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May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Our text for this morning comes from the Gospel Lesson, Luke chapter 16. You may be seated. There’s a song from the popular musical *Cabaret* that quips, “money makes the world go round.” I suppose it’s true. We live in an era of big money, plastic money, money floating as data around the internet, money printed by the government, funny money, and bad mortgages and the like. We’d probably have to agree with the lyrics of that somewhat cynical song. Money really does make many people’s worlds go around. It plays a big part in your life too. Money is something you need, something you want.
Each of us are tempted to store up for ourselves treasures on this earth even though we know that treasure can be destroyed or stolen or lose its value. Money is at the same time a useful tool and a merciless master. It’s true in the church as well. Churches that used to operate on the skimpiest of budgets, that used to pay the pastor in potatoes or cuts of meat, that depended exclusively on members for construction and physical improvements, in large part, that is a thing of the past. Salaries have replaced potatoes. Health plans have replaced the physician in the pew next to you. Contractors have replaced do-it-yourselfers. Budgets have gotten bigger. Large congregations may have business managers, endowments, investment counselors, and the like. Church bodies have HR departments; they run banks, so on and so on. Sometimes we as God’s people are so deeply embedded in this big money society that those notions can creep into the church.
Yes, money is a gift of God personally to you and to the church, but the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. You cannot serve both God and money. Jesus, it turns out, talks about money fairly frequently. Last week we studied the parable of the prodigal son who, it turns out, was infatuated with his father’s money, so much so that he convinced dear old dad to give him his inheritance early, then went off and squandered it. After today’s gospel lesson, we find the words of Jesus describing the parable of the beggar Lazarus and the rich man. Now the rich man didn’t pay any attention to Lazarus during his lifetime, but in the afterlife the beggar had received the riches of heaven, and the rich man the emptiness of hell.
In today’s words about money, we’re directed at Jesus’ disciples, but overheard by the Pharisees, who we learn were lovers of money. The misuse, abuse, or love of money can have profound spiritual implications. So let’s consider today’s text. There’s a manager of an estate and his job is to properly manage all the affairs of his lord’s property, deal with the tenants, deal with their payments, handle their debts. He is the master’s accountant, his steward, his property manager—he’s the whole deal. But it’s discovered that he’s wasting the Lord’s property. Intentionally mismanaging or incompetent, we’re not really told, but he’s doing the job wrong. The money is not where it’s supposed to be. This manager is to be dismissed any moment and must quickly get things in order before he turns over the books. This man is beside himself with fear. This is an existential crisis. He has no idea what he is going to do to survive. He can’t dig; he won’t beg. It’s an end-of-the-world scenario. He can think of no other means by which he might save himself, no other way he might earn a living.
So he comes up with a scheme. He decides he’s going to lower the debts of his master’s debtors so that once he’s out on the street they’ll welcome him in. My question is, how does this even work? Why does the Lord give the manager any time at all to even implement this scheme? He’s getting fired. Why not just take the books immediately? To top it all off, the master knows what the steward did by changing the debts, and he doesn’t change the accounts back. Instead, he commends this manager for his shrewdness, for his prudence. It’s a little odd. No real lord of an estate, no boss that I’ve run into in my lifetime, would handle his subordinates in this way.
That’s the point. That’s the point. This master, this lord, is merciful. Even to this dishonest, incompetent servant. The manager is commended for his shrewdness, for his prudence in finding a way out of his impossible situation, not for his dishonesty, but the whole scheme doesn’t even rest on his shrewdness, but on the mercy of the Master. If the Lord had not given him time, if the Lord had not allowed the account changes to stand, the whole scheme would have collapsed. And so it is with our merciful Lord, who is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Our Lord is patient. Our Lord is merciful. He desires to show mercy to all.
As the father welcomed back the prodigal son who squandered his wealth, as the master in today’s lesson gives even the unrighteous steward a way out of his situation, so our Lord is patient with the unbeliever, and with each of us, even though we are incompetent sinners. He is the merciful master. Because you see, all of us, all of mankind, is in this impossible situation. We have this existential crisis in front of us. We call it death. Death looms right around the corner, and yet there’s time—a little time. None of us know how much. The Lord is returning quickly, but in this time of grace, the merciful master waits. He relents from bringing calamity. He waits in mercy for the nations to return to repentance to him.
Now the Gospel reading doesn’t end there. Jesus goes on to give us some commentary on the parable, and some of the commentary, at least to me, seems more confusing than the parable itself. But it brings us back to this theme of money and wealth. One author I read this week argues that verses nine through thirteen have nothing to do with the parable, but here they are, and I think they highlight the point of the parable. And the point is not that we’re supposed to imitate the steward in his unrighteousness. We of course are not to be dishonest in our dealings with others, or those earthly authorities God has placed over us. We’re not to be cheats, as our Old Testament lesson makes clear, but like the steward, we are to rely on the mercy of our master.
And that mercy shown by our gracious Lord and master can then reorient our mindset, reorient what we think about the things, possessions, and money that God has gifted us. A merciful master who gives us all we have, a merciful master that helps us out of our impossible situation. So Jesus divides people into two groups, the sons of this world and the sons of light. We the church are the sons of light, shown in contrast to the society around us. Now the dishonest steward is not some model for our next stewardship program, but there is a connection to the steward’s behavior and the church. Jesus says, “I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into eternal dwellings.” All the treasures, all the riches of this world are passing; they will fail, and yet we are to use them.
The dishonest manager used his position and he used his master’s wealth for worldly gain to set himself up. It was shrewd because of the master’s mercy; he was able to survive his desperate situation. The wealth gifted to the church and to each of us as individuals is to be used similarly shrewdly, not for earthly gain but for service to our Lord. The master was going to quickly dismiss this incompetent steward, and likewise, Jesus is coming quickly to judge the living and the dead, and so we are to use the gifts he has given while the time is short—in service to his kingdom, in the nurturing of the faithful, and in the calling of all to repentance before the master returns.
I think it’s interesting that the world, oftentimes the non-Christian world, sometimes looks at Jesus and considers him one of the world’s great success stories from some human perspective. One quote I read said that Jesus is the greatest possibility thinker, whatever that means, whoever lived, or he’s the greatest salesman, or he’s the greatest life coach. But really, before Jesus came into the world, he enjoyed the riches of heaven. He left them to be born in a stable. Jesus once said that birds have nests and foxes have holes, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. Before he came into this world, Jesus reigned in power and might, but he left that to be subjected to Roman and Jewish authorities, to be tortured and killed. Some success story.
You see, Jesus was using his riches, his wealth, if you will, not to secure something for himself or even for you in this world, but to give you an eternal treasure—eternal life. He used his true wealth and power, which is really showing mercy, to rescue us from sin and from death. He gave up all that he had for your good and for mine. His resurrection from the dead proves that his power has defeated sin and death and Satan. These are shrewd moves indeed. It’s as if the devil didn’t see it coming. Just when he thinks he’s killed God, God is dead. Easter. And to top it all off, Jesus takes us with him. Jesus is a thief who breaks into Satan’s house and robs him blind. That’s shrewd. That’s mercy.
And so you, you children of the light, Christ our master is returning quickly. As the church, be prudent and be faithful with all that he has given you. Use God’s gifts in service to his work, and moreover be shrewd with the things of God. Make diligent use of the means of grace which our merciful Lord bestows on us. The true treasure that we have is found in the body and blood, and the surety of our forgiveness and adoption in our baptisms. We, the church, are God’s servants, and as the church, we are stewards of the mysteries of God. Cling to that mercy and may he find us faithful.
In the name of Jesus, amen. And the peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
