Ok, now I want to have a moment of transparency and honesty with you. For me, this text is probably one of the trickiest ones I’ve ever had to deal with in my time as your pastor. The text today is about an unethical, lazy, dishonest manager and in the end, the master, who usually represents God when Jesus tells parables, commended and praised that manager. You see, it’s a sticky passage because it appears that the trickster is the hero of the story; the trickster who fooled his master, his clients, and everyone around him, found favor in the eyes of God.
But, let’s put a pin in the morality issue for a minute. We have a crazy story to hash out. There was a rich business man and one of his employees was stealing from the company. So, the boss called that manger in and said, “Show me the books! Show me the numbers so I can see what you are stealing, you thief!” The manager responded with a shocked and stumbling request, “Let me just have a couple of days to find the books and make sure everything is in order for you. I need to make a few adjustments.” The manager went off and thought to himself, “I’m too lazy to get another job! What am I going to do? I’ve got to think up a way out of this!” And so, using his ingenuity he devised a plan. The crook of the company called in his master’s customers and started giving them the deal of a century. “Let me change this number from a five to a three or let me drop this zero from what you owe my master,” he said. And by taking this action, the manager could go back to the debtors and say, “Hey, remember me? I’m that guy who helped you pull a fast one on my boss. I saved you a ton of money. Can you help me out?”
Well, the boss called in the little swindler and said, “Ok, it’s time to show me the books and tell me everything you’ve been up to.” The manger presented the books to the master and anyone could easily see where numbers were crossed out and notations were erased. The books were cooked and so the manager’s goose was cooked. As the manager hung his head ready to be fired the master said something extraordinary. He said, “You are amazing, my friend! You’re a genius! I wish everyone in this company were as creative and resourceful as you! You are my number one employee and I’m moving you up to Vice President of the company!”
Wow, Jesus. Thanks for this gift of a text. I know it’s really confusing because it appears we are to get ahead in our jobs and in our lives by being dishonest and unethical. I mean, Jesus did say, “His master commended the dishonest manager… for the children of this age are more shrewd… than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth.” Well… alright then.
Dr. Will Willimon from Duke University preached this text to a group of theology students who wanted him to do some sleight of hand in order to get Jesus to say something totally different. But Willimon responded, “While I hate to see Jesus disappoint you, would you just consider the possibility that Jesus is about much more important matters even than helping you to be a better person? Maybe Jesus is not going to wait until you get your books cleaned up and you are a certified ‘better person’ before he loves you and takes delight in you, even when the best that can be said about your raunchy ethics is ‘shrewd.’” It appears that Jesus insults our goodness as children of light while commending the manager’s badness. But maybe it’s rightly so, for Willimon also said, “We pledge our allegiance to the kingdom of heaven, but the kingdoms of this world own us. Look at our Mastercard receipts.” It’s good to know that we have a Savior who doesn’t mind getting mixed up with us lowly “children of this age,” even though we disowned him, disavowed him, discarded him, and continue to distance ourselves from him each and every day. This parable hits closer to home than we might care to admit.
So, if there is anything we can take from this parable, it is that the writer of this gospel thinks we are a divided people. We cannot be lovers of money and also serve God at the same time. But, for me, this parable makes me think differently. Maybe if we use our power, position, and money in the service of ending poverty, hurt, and suffering, we will be called by our Master, our God, as a good and faithful steward, a good and faithful servant.
For you see, ultimately, passion and urgency seem to go together. The unethical steward saw a problem and had an urgency to figure out some way to save his skin, to have a soft-landing spot when he lost his job. Sure, it wasn’t ethical for him to forgive the debt of the master’s clients, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t just. To give some background on this text, the unethical manager could’ve either been a good character or a bad character. It is clear that this manager was looking after his own affairs and wanted to save himself. He misused and mismanaged the resources of the master and was about to get fired. About to be out of a job, he wanted to gain favor with his master’s clients, because maybe they would offer him another job or give him a place to live or help him out when he was terminated. And so, instead of simply accepting his fate as a dishonest employee about to be fired, he called in the seller of olive oil and the seller of wheat, and forgave parts of what they owed the master. This was technically stealing and gave the steward a nice landing spot with two potential employers while simultaneously deceiving and damaging his current employer. It appears that this manager was out to save himself while hurting his boss. The manager was too busy serving money and saving himself rather than serving God – you can’t serve both money and God.
But then, there is a flip side to this text. Some commentators see this dishonest manager as a hero. And if we notice the ending of the parable, the manager was praised for his actions by the master. How could this unethical manager actually be good? For one, some commentators think that this is a small story that reveals the greater forgiveness of God. This is a story which emphasizes God’s desire for Jubilee, a time when all monetary debts are relieved and sins are forgiven. It is a fresh start. The manager, by forgiving the debt of the oil seller and wheat seller, showed the wide love of God, a God who would forgive all of us, even though we have not lived out our love in the world… even though we have lived more like the Pharisees who were lovers of money and the unethical manager who looked after his own skin. God’s love and forgiveness is greater than the bad characters in the world and greater than all of our own faults and failures.
If, indeed, this unethical manager did something good rather than bad, maybe the manager forgave the part of the debt that he had the authority to forgive. Some commentators think the manager either forgave the profit he would’ve received from the business transaction, his own money, or he forgave the usury portion of the account. Usury was forbidden in Jewish law as something that was against God’s law of love. Usury is basically unlawful interest. Think pay day lenders today. This dishonest manager was actually taking on the unethical practices of his master and forgiving the harsh interest the clients had accrued. If that is the case, this manager was trying to change the system of abuse that was hurting people, including himself. Maybe he was ultimately on his way out of his current job for having pity on the master’s clients and not charging them too much interest. If that was the case, the dishonest manager was likely using the skills, resources, and power that he still had to change the predatory systems in place at the time.
