Who is like the Lord our God, who sits enthroned on high *but stoops to behold the heavens and the earth?
He takes up the weak out of the dust *and lifts up the poor from the ashes.
He sets them with the princes, *with the princes of his people.
He makes the woman of a childless house *to be a joyful mother of children. (Psalm 113: 5-8)
The Gospels show Jesus as a prophet, a teacher, and a healer. But they also show him to be a storyteller—one who could draw a crowd and keep them on the edge of their rugs. Jesus’ favorite form of story is the parable. A story that uses common everyday items to teach challenging and surprising truths.
The parable we hear this morning is not a favorite we often hear taught in Bible Study. It is not a popular one that can be found in our common language such as in music lyrics or movies or political speeches. So we are not made comfortable by its familiarity. This story of a dishonest manager rankles our bones. It makes us shake our heads. We share the discomfort of the original hearers with this parable. We cannot believe on hearing it that Jesus would be offering such a story to us as a lesson in being a disciple. But indeed, unlike the parables we heard last week in Chapter 15 that were directed at the Pharisees and scribes, this one in Chapter 16 is aimed at the ones who followed Jesus.
The parable of the “Dishonest Manager” is an all-too-familiar story of corporate crime. The wealthy landowner discovers that a trusted manager has mishandled his revenue—it says the manager has “squandered” the riches entrusted to him. The wealthy landowner calls him out saying, “What is this I hear about you. Give me a full accounting of yourself. You can’t work here anymore!”
The wealthy landowner’s power over the manager, however, was not absolute. He could fire him, of course. But because he had trusted him with his business, he depended on him for one last service: “Give me an accounting of your management.
The manager is now in a full crisis mode. His livelihood depends on this landowner. He honestly understands that without this job, he may not survive. He has no other useful skills. He tells us he is too weak for manual labor and too proud to beg for a living. But then a brilliant idea comes to him in carrying out this last job. He sees a way to help himself by one last maneuver around his boss.
Quickly he runs to each of the company clients and reduces what they owe. “How much do you owe us? You’ve been a good customer; cut it in half.” And then to the next client, “How much do you owe? Discount it 30% out of gratitude for your business.” In doing this he has made these former clients rejoice that some of their debt has been forgiven and now see this manager as their benefactor—someone who has helped them in their time of need. In doing this the manager has gained at least a few people who will welcome him into their homes when he is thrown out by the landowner.
When the landowner finds out about the manager’s recent dishonesty, we expect him to be furious—to curse this manager because he has once again betrayed his trust. But instead, the landowner commends him—congratulates him for being “shrewd,” for being wise enough to carry out a plan that will save his future. What?? But wait there is more…
In this story found only in Luke, Jesus tells his disciples that the children of light (his followers) have much to learn from the children of this age. That they should make friends by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may be welcomed into eternal homes. What was Luke expecting his listeners to get out of this? What are we, here today, to do with this?
First, there is a challenging word in this parable. Jesus says, “I wish the children of light, I wish the people of God, were as shrewd for the gospel as the “children of this age” are shrewd for themselves. There are people in our culture who get up every morning focused on how to make more money, focusing every ounce of energy on creating something better for themselves, working in overdrive to scramble to the top of their business or lifestyle. “I wish God’s people,” Jesus says, “would be just as focused and energetic in service to God and God’s people.
You know that JK Rowling wakes up every morning focusing all of her energy, imagination, intelligence, and passion on helping us grow ever closer to the struggles and triumphs of Harry Potter and his classmates at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Tim Cook, the leader of Apple Corporation, gets up every morning focusing all of his energy imagination, intelligence, and passion on trying to find a new way to entice us to buy a new IPhone or Apple Watch or computer.
Jeff Bezos of Amazon gets up every morning focusing all of his energy, imagination intelligence, and passion trying to improve the technology that will deliver anything you can imagine to every imaginable location in the world.
The “children of light” have much to learn from this cleverness, this passion, and this energy that they can put to use in serving God. The children of light, need to be this focused and innovative and enthusiastic for the beloved community. As disciples who have experienced the joy of worship, the tenderness of being a part of a caring faith community, the redemptive hope of experiencing God’s love in our lives, we must, focus our creativity and use all our gifts to bring compassion, justice, and Good News to the world.
So we can continue to find new ways to invite others to join in us the Jesus Movement.
So we can come up with new opportunities to invite people to enter into faithful conversations and companionship.
So we can discover new openings to walk with people in their spiritual journey, offering support to people of all ages and all stages of life.
