Tools
A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
September 22,
2013
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
Luke 16: 1-13
Let us pray,
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
Amen.
16 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man
who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was
squandering his property. 2 So he summoned him and said to him,
‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management,
because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ 3 Then the manager
said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position
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 dismissed as manager, people may
welcome me into their homes.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors
one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He
answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit
down quickly, and make it fifty.’ 7 Then he asked another, ‘And how
much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him,
‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ 8 And his master commended the
dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age
are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of
light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of
dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the
eternal homes.
10 “Whoever
is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest
in a very little is dishonest also in much. 11 If then you have not
been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true
riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to
another, who will give you what is your own? 13 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.”[1]
There
are some parables that are difficult because of what they teach us, and the
challenging nature of the claim of their teaching. It seems the last few weeks
we have been looking at some of those. This one may fit in that category, but
mostly this one is challenging because it is confusing. It's kinda all over the
place, and the obvious take away, doesn't seem all that Christ-like, in its
claim, it doesn't seem to really hold people to the high standard of love that
so many of his other parables do. Look at some of the details, dishonest
wealth, children of the light, I mean Jesus says at one point, if you have not
been faithful with dishonest wealth, no one will entrust you with true riches.
. . really dishonest wealth, why are we troubling ourselves with dishonest
wealth? Is it possible to be faithful with dishonest wealth? Isn't that a
paradox? What are you supposed to do with dishonest wealth? Turn it in right? Isn't
that the boyscout way? It's very troubling.
I
think the trouble starts because we tend to look to God to play one of the
roles in Jesus' parables, especially when there is a master. . . or a father
character. We typically take the bossman character to be God, and then the
actions of the employee to be us in our relationship with God within the
kingdom of heaven. Think about it, isn't that the standard? There is the
parable of the talents, master gives them out expects people to put them to
good use, standard translation, God gives gifts expects us to use them in
bettering his kingdom. Another example, Master puts his servant in charge of
watching his house until he returns, remaining ever vigilant. God is returning,
Jesus is returning, we are to be vigilant until he returns. We don't know when
that will happen so we need to keep watch. Again and again we see that pattern,
so that is our standby viewpoint for how to parse all of them.
But
when we go that way here, I think we are in error because this is the way it
goes. Master gives us some responsibility, but we are lazy about it, so we find
a way to do the job, rather being willing to beg or starve, we find a way, not
for the benefit of our master, but for our own benefit, then the master sees
our success, our ingenuity and praises us, giving us that second chance. The
Master praises us for being shrewd and figuring a way out of a bad situation,
following up irresponsible behavior with dishonest behavior. Then there is that
weird part about the children of the light. . . It all just doesn't fit,
especially when we come up to the overall end, the moral of sorts, of the
story, that a servant cannot serve two masters, not able to serve God and
wealth. If we stick with God being the master here, it seems that you can serve
God and wealth as long as you do it shrewdly, and as long it's dishonest wealth
anyway. How does such dishonest self preservation fit into the concept of love.
It goes against every other definition of love Jesus puts forth. To proud to
beg, instead cheat, show shrewdness, just to take care of self, using others,
and this is rewarded? See this simplistic first take understanding of this
parable really does fall apart at the seams when you break the surface. It was amazing how
many sermons and studies I saw in my research this week that were trying to
force this line of thinking and ignoring the conflicting details. Even that old
standard, Matthew Henry, seems to suggest that we are all dishonest employees,
who find a way, better late than never, and despite bad intentions back into
the loving embrace of the master. But why then all the stuff about wealth,
money, and serving two masters.
I
see this parable very differently. I don't see the character of the master in
the story to be God at all, but rather pointing to a real human relationship,
and the way that human beings work things out with each other according to
human standards. A description of the way the world works, and then finally at
the end a rebuke about how it isn't the way that the kingdom of heaven works. So
there is this employee who is wasteful and worthless, so the master calls him
to task about it. Summons him to him to try to figure the situation out, but he
doesn't fire right then, instead he asks for more information. The master wants
to get all of his ducks in a line, he wants to make sure that his figures are
right, that the rumor, the I heard tell you are squandering my stuff, is
actually accurate. He gives him 24 hours to report back. Now its obvious that
the employee was squandering, or misrepresenting, or stealing, or laundering,
something dishonest is going on, so he realizes he's probably fired, he needs
to try and figure this all out. He wonders how can I use my position while I've
still got it to win some friends so I will not have to beg. I'll give out some
favors, while I still have a little pull, to make sure I never will have to
humble myself. I'm going to play while I'm still a player. And so he does, he
gives all of the people who owe his master a break on what they owe, so they
are happy and pay right way, but a lesser amount, the master is happy, because
all of a sudden this employee who he thought he would have to fire is now doing
a good job of bringing in money, so all is well. Problem averted, right, all should
be well. Children of this generation are more shrewd than the children of the
light. . . yes those are the words of the master, but are they Christ's, are
they Gods? Does God find that shrewdness in this case is a good and noble
distinction, one to which we should all strive. Notice shrewdness is not a
characteristic of the children of the light, but instead this generation.
