Our opening passage begins to lay a foundation that says that the blessings of God are not only sent to all people of the creation, and that those blessings are to be used, used in such a way that the desire of God is able to come to fruition. The desire is that everyone might be able to receive the gift of eternal life.
The question that needs to be asked is: are we? Are we using those gifts so that the name of God is praised and the will of God is lived out? This is, as the author articulates, his prayer for everyone. The scripture reads this way.
I Timothy 2:1-7
2 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, 6 who gave himself a ransom for all —this was attested at the right time. 7 For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
There is no way around it: the parable that we are about to hear is flat out confusing. It’s one of those stories as a preacher that you give an initial look at and say to yourself, “lets see if there is something a little easier to figure out.” And, candidly, that is exactly what I did. But for some reason I gave it a second and then a third look and eventually decided that the Holy Spirit wasn’t bringing me back to this passage for no reason at all. It will be up to you to decide if the reason that I was able to uncover to talk about this passage was ultimately worth it.
The passage picks up right where we left off last week. Jesus has just finished telling the Pharisees and the scribes his third story that relates to how God is trying to save those who have gone astray by going out and searching for them, and as the case may be, forgiving them.
Jesus then turns his attention to his disciples, with the religious elite still listening in, and describes to his chosen twelve the story of a dishonest employee who has been skimming money off the top of his employer’s profit for years. Finally he is caught by his boss and told that he is going to be fired. Knowing that he is destined to end up on the streets and unable to support himself, he calls up his boss’s clients and cuts all of their debts to the employer in half hoping that, in turn, the clients would take him in his impending time of need. The boss finds out what he is doing. But instead of being angry, as we would rightly expect, praises him for being clever at how he has made his way through this difficult situation. Let me say that once more: the boss praises his recently fired employee for stabbing him in the back, again. As I said, it is no wonder that this parable causes many people to become completely confused and almost everyone to wonder at what Jesus was actually trying to say to us.
Therefore I would like you to listen to this passage with the following question in mind: when it comes to the blessings that God has bestowed us with, how are they to be used? Should we go out of our way to put them to use, or do we sit back and wait until our hand is forced until we draw upon them? The scripture reads this way.
Luke 16:1-13
16 Then Jesus said to
the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were
brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2 So he
summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an
accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ 3
Then the manager said to himself, ‘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. 4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am
dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ 5 So,
summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you
owe my master?’ 6 He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He
said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ 7 Then
he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers
of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ 8 And
his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for
the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation
than are the children of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for
yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may
welcome you into the eternal homes.
10 “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. 11 If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13 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.”
As you hear this passage, it is very tempting to skip over the first 9 verses and focus on the final four verses where we are given the theological raw meat that is real easy to remember and is extremely quotable. I am sure that there have even been several among us today, as well as the theologians who we read or listen to on a regular basis, who have said things like, “No slave can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and wealth”, and “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.”
However, if we act as if Jesus made these statements in a vacuum, we are kidding ourselves and inappropriately using the Word of God. These statements were offered, at least as we have them here in Luke, as a postscript to a point that was already made in the parable. It is for this reason that we need to look at all of what Jesus said, and that means diving into a story that is incredibly hard to swallow.
On its surface, it’s impossible to believe that what Jesus has described to his disciples as a positive, is actually something that is good. How could Jesus ever describe what this recently fired employee did in going out and stealing from his employer again as something that should be seen in a positive light? Jesus has told us to love our neighbor as ourselves and what we have here certainly doesn’t look like any kind of love that we would want to be shared with us. So, what do we do?
Well, the first thing is to look at whom Jesus is telling this story to. The parable is for the disciples, the chosen twelve who will soon, although they don’t know it yet, be heading out into the world to proclaim the truth that is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There is a popular and widely held sentiment that God can work through all things; subtext: whether it be a person or a situation, God is able to work through the bad just as easily as He is to work through the good. Jesus is using a negative example and proclaiming that there is a positive that can be derived and that positive can and should be put to use by the disciples as they continue on their path of following him. We know that Jesus feels that the dishonest manager is considered negative because of what the man from Nazareth says immediately after the parable is finished. He says, “The children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” There is a differentiation between those who are considered the children of light (the disciples) and the children of this age (the dishonest manager) and once this distinction is drawn it becomes obvious that Jesus is not asking the disciples to become the dishonest manager where they are going out and elevating their own name by putting money in their own purses. Instead, he is asking them to put their worldly knowledge to use so that the name of God is glorified. I believe that’s what verse 9 means when Jesus tells his disciples, “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.” Jesus recognizes that the disciples are living in a sinful world, but instead of telling them, and us here today, to separate ourselves from the world, or coalesce to the sinfulness that does exist, we are instead called to move, as beacons of light, through the darkness that we do see, living the lives that we are called to lead, using all of the gifts that we have so that the name of God is lifted up.
With all that out on the table for the disciples to deal with, Jesus then pounds the point home with the quotables in the next 4 verses. “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. If you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? If you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No one can serve two masters; for they 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.” Basically, go out into the world and use the gifts, and sometimes that means money, that you have been blessed with. Use them, but not for yourself, but instead so that the glory of God is raised.
One of the people who we have loved to hate these past few decades, when it comes to the process of making money, is Donald Trump. Now you can shake your head all you want, but there is a level of respect that is paid to the guy because of how he has been able to make fortunes, then lose it all, only to make it back again. The fact that the guy continues to, not only have a well rated TV program, but is considered by so many to be an individual to look up to, I believe, proves that there are quite a few folks who wouldn’t mind being like Trump.
However, what if the drive that he has exhibited in terms of aggrandizing his own name (after all, how many buildings can you put your name on?) was instead directed at elevating causes that lifted the name and the love of God? Can you imagine the good that would have been done for the creation and all of its inhabitants, if his worldly drive and intelligence had been used to benefit others, instead of himself? Okay, all of his buildings employ a whole bunch of people, but those ventures still come down to making him as big a buck as possible.
In the Christian world, there is a tendency to view money as purely a negative. But there is a flip side to money and it is discovered when you are able to put your money, your intelligence, your skills to work for God instead of self. For when this is done, positive is able to be found in what is talked of, so very often, as negative because the name of God has been lifted up and the embrace of His love has been experienced in a new way. This is part of what Jesus called his disciples to do in the parable this morning.
So, what have you been blessed with, whether it be financially or in terms of mental and physical skills? How are you putting them to use? There seem to be three responses. 1. You are either isolating yourself from the world and not putting God’s blessings to use (the ostrich putting its head in the sand mentality), 2. you are taking the blessings of the Almighty and using them in such a way that you are elevated in the eyes of the “children of this age” (you become the dishonest manager), or 3. you are putting those gifts to use, albeit in a sinful world, so that the name of God is glorified (you are one of the children of light).
What we are able to hear in the parable this morning is that God wants us to use the spiritual but also intellectual and monetary gifts that we have been blessed with so that the name of God is glorified. We are to put to use our time, talent, and treasure to work so that the kingdom of God is championed. Respond to the challenge that is put forth in this story, and discover all of the opportunities to praise God that can be discovered.
God, You have blessed us in so many ways, intellectually, emotionally, monetarily. Lord, we pray for the guidance that we do need in this sinful world to put all of these gifts to use, not so that we are able to receive any kind of personal glory, but so that Your name is glorified and known throughout the creation. God, help us to put all of the gifts that You have blessed us with, to use. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.