The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Love of God, and The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you All. Amen.
Luke 16:1 “He also said to His disciples: ‘There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. 2 So he called him and said to him, What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward. 3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. 5 So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, How much do you owe my master? 6 And he said, A hundred measures of oil. So he said to him, Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty. 7 Then he said to another, And how much do you owe? So he said, A hundred measures of wheat. And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty. 8 So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. 9 And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. 10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. 11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.’”
We have before us this morning a parable that strikes the ear of the modern Christian hearer a bit backwards. It’s one of those parables that when hearing it, we want to say something like, “Excuse me, say that again.” Who would have ever thought that Jesus would have constructed a parable that praises a shrewd double dealing employee. On the face of it, the parable in today’s Gospel praises a hired hand for acting dishonestly with money and assets that he does not own in order to save his own hide.
I suspect that a lot of pastors looked at this parable this week and rather than trying to make sense out of it in their sermons this morning, they decided to preach on one of the other readings for the day.
The parable tells us that there was this certain rich man who had a manager/steward who was accused of being a very bad at his job, The steward was wasting the owner’s goods.
In first century Israel the chief steward was a man with extraordinary authority. The chief steward was second in command. He could make deals without direct approval from the master. The steward had the full confidence of the owner. So once a deal was made, the deal was as binding upon the parties as if the master had arranged the deal himself.
That is why the accusation of “wasting/squandering” the master’s possessions was such a serious offense. The owner had no recourse but to honor the deal the steward made. Unlike our culture, the culture of 1st century Israel valued honor. A man’s word was a man’s word and a decent man would rather be poor than dishonorably rich. So by and large when a deal was made, it was final and the owner could not recover any mismanaged property or monies that came about as a result of a bad steward.
Whatever the exact offense, the manager in the parable committed a firing offense. The manager was going from relative wealth and power to absolute poverty overnight. He faced his new reality squarely. He reasoned to himself that he was not cut out for heavy labor and he couldn’t bear the thought of begging, which was the first century’s unemployment and social security plan all rolled up into one. Up until the last 100 or so years, a man either worked or begged.
Faced with the prospect of some kind of career change, the steward had an idea designed to make friends among his master’s business associates and debtors. He brings in the debtors one-by-one and reduces the amount they owe in exchange for payments. For the debtors, it is a good deal. A significant portion of their respective debt is forgiven. In the process the manager has made some new friends who owe him a personal debt.
But remember, all this wheeling and dealing took place after the manager had already been fired. Given this fact pattern, we expect to hear Jesus issue some kind of righteous judgment against the manager. After all, every transaction after the firing was illegal. But instead of judgment (and this is the confusing part) the owner commends his fired manager for his shrewdness. 8 “So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.”
The parable doesn’t tell us if the manager got his job back or whether his scheme landed him a place to live and a job among the debtors. It is after all a parable, a story to teach a point. Jesus had made the point so He didn’t need to add any thing else to the story.
And what is the point? Well it isn’t particularly favorable to Christians and Christian congregations. “For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.” This is a parable of contrasting sides. On the one side we have the children of this world, who due to their sinful nature can be very astute at getting what they want. Start a government program and watch how people figure out the system and then game it for their own advantage. And shrewdness isn’t just found at the bottom the economic and social ladder. The elite at the top of the economic and social ladder also figure out how to game systems to help line their own pockets, protect their own power and influence, and secure comfortable lifestyles for their children. We in the middle, we are not as pure as the drive snow either.
Here’s the thing about human nature. It covets what others have. But for fear of the law would go about acquiring whatever it wants in whatever way it could. That’s how the children of this world works.
Jesus is teaching us here that thinking and acting theologically, thinking and acting as children of the Light and in the best interested of the church, in service to the Gospel, and in service to our neighbors is a very hard thing for Christians to do. The world is much better at getting what it wants, than Christians and Christian congregations are at obtaining what is needed to accomplish the goals of the Gospel and the church.
In the ordinary workings of this world, people tend to be more focused, more attentive, and more determined to achieve personal, temporal, and political goals than Christians are in dealings with the eternal realities of Christ, His Word, the church, and their neighbors eternal well being.
