For Those Who Squander

Luke 16:1-13     

Luke’s parable of the dishonest manager is my pastoral penance to pay every so often, when it comes up in the lectionary. And I am, apparently, not the only one who has misgivings about it. In one of my study Bibles it has a footnote saying, “there is no satisfactory explanation for this parable.”

It seems like it was only a few weeks ago that we were on a journey with the heroes of our faith – the great cloud of witnesses, the saints that have gone before us. And now we face this dishonest manager, a character who hardly seems a viable candidate for the faith hall of fame. Although Jesus might not agree with my assessment.

He certainly didn’t make the preacher’s life easy, though, with this parable. Because, on its surface, it just doesn’t seem right. “Be like this dishonest manager,” Jesus says. And I think, really? Is that really what he wants to say?

Here we are introduced to a man who has been charged with a crime. He has been squandering his boss’s property. How? Was he just careless? Perhaps. Was he embezzling? Quite possible. He wouldn’t have been the first, nor the last, guy to see an opportunity for personal gain and take it.

Eventually, he gets found out though, and that’s that. He’s fired, but in a rather gentle way. The boss simply says, “You can’t be my manager anymore.” To which I say, no kidding. Get the books together, buddy, and hand them over.

Oddly, the boss doesn’t send in security staff to take the manager’s keys and escort him out of the building. Amazingly, the boss leaves him alone. He’s either very naïve or very kind. I don’t know which.

Left alone, what does this dishonest manager do next? Right away he recognizes the jam he’s in. Apparently, he knows his own shortcomings well and he realizes that these will be obstacles to him getting honest work. He decides he’s going to have to use his strengths – which include, apparently, conning other people – in a new way. In fact, he thinks, maybe there’s a way to use my strengths to benefit both me and my boss.

He may not have many stellar qualities, but he’s smart. Very shrewd.

He begins a process of reaching out to his boss’s debtors and making deals with them to clear their accounts. And he goes about it with haste. It’s as if he knows his time is limited and he needs to hustle – in more way than one – to get out of this jam. All of a sudden, he’s Monte Hall saying, “Let’s make a deal!”

Presumably, he isn’t going to get anything out of this for himself, in terms of profit. It seems that he is making a last-ditch effort to do the right thing. Maybe. Or else, he’s getting one last dig at his boss, cheating him out of the full amount owed. Also, maybe. Again, there is no satisfactory explanation for this parable.

But when the boss finds out what he’s doing, he commends the manager for his shrewd dealings. And Jesus commends the manager – for his shrewd dealings.

It’s really hard to understand why this man might be worthy of commendation. In fact, it is impossible to understand – unless we go beyond the borders of this story. As is usually the prudent thing to do, we need to look at the context.

Back in chapter 15, Luke writes this: “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling” because Jesus keeps company with sinners. So Jesus launches into a set of parables about those who are lost, then found. “Which one of you, having 100 sheep and losing one, does not go off in search of that one? Or what woman, having ten silver coins and losing one, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search diligently until she finds it?”

Then the big one: the parable of the lost son. A man has two sons, and he loses one. This young son squanders the father’s property, just uses it all up recklessly. Then he finds himself in need. He returns to his father, the only one who might help him, and his father does a surprising thing: he gathers him up in his arms and says “Son, welcome home.”

After telling these three stories to all those who were gathered around – the sinners and tax collectors, Pharisees and scribes – Jesus turns back to his disciples and begins this story about the dishonest manager. But Jesus is always talking to whoever might be listening.

And he is quite aware that these sinners and tax collectors, Pharisees and scribes, are still listening. And this is what they hear:

For people who have been squanderers of the gifts they were given, there is forgiveness. For those who have made mistakes, there are second chances. For those who have received plenty from the hand of God, use it. Just use it.

Use it, he says. Because money buried in the ground only loses its value – this is a lesson learned from another of his parables. Use it, because there is a lot of need in the world, and when you are spending money you are spreading its value around. Spend money at the dollar store and you are helping the cashier feed her kids; spend money at the diner and you are helping the waitress pay the light bill. Money is just useful when it’s moving around.

Jesus says, “Do some good.” He doesn’t bother to say here that you should repent, to sin no more, I don’t know why. Maybe it just isn’t worth saying here. Maybe he recognizes that he’s talking to people who haven’t been convicted of their sins, so they wouldn’t hear that message anyway. But they might hear this one: you’re good at something. And there’s a really good way you can use it.