So we can be a part of bringing God’s hope into a confusing and hurting world.
The times call for being shrewd and wise for God. As it is stated in Matthew 10:16 “be as shrewd (or wise) as serpents and innocent as doves.”
Second, Luke’s Jesus says, “Make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth, so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.” Following on the heels of the parable, it may sound like Jesus wants his followers to engage in dishonest practices such as the manager to pad our interests or protect ourselves in times of need.
The phrase “dishonest wealth” is not a good translation of the Greek. A better one would be “the money of this unrighteous age.”[1] For even if we are not squandering the money of others or padding our accounts with ill-gotten wealth, each of us participate in a a system that puts profits above the needs of people. Whatever the size of our wealth, we are yoked to financial systems that are often grown at the expense of other’s suffering.
CEO’s who fail to raise worker salaries to a living wage while bringing in salaries on average of about 300 times more than the median salaries of their workers.[2] Corporate systems that cut costs by laying off senior level (translate older and more expensive) workers. Companies that move jobs overseas where labor practices are not adequately regulated. Systems that hire workers under a specific number of hours so they can never receive benefits. The reality is that we live in a world in which we cannot help but be possessed by dishonest habits and unjust systems.
But Jesus knows that even money from an unrighteous age can be put to use for God’s good purposes. God can repurpose the money and use it to share God’s love. Money is a vital tool for our culture. Money helps us find comfort, health, and stability. Money can be put to use helping others achieve comfort, health, and stability. Wealth can help a whole community prosper. But as Justo and Catherine Gonzalez say, “wealth is not a neutral power. What we do with the wealth we control—however great or small—is of great importance.”[3] We always have a choice in how we invest our wealth, our gifts, our time.
Reading in preparation for my time with you today, I came across some examples of people in the business world carefully choosing how to invest their wealth. Dan Price of Seattle WA decided to give each of his employees at Gravity Payments a minimum wage of $70,000 a year because, “Most people live paycheck to paycheck,” he says. “So how come I need 10 years of living expenses set aside and you don’t? That doesn’t make any sense.” Over the next three years, he will phase in a minimum wage of $70,000 at Gravity and immediately cut his own salary from $1.1 million to $70,000 to help fund it.[4]
Hamdi Ulukaya, the Turkish immigrant who founded Chobani in 2005, told workers at the company’s plant here in upstate New York that he would be giving them shares worth up to 10 percent of the company when it goes public or is sold. The goal, he said, is to pass along the wealth they have helped build in the decade since the company started. Chobani is now widely considered to be worth several billion dollars.[5]
Our generosity at Grace Church helped create a space for children to go to camp. It has created opportunities for our neighbors to receive support as they transition into our community. Your generosity continues to support the work at Gideon’s Garden where fresh food is delivered to people who are hungry. Your giving allowed a member of our community to hold the babies we support in Ghana. Your giving helps young girls receive an education in Nepal…
We must daily choose who we love and in whom we place our faith. As followers of Jesus we should take this responsibility seriously. As followers of Jesus we are called to invest our wealth in God’s future—giving ourselves and our goods towards the investment that benefits all God’s people. In this way, the wealth we have, regardless how much or how little, brings true reward.
Today Jesus continues his hard teachings that discomfort us and can leave us puzzled over the meaning it has for our lives. But today’s parable of the Dishonest Manager challenges us to look closely at what the demands of discipleship require. And to face our own reality in today’s world where we are called to pray for those in high position so all may lead lives of peace and dignity, while standing alongside those who are trampled on and sold for silver or a pair of sandals.
In following Christ, the cross is never far away. And yet we are held in love by a generous God who offers us freedom and forgiveness, leading us toward reconciliation with ourselves and with our brothers and sisters so together we may share the true wealth as God’s children.
[1] Thomas Long. “Making Friends.” A sermon preached at Columbia Theological Seminary’s Baccalaureate service on May 19, 2006.
[2] YUKI NOGUCHI Yuki Noguchi. “Comparing the Top Boss Pay to Yours. Fresh Air NPR. August 28, 2015. http://www.npr.org/2015/08/28/435245281/comparing-the-top-boss-pay-to-yours
[3] Justo and Catherine Gonzalez. Preaching God’s Transforming Justice: A Lectionary Commentary, Year C, Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012, p. 399
[4] http://www.inc.com/magazine/201511/paul-keegan/does-more-pay-mean-more-growth.html
[5] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/27/business/a-windfall-for-chobani-employees-stakes-in-the-company.html?_r=1