BEING SMART
Luke 16:1-8
Sid Batts
First Presbyterian Church
Greensboro, North Carolina
October 9, 2016
A high school student comes home to his parents with failing grades. The mother
is beside herself and tells her son that if he does not bring up his grades, he will be
grounded for the entire next semester. The father promises even stiffer
punishment. So the son has a clever idea. He goes to the smartest people in his
classes and makes a deal. If they will write the required papers and essays for him,
if they will let him copy their homework and allow him to sit beside them at test
time (wink, wink), he in turn will do certain favors for them, including paying
them. A deal is struck. At the end of the semester, the boy comes home to his
parents with a glowing report card! When they ask him how he has achieved this
dramatic improvement, he tells them about the dishonest, shady deals he has made
with his classmates.
And how do his parents respond? By commending their son for being so
resourceful, clever, shrewd and smart.
What do you think?
Well, that is pretty much the same story Jesus tells as a parable. A rich man is
unhappy with his manager because he thinks the manager is wasting his money.
He calls him in, wants an accounting of his work and tells him he is soon to be
fired. The manager then goes to people who owe his boss money and offers them a
discount. Instead of paying for a hundred barrels of olive oil, they now only have
to pay for fifty. Instead of paying for a thousand bushels of wheat, they only have
to pay for eight hundred. When the rich employer discovers the sleazy dealing of
his soon-to-be-fired employee, he praises him for doing such a smart, clever and
shrewd thing. And then he says, “The people of this world are much more shrewd
in dealing with their generation than are the people of light.”
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I
Now, the marvel about the parables of Jesus is their ability to astound us, surprise
us and sometimes shock us! Just like those first century listeners, we often receive
an unexpected ending or a bizarre twist in the way the parables turn out. Jesus was
a master storyteller and often used hyperbole to make a point. And this parable
certainly has that.
However, we have a problem with this parable, don’t we? I certainly do. I mean,
Jesus makes an unethical, scheming, sleazy manager the hero of the story. With
our sense of justice it doesn’t seem right that such a scheming manager should be
commended, praised for the way he made things better for himself by basically
cheating his employer and cutting ethical corners for his clients. This manager is
the poster child for those who believe that “the ends justify the means,” that it
doesn’t matter how the goal is reached as long as you accomplish what you set out
to do. What bothers me, and I suspect you, is that we know from everything else
in the gospels that Jesus would never condone such shady behavior; everything we
know about Jesus is that the means are as important as the ends.
So, we back off and think, “Well, what is going on here where the dishonest
manager is the star of the story?”
And what is going on here is that sometimes Jesus tells parables that are not
allegories. Allegories are stories where each character represents something or
someone…..such as God, or the church, or lost people, or the Pharisees, etc. For
instance, in the parable of the Prodigal Son, we know the father represents God
who is loving, forgiving, and that the younger son who was lost and squandered
his inheritance represents the spiritually lost, and that the older son who cannot
celebrate the return of his young brother, or his father’s forgiveness, represents
responsible spiritual people who cannot get over being resentful, or are blended by
their own self-righteousness.
But sometimes Jesus’ parables are not allegories. Rather he tells these stories in
order to make a particular point. Such is the case here. Jesus would never condone
or promote unethical, sleazy, or deceitful behavior. So what is Jesus’ point? His
point comes at the end of the story when Jesus uses the Greek word phronimos.
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Listen to Luke verse 8: “And his master commended the dishonest manager
because he had acted phronimōs; for the children of this age are more phronimōs
in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.
What is the translation of phronimos? Clever, wise, shrewd, smart. This is to say,
Jesus observes much wise, clever, and smart thinking and behavior going on out in
the world. But he does not see that same wise, clever, smart behavior going on
with the children of light, a synonym for God’s people.
Jesus is urging his followers to be phronimos….. astute, clever, smart and
wise…..not in an unethical way but about the things that are important...the thing
that describes his kingdom.
II
Jesus sees how people can be smart and wise people when they want to be. I mean,
we know how to get along in the world, don’t we? We learn how to turn things to
our advantage, from handling our money to running our homes and businesses, to
throwing a successful party, to wearing the smartest clothes to impress, to chairing
a committee to get a job done. And if we don’t know how, we learn how if it is
important to us. Wise, clever, smart and able people know how to succeed in the
world.
But will we be so clever, wise, and smart in succeeding in the things that really
matter? That is the question I believe Jesus is posing. For instance when we
baptize our children it reminds us parents that we have an incredible and awesome
task of not just raising our children, but in raising them in a certain way. In our
minds, we know what kind of people we want our children to become. And either
formally or informally we have a plan, a vision, for directing our children. We are
phronimos…astute and wise in our thinking, planning and acting.
