September 22, 2013
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
I have to admit that many of you have more business experience than I do. I have never had to really balance the books except for my own personal checking account. I am so thankful for people like Jackie Chou, Marian Hom, Gil Qoung and Helena Mew! They do a superb job for our church.
Most of us are shocked when we hear about dishonesty in the business and banking world. When names like Enron, Lehman Brothers, World Com, JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs come up, we immediately associate these companies with dishonesty. And with movies like, Wall Street and its sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps dramatically show us how corrupt business executives can be we are turned off by them.
Before we delve into today’s parable, let me say that stealing is wrong! I want you to write that down on your bulletin and remember it throughout this sermon. Stealing is wrong whether practiced by some celebrity shoplifting or a commodity-leveraging stockbroker trying to make his investment better. It’s wrong!
And so I begin this sermon by reiterating that I in no way condone or tolerate stealing. Despite what Jesus says.
The Parable
The master in this parable had a manager who was not honest. It seems like they were in a small community because the rich man gets to hear of the manager’s money squandering through the grapevine. He calls the manager in and says, “Show me the books, you thief!”
And the manager responds, “The books? Sure, Master. Just allow me a few …notations.” He says to himself, “I’m too proud to beg and too lazy to do any honest labor.”
Thus the swindle begins. The crook calls in some of his master’s customers. He uses the opportunity while he is still officially on the job, to do some last official duties, to create some self-security.
“How much do you owe my master? A thousand? Let me drop a zero so it’s only a hundred?” To another, “Four million! Well look at this. It appears, thanks to my efforts, you only owe four hundred!”
Huge sums are written off so that when the master sacks the crooked manager, he can go to these debtors and say, “Hey! Remember me? The guy who helped you cheated my former boss?” What a brilliant decision to make friends for himself, whom he hopes will come through for him in his time of need.
Next day the boss calls in the crooked manager and says: “OK, show me the books!” The manager presents the ledger. You can see where he’s scratched through, erased, rewritten, and thoroughly cooked the books.
And the master says, “You business genius you! I wish all of my business managers in this company showed as much individual initiative, worldly wisdom, and commercial creativity that you showed. You are one shrewd operator! I’m moving you up to the front office!”
The dishonest manager is dishonest because he forgave debts that didn’t belong to him and cheated his master out of his rightful money. But Jesus said, “And his master commended the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light” (v. 8).
Children of Light
The majority of people in San Francisco Bay Area are not at church this morning. But you who see yourselves as “children of light” have gotten out of bed and are in church. But from this parable, Jesus is praising the immoral children of this age and saying that children of light should be more like the children of this age! Maybe we should still be in bed sleeping like the children of this age! We need to be as shrewd as children of light.
You might be waiting for me to say that Jesus really didn’t mean to commend the dishonest manager. Maybe the word “steal” could mean to “borrow” sort of. You are waiting for me to come up with a little historical-critical analysis of a context in order to get Jesus to say something other than what he clearly said.
We are saying, “Honestly Jesus, are you are commending dishonesty, praising thievery, cheating and commending what we have come to despise in the business and banking world?”
I know many of you—children of light—have come here this morning hoping to be recipients of more light, hoping to engage in some fine moral tuning for your already well-burnished positive self-image. Some of you are still young enough trying to find the right way to walk in life. You want to be a better person and you have come to church because what better place to stiffen the old moral fiber and be a better person than church?
But this parable from Jesus is calling us to be shrewd and to cook the books. A first hearing of this parable may erroneously sound like Jesus’ objective is to commend dishonest shrewdness. It sounds as though the manager is commended for cheating.
A better understanding of the passage however, reveals what I believe are Jesus’ objectives in telling the parable.
First, Jesus is stressing the shrewdness with which the manager handles his situation. In other words, Jesus is pointing to the attitude, the intellect, and the investment of thought that the manager applied to the situation.
This is very much the way many of us in the world handle our personal issues concerning our families, finances, businesses, etc. We would go to all lengths to secure our livelihoods. This self-interest implies how seriously we take issues that concern our financial security and safety. Parents begin saving for their children’s college education. Seniors take out long-term care insurance policies. Workers contribute to their 401 K retirement accounts. We would reduce risks and invest in programs to secure security. I wonder if Jesus was making a comparison of this kind of attitude with how we, “children of light,” invest ourselves in spiritual matters that concern our eternal security. Are we willing to use our intellect and be shrewd managers for God’s kingdom or for the sake of eternal security?
