Don't Make Me Preach This!

September 18, 2022
Luke 16:1-13, Proverbs 19:4-6
Don't Make Me Preach This!
Rev. Kerra Becker English

I’m not going to lie. There’s a significant temptation to just skip over this parable and preach something else this week. I know a lot of preachers who are doing exactly that and for very good reasons.
The point of this parable is difficult to detect, AND Jesus is talking about the kind of things that make for uncomfortable conversation: like the temptations of money, and the inherent inequalities of the workplace, and the deceit that seems necessary at times for trying to survive in a completely unfair world.
But if we take the time to really look here, maybe it’s not that Jesus is being obtuse.
Maybe it’s that Jesus knows human nature a little too well.
Luke has a political spin on his narrative.
Each of the gospel writers do.
Luke’s is all about a cultural revolution, a reversal of the status quo that is coming through Jesus. 
My study Bible remarks that, noteworthy to Luke’s gospel, is its unrelenting interest in the marginalized and dispossessed.
Remember the Magnificat, Mary’s protest song where the hungry are filled and the rich are sent away empty? That’s Luke.
Remember Jesus’ big sermon, in the Luke version? Jesus preaches, “blessed are the poor” AND “woe to those who are rich.”
Luke isn’t the only gospel writer who will let us know that you can’t serve both God and dishonest wealth, but Luke attaches that saying to today’s parable.
Let me take a brief aside here for a translation note - the older English word Mammon that you may have heard in church growing up implies a feeling to go with the word wealth, a feeling that adds a greater impact than saying wealth alone. It implies a moral slant, that this is ill-gotten wealth, or wealth that could take the place of God in our hearts because it implies an unhealthy attachment to such riches. Therefore, in modern English the case can be made that we should probably add a few qualifiers to this saying, or at least be aware that the old translation might be better. “You can’t serve both God and Mammon.”
You can’t be about making greed driven money – and serve God too.
So, who exactly might be doing that?
As this parable continues in the same speech from the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal Son, we still have the same audience, who has just heard three parables about the need for celebrating whenever the lost gets found or the errant son comes home.
This parable opens next with “then Jesus said.”
Jesus was still talking, though this time, he spoke directly to specific members of his audience – “then Jesus said…TO the disciples.”
But who else is listening besides the disciples? The same audience as last week: sinners, the tax collectors, and YES, a bunch of Scribes and Pharisees. The same crowd.
Among this crowd, Jesus turns to address the disciples so they will hear their own charge in this parable, but since this is Luke telling the story, we should also be tuned in to expect revolutionary language. What is the change taking place? And how will this change speak to those on the marginalized edges of life? There will be the old way, and then Jesus’ suggestion for a way forward.
The old way is going to imply that there has been an injustice, right?
And when there is an injustice, Luke is going to tell us how Jesus wants us to “stick it to the man.”
But “sticking it to the man” is culturally driven. Who is the identified oppressor that needs brought to justice?  We need to unpack the character equivalencies in this narrative. Who is Jesus talking about when he calls out the shrewd manager?
That’s when I turn to the biblical scholars who have done the homework for me. It helped this preacher greatly to read Alastair Roberts’ commentary on this passage from the Political Theology Network, so I’m going to lean heavily on his work to interpret this parable. I’ve linked it to the sermon on the Facebook page if you want to read further.
The “shrewd managers” of course are those who have been charged to keep the Master’s affairs in order.
Who might that be?
Well, the scribes and Pharisees certainly though of themselves as the keepers of the Master’s Kingdom. So let’s presume the shrewd managers are the religiously higher ups, those in that gathered crowd who thought of themselves in charge of religious truth.
Then, what if the Master accused them of doing it badly? So much so that they were about to be fired?
Jesus implies exactly that with this parable. Indirectly, he is accusing them of squandering the money they receive as offerings and using it to gain power and influence for themselves rather than doing God’s work. They’ve been caught.
And Jesus tells THIS story of squandering right after telling the story of the Prodigal Son who is also accused of squandering – but in ways that they would find shockingly offensive. They are the elder brother in that story poo-pooing God’s graciousness. But when they are accused of being the squanderers of the money entrusted to them, it looks a little different.
Jesus is building up to a big gotcha moment. It’s brilliant oratory, in a speech that benefits Luke’s ongoing perception of the movement Jesus is creating.
Those who are offended by the petty offenses and foolish decision-making of the prodigal son are guilty of collecting money from the masses and squandering it for their own wants and desires.
