I heard about a young lawyer who was called in from the big city to represent a large railroad company that was being sued by a farmer. It seems that the farmer’s prize cow was missing from a field through which the railroad passed, and the farmer was suing for the value of the cow. Before the case was to be tried, the lawyer cornered the farmer and convinced him to settle out of court for half of what he originally wanted. The farmer signed the necessary papers and then accepted the check. The young lawyer could not resist gloating a bit about his success. He said to the farmer, "You know, I couldn’t have won this case if it had gone to trial. The engineer was asleep and the fireman was in the caboose when the train passed through your farm that morning. I didn’t have a single witness to put on the stand!" With a wry smile, the old farmer replied, "Well, I tell you young feller, I was a little worried about winning that case myself because that cow came home this morning."
A shrewd business sense. That’s what both the farmer and the lawyer had. And that’s the back drop for what Jesus talked about in the reading from Luke this morning.
And I have to tell you. I almost chickened out and did not preach on this text. It’s a hard one isn’t it? I’d wager that most of you here have never heard this particular parable preached on before. Why? Because it just doesn’t seem to make sense. It just doesn’t seem to fit in. Here Jesus is commending the actions of deceit and shady business deals as actions we should learn from. To hear Jesus tell us to be crafty as this slick manager was, well, does that seem to jibe with the rest of what you know about what Jesus says? For me it’s been a hard week trying to figure out what this all means.
And not only is the manager seemingly corrupt, the land owner seems a little shady himself. After all, Deuteronomy 23 forbids usury which is what this manager is doing on the behalf of the land owner. So the land owner is technically violating the law to which all Jews are bound. It’s a neat little trick isn’t it? The land owner puts the manager in charge so technically his hands are clean. And then there are the borrowers who are all too willing to enter into what seems a dishonest proposition in order to save a few bucks. All around these characters in this little morality tale are not the most savory. In modern terms these would be the folks from World Com or Enron, pushing the limits of what is legal to simply line their own pockets. And ask yourself, would you ever put someone like Ken Lay at the top of your list for models of behavior and financial trustworthiness? I don’t think so.
But let’s take a little pressure off the manager. He was only doing what he was asked to do by collecting from the land owner’s debtors. The crime lay in the fact that he lied to his master about how much he had collected. Basically he embezzled And he gets caught.. So he makes amends. Commentators have pointed out that the debt he forgives would have only been the finance charge he was collecting for himself. Thus, when he forgave the debts, he was not stealing from the master. If this is the case, his actions were not dishonest, they were simply smart. By making friends among the debtors he was ensuring himself some sort of lively hood after his dismissal.
Still, I scratch my head at Christ’s choice of example here. I have to wonder if Jesus is not simply being sarcastic. Jesus was know to be sarcastic. Especially with the Pharisees and Sadducees. It’s almost as if he is saying: Yeah, go ahead. Cheat your friends. We’ll see how it all ends up on the final day. It’s like that 70’s folk Christian song : One Tin Solider. Ever hear it? The basic story is that there are two groups of people, one in the valley, one on the mountain. The ones in the valley wage war to have what the people on the mountain have only to find in the end that the only treasure the mountain folks had was a peaceful nature. The chorus reads like this: Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend, do it in the name of heaven, justify it in the end, there won’t be any trumpets blowing come the judgement day.
I have to wonder if Jesus parable here is not a warning the same as we find in this song.
If you look at the context here, Jesus has just been speaking in chapter 15 directly to the religious leaders gathered with the group. Then in Chapter 16 he turns, almost as if in an aside, to the disciples and tells this parable which is just so different than the parable of the lost sheep or coin where the bumbling children of God find their way home to a forgiving God.
His message to the disciples is different. It’s almost like he’s saying, “Watch out. You’re not like these others. Don’t be tricked.”
Many people who have commented on this passage have pointed out that this may be instruction for the church and for God’s children, the children of the light, to be smart about what they have given the reality of a crafty world and societies that teach us to look out for number one and get ahead. Like Hudini’s motto: do unto others before they do unto you. Right? And maybe there is something to this. After all it seems like the Christian institutions of this world could use a little craftiness because they always seem to be getting taken advantage of don’t they? People watching TV preachers make their pitch for more money, the unrighteous wealth as it were. And those preachers fleece good Christians who are just trying to be faithful in amounts that are staggering.
So maybe there is something to the idea that Jesus is telling us, “be careful, use the things of this world with care.” Else where Jesus commends us to be as wise as serpants but as gentle as Doves, so clearly God does not want us to lay down and be walked on. God want’s us to be smart. Want’s us to think on our faith with as much craftiness as Enron chairmen might think on their severance packages. Seriously what would it look like if we were as cunning about the growth of our churches as we were about our stock portfolios and retirment plans?
Still, even though that message can be found in what we read this morning, I think that the ultimate message here is one about conflicting kingdoms. This is the message of so much of scripture: The tension in which we hold our existence here in this world with our hope for the reality of the kingdom of God. The tension with which we strive for success here and now and at the same time try to reflect the best characteristics of what Jesus challenges us to be.
To success in this world, in the world’s terms you must often times be a person that perhaps Christ would have a hard time recognizing. And at the same time, if you are a person of faith, trying to live into the promises of your baptism, you might just be someone that the world might not recognize. I think about politicians and how they wear their faith so vulnerably on their sleeves and how that must create a tension for them in the back rooms and bargaining table of the political world. It must come near to tearing them apart.
It takes shrewdness to navigate such a course doesn’t it? And ultimately you have to make your choice. Child of Earth or Child of Light. In the end you can’t be both. At least not until God has redeemed this earth. Jesus tells us, you can not serve two masters. You end up hating at least one of them. And the reality is, if I may be so bold as to take Christ’s observation one step further. You often end up hating both because it’s just too hard to be pulled. You have to make your choice. So which will it be?
Some of you have heard my story. About how my time at a little Christian Camp in Trout Run PA was so important to my journey of faith. There was one man in particular, Chief Bob we called him. Bob Ditmar. He founded the camp and died just a few years ago now. He and I spent a lot of time talking about faith and what it required and inspired. One day he pulled me into a prayer room at the camp and hugged me. Then he looked me straight in the eye with his own eyes filled with love and concern. He said, “Mark, I’m going to tell you something about yourself now.” “Ok,” I said. “You’re showing two faces to the world. You must decide which face you will finally wear.”
And he was right on. He had nailed me. I was dancing between two masters trying to be cool for the world and righteous for the church. And it was tearing me apart. Because I knew I was not doing either one very well.
Perhaps ultimately this is what Jesus is saying: Yes, be smart, be wise about how you act in the world. After all, things come back to you don’t they. So be shrewd. But remember ultimately who you serve. Remember who and whose you are.
So I know we’ve rambled a bit around this text and what it all means. It’s not an easy scripture. But then again, maybe scripture isn’t supposed to be easy all the time. If God is nurturing us that means that often God will challenge us and force us to do a little thinking. No easy answers, just people who working it out with fear and trembling as Paul exhorts us to.
But for now, think about whom you serve. About what that one would have you do. And then be about the business of doing it. Shrewdly, so that when the master looks in on you, he’ll have no choice but to commend you.
Amen.
