for is not our own, but are things put into our care by God. And we, like the manager, have been caught in the act – we are squandering what God has given to us. Now what will we do? Can we act shrewdly?
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, was, I think, a perfect example of what Pastor Markquart is talking about – long term planning, being a good steward and manager. John Wesley, very early in his ministry, fixed a budget for himself to live on, setting aside a certain amount to save, an amount to give to the poor, and so on. Over the years, his resources expanded. He had income from preaching and teaching. But his budget – the amount he would spend on things for himself and his personal needs – never changed. He used what he needed to meet his expenses, and the rest, he gave away. He always said that if he died with any money or possessions to speak of, he should be considered a robber, because those things would not rightly belong to him. How truly remarkable was his position! I wish I followed his example. I find that it is so easy to squander what I have for nothing.
These days, I seem to carry less and less cash with me. Everywhere you go, you can use your debit card for purchases, and have money deducted directly from your checking account. It’s so easy to hand over your card, and pay very little attention to what you are actually spending on what. A swipe of the card is all it takes. There’s something about paying with actual currency, with cash, that makes me pay more attention to what I’m spending. But as I use my debit card more frequently, I find that it is easier and easier to squander and spend carelessly. My brother Todd has the same problem. I try to give him advice about what acting jobs he should and shouldn’t take. One job he was considering was with a company I knew he didn’t like, doing a touring job, which I also knew he didn’t particularly like. But he was considering taking the job because the pay was much higher. I warned him against taking the job, because I knew that he couldn’t seem to save his money. If he earned more, it simply meant he spent more, and ended the season without anything more to show from his bigger paychecks. It is so easy to squander our resources, isn’t it?
Jesus says that we are good at handling business, but disciples aren’t good at handling what they have been given responsibility over. So, what have we been given responsibility for? Are we squandering what God has given us? Using it for our own benefit? John Wesley wrote in his sermon, “The Use of Money,” that this parable means for us “Gain all you can . . . save all you can . . . and then, give all you can, or, in other words, give all you have to God . . . "Render unto God," not a tenth, not a third, not half, but all that is God's, be it more or less; by employing all on yourself, your household, the household of faith, and all [humankind], in such a manner, that you may give a good account of your stewardship when ye can be no longer stewards . . . Employ whatever God has entrusted you with, in doing good, all possible good, in every possible kind and degree to the household of faith, to all [people]!”
Jesus says that we can’t serve two masters. We can serve our money, that is to say, ourselves, and what we want. Or we can serve God. We have to make a choice, because if we try to do both, we’ll find ourselves in trouble when we are called by God to give an account of what we’ve been doing with all the abundance we’ve been given. I wish I could work out all the puzzles of this parable – when all is said and done, I still do find it confusing! But I think that we can take away some things. First, we need to be a little shrewd, a little smart, about what God has given to us. We have so much. I’m not just talking about things and money and possessions. I’m also talking about our other resources – our gifts, our talents, the things we do well, the people in our lives, the time we have and how we use it – these are all resources we have responsibility for. And they are resources given by God to us – we are the stewards, the managers, of what God has brought into our lives. We may not have a good management record so far. We might have been squandering what God has given us. But now is the time to be shrewd. It isn’t too late for us to start taking better care over what we’ve been given. Second, we can understand that God is endlessly forgiving. What boss would forgive a manager as sneaky and underhanded as the one in the parable? Only God could forgive such behavior, and try to turn it into a blessing for us. God knows our hearts, knows that we’re anything but perfect, knows that more often that not, we outright ignore what God has asked us to do. But God loves us anyway, and is so eager for a relationship with us. We try. We fail. We do less than we’ve promised for God. We squander the good and precious gifts we’ve been given. But God loves us still and always, and is ready to bless us again and again.
Have you been a faithful steward of what God has given you? Faithful with the blessings you have? How have you cared for the money, the time, the talents, the family, the friends, the faith that God has worked in you? Chances are, an honest assessment mind find that you haven’t been managing too well – that you’ve been squandering, even, what you’ve been given. Now is the time to take action – some action, any action, bold action, crazy action. Give a little more. Love a little more. Share a little more. God’s store of grace for us is limitless, and God’s desire for relationship with us is overflowing. Why pass up a chance to make things right when we know that God is ready to forgive, ready to help us try again? Be smart! Be shrewd! Be forgiven! Be loved!
Amen.