Luke 16:1-13
September 23, 2007
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
Here’s a story of three contractors who were touring Chinatown the same day, one from New York, another from Missouri and a third from Florida. At the end of their walking tour in front of the YMCA, the director came out and asked them if they would like to bid on a project at the Y. “Of course,” they replied in unison.
We need this front fence redone once we finish with the big construction project. “Why don’t the three of you each look at it and give me a bid,” said the Y director.
The contractor from Florida got out his tape measure and pencil, and after examining the project said he could do it for $900. “That’s $400 in materials, $400 for my crew, and $100 profit for me.”
The contractor from Missouri took the tape measure, pulled out a pad and pencil and came up with a $700 bid. “That’s $300 in materials, $300 for my crew, and a $100 profit for me.”
Without hesitation, the New York contractor said, “I’ll do the job for $2700.” “$2700,” exclaimed the Y director. “You hardly even looked at the fence. How did you come up with that figure?”
“It’s easy,” said the New York contractor. $1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from Missouri to do the work.”
There seems to be some similarities between our New York contractor and the dishonest manager. Each was clever or “shrewd,” to use Luke’s terminology.
Dishonest Manager
This parable is a strange one. It appears that Jesus is commending a dishonest practice. Being caught at squandering the property under his stewardship, the dishonest manager furthers his offense by cutting various deals with the people who owe money to his boss. Once the deals are made with the employer’s debtors, the boss cannot legitimately return to renegotiate payments from those who in good faith thought they were being given a break. The dishonest manager makes out on the deals by ingratiating himself to the debtors who see him as a friend with their interests at heart. Once he is out of a job and seeing himself unable to do heavy labor or too proud to become a beggar, these new friends will take him in. Then, to the surprise of the listener, Jesus says that the boss does not become even more enraged at the scoundrel’s actions. Instead, the master commends the dishonest manager for his shrewd handling of the situation.
The parable ends and Jesus explains the parable by saying, “for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light” (16:8). The “children of light” have something to learn from the children of the world. This worldly manager is shrewd and clever. He thinks fast and gives up whatever attachment he might have intended to have with wealth. Instead, he uses his master’s wealth as a means by which to survive, to make friends in other places so that he can live to swindle another day. Then, Jesus said that we who are the children of light can learn something from this dishonest manager.
Survival at All Cost
Have you ever scramble for your life? After seeing horrifying images of the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake with the collapse of the Bay Bridge or the pancaking of the Nimitz Freeway or the fires in North Beach, you tell yourself that if another earthquake would to happen, you would run for your life.
When you scramble for your life, comfort and appearance do not occur to you. It doesn’t matter whether you like to run, or if you are in good shape or if you have your running shoes on. It doesn’t matter whether you run elegantly, like a gazelle, or lumber along like a pregnant Holstein. You simply run, scrambling away from danger. Such things don’t matter when you are totally committed to one thing: survival.
We see the same human instinct at play in today’s Gospel lesson. We don’t usually associate the good news of Jesus with such cunning and underhanded behavior. But, in telling this parable, Jesus raises for consideration the example of the embezzling servant. He suggests that in his actions, there is a certain kind of model for the godly life.
Although godliness is the opposite of dishonesty, there is something that must be teased out in order to understand what living faithfully means. The key to understanding this passage comes in verse 8, where Jesus comments, “For the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” In other words, the followers of Christ have a lot to learn from the secular world about things like commitment, doing whatever it takes.
Dishonest persons will do anything to survive, to make a buck, to increase their well-being. We honest folks are restrained in our behavior by law, by decency, by honor, and integrity. But the crooked are totally committed to saving their lives, and they do it at the expense of those who have integrity.
The children of light tend to play it safe, to act prudently. We like to stay within the church budget. We don’t like to spend what we don’t have, or commit ourselves unless we know we have the resources to succeed. Children of light do not tend to be shrewd, clever, cunning. We tend to be careful, cautious, deliberate, and conscientious. These are all good traits, certainly. They are the kinds of things the scriptures advocate. The Gospel lesson just two Sundays ago cautions us to “count the cost” (14:28).
Yet, if this is all there is to our way of thinking and acting as Christians, then an important aspect of faith is missing, a sense of total commitment: to do anything God asks, to step out on a limb of faith, to rush forward to do something that needs to be done, to scramble to act in love in the face of danger—like being prepared for a disaster that might affect our community.
Taking Initiative
In addition to understanding the commitment to survive at all cost, the children of light can also learn from this parable of the dishonest manager to take initiative. And when put to the right purposes, initiative is a good thing.
There was a young college graduate who had no experience applied for a job at a finance company. She was one of a number of applicants but clearly the least qualified. Her interviewer, though, was so impressed with her energy, initiative, and passion that she was given the opportunity to collect from one of their most hard-core customers. The young woman accepted the challenge and left.
