15th Sunday after Pentecost
September 18, 2022
Luke 16:1-13
Or watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcNHFM7Y1pA
Intro:
· It is far easier to comment on this text than to preach on it.” (Lutheran) (https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-25-3/commentary-on-luke-161-13-5 )
· “The story strains credulity and jolts our ethical sensibilities. Would anyone congratulate the scoundrel who first mismanaged his employer's funds and then cheated him out of recovering legitimate debts? Is Jesus holding up such unscrupulous dealings as exemplary?” (ministrymatters.com – UMC)
· Hard to reconcile this manager is praised for his actions (Preaching God’s Transforming Justice, p. 398)
· Look carefully: Jesus calls the manager dishonest. Jesus does not praise him. Rich man praises him. Rich man calls him shrewd. WHY isn’t the rich man angry??? Why is he actually complimenting the manager? Leads to bigger question:
· WHY is Jesus telling this story
1. Jesus tells story for master’s commendation
a. Example from everyday life in Greco-Roman culture, from taken-for-granted suppositions about “how the world works”
b. What’s different here is that this is not an allegory like many parables – where we ID with one of the characters or ID God with one of the characters, like the shepherd with the lost sheep last Sunday
c. Allegory = literary device or artistic form; figurative treatment of one subject under guise of another
d. If studied philosophy, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is one of the most well-known – people chained in a cave see shadows on wall and make meaning and language from those shadows. One day, one of them breaks free, leaves the cave, and finds the objects that are making the shadows. They try to tell the others, but they don’t believe them and refuse to leave the cave, the only life they know, to find out. It was an allegory for philosophy and Plato himself – Plato was the one who left the cave, who learned more, but the rest of the world didn’t want to hear it.
e. Many parables work as allegories, where Jesus uses one thing to describe or explain another thing, especially when it comes to God’s kin-dom. However, in this case he’s talking about God’s kin-dom in a different way.
f. Instead, it’s Parallel story – something that we may observe happening in the world around us, and the parallel that activity has with kin-dom activity.
2. In this case, Jesus draws the parallel between everyday activities, “children of this age,” and the kin-dom building activities of we “children of light”
a. In effect Jesus says, “Children of this age understand “how the world works” yet children of light do not understand the ways of the kin-dom of God” (Joel Green, p. 593, emphasis mine)
b. Using money to make friends refers to the social reality of that time. It was how the “world” (in Greece and Rome) worked. In Greco-Roman world, friendship and economic considerations were (completely) inseparable (Green 594) – superior, equal, or lesser friends, based on one’s economic status and patronage. In other words, this example would have made a lot of sense to the disciples and the other people listening to Jesus live and in person. The manager was dishonest, yes, and he was also shrewd. He made smart choices to ensure someone would welcome him after he was fired.
c. Likewise, we are to make smart choices, both now and for the future. It reminds me of the place in Matthew (10:16) where Jesus tells the disciples to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
d. The only way to navigate that is to be creative about it. Think outside the box. Imagine! There are other ways the world can be than how it is now. Once you imagine it, and get a glimpse of God’s kin-dom, God’s design for God’s world, then we can work on strategies for how to get there and make it reality.
e. We are not just to get by on good behavior and “do everything right”
f. It’s like the parable Luke tells in a couple more chapters, in Ch. 18, about the prayers of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee prays at the temple by saying, “Thank you, God, that I am not like other people. I do everything right. I obey all the laws and follow all the rules. I don’t mess it up.” The tax collector, on the other hand, stands far away and prays, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Jesus says this tax collector was the person who went home justified.
g. God isn’t looking for us to get it all right. This is a hard message for some of us, including me. I’m a perfectionist, Enneagram 1. I want all my ducks in order, I want and am willing to work hard for things to be done right. This is my first time preaching here, and I asked the pastor about 2 questions a day all week so that I could try to get it right this morning. Here’s the thing, God doesn’t care about messes. God cares about the inbreaking of the kin-dom. Are you working toward that end? If you’re messy doing it, fine. If you’re neat doing it, that’s cool, too. Don’t worry about doing it right. There’s a quote from author and speaker Brene Brown where she says, “I’m not here to be right; I’m here to get it right.” So, how do we do that?
3. We do it together, and that puts us back to the parable and how the manager used what resources he had. It’s called Stewardship.
a. How do we take care of and use what has been entrusted to us – do we use it for God’s will, do we use it to benefit the lowly and the outcast? Do we serve God’s justice with it, and not seek wealth for ourselves or keep our gifts to ourselves. Can you imagine if Jackie Robinson had never played baseball or Serena Williams had never picked up a tennis racket? What if Volodymyr Zelensky had never run for President? Where then would his leadership skills have gone? We are called to share our gifts.
b. Why? Because they are not ours. They do not belong to us. Everything we have is temporary and belongs to God who has entrusted us to take care of it and to share it. That’s why 2 churches this week could become makeshift shelters for 50 or so people who unexpectedly were flown into their town. That’s why people were immediately willing to help donate food.
c. Because our true wealth lies in God’s kin-dom. And in God’s kin-dom there is radical hospitality, where all are welcome, no exceptions. In God’s kin-dom, there is food enough to go around and no one is hungry or thirsty. The lonely have visitors. The mourning are comforted. The unhoused are offered shelter. The despairing are talked back from the ledge and included, with seat, voice, and vote at the table.
d. This isn’t God v. wealth; like good v. evil; like comic books’ superhero v. villain. Instead, it’s about wealth being used either faithfully (in service of God and in solidarity with those in need) or greedily for oneself (in which case you can look back to Luke 12 for the parable of the rich fool)
e. Wealth is not neutral; it’s viewed and used either justly or unjustly, to keep in place systems of oppression or to dismantle them, to welcome the marginalized or not.
f. Part of where I was coming from with children’s time and praying for everyone, is that that’s why I once had a church member leave the church. I said in a sermon that everyone is in need of our prayers, and listed a couple different marginalized people groups. This person disagreed, but I stood and still stand by what I said.
g. “Faithfulness to God is demonstrated in the extension of hospitality to…” those with fewer advantages with you. (588 Joel Green). A couple chapters ago in Luke 14 Jesus says that when you throw a luncheon or a dinner party, don’t invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, who may invite you in return and repay you. This is that equal friendship in the Greco-Roman world. Instead, Jesus says invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you.
h. What will you do with what you have? Build a bigger table? Or build a bigger wall? Whom will you serve? What will you do? It’s the same question that the manager asks himself.
i. If you’re looking for ways to serve here at CTK or through CTK, there are so many! It’s part of what’s wonderful about this church. Check out your weekly news, talk with the pastor about Kingdom Builders, which is our stewardship team, or with any of our pastors or church leaders, and once you have ideas, discern which ones you God is calling you to. My husband and I are sharing our board game collection with y’all with the purpose of building relationships so we can encourage each other and pray for each other and support each other. What are you being called to?
