09-23-07

Okay, so occasionally, believe it or not, even pastors come across a scripture passage we avoid like the plague; because it is hard to explain, we don’t want to wrestle with it, and/or we are really not sure we understand the message. I’m convinced that these are the very passages that we must attend to, that we, you and I, must wrestle with, that we can’t give up on, and that we pastors must do something with even if it means you have an un-funny, challenging sermon. Every time I come to the parable of the dishonest manager, I’m baffled. I have never preached this text, because I don’t like it; superficially it just doesn’t add up. Jesus uses an example of a dishonest manager as a role model for operating within the Kingdom of God. There are no funny stories about that, so here is my suggestion. Let’s wrestle a little together and take some time to unpack this text a bit.

This morning, we hear a story of an investment broker for a certain wealthy property owner living well on his income from the rich man’s properties, but not doing his duties conscientiously. As a result, the property owner isn’t earning the level of return he expected. Worse yet, someone has whispered in his boss’s ear that he is squandering his master’s property. In short, the portfolio is tanking. So naturally, the owner/rich man demands an accounting of his affairs, which clearly the manager knows isn’t going to be favorable. He goes into panic mode, imagining that he would never be able to beg for his money, or for heaven bid, engage in manual labor. He wants to ensure that he has a future place to crash at night, so "shrewdly", he calls in two debtors who owe a significant amount to the rich man, and he cuts what they owe. His intention is to gain friends who will be willing to hire him after his current master fires his patooty. This mid-level manager is a smooth operator - so smooth, in fact, that even the boss compliments the dishonest manager on his cleverness.

There’s a problem with this parable, however. Unlike the other parables Jesus told, where the moral of the story is fairly obvious and in keeping with the general tenor of Jesus’ teachings, this one’s moral seems to commend dishonesty which doesn’t fit with either Jesus’ example or his message.

As with any good storytelling, the choice of language and particular details given in a story will provide the clues about the moral of the story. One can usually find the "clues" in the first couple of sentences. This is the fourth parable told by Jesus in continuous sequence, prompted on the one hand by tax collectors and sinners "coming near to listen" and on the other by Pharisees and scribes grumbling about this so-called prophet associating with the aforementioned questionable characters (Luke 15:1-2). Last week we heard the first two stories in this sequence, a story of a lost sheep, and a lost coin. The narrative continues with a lost son, otherwise known as the prodigal son, and then . . . a dishonest manager. The connections between the first three seem pretty natural: they are all cases of "lost and found." So how are we to view this fourth parable?

The use of an uncommon Greek verb, serves as segue between the third and fourth parables, a thread translated here as "squandering". The lost son "squandered his property in dissolute living" (15:13); while the dishonest steward was "squandering his [master’s] property." More commonly, the same verb describes "broadcasting or scattering something such as seed." Throughout his gospel, Luke’s trademark interest is in the ownership of property and the way possessions are handled. Both of Luke’s squanderers are "scattering" property. Depending on your point of view, they are dispersing it generously or carelessly - certainly publicly - and acting as if what belongs to whom is irrelevant.

So, how is squandering property that doesn’t belong to us a good model for discipleship? Don’t get too excited, because it’s not. This may be the toughest parable Jesus ever told. Luke himself appears to have had trouble with this story, because Luke seems to have added a few clarifying verses at the end. Luke has Jesus say that we cannot love God and money. True, but does it really relate to this parable? Luke also warns us to be careful of the one who is not faithful in small things, because that person will not be faithful in big things. That also is true, but doesn’t really address the scandal here? What the manager did was dishonest and what Jesus did was to praise him for his dishonesty! And what do we make of that?

Along come the biblical scholars and, through many flexible twists, they attempt to make this parable make sense, in the usual ways we make sense. They explain that perhaps the parable is some gross overstatement which Jesus uses to get our attention. Jesus says it for the shock value? Now Jesus does offend our sensibilities from time to time, but even I would never pander for your attention by urging you to steal.

Perhaps the story is simpler than that. Jesus tells the story about a manager, albeit a dishonest one, who when faced with terrible disaster, recognizes the disaster and immediately moves to do something about it. Look at us in similar circumstances. When adversity comes, we tend to freeze up, or we pull the covers over our head. We do this not only in our personal lives, but also in our social lives as well. We look at this country’s terribly soaring crime rate and we say to ourselves, "I am just one person, what can one person like me do to change things?" Your boss comes in and tells you that you are the latest victim of "rightsizing" and you decide that your productive life is over. Circle the wagons, move into a defensive posture, hunker down. Why fight a hopeless cause?