Notice also, Jesus doesn't say as he does in some other parables, go and do
likewise. No he doesn't, and then he says, make friends for yourself with
dishonest wealth so that they may welcome you into their eternal homes. . .
they, not me. Is there sarcasm there? Is Jesus talking about eternal homes that
don't exist? Go and make friends with your dishonest wealth, and go find eternal
rest with them. Then that puts the next part, about faithfulness and dishonesty
with wealth in a different light as well. Faithfulness in little things is akin
to faithfulness in big things. Intentions matter, honesty matters, righteous
dealings matter, not necessarily on earth, you can always manipulate your way
out of a situation on earth, but in the kingdom of God, where things are real,
it actually matters. How do you use your tools? Whom do you serve? These are
the important questions?
Jesus
closes this parable with the important words of you cannot serve two, not money
and God. We have to look at what money is, especially in the context of this
parable, but in general too. Money is simply the means by which we trade. It is
a marker that allows us to exchange different goods and services, all on an
equal playing field. It is in essence supposed to be simply that, but we all
know in reality it can be very different. It is a marker that we use to make
the exchange of goods easier, and therefore it is a tool. If you look up
"tool" in the dictionary, you will find it to be an "artificial
element for facilitation of action" in other words, things that we make to
make our work more easy. So money as a tool is supposed to be a way to make the
exchange of goods and services easier, but how often does it become instead a
tool for manipulation and power, making things easier for those who are shrewd.
Look
at how the employee in the parable uses money. He uses his boss's money to
manipulate the people to become his friend, so that he will not have to beg. .
. in doing this he makes his master happy as well? Why, because he is being
shrewd. He is using money as a tool to manipulate. It's all part of the game,
its beneficial because it sustains the game. It sustains the master's game and
it sustains the employees game, it's shrewd, and is the opposite of begging.
Isn't it interesting that Jesus is quick to include the detail that the man is
much too prideful to beg. Begging doesn't fit the game, he'd rather steal and be
dishonest, because at least it fits the game, he's still a player then, he's
still in control. There is nothing to be gained, no give and take, no quid pro
quo, nothing can be gained from giving to or being a beggar. It's outside of
the game, and therefore no place for the shrewd.
Here
is why I think Jesus is not raising up any of the characters in this parable as
and example of behavior, nor a God figure, but rather painting a picture of the
world's game. It is all about manipulation and control. The kind of artificial
control that money gives. It is system of dishonesty rather than truth, and
leaves people clinging to illusions, illusions of control and security. Tools. .
. if money is a tool, how can it become something
that we serve rather than something that serves us? It is something we make to make
things easier for us, but it ends up giving us a different understanding of reality,
warped away from the truth.
Let
me tell you another parable. We are now 16 trillion dollars in debt, and we praise
ourselves and our leaders for being shrewd enough to keep the system running. We
celebrate the next continuing resolution, then next debt ceiling increase, we can't
stand anything but shrewdness in our leaders, work it out, make it work, compromise,
keep the system going, by any means necessary. With each faithful use of dishonest
wealth we give more and more faithful assurance that the job will be done well,
we give much more faith in the system, that the system will solve our problems.
The system, our system, keep it going it is our tool for success, apply it and apply
it to more things. The old saying rings true again, when all you have is a hammer
everything looks like a nail, right, what is the solution to all of our problems,
throw some money at it, get it to be a part of the system, but we see all around
us that the system is no longer a tool, but rather something we are constantly forced
to serve. Is this what Jesus' parable points us towards, does Jesus want to reward
and praise our shrewdness? Is this generation one to be raised up on account of
Shrewdness? Or would he rather us be children of the light?
Shrewdness,
playing the game just doesn't seem to stand up to being a child of the light, a
child of truth, a servant of God. We just can't serve both can we? How do we use
our tools, for manipulation, sustenance, security, feeding the system, or for love,
selflessness, sacrifice and service? It is a difficult question in our system driven
world. But it is the one Jesus compells us to ask of ourselves, when he says that
we cannot serve two masters. Behind the parable is the question, which will you
serve? O God, help us to be, become, and remain, then children of the light. Amen.
[1]The
Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Lk 16:1-13). Nashville:
Thomas Nelson Publishers.
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