The Text:
Luke 16:1-13
16:1 He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management 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 removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ 5 So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (ESV)
The Sermon:
Holy Scam Artists
What the heck Jesus? Anyone else wondering what in the world Jesus is trying
to tell us through this ridiculous parable?
Let’s have a second look at this confusing story. We have: a boss, a manager,
and some account holders. The boss responds harshly to rumors that this
manager hasn’t been keeping the books in order, and fires him on the spot.
Faced with the crisis of job loss, the manager’s options flash before his eyes.
Years of lazy bookkeeping haven’t put him in shape for hard labor. And his
cushy job has not prepared him for the blow to his pride that begging on the
street would surely bring—at least he admits it.
So, the last resource he can rely on is his creativity. He decides his best bet is to
cut a deal with his boss’ accounts and hope that these clients will become
more than fair-weather friends and take him in. He does some final creative
bookkeeping and erases a bit of debt owed. He walks away, fingers crossed,
hoping the debtors will remember that they ‘owe him one’ and that his boss
won’t find out about the final fudging on his audit.
But there’s a slight glitch in his plan…his boss does find out. And now I’m sure
that the manager is banking on getting at least a little jail time for charges of
fraud. He sure deserves it at this point. But wait a minute…back to the
scene….there are no fingers waving, no voices raised…
instead we watch as the boss reaches over and gives this despicable manager--
this scam artist--a big old pat on the back. “Well done.” We hear him
congratulate. “You are the wisest little sneak I know. We could all learn a thing
or two from you.”
Hold the phone. This can’t be right. How did this story get in here? Surely Luke
must have made a mistake. Maybe he didn’t mean to write that the master
“commended” the dishonest manager. Maybe it was supposed to read “the
master reprimanded the dishonest manager”. Yeah, that’s better.
In all seriousness, what is it about this story that rubs us the wrong way? Why
have so many faithful people tried in so many different ways to explain this story
away, or make excuses for it, or entirely skip over it? What is it that bugs us so
much? I think the problem is this: The master commends the dishonest
manager. And we can’t handle the scandal.
We can’t handle the scandal because we are account managers…and just
ones at that! We keep tabs, naturally, every one of us.
From an early age, we learn to be accountants. We become aware of the fact
that certain actions will gain us credit with people and others will bankrupt us
outright. If we use the beautiful colors in our crayon box to decorate the wall in
our bedroom, we will not, an hour later, have a balance needed to obtain the
cookies we request for snack time. However, if we use those same tools to
create a masterpiece on construction paper, featuring the beauty of our
mother, we may earn ourselves a credit that we can draw upon for a week at
least!
Soon, as adults we’re trade a smile for a smile, a favor for a favor, and keeping
track of exactly who owes us exactly what.
A couple of months ago, I entered the holy institution of marriage, and found
out about a whole other level of account managing. I have yet to find the
ledger in which my beloved husband marks down each time he has done the
dishes or every time I got to choose what we watch on tv. But I know it exists!
And I’ve hidden mine well too, though I think I may have earned enough credit
to cash in on a chick flick soon.
We love to keep tabs. And we love it even more when the balances all add up
neatly. So we cannot handle it when this unjust, dishonest, shrewd, slimy
manager gets away with cheating the system. He’s a downright scam artist.
And if this manager’s boss is supposed to represent God, we cannot handle the
scandal of his pat on the back. God, certainly, would not condone this kind of
behavior. Would he?
God is just. God’s justice is like a mighty hammer, demanding what is owed.
There are over 600 laws or commandments in the Old Testament alone. Surely
God sits in heaven, as we picture, with a giant Excel spreadsheet, keeping track
as each of keeps or breaks one of these laws. And the deal is, according to
God’s justice, that at the end of our lives, we’ll be called into account for how
we’ve lived, and we’ll each receive our reward or punishment as it is owed.
God the Great Bookkeeper.
One big problem. We’re all in the red. Not one of us has managed to keep a
positive balance in the Eternal Bank of God.
We are more than lucky to find at this point, that Jesus is the unjust manager. He
is the merciful manager. With his creative bookkeeping and his great eraser,
Jesus becomes for us the Holy Scam Artist. Working the books like the dishonest
manager, he cuts our debts down to size. Down to the only size that we are
able to pay: zero. By his grace, and penchant for cooking the books, we are
freed from death into life, and given a license to practice the same
questionable accounting.
No, I’m not saying that you are given the freedom to commit tax fraud or grand
larceny. I really don’t want to be held responsible for that. What I am saying is
that we, as workers for the Kingdom of God, are free to make the negative
balances of sin and guilt disappear. We are asked to look the other way on
what is owed to us, and grant forgiveness lavishly for all who are carrying
burdens of debt that they cannot bear. We are to seek out those account
holders who are past due, and proclaim to them the forgiveness of their debt.
We are freed from the rules that have bound us, and we are allowed to call
upon our creative capacities and to act shrewdly as we go about the work of
the Kingdom. We are free to think outside the box as we are Church in a world
that is ever-changing. We are free to worry less about our respectability—what
others will think of us as individuals or as the Church.
We are free to take risks. Free to fail. We are free from sin so that we might
become the holy scam artists that Christ has called us to be. We are called to
use eternal economics to create future security in the hope of the resurrection
for ourselves and others. And we are to act shrewdly in pursuing a life for all in
this world that day by day begins to look a little more like the Kingdom.
The Kingdom of God: Now hiring Holy Scam Artists
Seeking risk takers
Shrewdness is a necessity
Must possess a combination of creativity and drive toward the goal
Must have the ability to look the other way as we make debts disappear
While The Kingdom’s compensation package does not include any monetary
reward, the benefits—are amazing.
Amen