 We start college funds.
 We help them socialize through playmates and parties and weekday schools.
 We help them learn to read, count and reason.
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 We choose schools that we believe are best for their education.
 We put them in gymnastics, swimming, music and athletic ventures that we
think are good for their development.
 We will take parenting classes, read books on child rearing and listen to
child psychologists.
I mean, we are phronimos (astute – smart) in the way we think, plan and act
because we know how important it is to get our children prepared for life and the
world ahead.
And the question Jesus asks is: Will we be as phronimos….. smart and wise in
thinking, planning and acting on the things that are important, such as developing
our children’s spiritual life? Or we could leave that to chance…in the same way
that we might say, “If she wants to take dancing, fine. If not, that’s okay too.”
Which translates: “If my children decide that God is important, I’m okay with that.
But I am not going to push my religion on them.” Really?
Do you see what I am talking about here? We are smart and astute in the things we
think are important. Is the faith of our children important?
And we can ask the same question about our own lives. Is faith, is following Jesus,
important enough to be phronimos in the way we approach it? Are we astute and
clever about developing our spiritual life, about developing a generous heart and a
life that gives and serves reflecting the way of Jesus? Or, will we just “let be what
will be” and follow an un-astute path that meanders through life with no intent of
being intentional about growing deeper in faith.
Being astute and smart in the things that really matter…that is what Jesus intends
here.
III
This is not just a question for our parenting; or for our own spiritual development.
No, this is a question for the church, the body of Christ, for First Presbyterian. Are
we astute, clever, wise, and smart in how we go about being the body of Christ? Is
our mission clear, our vision for who we want to be, an astute way to go about
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accomplishing our purpose as the people of God? Or will we just let happen what
will happen?
“The people of this world are more phronimos in handling their generation than
are the people of light.” That’s what Jesus said.
I read about a lawsuit that was filed against a local church (bad idea). One of the
worshipers was hurt. Bumped by another member, she fell and then she sued the
church, saying that the church was liable.
But this is what struck me about the case. The church’s attorney, arguing that the
church was not responsible, said, “A church is a nonprofit organization manned
for the most part by volunteers. No one has a right to expect it to be run with the
smart efficiency of a business concern. Therefore, the plaintiff has no real claim.”i
“No one has a right to expect the church to be run with the smart efficiency of a
business concern.”
I find that insulting. And I believe Jesus would beg to differ. Jesus expects the
people of light, the church, to be run with the same smart wisdom as a business or
other organizations.
But the church is not a business, of course. We don’t have a bottom line of making
a profit or increasing the financial return for its stockholders. And when people
say (and I have heard it a lot,) “that the church should be run like a business,” I
say, “Well, yes and no.”
No, in that we have a different ethos in how we operate. I mean, we are the church;
our operating principles are rooted in our theological principles… (in the way of
Jesus) or we cease to be the church. For us, the means the means are just as
important as the ends. And, Yes, the church should be run like a business when we
incorporate good financial and operating principles.
And yes, when we learn not just from businesses, but also from organizations,
non-profits, educational institutions and from the behavioral sciences and their
principles of organizational development, management and leadership. Our bottom
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line is not profit but mission. For a long time we have been saying First
Presbyterian is a church of growing disciples. This phrase points to our mission.
We want to grow and develop spiritually, we want to cultivate a deeper faith and
to be able to express that faith in serving the world and making the world better,
more loving, compassionate and caring. And, our task is to think, plan and act
smartly, as smartly as if we were running a business in accomplishing our purpose.
So one of the questions we could ask, as the body of Christ, is, “Do we think our
mission is as important as the people at Google or Cone Hospital or the Wall
Street Journal or Fidelity Investments believe their mission is?” Are we as
passionate about accomplishing our mission, and as phronimos (smart) in pursuing
and accomplishing that mission?
So here is my takeaway from the parable of Jesus:
We need to be smart and clever (as the people of God) in the things that really
matter….such as
―developing the spiritual life of our children,
―developing our own spiritual life,
―developing a servant’s heart that makes the world better
And we need to be smart and clever in being the church, the body of Christ.ii
Because no one has a more important mission than the church.
i
Sources
Luke 16, CrossMarks.com
“Fooling A Mafia Don,” Seven Worlds Corporation, Knoxville, TN,
The Meaning of Service by Harry Emmerson Fosdick
“On Being Wise in this Generation” a sermon by Elizabeth Achtemeir