This parable says this is a miserly way to live. If even dishonest, unscrupulous business people know how to move from the defensive to the offensive so quickly, how much more so ought we? Be astute. Be smart. Shrewd. (An interesting side note, the Greek word interpreted as "shrewd" is the same word that the author of the 2^nd chapter of Genesis uses for the behavior of the snake who was the tempter in the Garden of Eden.)

I think a better way to think of this shrewdness is by think of it in terms of initiative. When put to the right purposes, initiative is a good thing. We can assume from the parable that there’s every reason to use our best and strongest abilities, including our initiative, for kingdom purposes. And in that regard, initiative has a role in our life in the church. Okay my little brain can wrap around the concept of initiative in Kingdom work. Think of how often we speak of wanting our memberships to grow, of reaching further into our community, and of making sure that the un-churched hear the gospel. How far should we go to accomplish that? How many efforts should we make to reach the same people?

Try letting your subscription to a major magazine or newspaper lapse, and see how many times you receive a contact of some kind from the publisher urging you to renew. In some cases, you’ll receive between eight and 12 separate renewal pleas, usually by mail, but sometimes also including e-mail and in the end, even phone calls. And these contacts start well before our final issue and continue for some time afterward. I received a renewal notice last week for a subscription that doesn’t actually expire until June of 2008. In the magazine and newspaper industries, these contacts are called a "renewal series," meaning that they intend to take the initiative with us several times before giving up on us as a subscriber. In our efforts to share the gospel, we who walk in God’s light would do well to adopt the persistent initiative of the children of this age. This is a tangible point of contact between the actions in the parable and the actions in Jesus’ audiences as he travels to Jerusalem, as well as a point of contact between Jesus parable and discipleship as we understand it in today’s context: as the manager was decisive when faced with a crisis, so too should Jesus’ listeners be. We are urged to stride into the future with confidence, not confidence in ourselves or our abilities, but confidence in the power and grace of God.

I had the opportunity to hear activist, Jim Wallis speak in Portland last year. He noted how inner-city gangs ruthlessly defend their "turf," how drug lords mark off a neighborhood and make it theirs. "I want churches to learn from these guys," he said. "I want some inner-city churches who will say, ‘This is our turf and we control this neighborhood of the six blocks around our church and we are going to do what’s necessary to make sure you don’t trample our turf." He told a story of one inner-city church which posted some of their little old ladies on each corner in foldout lawn chairs, armed with video cameras and how overnight they changed an entire Detroit neighborhood. They had no idea of how to work the cameras, but the drug dealers didn’t know it. Those old ladies were not simply savvy to the ways of the world, beating the world at its own game, rather they had a conviction about the real nature of the world, the true course of the future and they acted accordingly.

I have learned from wrestling with such difficult passages over the years, that the future is God’s. Therefore we are to live as those constantly open to God’s advent among us, watchful, ready to move. We are not to be anxious about our lives, timid over tomorrow, paralyzed by anxiety. We must trust that the future is God’s. We get confused into thinking that God’s future is just like our future. So when the boss calls us in and tells us to pack up our coffee mug and family photos, knowing no future other than the one we are able to construct, we hang our head and resign ourselves to our fate.

Jesus tells a questionable story of a man who makes some cunning moves because he is convinced that his story is not over, that the future is open, surprising, not yet fixed or final.

This manager took what had been dealt his way, a situation that he helped create, worked with it hoping that even this could lead to good, and his story continued. Ours can, too.

Let me end with this story about a husband and wife who were out in their car on some errand, with the husband doing the driving. The wife was sitting at the other end of the bench seat, by the passenger door, and she was in a pensive mood. She said to her husband, "Remember when we were first dating? When we went anywhere in your old car, we sat as close together as we possibly could? Sometimes you even put your arm around me. What has happened to us? Our relationship doesn’t seem as close as it used to." The husband considered that, and then he said, "Well, I haven’t moved." If we think of God still sitting in the same place - meaning that God has not withdrawn from us - and we feel some loss in the closeness, then we can better understand who needs to make some movement. Maybe that’s a better definition of smooth operators, people who hear the invitation of God and who slide across the seat, or take a step forward, toward God to accept it.¹ My friends hear this invitation to take the initiative! We are urged to stride into the future with confidence, not confidence in ourselves or our abilities, but confidence in the power and grace of God. How exciting is that?! Amen

¹ Story from a Homiletics article entitled "Smooth Operator"

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