If we as Christians could apply similar shrewdness in matters that pertain to our spiritual lives, how much more different our Christian impact would be in the world!
Secondly, shrewdness must not be confused with dishonesty. If we take the master in the parable as symbolic of God or Jesus, then we must note that the master still goes ahead and dismisses the dishonest manager even after commending his shrewdness. The parable makes it very clear that the master does not condone dishonesty with what has been entrusted to us when he says, “If one is not faithful with little, then one cannot be entrusted with true riches of God’s kingdom” (vv. 10-12).
Sometimes, it is common in this age to hear people being commended for cheating on things like taxes or other payments—suggesting that the IRS is some evil enemy. How many of us have done that? In today’s technology, people are sometimes commended for their ability in what they can do with computers even when it is not the morally right thing to do. Many times we give a blind eye to the less than honest ways that people gain in their financial security. Haven’t we said, “it is okay as long as you are not caught” or “the means justifies the ends” have become the norm?
Jesus was not commending the manager for cheating, but for the attitude of shrewdness. Jesus does not applaud dishonesty. The parable calls us to honest shrewdness, which essentially is different from the dishonest shrewdness of the manager in the parable. If the master were commending his dishonest shrewdness then he would not have dismissed him!
Thirdly, the parable also points us to our role as stewards of our lives and that which has been given to us: our possessions, families, responsibilities, opportunities, and talents. Whatever we have belongs to God. The Psalmist states, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and those who live in it” (24:1). We are only stewards who have been entrusted with management. If we do not manage what has been entrusted to us well, we will be relieved of that duty and somebody else will be given that responsibility. The master took away the manager’s job in the end.
As children of light, we should therefore be able to use our material things or our human gifts like talents in ways that please and glorify our God who is our master. Just as we are expected to be shrewd and diligent in spiritual matters, so we are to be in the investment of gifts and material things put into our care.
In 2 weeks, you will be presented with the 2014 Proposed Church Budget and following your review; you’ll be invited to participate in the mission of this church by pledging to its work. As children of light, are you prepared to use your material things to please and glorify God on earth?
Serving One Master
At the conclusion of this parable, Jesus said, “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” (v. 13).
Let’s be honest. Despite our earnest efforts and wishful pretentions, most of us are, more than we’d like to admit, “children of this age” than “children of light.” We want to move toward the light, but then there are these shady urges, these secret habits, the things we think and do when nobody’s looking. Some of the things we did last night after the party don’t look so good in the light of Sunday at church. We pledge our allegiance to the kingdom of heaven, but the kingdoms of this world own us—just look at our VISA receipts.
It seems to me that we will continue to have a hard time trying to serve both God and wealth. And perhaps that’s the reason for Jesus to tell this parable. It seems like the dishonest manager was willing to make a bet on his master’s character. Will the master enjoy his reputation for generosity more than he will enjoy his money?
And of course, the answer is yes. Just as the father of the prodigal son didn’t forgive his son because of his son’s change of heart but rather it was the father’s generosity, the master commended the dishonest manager’s shrewdness.
Here is a manager with no familial tie to the master, who shows no repentance at all, and whose actions are calculated to allow him to continue in his same lifestyle into the indefinite future, the master seeing all of this, is still generous because it is in the nature of the master to be so.
It is the nature of the father of the prodigal, the master of the dishonest manager, God of us all to be generous. God allows us, “children of this age” to nail Christ to a cross, so determined was he to love us as we are, rather than as who we wish we were. Only a Savior with a gentle, bemused appreciation for the antics of the “children of this age” could save sinners—like us.
I think Jesus told this parable because while we would like to see ourselves as “children of light,” we continue to be more like the “children of this age.” When Jesus says, “I’ve come to seek and save sinners!” Jesus is actually talking about me and you.
If only the children of God would trust in God’s goodness the way the dishonest trust in it to exploit it, then the children of light as we like to be would never wonder if we would be welcome home again. Let us be that.
Let us pray.
Lord, forgive us when we tame and blunt your radical grace. Help us show forth your grace to the whole world in all that we do or say as a church, so that the world may see that you came to seek and to save sinners like us. Amen.