In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. (Psalm 19:14)
Joseph Valachi was a gangster who worked for various crime bosses in the Mafia during the mid-20th Century. He handled mostly low-level criminal activity such as numbers rackets and gambling.
Valachi was eventually arrested for dealing heroin, along with his crime boss at the time, Vito Genovese. At one point during a argument in the cell they shared with four other mobsters, Genovese grabbed Valachi and kissed him on the cheek.
That action, in Mafia terms, is called “the kiss of death,” and indicates that a contract has been established for the death of the person kissed. I don’t know if the symbolism is deliberate, but it harkens back the image of Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane, identifying Jesus to the Temple guards by kissing him.
Valachi realized he was marked for death by anyone who wanted to collect the money for killing him. The contract on Valachi was $100,000 — quite a lot of money in the early 1960s.
Valachi had known about 50 millionaires in his mob family before going to prison. At a time when the average yearly salary was $8,000, minimum wage was $1 an hour, gasoline was 32 cents per gallon, and a new house cost $15,000, the country didn’t have that many millionaires. Having 50 in your close circle of acquaintances said a lot.
The money and connections no longer were of any use to Valachi. He realized he was about to be killed by his own boss. He had to find a way out of his predicament. He had himself put in solitary confinement, but nearly starved because he refused to eat, since he thought his food might be poisoned. When released from solitary confinement, he killed another prisoner, mistaking him for one of the contract killers out to get him.
Eventually Valachi decided on a way to forestall the inevitable. He contacted the FBI and traded what he had for protection. He testified before Congress in 1963 about the actions of his crime family, especially Vito Genovese. He explained the procedures for induction into the Cosa Nostra, “this thing of ours,” which is the real term for the Mafia. He ripped open the veil of secrecy that until then had hidden the existence of the Mafia from the eyes of law enforcement agencies.
His shrewdness in using what he had to gain his own safety let him outlive Vito Genovese in prison and finally die of natural causes in 1971.
This murdering hoodlum used all his available resources wisely to protect his physical life, and he showed more determination in his effort than we Christians show in our focus on our spiritual salvation.
But would any of us say that Joe Valachi was a good guy whose example we should follow? Or that by testifying about the crimes of his boss, his own behavior was any less evil? Of course not.
Yet I’ve heard all sorts of excuses — even from clergy — about the shrewd manager in our Gospel reading today. Some say he was eliminating the interest that his master had been charging, making the transactions legal again; others say he was taking away the amount the customers were overcharged so that his master couldn’t fire him without incurring the wrath, and loss of business, from those customers whose bills were reduced.
But the Gospel says the master commended the manager for acting shrewdly, not honestly. And nothing indicates the master relented and kept the manager in his position. Rather, the master commented on the shrewdness by which the manager ensured future lodging and employment by making so many customers feel indebted to him.
Those customers were all quite wealthy — remember the average first-century laborer wasn’t buying 100 jugs of olive oil or 100 containers of wheat — and surely one of them would be willing to hire him on in some capacity after he saved them 50 percent and 20 percent of their bills.
This guy was lazy and prideful. He claimed to not be “strong enough to dig.” Well I can tell you from experience, if you’re not strong enough to dig, you will be after digging for a while. That’s how you become strong enough to dig.
He also said he is “ashamed to beg.” His first thoughts are that if he no longer has the comfortable, cushy job as manager, even though he is physical capable of work, he would rather beg than do manual labor. His only reason for not begging is that he’d be ashamed. He should be!
I don’t know anyone who is “proud” of begging. People in that position have reached the depths of their despair. They have often lost hope. And they are often ashamed of their situation, even when it’s beyond their ability to pull themselves out of it. Those people have nothing to be ashamed of. They need our help and our love. As Christians we should be ashamed that there are any people around us, any of God’s children, who need to beg in order to get by each day. We should feel the shame of that, not them.
But an able-bodied person who would rather beg than work is a totally different situation. And that’s what this manager describes about himself. And for that, he should be ashamed.
Jesus is not pointing to this guy as someone we should emulate, or as someone who has chosen wisely. The last two sentences of the passage explain it for us:
“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.”
