Sermon for September 18, 2022
Sermon title: "The Dishonest Steward"
Scripture: Luke 16:1-13
(Other lectionary choices include Jeremiah 8:18 - 9:1, Psalm 79:1-9, and l Timothy 2:1-7.)
Luke 16:1-13
The Parable of the Dishonest Manager
1Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.' 3Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.' 5So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?' 6He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' 7Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?' He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.' 8And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 9and I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. 10"Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 11If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."
The parable of the Dishonest Steward may be the hardest of Jesus's stories to understand. Would the Son of God honor thievery and dishonesty? Of course not, but he certainly seems to here.
To help me understand this parable, I turned to a Lutheran minister from Manchester, New Hampshire. His name is Donald L. Colageo. I hate to say this, but sometimes your wonderful pastor doesn't have an original thought, so he has to borrow from somebody else. I have learned that it is okay to borrow from somebody, as long as you don't claim his/her thoughts for yourself but give the originator of those thoughts credit. (If one does NOT give credit, then one commits plagiarism!)
One of the things the Rev. Mr. Colageo says is that Jesus used a lot of bad people as positive examples! That's true, isn't it? (It's also one of the wonderful things I love about Jesus!) But consider this: when Jesus was trying to tell us to be persistent in prayer, he used the example of the guy who wouldn't get up in the middle of the night to give bread to his friend. That's in Luke 11:5-13. The guy finally does get up and give his friend what he wants, but only to get rid of him, not because the guy getting up was a nice guy! And consider this story: in Luke 18:1-7 there's the story of the unrighteous judge, who EVEN SAYS that he doesn't fear God OR man, but because of the persistence of the woman who wanted justice, finally gave her what she wanted. Again, not because he was a good guy, but because the woman persisted. And one more: how about the story in Matthew 13:44 of the guy who finds a treasure in a field, and then decides to BUY the field without telling the owner that there is a huge treasure in his field? That's not exactly honest, and it's also a sin against the 9th Commandment! But the Rev. Donald says that Jesus "uses the savviness of sinners to illustrate even God's desperate act of love."
Another thing, and I have hinted at this or alluded to it before: Jesus lived in the real world. We like to say that he was sinless, and I'm not going to disagree. But he KNEW what sin was like because he saw it in everyday life! Listen to this from Pastor Colageo: "Two thousand years ago, in Galilee, Jesus was savvy. He knew the stunts people pulled in business and why they work and who gets hurt. He had tools, contracts, and customers,{{Remember that he was a carpenter, just like his Daddy!}} He knew about 'go along to get along' and 'get rich quick' and 'do unto others and run'. He was smarter than everyone else, and more clever. Wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove. The reason he didn't sin is NOT because he didn't have the skill or opportunity. He didn't because he WOULDN'T. He loved his Father too much to sin against him, and he loved you too much to let you down." Okay, that's from a Lutheran pastor, so all the "mistakes" of Lutheranism are in there.....if there are any mistakes. But isn't that good? Jesus wasn't some naive, pious goody-goody. He knew what the world was like because he LIVED in the real world!
Rev. Colageo, on whose insight I am leaning for much of this sermon, thinks that Jesus was savvy enough to know that more than one type of person was listening when he spoke. Therefore, Jesus tried to have "something for everyone" in his teachings. First of all, there were the disciples. Secondly, there were people who were curious, but who were more like hangers-on and not true believers. And the third group were those who just didn't like Jesus, such as the Pharisees. Did you hear that part in today's reading that said the Pharisees "were lovers of money"? So maybe for the Pharisees - but also for the rest of his listeners, including you and me! - he talked about money, "because he knows what is near and dear to our hearts."
This character, the unjust steward, Jesus made up. Quoting Rev. Colageo, "he (Jesus) invented the scoundrel and all his stunts, because he knows real life in our world through and through." The guy knew that he was in trouble. "The shell game was over. All he had was a pink slip and the logbook to turn in." Did he think he might actually do an honest day's work in his life? "Heck, no. His heart was not divided. He appealed to his god, mammon..... First, he approaches those who owe his rich boss money. He makes friends for himself by discounting their debts. He does it one at a time, so each thinks he's special. Take your bill and knock off half, buddy! Now they love him, so maybe he'll have a place to live and work once he's fired. They love his rich boss, too, because they think this magnanimous gesture was the boss's idea! It was a brilliant plan. Now the boss is in a pickle. How will it look if he goes through with firing the steward, right after he lowered their bills? Does he then tell his customers the truth about their bills? They'd all hate him.
