A sermon based on Luke 16:1-13
In the name of Jesus; Amen.
“For the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of the light.”
I have been struggling with this text all week. It’s one of those readings that I wish wasn’t in our lectionary and I could avoid it. I take comfort in the fact that I am not alone. Another preacher I know was bemoaning the fact that she had a guest preacher in her church last week, “Why couldn’t I have asked him to preach this week?”
It just seems an odd story for Jesus to tell and not one of the commentaries or web-sites, or exegetical texts or any of the other things I use to research a text before writing my sermon seemed to have one conclusive thing to say about this parable Jesus tells of this less than scrupulous manager.
Sometimes I talk to my husband about the readings to get his take. He says it’s all about hedging your bet if you are a child of this age. Perhaps it is a parable about non-believers and their ability to save themselves. This manager was squandering the money of the rich man and to save himself he made friends with those who owed money to the rich man.
Our second home in New Jersey was a rental house in Atlantic City. Our landlord started talking to us about buying a home soon after I gave birth to our first child. The house was a dump that should have been torn down and rebuilt and he knew it. Our landlord also did mortgages and when we told him we were ready to start looking for a house to buy Scott and I were convinced he pulled some strings for us that weren’t exactly on the level. This was made even more apparent when the realtor he found for us called him “Thumbs” when we were alone with him.
Why had “Thumbs” gone to some troubles perhaps he shouldn’t have? My husband believes it was because he knew we were both pastors and he hoped that in helping us it would help him get into heaven.
This manager seemed to know how to cover himself. Who knows how long he might have been doing funny financing before his boss caught on? The strange thing about this text is that the boss actually compliments his manager when he discovers how shrewdly he acted. But then Jesus tends to like to surprise people when he tells parables by adding a story element no one expects.
I actually wish today’s reading would have ended with verse 9. That last paragraph of the reading seems to be added on; a moral to explain a difficult text that really doesn’t explain anything about the reading.
If the text is about non-believers or believers on the fringe who act shrewdly to gain for themselves some sort of salvation then it says something about us who claim to be believers living as children of the light.
In the name of Jesus; Amen.
“For the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of the light.”
I have been struggling with this text all week. It’s one of those readings that I wish wasn’t in our lectionary and I could avoid it. I take comfort in the fact that I am not alone. Another preacher I know was bemoaning the fact that she had a guest preacher in her church last week, “Why couldn’t I have asked him to preach this week?”
It just seems an odd story for Jesus to tell and not one of the commentaries or web-sites, or exegetical texts or any of the other things I use to research a text before writing my sermon seemed to have one conclusive thing to say about this parable Jesus tells of this less than scrupulous manager.
Sometimes I talk to my husband about the readings to get his take. He says it’s all about hedging your bet if you are a child of this age. Perhaps it is a parable about non-believers and their ability to save themselves. This manager was squandering the money of the rich man and to save himself he made friends with those who owed money to the rich man.
Our second home in New Jersey was a rental house in Atlantic City. Our landlord started talking to us about buying a home soon after I gave birth to our first child. The house was a dump that should have been torn down and rebuilt and he knew it. Our landlord also did mortgages and when we told him we were ready to start looking for a house to buy Scott and I were convinced he pulled some strings for us that weren’t exactly on the level. This was made even more apparent when the realtor he found for us called him “Thumbs” when we were alone with him.
Why had “Thumbs” gone to some troubles perhaps he shouldn’t have? My husband believes it was because he knew we were both pastors and he hoped that in helping us it would help him get into heaven.
This manager seemed to know how to cover himself. Who knows how long he might have been doing funny financing before his boss caught on? The strange thing about this text is that the boss actually compliments his manager when he discovers how shrewdly he acted. But then Jesus tends to like to surprise people when he tells parables by adding a story element no one expects.
I actually wish today’s reading would have ended with verse 9. That last paragraph of the reading seems to be added on; a moral to explain a difficult text that really doesn’t explain anything about the reading.
If the text is about non-believers or believers on the fringe who act shrewdly to gain for themselves some sort of salvation then it says something about us who claim to be believers living as children of the light.
“For the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of the light.”
My first thought on this text was that it was about forgiveness. When the manager discovers that his head is on the chopping block he forgives some of the debt of those that owe his boss. In the process the man who is firing him commends him for his work and is perhaps forgiven as well.
But the language that Luke uses (or has Jesus use) is all about finances. Either way there is some creative accounting going on.
I want this text to be simple. It ends on a simple yet deep idea: “You cannot serve God and wealth.” And so the trouble I might be having is that the characters that Jesus places in his parable all seem to be about serving wealth.
So here it is (at least what I think it is): People who serve wealth seem to be pretty savvy about it. You know, the children of this age. But, we who serve God, we children of the light, if we read into what Jesus is saying, aren’t nearly as savvy.
There was a man at a congregation I served who was the head of the social ministry that took place there. He discovered this program that sold fair trade goods through a catalog. This program insured that the people who made the goods sold in the catalog were paid a fair wage for the work they did.
The congregation was given a customer number and if any of us ordered an item from the catalog and used the customer number the church was given a credit. After a time the credit added up and we were issued a check for the credit. It was never loads of money, but it was enough money to order a case of fair trade coffee which he then donated to one of the homeless shelters in the area.
That was savvy and he didn’t even go through a committee to do it!
We place a lot of energy into money management. How often have you driven a different way home to pass the gas station that has the cheaper gas? How many of us clip coupons or wait for something to go on sale? How many of us invest? Or ask for several bids before hiring someone to do something?
If the dishonest manager is shrewd in how he handles his impending firing should we not also be shrewd in how we do our ministry? Should we not also be shrewd in how we share the story of Jesus? Should we not also be shrewd in how we care for others?
We children of the light are called to serve God with savvy and smarts; to be creative accountants of the love of God.
Amen.
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