And so, this means that passion and urgency do indeed go together. The power and money in our current world hurt all people, whether we are the clients or the manager. In order to cure hunger or reform incarceration practices or create just housing for all people, we must reach new levels of creativity and determination. Maybe the dishonest manager had to cross over some institutional boundaries in order to bring justice to his community. Maybe the structures of economic exchange needed to be reassessed. Maybe the debts in people’s lives needed to be reduced. Maybe the twisted practices and procedures need to be reexamined. Maybe the twisted lives of all of the people in the parable needed a compassionate and moral response.
If we are to be passionate about God and God’s people, then it means we will use all of who we are, our money, our resources, our wealth, our influence, our power, for God and God’s people. It seems that the main emphasis of this parable is not whether we are rich or poor, the master or the manager, the client or the servant, it is that we use all of who we are in worship and in service to God. For if we do, we will actually serve God rather than money. We have to identify who our master is and where our passions lie. This confusing gospel text invites us to search our hearts and determine whether the Creator God, God of the thirsty, the hungry, the naked, the sick, the hurting, the possessed, the weak, the lonely, the stranger, the imprisoned, is just a God we say we love, like the Pharisees, or if we are actually passionate and will do whatever it takes to bring justice to the world.
But if we are realistic with this text, we must remember that God is the master. God is the CEO of the world and owner of the universe. Everything that we are and everything that we have belongs to God. God is in charge and we have the privilege of being the managers and stewards and servants of all that God has put in our care. And even though this is the case, we are children of this age and we have squandered our treasures. God gives us time and we squander it doing things that ultimately don’t matter. God gives us talents and we squander them on our own self-interests or we bury them in the ground and don’t use them because we don’t think they are important or God could never use us to make a difference. God gives us our families and our friends, but like the manager we squander the time we have with them by not paying attention or being too busy or by buying them off when everything comes crashing down. God gives us forgiveness, and love, and grace upon grace, yet we squander God’s good gifts by not fully accepting them and not letting them empower and equip and enable and embolden our lives. God has given us so much but we continue to worship wealth instead of God!
And I know it feels like a lot, to worship only God and not wealth. It seems in our American context that the only thing we responsible for is to boost the economy, provide jobs, and spend on our own interests. If we are to spend what little money we have, it is not to provide for others. We are tempted in our society to only care about others, when like the unethical manager, we get something in return. I’ll only give to this charity if I get recognition and accolades. I’ll only give to this religious institution if they do what I want with my money and time. I’ll only give to this non-profit if they support the same group of people that I support. We have all been the unethical manager. We have all manipulated our charitable giving and acts of service for our own benefit. And maybe that’s what Jesus was asking of his hearers when telling this parable of the dishonest manager. Maybe, as we listen to Jesus anew, we are to see that money and resources and wealth end up controlling us more than we would like. Maybe we all, from time to time, tend to worship mammon (wealth) rather than God.
A few hundred years ago the great preacher and evangelist John Wesley showed us another way. Wesley lived in economically uncertain times, yet from humble beginnings he became so well known that his income eventually reached 1400 pounds per year. This would be the equivalent of earning around $430,000 today. So, what did he do with all this wealth? Did he tithe it? Not exactly. Wesley went way beyond tithing. He disciplined himself to live on just 30 pounds of the 1400 pounds he earned every year. He gave away 98% of all he earned and lived on just 2%!
Wesley once preached a sermon on today’s parable. In it he spelled out his philosophy: money is a tool that can be used for great good or great ill. Wesley said, “[Money] is an excellent gift of God, answering the noblest ends. In the hands of his children, it is food for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, [clothing] for the naked: It gives to the traveler and the stranger where to lay his head. By it we may supply the place of a husband to the widow, and of a father to the fatherless. We may be a defense for the oppressed, a means of health to the sick, of ease to them that are in pain; it may be as eyes to the blind, as feet to the lame; yea, a lifter up from the gates of death! It is therefore of the highest concern that all who fear God know how to employ this valuable talent; that they be instructed how it may answer these glorious ends, and in the highest degree.”
Wesley went on to spell out three simple rules which can guide us: gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can. Wesley lived out these principles, on another occasion remarking: “If I leave behind me ten pounds…you and all mankind [can] bear witness against me, that I have lived and died a thief and a robber.”[1]
In this time of stewardship, I am conflicted and confused. I know we sometimes feel like the dishonest manager and want to be sure we can survive in this greedy world. We want to be sure we have a place to live and friends who value us and resources that provide for ourselves and the ones we love. But it is in these times when the dishonest manager is who I want to be that I try to think of the examples of those people who worship God rather than wealth. It’s when I think of John Wesley. It’s when Wesley’s example of gain all we can, save all we can, but most importantly give all we can, flows through our lives and our actions. We have a responsibility to worship God, not money. For if we worship God, we will find that in all the ways that we use the great and important resources of this church, we will do so for God and for God’s creation. Let us continue to live out love this stewardship season and into the future, knowing that love is responsibility.
[1] Information about Wesley reported in Christian History Newsletter, November 30, 2001. Wesley’s sermon on Luke 16.9 can be accessed at http://gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/serm-050.stm