Two hours later, she was back, with the money. “How did you do it,” ask the manager. “We have sent our most experienced people to that client without success and you succeed on your first try.”
“Easy,” said the young woman. “I told him if he didn’t pay up, “I’d tell all the other creditors he paid us.”
We can assume from the parable that there’s every reason to use our best and strongest abilities, including our initiative, for doing God’s work. Initiative has a role in our life in the church. In our effort to share the Gospel, we need to take initiative. In our effort to grow our membership, we need to take initiative. In our effort to expand our ministries and programs, we need to take initiative. If we want to be God’s light in the world we would do well to adopt the persistent initiative of the children of this age.
It’s like when we want to end a magazine subscription. Imagine the many times you receive a contact of some kind from the publisher urging you to renew. They start off with 8 to 12 separate renewal pleas in the mail; then they would email you, and at the end, they would call you on the phone. And these contacts start well before our final issue and continue for some time afterward. They are persistent in their efforts. Imagine if we took such initiative in our ministries and how many people may be here worshiping with us today.
Being Shrewd
The Greek meaning of the word, “shrewd” means practical wisdom. We may identify too much as “children of light,” detached from earth, who can’t allow ourselves to think in savvy and bold ways about money because secular resources seems un-spiritual. Yet Jesus seems to be saying, “Use money, don’t shrink from it, go ahead and use it to befriend holy purposes.” It’s practical wisdom. If God is truly our God, then money can be put to God’s service, to live into God’s kingdom of peace and justice, breaking into the world in which we live. Being shrewd like the children of this age may very well teach us to be even more faithful to God’s will.
Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). To do that requires total commitment, scrambling to survive at all cost, taking initiative when you need to.
But we say that it is just good common sense to be more cautious. People should not take such chances. Jesus’ followers were not fools. That is why they are often slow to catch on to the Gospel message. Peter, the spokesperson for the disciples told Jesus to not go to Jerusalem (Mk. 8:31-33). Everyone knew it would mean certain death. But Jesus had total commitment to one thing, to follow God’s will, even up that long, difficult road to Jerusalem and finally to Calvary.
What today’s Gospel story teaches the church is something new, something unreasonable, something shocking. Like the embezzling manager who drops everything, even his love for money, and scrambles to save his skin; like a college student who will say anything to get a chance for a job; sometimes the church needs to have a sense of abandoning our cautiousness and our reasonableness. We need this message in order to accept God’s call, to follow whatever Jesus leads, to love without calculating the nature of the sacrifice.
As clever and shrewd Christians, I am not asking you to go out and rob a bank and give the money to the church, so as to secure favor with God. The point, however, has little to do what the church needs. It has more to do with what we as God’s people need. We need to grow in faith and commitment. What we do with our money is just one aspect of a disciplined life. God wants us to give of ourselves, not because it is good for the church, but because it is good for us. To give of ourselves is to live. When we focus on things outside of us we become alive. We learn to scramble not for our own existence, but for the life and wellbeing of all people—that is loving God with all our hearts and loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Restoring Relationships
Jesus told this parable to teach us that we can learn from a dishonest manager. We learn that when people are struggling for survival with total commitment, as children of light, Christians need to have such total commitment to Christ. We learn that when people are persistent and take initiative, as Christians we need to be as clever in taking such initiative for the kingdom of God.
The parable is not about business practices, it is about maintaining right relationships. The manager’s intentions in his scheme were clearly selfish, but the results seen by the boss were generous.
One’s reputation was quite valuable in the time of Jesus. When others discovered what the manager had done to his boss, both reputations would have been marred. The manager’s shrewdness may, or may not have been noticed by the boss. It doesn’t matter. The owner commended the manager because he was able to maintain or restore relationships—the debtors with the manger…and the debtors with the boss.
This parable comes on the heels of the parable of the prodigal son in Luke. As the son returns from a foreign land, having squandered his inheritance, the father received him with open arms. No matter what the son had done, the father’s love was unconditional.
In the parable of the dishonest manager, we see a similar relationship between the manager and the owner. The manager’s scheme was his attempt to restore relationship, and the owner met his effort with gracious acceptance.
No matter how we might fail in our service to God, God is always gracious toward us. It is God’s desire that relationships be maintained—between our neighbors, and us and between God and us. God commends us for our shrewdness and initiative so that we may be a part of his kingdom work. Go out and be clever Christians!
Let us pray.
O God, grant us the permission and confidence to be clever and take the initiative to do your kingdom work in the name of Christ. Even in the midst of our messy human condition and in the ambiguities of our life journeys, show us how to restore relationships and participate in your glory. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.