Iʼm curious --- is this parable of Jesus familiar?
Iʼm wondering if Iʼve ever tried to preach
on this story of the manager who is described either
as dishonest or as shrewd
as crooked or as crafty.
Every resource I consulted this week
started out with some kind of warning to the preacher:
“Not an easy passage this week…”
“Any commentator will tell you... this is a difficult text.”
“Jesusʼ Most Confusing Parable”
Then yesterday I read this tweet:
To clergy friends having to preach
on the dishonest manager tomorrow:
take solace that no one has figured out
what the parable means. Ever.
I’m not sure he meant that as encouragement.
For Jesus to praise a scoundrel is a real shock.
How could Jesus commend someone dishonest?
One theory about this parable is that something
must have been missed in translation or in the retelling Jesus couldn’t possible have meant to say this.
But how much of what Jesus teaches is “easy?”
So much of what Jesus says and does is difficultdifficult to hear, difficult to live out.
Jesus does talk a lot about money and wealth way more than most of us want to think about.
One of the dominant themes in the Gospel of Luke
is about God’s great reversal made known in Jesus-beginning with Mary’s song, the Magnificat,
promising that the lowly will be lifted up and
the high and mighty will be brought low,
that the first will be last and last be first,
and blessed are the poor.
One pastor’s prayer acknowledges our mixed reaction
to the passages for this week this way:
Most Holy God, Most Mysterious God,
we dare to approach you and to say in all candor
that you have been a balm
9/22/13 Jer. 8:18-9:1; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13 “The Little Things” CCChisholm @ CPC
page 1
and you have been a bother.
You have soothed and healed our troubled hearts;
you have disrupted and upended our complacent lives.
In all things,
we give you praise for your wisdom and imagination.
Surely you are working out peace
beyond our understanding!
Surely you are working out justice
beyond our envisioning!
And then there is the commentary with this title: “Jesus' Weirdest Parable?”
The author, Ian Punnett, an Episcopal deacon, begins his reflection with this warning:
Usually, I think that most people who study scripture
can do an admirable job unpacking the parables of Jesus,
but not this week.
This week, without a trained professional,
you interpret the gospel at your peril.
Welcome to Luke 16; don't try this at home.
He cites as “proof of the weirdness” of the passage
the fact that itʼs known by two very different titles:
Luke 16 is known both as "The Parable of the Dishonest Steward" and "The Parable of
the Shrewd Manager."
Can it be both? - he asks.
If the conflicting titles … seem confusing,
the parable itself appears to be almost a riddle,
one of the most debated and debatable passages
in the New Testament.
What Rev. Punnett does in his commentary is
challenge the assumptions we bring to this passageI realized that I was thinking that this managerʼs dishonesty
was the exception, that honesty was the norm.
Describing the historical background,
he claims the whole system was based on dishonesty:
In biblical times, it was not uncommon for powerful men
who held a monopoly on resources to manipulate their books to make it appear
as though their debtors owed more than they actually did. I
n fact, some people would say that type of practice
goes on to this day. Does anyone remember Enron?
Well, duh…...
9/22/13 Jer. 8:18-9:1; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13 “The Little Things” CCChisholm @ CPC
page 2
Last week was the 5th anniversary of the bankruptcies which marked the beginning of
the economic crash brought about by greedy and barely legal financial practices which preyed on the poor
and most vulnerable ...in order for a wealthy businessman to pad his pockets
for an extra profit here or there,
he would need a business manager
that was less than scrupulous too.
So, the steward here or the business manager-he was padding the books for his boss.
And, of course, with all that padding going on,
a less-than-honest steward of your less-than-honest
business might be inclined
to make a little nice padded landing for himself as well.
This interpretation of the parable makes it sound more
like an episode of the Sopranos or a version of the Sting.
The landowner decides to fire his manager
because he hears rumors the guy is cheating him.
He insists on checking the books the manager is on notice heʼs going to be audited.
So what does the manager have to lose?
He knows heʼs going to be fired even if heʼs done well himself through dishonesty,
those riches arenʼt going to matter much after heʼs fired.