You know what happens next, right? We have to ask ourselves if we know of any equivalents taking place in our own tradition. Who is Jesus speaking to now?
Luke makes it easy to look at the scribes and Pharisees as the bad guys, but we have to hear the message for ourselves as well. How have Christian religious leaders done the same thing – raised money with tithes and offerings only to use it to enrich those who gain their power from the church? When do such leaders need to be fired?
Just think for a moment about the vast amount of accumulated riches from the height of the Roman Catholic empire, or the many personal mansions of Joel Osteen, or for that matter, ponder the resources sitting in the Presbyterian Foundation, an example of the millions of dollars that sit in Protestant endowments – just so they will grow – for the glory of God’s kingdom?
The temptation of religious institutions to squander or to hoard away our resources is not in any way new.
It’s very, very old. And it’s very, very human.
But Jesus doesn’t stop this parable with “You’re fired” – get out of here.
He gives the shrewd manager an out – turning toward praise of their shrewdness.
When the manager is aware that they no longer have a job with their master, but the debtors haven’t heard this news yet, he quickly goes to all of them to settle their debts, slashing what they owe, and in the process making them quite happy.
The shrewd manager joins the debt forgiveness business, knowing that these grateful people will then take him in when he has nothing left of his career.
That’s how you build friends in the Greco-Roman world! Again, checking the historical notes, my study Bible notes tells me that the exchange of money created, maintained, or solidified various forms of friendship. Jesus was well aware of the currency of relationships.  In this setting, the same note says, Jesus’ address to the disciples and other religious leaders was counsel to “make friends” with the poor, with those who would not be expected to return the favor. That aligns with Luke pretty well, don’t ya think?
Take all that shrewdness, Jesus says, and use it for the good without expecting anything in return.
Jesus then goes on to do one of his parable explanations for the stupid, for those who didn’t catch the nuance of his story.
That might be us.
Not because we are so stupid, but because we need the point made clear.
In case we didn’t understand the story fully, he says:
Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful in much;
And whoever is dishonest in very little is dishonest also in much. 
If you then have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?
And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 
No one can serve two masters for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and wealth. 
I happen to think this is a message specifically designed for those who ask for money in the name of the Master, or as I do when we collect the offering plates, for the sake of God’s kingdom work.
Of course, Luke will go on to describe the Pharisees as “lovers of money,” but I dare say that in our contemporary world there are plenty of people who view Christianity in the same light, and with reason.
Have you ever heard someone say, “the church only wants me for my money?”
Ugh. I know I have.
One of the ways we measure a successful church is by how much money they HAVE,
Rather than by how much they are giving away to those on the margins of life.
I say this as one who stands to benefit from the generosity of church goers quite personally in fact. The disciples were in the same circumstance. They too would benefit from the generosity of believers, and yet they were also the new religious leaders being charged with handling the affairs of their master, Jesus, differently.
Jesus himself lived in part on the graciousness of others, even if he built a cabinet or a door frame every now and then to put food on his own table.  
Nevertheless, he expected others in the religious realm to make the same commitment to generosity, to be wise stewards when possible, and shrewd stewards when necessary.
Allow the debtors a break. Reduce what they owe. Especially when it is readily available and yours to give. We who are Jesus followers celebrate the return of the lost, and Lord knows, friendships can be made by alleviating suffering. 
“Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”
That’s how Jesus teaches the disciples to pray in Luke’s gospel.
It isn’t a forgiveness quid pro quo. It is an action descriptive of the one doing the praying.
We FORGIVE everyone indebted to us. Period.
Canceling debts is a big, big deal – for the followers of Jesus.
Well now. That sounds a bit – familiar.
I am pleased to report that among Presbyterian religious leaders, in the Presbytery of the James, recently church debts were canceled for four small churches that would have been paying on what they “owed” the Presbyterian Loan Program forever. In one case, one of the debts was ALREADY 120 years old. One of the churches didn’t even know these debts existed they were so far off the books. And unsurprisingly, these debts were incurred by the marginalized, by our black congregations that had to borrow money to have the resources to build their churches. In doing this, we chose to act according to Jesus by way of Luke’s revolutionary picture of grace.
This is just an example – but it’s a responsible one – a Jesus following one.
That prayer, the one we pray every single Sunday in church, is not just to say because we’ve always said it. It is a reminder of what we ought to be doing in the world. Forgiving debts is a part of that. It was then and certainly is now.
Amen.