The manager chose his master: wealth. And dishonest wealth at that. He had been swindling his customers and boss. “Squandering his [master’s] property” is what we would call embezzlement today. This manager, however, was totally devoted to his real master: wealth. He focused intently on it. The Greek word used is mamonia, which in older translations is rendered as “mammon.”
Wealth usually makes us think of money, but mammon is more inclusive. It means all our stuff: our money, our cars, our houses, our stock portfolios — all our stuff.
We can’t worship our stuff and also worship God. At least the manager who worshipped his stuff, was dedicated and fixated on keeping it.
We, on the other hand, who claim to worship God instead of the things of this world, show far less dedication toward being disciples of our professed master. Compared to the focus the manager has toward his master, we seem downright distracted don’t we?
When Paul says “follow me as I follow Christ” we see in Paul’s life an unmistakable indication of which master he serves. How many of us are willing to really anyone else to follow us as we follow Christ? Many of us would have to add the caveat, “except when I ……… ‘blank’ ……”
Follow me as I follow Christ, except when I lose my temper.
Follow me as I follow Christ, except when I’m trying to make a business deal.
Follow me as I follow Christ, except when I looking at porn on the Internet.
Follow me as I follow Christ, except when I …. You get the idea.
The example of the shrewd manager is to show us how much effort, dedication, and creativity we should use while we’re in this world to serve Jesus. To show Christ to others as he commands us to do. To live a life of demonstrated devotion to God that others can see as an example.
The Lectionary leaves out verses 14 and 15 of our Gospel passage, and I’m not sure why. I believe it’s a very important part of the story. After Jesus says we cannot serve both God and wealth, Luke tells us:
“The Pharisees, who dearly loved their money, heard all this and scoffed at him. Then he said to them, “You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God….”
Having spent so many years as a Sailor, I notice that this parable has Seven “C’s” (Seas). These Seven C’s that the manager encountered seem to parallel our spiritual life with Jesus.
The first C is Crisis. In verses 1 and 2, the manager’s dishonesty is discovered and he’s fired. Anyone who has ever lost a job recognizes that this is a crisis. In our spiritual lives, often the impetus for change is a kairos moment in our lives, one that rips away the emotional and spiritual façade that we’ve built around us and makes us realize we’re at a turning point in our lives.
The second C is Concern. In verse 3, the manager becomes concerned about his future. Until the crisis, he had no concern about his future. We also tend to dedicate our lives to God only when we finally become concerned about our spiritual future.
The third C is Creativity. Verses 4-7 show that the shrewd manager used his creativity to further swindle his boss and gain favor with his customers; we, however, are expected to use ours to find ways to lead others away from sin and to salvation in Christ. Standing on a street corner with a bullhorn shouting “Turn or burn! Get right or get left!” is not very creative, and it has questionable results. Fellowship dinners, Bible studies that relate to current situations, and youth activities that are both entertaining and informative are just a few examples of using our creativity. God wants us to use our imaginations.
The fourth C is Commendation. In verse 8 we see that the master is impressed by the manager’s creativity, and grudgingly admits it. But if we use our creativity to further the goal of our master, King Jesus, he will joyfully exclaim to us, for all of heaven to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
The fifth C is Caution. Jesus warns us in verses 9-12 that, unlike that manager, we should be faithful in little matters so that we will be trusted in bigger ones. Serving God in small ways develops a foundation in our character that we can build on even further.
The sixth C is Choice. In verse 13, Jesus says we must all choose between God and our stuff. Increasing our hoard or serving our Lord; getting more space or getting more grace.
The seventh, and final C, is Condemnation. In verses 14-15, Jesus condemns the Pharisees for their greed. The manager’s perspective on what was important was the same as the Pharisees. Jesus tells us of the disastrous consequences that await us if we choose to follow their example.
We can use the parable of the shrewd manager to sail the Seven “C’s” (Seas) of discipleship, but we should not mistake him for a good example. If we show as much dedication to Jesus as that manager showed toward the things of this world, we will easily be able to tell others to follow us as we follow Christ. Amen.
