Pentecost 17C
September 18, 2017
Luke 16:1-13
Each year in
mid-September, Lutheran clergy from Upstate NY Synod gather for a time of
continuing education and fellowship. That event took place this past week. In
the plenary sessions of this year’s event, we heard from the Rev. Dr. David
Lose, who spoke about how we might address a major problem in the Church today:
that, although the biblical story is our central story of our faith, people
today are by and large far less familiar with that story than previous
generations, such that, as we go about our daily lives, this central story is
often not our immediate go-to reference point. As a result, we find ourselves
in a world where it becomes increasingly difficult to connect what happens here
on Sunday morning with what happens the rest of our week, out in the “real
world.”
There are several reasons for this –
for one, learning about the Bible is no longer a given in our increasingly
pluralistic society; for another, there are so many other competing stories
offering reference points for our lives – books, movies, TV, an endless stream
of advertisements, gossip about celebrities, you name it! But I think another
reason is that the Bible is sometimes just really hard to understand. It’s much
easier to follow the tabloids, or a gripping TV series, or a really good novel,
When I read this tricky parable, my
mind floods with more questions than answers: Why would Jesus be lifting up an
anti-hero to teach us something about God and faith? Why is he commending
dishonesty? Is he asking us to be dishonest in how we engage with others? And
to the point of making the biblical story a part of the story of our daily
lives, how on earth are we supposed to relate this to our lives in a positive,
faithful way?
Actually,
this last question, I might begin to have an answer to, or rather, a more
helpful, applicable question, and that is: what
does God, and in particular this parable, have to say about how we manage or
use our money and resources? If we are looking for a way that biblical
witness meets our day-to-day challenges, there is hardly a bigger challenge
than that of our relationship to money. Money is one of those taboo topics – we
do not talk about it, especially not in the church. Yet it is also something we
daily deal with, whether we are planning our budget, or going grocery shopping,
or deciding how much money to give to the church or to another charitable
organization, or how much allowance our kids should get, or… you get the idea.
Every single day we make important decisions about money – and then, in many
cases, experience the impact of these decisions on our relationships.
And it is this
impact of our financial decisions on our relationships that this parable can
really speak to. But I’m going to start by talking a bit more generally about
money – yes, right here in
So, what
exactly does the Bible say about money? There are a couple of scriptural themes
regarding money, that come up in today’s texts. One is that wealth is fleeting.
Look at this manager – one day he is doing great, with a good job, making lots
of money. The next, he is out everything. Many in this country can relate to
that feeling – a lot of people lost much of what they had amassed during the
financial crisis of 2008. The same can be true about privilege, power,
popularity, or any number of other idols we look to in our lives. I remember at
the start of middle school, I used to be pretty popular. I was the center of my
friend group. But then in 8th grade, everyone else got “cool” and I
stayed nerdy, and suddenly I was barely keeping up anymore. In one year, I went
from trend-setter to the fringe of social circles. Whether in middle school or
retirement, we’ve all had experiences like this – so Jesus’ words at the end of
the parable, that we cannot serve God and mammon, or wealth, ring true. Turns
out, these idols are fickle and fleeting, where God and God’s Word stand strong
and stable. God makes for a much better master than wealth, prestige, or
popularity.
Another scriptural theme about money is
that wealth is both a blessing and a responsibility, and our faith is expressed
not in how much wealth we have, but in how we use that wealth. In today’s text
from Amos, Amos begins, “Hear this, you that trample the needy and bring to
ruin the poor of the land!” It would seem God is pretty unimpressed by those
who use their wealth not only to serve themselves before others, but to actually
oppress others by their wealth! This may seem far removed from us – after all,
we would never trample the poor, intentionally oppressing them, but besides
that, not many of us would even consider ourselves among “the rich,” anyway! But
on a global scale, of course, we are very rich. And so what about when we buy
intentionally disposable things, or housewares that we don’t really need, or
drive when we could have walked, or update our wardrobes each season, tossing
the old stuff in the trash? Where do all the resources come from to make all
our new stuff, and the single-use packaging it comes in? Who is making them?
How might making these goods be affecting those people’s health? Of course, the
people who bear the brunt of our buying habits are some of the poorest in the
world, who work in unsafe conditions, whose homes become dumping grounds for
our garbage, whose land is destroyed to make more factories. Suddenly Amos’s
words aren’t so far removed after all! Even if we don’t do it consciously, our
first world lifestyle does indeed trample the poor. Yet God is pretty clear
that we are to use our wealth not to trample others, but to help and serve
them.
Said another way, God grants us
wealth and resources not to serve ourselves first, as in a vacuum apart from
anyone else, but rather, as a means to be in relationship with one another.
Think
about the dishonest steward. He had a good job and made lots of money,
but when he suddenly loses everything, he is distressed, and does whatever is
needed to… what? Make some friends! Build relationships! So his true tragedy is
not that he has lost his job, but that when crisis hits, he has no one to turn
to. He has no friends, no family to take him. He is desperate, afraid and
ashamed he will have to resort to begging. But, shrewd as he is, he quickly
recognizes that the solution to his predicament is that he needs to form some
relationships. And so he uses the last of his resources, his last days in his
job, to make himself some friends. Dishonest or not, he uses his resources to form
relationships with others.
 |
| Quote attributed to St. Augustine |
And this, I think, is something we
can really sink our teeth into. I know there are some among us who make enough
money to be very generous in their giving, and are. There are others among us
who barely scrape by, and are as generous as they are able to be. But
regardless of your particular income and expenses, what is true for all of us
is that we have been entrusted with many resources: financial, physical,
personal, relational, and more. And these resources, while they are often
enjoyed by the one who possesses them, are to be used primarily in the effort
to form, build, and strenghten relationships with one another, to serve one
another, to love one another. Maybe your greatest resource is money, and you
can give it away. Maybe your greatest resource is time, and you use it to serve
and volunteer. Maybe your greatest resource is eloquence, and you use it to
speak out against injustice. Maybe your greatest resource is compassion, and
you use it to reach out to those in pain, and offer healing.
What resources, what wealth, has God,
our master, entrusted to you? Have you been honest in dealing with them, or
have you allowed them to trample those in need? Have you kept them for
yourself, or have you looked for ways you can use those resources to build up,
love, and serve those around you? Have your God-given resources been a means
for nurturing relationships with others?
Try this with me for a moment. Think
of an important relationship in your life with which you are currently
struggling. Maybe someone who has hurt you, or whom you have hurt, or maybe
someone you have simply lost touch with, or anyone else whom you just find
challenging. Write that person’s name down somewhere if you need to. Now think
about what would be required to mend that relationship – money? Time?
Compassion? Conversation? Is what is needed something that you have and could
give to that relationship?
God looked down upon a broken
humanity and saw that the only thing that would save them was to give what was
most precious to Him: God’s own son. And so God did. God gave His Son so that
we would not perish, but have eternal life, so that we would be freed from sin
and freed for service and love toward each other. So that we would know what
love and grace and forgiveness look and feel like. So that we could offer that
gift to one another. How, then, will we use the wealth of resources that are
entrusted to us?
Let us pray… Giving God, this world is such a complicated one, and as we try to find
our way in it, try to find YOUR way in it, we are grateful for the gift of your
living Word. Guide us by that word, and help us to see how we might use the
resources you have entrusted to us to love and serve one another. In the name
of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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