Whatʼs going to matter are his relationships,
with his neighbors, with the community.
Maybe in reducing the debts owed to the landowner,
heʼs finally being honest in the accounting In those times, people were either really rich or really poorthere really werenʼt many folks in between.
And the really poor were used to the really rich
socking it to them in all kinds of ways ways which kept the down and out way down and way out of any kind of power.
Which makes the landowners response so unexpected:
Now just then the wealthy landowner discovers
that he just got out-gamed by a gamer-the gamer he was about to fire; and … the wealthy
landowner had to begrudgingly respect the guy for it.
...after all, the landowner's coffers are now full,
his accounts receivable are at zero,
his customers are happy because they got
9/22/13 Jer. 8:18-9:1; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13 “The Little Things” CCChisholm @ CPC
page 3
some debt relief, the landowner's clients
have now bonded to his manager,
and the very guy he hired to be shrewd in business
turns out to be even shrewder than he thought.
...at the end of the day, the guy is a keeper,
the perfect guy to run this type of operation,
somebody who is both a "dishonest steward"
and a "shrewd manager" at the same time.
One thing Jesus does seem to be saying
is that he told this story to warn the disciples - and us to not to be complacent - to be resourceful that discipleship requires every last ounce of effort,
every bit of energy and intelligence and cleverness
we can summon.
Earthly wealth doesnʼt matter much to Jesus.
“How much money we have means nothing to God.
How we conduct ourselves around money” does matter
How do we conduct ourselves around money?
What do we do to get money?
Does our income require us to make ethical compromises,
to be less than honest, less than just?
The Presbyterian Church as a denomination has long
had a policy of Mission Responsibility Through Investment.
We donʼt invest endowments or pension reserves
or any funds in gambling, guns, or alcohol.
As shareholders, we try to advocate with companies to change policies and practices.
One denomination recently voted not to invest in fossil fuels.
When we plan meetings and conferences,
we donʼt use hotels or vendors who have a history of unfair labor practices.
As consumers, our spending choices have changed
business practices - wasteful packaging, use of plastic.
I know that both Presbyterian Women and Methodist Women
are advocates for reducing use of bottled water.
After a week which saw both long lines for the latest iPhone
and the House of Representatives voting to cut $40 million
from food assistance programs,
this parable reminds us that decisions about money matter
- because those decisions arenʼt just about uswe are part of an economy, a society, a world in which we are connected,
and peopleʼs lives are affected.
I love my iPhone and iPad and MacBook 9/22/13 Jer. 8:18-9:1; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13 “The Little Things” CCChisholm @ CPC
page 4
and my HD-TV and access to hundreds of channels I want to be able to drive wherever, whenever ...
But all these things we have and take for granted
use resources from minerals to water,
to time and skill and labor.
Carolyn Brown suggests explaining to children
what Jesus was saying in this passage by talking about “stuff”
rather than wealth, - or especially a word like “mammon:
--stuff like smart phones, computer games,
double stuffed Oreos, fees to play on a sports team….
and then to say something like this ….
It is not that any of this stuff is bad,
lots of it is really cool.
What Jesus tells us is that how we use our stuff is important.
We can be selfish with our stuff, not sharing with others.
We can spend all our time thinking about and messing with our stuff,
never taking time to see what people around us may want and need from us.
We can forget that who we are is more important
than what we wear and what we have.
The childʼs version of [this saying of Jesus] is
“who you are and what you do are more important than what you have.”
Who we are and what we do are important to God.
Jeremiah and God grieved because of the suffering of the people of Israel
- and because they had turned away from God and Godʼs ways.
They had forgotten what was important to God.
Yet, God offers hope and healing and new possibilities.
Thatʼs what we hear in the passage from Timothy:
that God wants all people to be saved.
Thatʼs why Jesus came, to call us to new life in Christ.
To a way of life which values people more than profits,
to faithfulness in all things.
May we be the people Christ calls us to be.
9/22/13 Jer. 8:18-9:1; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13 “The Little Things” CCChisholm @ CPC
page 5