shrewd servant

            The parable in today’s gospel lesson is like something out of a Hollywood movie.  An employee goes to the owner to tell him that the manager is ripping him off.  The owner confronts the manager with the evidence and tells the cheat to clean out his desk and leave.  Concerned about the extent of the manager’s funny business, the owner also orders a complete audit of the books.  Meanwhile the manager thinks to himself, “I’m not too excited about working construction and the unemployment check won’t begin to cover the mortgage let alone all my living expenses.”  So, before he starts loading up his stuff, he flips through the Rolladex and gets the boss’s clients together for one last fancy lunch courtesy of the expense account.  At a pricey mid-town restaurant over expensive wine and lobster the scam begins.  “So, tell me, what exactly do you owe the old man?”  Each one is deeply in debt to the company.  “I tell you what,” offers the manager, “why don’t you just forget what it is you owe and we’ll call it even.”  A piece of work, wouldn’t you say, in league with the likes of Ken Lay and Martha Stewart and like them without question deserves to be punished?  Give the crook just what he deserves.  A little taste of life behind bars will surely do him good. 

            “And the boss commended the dishonest manager because of his shrewdness.”  So, what are we to make of the parable’s strange and unexpected ending?  That Jesus is the one telling the story makes the conclusion all the more peculiar, disturbing to good church going folks like you and me.  Think of it, a dishonest manager is praised for his dishonesty.  What pray tell has this world come to?  What kind of message is Jesus trying to make?

            Well, there’s no denying the element of humor.  Those who listened to Jesus that day probably ended up getting a pretty good chuckle, just as we all do when we hear stories of little guys putting one over on their rich, self-impressed bosses?  Did you ever see the movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels?  Basically, it’s a story of how one crook tries to outfox the other only to be taken in both of them by a savvy woman.  It’s funny stuff that all of us enjoy.  And if stuff like that makes us laugh in the movie theater, why not in church?  And the story about a little manager who in a desperate situation takes matters into his own hands and by hook or crook manages to secure his future is just the thing.  Not exactly ethical, but amusing which is good for an outfit like the church that is perceived as a bit too serious by most people these days. 

            And yet, the ending of the parable really isn’t all that funny, because Jesus praises the one who is dishonest.  Maybe if he had made some kind of ethical point everything would have been okay, something like, “Okay everybody, what the manager did was not only illegal, but wrong and now that we’ve all had a good laugh let’s get back to real business of the church.”  None of us expects Jesus to praise immoral behavior, do we?  And yet, that’s exactly what Jesus does. 

            It may well be the most troubling parable that Jesus ever told.  The great St. Augustine once confessed that he couldn’t believe the story came from the lips of our Lord.  Even Luke is relating the parable seems a bit uncomfortable, softening the story a bit by reporting Jesus’ words about not being able to serve God and money.  Of course the bit about serving God and money is true, but it doesn’t seem to connect with the parable.  What the guy did was wrong and Jesus praises him for it, plain and simple!  So what do we make of that?

            Well, maybe we need to get beyond the scandal to what lies deeper.  Look, Jesus tells a story about a manager who was obviously dishonest, but who when faced with complete disaster responds in a way that’s going to make his future secure.  That’s not the way we tend to operate.  When hard times come, when we’re faced with difficulty or adversity we freeze up.  We’re paralyzed, unable to respond.  Like children who hear bumps in the night, we’re inclined to cower and shake as we pull the covers over our heads and hope that whatever it is out there will go away.  Goodness knows that’s how I’ve tended to deal with fear in my own life, even as truly middle aged guy.  Like a lot of people, I guess, I don’t like to deal with conflict.  I think to myself sometimes, maybe if I just ignore the problem it’ll go away.  But of course they never do.  They only get worse. 

