Luke 16:1-13
“What Counts”
September 22, 2019
With his opening words, “There once was a rich man,” Jesus begins one of the most baffling parables of all and strangely, for those of us who do not consider ourselves rich financially we are drawn into a story whereby we automatically begin to envision the lifestyles of the rich and famous that we see splashed across magazines we digest with guilty pleasure while waiting in the checkout line in the grocery store. Or perhaps you grew up, like me, watching television shows like “Dallas” or “Dynasty” with its nasty in-fighting and never-ending attempts to get richer by any means possible. Or maybe your taste turned to fluff of a different kind where the previously poor suddenly become rich a la “The Beverly Hillbillies.”
Just this week the beloved saga of Earl and Duchess of Grantham and their family and servants that dwell in the 200 plus rooms nestled upon 1000 acres that in reality is named Highclere Castle but which so many of us know and love as “Downton Abbey” hit movie theaters. In the opulence of the 1927 English countryside the worry of daughter Lady Mary over the future of their massive estate is ever-present on her mind. Without giving any spoilers, it takes some direct words from her grandmother, the straight-shooting Dowager Countess, to get her to see that the wealth and possessions and land has repercussions not just for her family but for the staff and the wider community.
This parable is the one that almost universally has Biblical scholars scratching their heads and speculating fiercely on what we’re supposed to take away from it. Some think it speaks of the rich man having mercy on his steward much like what happens with the father and the Prodigal Son that comes right before this parable in Luke’s Gospel. There are others who say that this parable is talking about making a radical choice in preparation for the coming of the kingdom of God. And then there are those who say that the key to understanding this parable is to focus on the shrewd preparation even if it’s less than honest because some preparation is better than no preparation – think the ends justifying the means.
Jesus, throughout his ministry, spends a lot of time talking about money. He points out how money is used, how money is wasted and how much energy we spend trying to hold onto it. Here he is talking not to the Pharisees or to strangers but rather to those who know him best, his disciples. That means that we, as followers, should be paying attention and thus wrestling with this odd parable and mining it for whatever we can glean from it.
Let’s focus on what we do know. We know that a manager was empowered to act as the owner’s representative with the authority to buy and sell the property of the owner, his master. He was a stand-in for the master and whatever deals he made were to be treated as if the master made them himself. We also have to remember that this parable appears in Luke only and Luke usually saw wealth as a negative so we have to ask if in this parable the master is a hero or a villain.
We know that the manager is panicking here because none of his choices are good. What he does have going for him is a brain that has plenty of practice working in the world. He also recognized that in Roman society of the time there was an intricate dance that went on between benefactors and clients and to have clients beholden to benefactors meant you were owed more favors and this gave benefactors the ability to rise in social status. The manager in this story had a great memory for those who owed his boss something. The manager went about it in a shrewd and not entirely on the level way and so we then have Jesus seeming to lift up as an example this man who has often been described as dishonest. Is this what Jesus wants us to hear?
Perhaps we might lean into how Jesus moves from this confusing for us but perhaps not so confusing at the time parable into a lesson on trust. It is clear that the owner trusted his manager and the manager wanted to do right by the owner. What Jesus points out is that there is a takeaway here and would be where we place our trust and allegiance. What do we value and trust? What messages did we receive about money and possessions that formed us and our values?
Lynne Twist has devoted the past 40 years of her life to alleviating poverty and hunger and helping people and organizations understand their relationship with money. What she points out is that most of us operate from a set of perceptions of the world that go unexamined and these become a part of us even before our beliefs. These false assumptions she defines as toxic myths and they are: 1. “There’s not enough.” 2. “More is better.” and 3. “That’s just the way it is.” To live down these myths is to embrace the radical idea that Jesus is teaching and that Luke is so fond of sharing in his Gospel account – that there is enough and if we serve God as Jesus ends here with we are going to be serving others and that in the movement away from the notion that it’s all about “me” we will come to replace it with a trust in God that turns into it is all about “we.”
Just this week when I was up in Burlington attending the annual Clergy Convocation, I was talking with the Rev. Bert Marshall who some of you may remember as previously being a regional representative from Church World Service. He came here to our church after the earthquake in Haiti that struck back in January 2010. It had been at our Annual meeting two weeks after the earthquake that a motion was made and resoundingly approved to take $25,000 from our endowment funds and present it to Church World Service to help them in their recovery work in Haiti. Bert, once again as he does almost every time we see each other, pointed out that he continues to be in awe of that generous gift and he has used it and us often in his talks for first Church World Service and then as an example first at the Brattleboro UCC Church and now the Barre UCC Church where he has served as Interim Minister. He always speaks of the transformative power of such an act of generosity on the part of our little congregation. To decide that our service to God through lifting up God’s people in need was more important than growing our bank account was to follow Jesus in a decidedly radical way. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we would constantly be on the lookout for more of these opportunities where we put our belief in God’s abundance ahead of the world’s message of scarcity? How will we generously serve God best?
Let us each, no matter our confusion with this strange parable, go with the message about serving God first with this prayer from a site called “Unfolding Light:”
“God I admit: so often
I am trying to look good.
I’m serving the master of being right.
I’m loyal to the boss of my ego.
But I can walk away from that master.
I am free to serve you,
to belong to your grace alone,
to seek only to receive and give love.
Faithful in small things, to be faithful in great,
I submit to your grace.
Help me each moment to examine my loyalty
and serve only your love, absolutely devoted.
Your love … alone. (from Steve Garnaas-Holmes, “Unfolding Light,” 9/18/19)