St. Mary Nanoose Bay

September 22, 2019 Sermon

Luke 16:1-13              

Many of the commentaries I referred to in preparing for my sermon this week started with the words, “This is one of the most difficult passages ….” This makes me laugh.

Because if you think about it, either way, almost every passage is difficult.  If Jesus’ words and actions aren’t difficult to understand, then they certainly are challenging to live out. So either way, your brain or your lifestyle is being challenged. And that’s why people either loved Jesus, or hated him. Because the path he trod and invites us on cannot be mixed with the way of self-centredness, pursuit of wealth, and exercise of power over others. The two paths just don’t mix, like oil and vinegar. They are not compatible.

And in case we are tempted to fudge a bit, Jesus’ last words in this passage make it very clear, “You cannot serve wealth and God.” In other words, you have to make a choice. And no one is saying it will be easy. But it’s not a test either; it’s simply how life is. Pursuit of material gain keeps you focused on yourself, your desires, the future you want for yourself.  Following the path of love keeps you focused on community, the well-being of all, and a surrender to a future that you can’t imagine but trust has your salvation at heart.            

Speaking of heart, I think this is where we need to begin with this passage; not with our mental obsession with understanding things but with an open heart that is willing to hear wisdom as it is offered. So often we strain our mental capacity to try and grasp a message that is meant for our hearts. Often we need to let the gospel words settle for a while so seeming contradictions can resolve in ways we couldn’t at first imagine.            

In Bible Study this week someone suggested that one way we might think of the corrupt manager is “to walk a mile in his shoes before judging him.” I think that is great advice because in my experience, once you get to know someone, or even spend the time trying to imagine what their life/their experience is like, you not only are open to a different understanding of them than your first knee jerk reaction to them, but likely, you won’t even want to judge them. Because taking the time to get to know someone takes you into a 3D understanding of the complexity of their lives and they no longer are a cardboard cut-out of a character you can easily judge.            

So let’s jump into the story. We have a corrupt manager who is collecting taxes or rent for his master, a rich man. Someone blows the whistle on the manager and without even letting the manager give an account of his dealings, the rich man fires him.            

Remember, these are the days before a social safety net and welfare and employment insurance. Like a fly on the wall, Jesus lets us in on what the manager’s reaction is: ‘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.  I know what I’ll do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.” And then we learn how he puts his plan in action. He goes to each of the people he has done business with (on the rich man’s behalf) and reduces what they owe. His hope is that in doing so, he will have made friends who will see him through the inevitable hard times ahead of him.            

This is where we hit the hall. Not only because the man continues to do business in a way that benefits himself; in a way that is dishonest, but then, we hear this – “And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly.”             We balk. Wait, no!! This isn’t the message we want our children to hear. This isn’t the way ahead for us as good Christians. Why does Jesus tell this story? We know it ends well, with the admonition: You cannot serve God and wealth. We’re relieved. But we’ve moved too quickly through.            

So let’s stop for a moment and ponder. Because both statements really are equally as challenging. The way of the world, for “the people or children of this age,” seems to require being shrewd, calculating. And even though we all participate in the world in this way, to greater or lesser degrees, we like to imagine we have a spotless record and that we are above such dealings.            

On the other hand, for “the people or children of light” who are Jesus’ disciples, they have committed themselves to renounce the trappings of the accumulation of wealth and power. That, my friends, is a very challenging path; one we give lip service to, and give from the thin lining of our relatively deep pockets, and rationalize our way around what the call really is about.            

When the war ended and my parents were liberated from the concentration camp in Germany (in my father’s case) and prison in Holland (in my mother’s case), it took time for them to recover, at least physically, and to marry, and then plan their life together. They decided to leave Europe because they were unhappy with what was happening in the aftermath of the war - the process of applying the law in peace time to situations that had occurred during war time. Simply put – in looking back with privilege or hindsight and looking at people’s choices from the outside, there was a movement towards making people into either heros or villains. And my parents knew that that kind of sifting the wheat from the chaff, is not easily or well done. While it can be necessary, there was a propensity to self-righteous judgement.            

So they left Europe, went to Indonesia, survived the war of independence there and finally came to Canada to settle and raise their family here.            

We do the best with what we know how. If we were raised with the values of “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” and “look out for number one,” we will learn from those who are guiding us in an individualistic way of life.            

If we were raised in a loving home where our needs were honoured along with everyone else’s, we learned that our strength and well-being lies in working together and sharing our talents and possessions.            

I think the corrupt manager did the only thing he know how to do. He used his shrewdness to build a future for himself. And I would add, that out of a desperate need, he moved from an investment in money and power to an investment in relationships. And I like to imagine that this new way of being with people would soften his heart and show him a way of being that perhaps he had never seen or imagined before. In my experience, the Holy Spirit often speaks and works through difficult circumstances when we fell we’ve hit the wall.            

But the reassuring words we all like to hear, are in the words from the gospel we heard this morning:  “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.  No 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.”            

We are reassured that a divine design is indeed in place. And we can have compassion for the lives and choices of others. We don’t need to make those choices; we’ve been given more guidance and direction. So can our lives are to be a beacon to others as we share with our little ones and those we come in contact with that there are two roads, two paths? One has a loving guide and companion and leads to life and community; while the other leads to loneliness, and emptiness, and defensiveness.            

We can choose to walk on the One path, walking with and towards love, community and eternal life.            

Come then, come to the table of abundant love and community this morning. Come eat and be nourished. So that you can, in turn, share this abundance with others.    Amen.