            And, of course, we don’t just deal with fear in our personal lives either, but also as we live together with one another in community.  We look at problems like hunger and poverty in our nation and in our world and we say to ourselves, “I’m just one person, what can someone like me do to change the way things are?”  So, we do nothing because we feel like there’s nothing we can do.  Likewise in the church, when we face difficulty and adversity our tendency is to circle the wagons, assume a defensive posture, hunker down because when all hope is lost there’s nothing more to do.  Maybe there are times when we feel that way even about our own congregation as we think about our own future.

            But the parable that Jesus tells about a shrewd manager shows us that this is no way to live.  If a shady, dishonest business manager can move from passive paralysis to shrewd action so quickly, why can’t we?  Be shrewd.  Be smart.  Be savvy.  How come?  Because the future belongs to those who are astute, or because life is a whole lot easier for people who act with certainty or even because it takes more than a good defense to win on the football field?  No, not at all, be shrewd, because we are children of the light, because we aren’t the ones to determine the future, because finally the future belongs to God and to God alone.

            As God’s people our calling is to be open to the presence of God breaking in among us, to be watchful, and ever ready to move.  Because of what God has done for us in Jesus we don’t have to be timid about our lives, we don’t have to be paralyzed by our fears, we don’t have to be anxious about what tomorrow holds.  When all is said and done, where does all of our worrying about the future get us?  Rather as we begin to see that all of our days, past, present and future are in God’s hands, at long last, we’re free to let go. 

            We get ourselves into a bind though when we start to think that God’s future is just like our future, one darn thing after another.  But if we fool ourselves into thinking that we are the ones in charge, then the future will probably turn out the way we imagine it will.  The boss comes to tell us that we’re finished and not able to see any other possibly than the one we can conceive, we lower our heads and walk grimly to the unemployment line, because when life deals you that kind of a hand, what else is there to do, but keep a stiff upper lip, hold your head high and accept your fate.

            And yet, Jesus comes to give us a future unlike any we could ever imagine on our own, a future that belongs to God.  Jesus tells us a crazy story about a man who does some crazy things because the man is sure the story isn’t over.  The future holds inherent possibility and nothing has been fixed or finalized.  And it seems to me that’s wise counsel for the likes of me and you, wiser than any self help book or life coaching video series.  No, as children of the light, as those sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Jesus Christ forever in baptism we can embrace the future with confidence, not in ourselves or others, but in the power and the grace of God in Christ Jesus.  When all is said and done Jesus is the one telling the story, Jesus who not only knew how to spin a good yarn, but lived them out in his own life and death.  He didn’t go to the cross as one resigned to a hopeless end, but as one who was confident that no matter what happened all things were in God’s hands.  Jesus put his life on the line trusting God and on Easter morning God showed that he had it right.

            And I think there’s a profound message here for us here as a congregation.  I dare say that we could come up with a lot of reasons for uncertainty about our future here at 6420 Hart Lane.  How in the world are we going to get by, let alone maintain what we have?  I suppose that’s one way of looking at things.  And if all we can see is what we know or what the world tells us then I guess that’s just the way it’s going to be.  But imagine what would happen if we genuinely opened ourselves up to God’s future for us, the exciting and innovative ways in which the Holy Spirit could lead us into a future not limited by our fears and anxiety, but open to the possibilities of what God can accomplish through us in a ministry that in all likelihood will mean the end of the kind of ministry we’ve come to know in this place. 

Of course that means moving outside of our comfort zones, taking risks, risks that some might even find foolhardy.  Sure, there will be missteps along the way, times when we mistake God’s desire for our own.  But with God there is forgiveness, hope and the promise of new life.  God is good my friends and so we don’t have to live in fear.  We don’t have to hold back anything anymore.  We are free to trust.  Free to live and free to find joy in Him and with one another.

            Though the world is full of fear and uncertainty, in Christ our future is secure.  Now let us live into that future, confident of what God has done for us and of what God will to do in us, that we may come to know the blessing of His word for us.  “Well done, good, faithful and shrewd servant.”  Thanks and praise be to God.  Amen.       

                             

Pastor Brian Peterson