Just in case his (the steward's) new friends weren't grateful enough to welcome him into their homes, he had dirt on them! He'd involved them in a criminal conspiracy, to set them up for extortion later. Remember, he had THEM take their bills and lower them." What is going on here is conspiracy to defraud. And the employer is savvy enough to know just how clever his dishonest servant is. Says Rev. Colageo, "What a pathetic ending! The conniver, the blackmailed, and the pragmatists, all handcuffed together on the isle of avarice. Who would even dream up a story like this? Jesus, because he knows how the children of this world think. And there's something for everybody."
This whole story is about money, and perhaps it is especially directed toward the Pharisees, who, we are told, were "lovers of money". But it's also directed toward "all who worship the god mammon".
"What's in the story for the disciples, the children of light? He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. If you couldn't be trusted with wicked mammon, who's going to trust you with real wealth? If you couldn't be trusted with someone else's property, who's going to give you something for your own?" And now comes a very important point. Says the Rev. Mr. Colageo, "All this money and stuff we thought we owned was somebody else's property all along. Christ is the sole owner. All human beings are managers of some part of HIS property. No one's got any choice about that. We can be honest managers or dishonest, trustworthy or untrustworthy, but if we're human beings, all things we have he's richly given us to manage for the moment. And his orders are pretty simple: Don't waste it. Enjoy it, but don't squander it on yourself. For the moment, money's powerful, so enjoy doing good with it. For the moment, money's necessary, so give it to those who need it. Make money! Just don't keep it all. Don't obey it; MANAGE it - for the moment that it's in your hands."
I could stop right there, but I won't. Partly because I haven't given a long sermon for a while (!), but also partly because I want to give you this Lutheran minister's take on this whole parable Jesus taught. For the Rev. Donald L. Colageo of the Immanuel Lutheran Church of Manchester , NH, here is what's happening: Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, to die on a cross for you and for me - in Colageo's words, "like a derelict in the dark in order to make you a child of light! That's what makes you a different steward, that you should be rescuing people on God's behalf with his goods!....But it's way bigger and better than being made stewards of the STUFF he owns. He owns YOU. He owns ME. 'You are not your own; for you were bought with a price' (I Corinthians. 6:19b-20a). Jesus is the owner now. He redeemed us, purchased and won us. You are a steward of....you! We've been entrusted with REAL WEALTH! Forgiveness, life, and salvation! So BE SHREWD LIKE THAT SLEAZE IN THE PARABLE." What this minister is getting at is that you and I have NOT been living as children of the light but as children of this world. "What about the books we've already cooked?" is how he puts it. And then he says, "Be shrewd about believing him when he says, 'though your sins are like scarlet', write down 'white as snow' (Isaiah.1:18)." Are you beginning to get it? This minister is saying JESUS is playing the role of the unrighteous steward for OUR benefit. JESUS is taking the brunt of our dishonesty and whatever other sin we have going on.
"It's still dark out there!" says the Rev. Mr. Colageo. "What if I mess up again? I have no faith in ME. Good! Be shrewd about trusting Jesus to get you home! Even now, O child of light, Jesus is savvy enough to notice when we pull stunts on ourselves." He points out that Psalm 139 in verse 12 says that darkness and light are the same to God. So, God can see in the dark, even if I can't.....which means God knows all those secret sins I committed. Rev. Colageo quotes Ephesians 5:8, which says, "At one time you were darkness, but now you are light to the Lord. Walk as children of light."
We stewards realize that God, the OWNER of all things, including us, knows everything, even the stuff we did in the dark. So, we say, "Lord, you know I've sinned." And then, what does the Owner say? "What have you wasted or squandered on yourself? Quick, write down 'Nothing.' And the Owner goes on to say, "How have you sinned with my property, that body I redeemed? Quick, write down 'Not at all'." And it must be okay because HE is the OWNER!
Says our Lutheran minister, "His sacrifice settles ALL accounts; his death balances all books. The BLOOD OF THE OWNER CLEANSES US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. His love writes 'Well Done' on everyone who believes him. It puts everlasting life into our hands, for us to take hold of. Even pastors are stewards of these mysteries", he says.
Finally, Rev. Colageo concludes with this: he first quotes I Timothy 2:5, which says, "One God, ....one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" ...."was crucified like a scandalized steward, and, as if it were his life that was at stake, asked, 'How much do you owe?' We said, 'All of it, Lord.' and Jesus said, 'Take your bill, and make it zero, child of light.' Be shrewd. Do it. Amen."
Pastor Skip