People manage their portfolio’s with care and if they don’t know how they entrust a fund manager to take care of their assets. People in the business community calculate cash-flow, appreciation rates, tax implications, and the like all in an effort to act in their own self-interest.
Now there are plenty of foolish people out there in the world who don’t tend to their personal business as they should. But as a general rule, people try to act in line with the principle of self-preservation and self-interest.
While the children of this world (darkness) act consistently and shrewdly in compliance to the philosophies and cultural rules of the day, Christians are not as “shrewd” or consistent, or diligent in pursuing that which is good and acceptable to God the Father. This is the kind of problem St. Paul was addressing in Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—that which is good, acceptable, and perfect.”
While the people of this world always seem to act according to the principles of this world, we often fail to live according to the theology God has given us in the pages of the Old and New Testament.
Think of how persistent and successful the various activists of our day have been. Feminists, environmentalists, socialist, gay and gender right activists, nihilists, evolutionists, and all the rest have been more shrewd and successful in accomplishing their goals, than the people of the church have been keeping the Word of God undefiled and the doors of faithful congregations open.
When Jesus said, “I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings,” He is addressing what we might be called a disconnect between what we confess and what we actually do.
This is what is meant by “shrewdness.” Here the Greek word that is translated “shrewdly” also carries with it the idea of acting “prudently” or “wisely.” In practical terms, it means rightly identifying the problem, then being wise enough to make a plan, and then finally executing that plan with persistence and determination.
What Jesus is teaching by means of the parable is that we ought to be more shrewd in our dealings with the things of the world in ways that reflect and undergird our confession and our hope. We are to use the things of this world in ways that help the proclamation of the gospel, or in ways that tend toward our spiritual health – you know, like going to church and Bible Study regularly, or reading good books, or financing the preaching and teaching of the Word of God both here and in the distant parts of the mission field.
Christians and Christian congregations know that the Word of God and the Word and Sacrament ministry of the church is essential for salvation. Yet, when it comes to making sure that a faithful churches continues to exist in this or that place, we prove ineffective in making it happen because we lost focus on what’s at stake and what needs to happen.
Faithful churches close because they run out of money so they run out of pastor. Yes, diminishing attendance is the primary source of the problem, but there was always something that could have been done to assure the congregation and pastors have the means to keep the work of the church going. It just takes the same level of persistence and (in the language of the Gospel lesson this morning) “shrewdness” as demonstrated by the steward in the parable.
Remember in the Gospel of Luke, every couple of chapters Luke reminds us that Jesus set His face toward Jerusalem. That is, Jesus was determined to achieve the purpose for which He came into the world in the first place.
In this parable Jesus is contrasting the single minded devotion that the children of this world have to the principles, causes, and goals of this world to the double mindedness of the Christian who must contend with two contrary desires.
Thus the rest of the Gospel lesson this morning. 10 “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. 11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.’”
Jesus is teaching here what we are instructed to be and do in the Epistles. One divided loyalty and double mindedness, James 7:8 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
On the Christian version of shrewdness, Colossians 4:5-6 “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”
Ephesians 5:15-17 “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”
All of us who were baptized and trust in Christ Jesus alone for the forgiveness of our sins, are His stewards of righteousness because it dwells withing us. As members of the Church we have been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. We are stewards of the means of grace, the Word and the Sacrament ministry. And in a bit of irony, we are to use the “unrighteous mammon” of this world, that is money, property, our talents and time to ensure that the means of grace have a home and a called and ordained man to administer them.
But take heart. We are not, by nature as “shrewd” in our management of the church’s things as we ought to be. But our only comfort is that we are, together, “sons of light,” children of our heavenly Father, brothers and sisters of Jesus our Christ. We are the children of God, redeemed and forgiven for the sake of the death of Christ on the cross on our behalf, and His resurrection for our justification.
So, if you fall short of this shrewd stewardship of the mammon of unrighteousness, take this comfort; your sins are forgiven
AMEN
May the Peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.