It isn’t really that shocking. Oskar Schindler was praised for using his business skills to essentially buy Jews, thereby saving them from the death camps. Mother Teresa accepted donations from everyone, no matter how dirty the source, because she knew she could turn any amount of dirty money into something good. Universities, hospitals, and arts organizations that have Sackler wings or Sackler endowments now face public demands to take the name down, return the dirty money. But they say, wait a minute – what we know now about the Sacklers is deeply disturbing. But look at all the good that dirty money has done.

For those who squander – sinners and tax collectors, and perhaps, yes, Pharisees – there is the hope that they will take a good look at themselves and what they are doing. Is there a way to turn the skills they have been using for selfish gain to a more righteous purpose? Of course there is. Schindler eventually turned his skills to the sole purpose of saving Jews. Opioid manufacturers, like the Sacklers, could take some, or all, of their ill-gotten gains and squander them on addiction treatment.

And if they need any help figuring out just how much of their gains were ill-gotten, I’ll be glad to sit down with them.

For those who squander – and that is probably all of us, at one time or another, in big or little ways – it becomes important to ask ourselves some questions. Are we squandering for the sake of personal enrichment only? Are we squandering in a manner that hurts other people, directly or indirectly? Is it possible to squander in the pursuit of something really good? And is that kind of squandering a good thing? Perhaps.

Like the father who squandered his love on the prodigal son – no one could tell him it wasn’t a worthy pursuit.

No one can serve two masters, Jesus tells the people. There is only one who is worthy of being served. Let all of our squandering be done in service to the one who created the world and everything in it, who squanders beauty and love in breathtaking ways, the one who is our very life and being.

Photo: Monte Hall, making deals. By ABC TelevisionUploaded by We hope at en.wikipedia - eBay item, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16273312

Re-formed

Jeremiah 18:1-11       

Philemon 1-21  

This year marks 400 years since the first African slaves were brought to the English colonies in America. In August of 1619, in what is now Hampton, Virginia, the first captured Africans were brought ashore to be sold as slaves. The state of Virginia has created events and exhibits to commemorate this date, for the purpose of education and to promote reconciliation and healing.

In a recent Bible study we talked about the ways in which our awareness of slavery and its effects has changed over the years. When we were taught lessons about the history of our nation, slaves were always in the background. It’s almost as though they were not really people, but backdrop.

Indeed, that is how slavery happens. When we regard some peoples as less than human, we can justify doing what we want with them.

Slavery has a long history in the world. It goes back to biblical times. This letter from Paul to Philemon is a letter about slavery.

The letter is unusual for Paul, because it is short. And because it is addressed to a person – Philemon – rather than a church.  And because it is written for only one purpose.  Paul wants Philemon to grant freedom to his slave Onesimus. 

It was kind of an unusual request because, in the ancient world, slavery was normal.  It was not restricted to the people of one particular race or tribe.  Slavery was what the powerful people did to people who were powerless. 

We know that the people of Israel were enslaved by the Egyptians for hundreds of years before they were led out of slavery by Moses.  And we know that the people of Israel, once they were established in their own land, also practiced slavery.  We know this because the law of Israel addressed it – not the question of “if” it was acceptable, but the questions of “how” it was acceptable. 

We know that in the Roman Empire slavery was normal.  Some of the stories in the book of Acts tell about slaves, such as the woman who had a spirit of divination and was used by her owners quite profitably.  Some of the epistles have instructions pertaining to how slaves should behave, and from this we see that at least some Christian households owned slaves.  All of this seems far away and strange to us.  And that is why it seems odd to us that Paul treads so delicately around the question.

But treading lightly and artfully was probably the only way for Paul to approach this, if he wanted to be heard.

He chooses his words carefully.  He is complimentary; he is encouraging, humble, and threatening, all at the same time.  Paul is using whatever he has at his disposal to bring about the result he wants.  This is clearly a reform that is important to him. 

Onesimus has come to be with Paul, who is in prison. Most likely, he ran away from his master and now finds himself in a particularly difficult position.  But he has found an advocate in Paul, who regards Onesimus now as a son.  “Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me,” he writes to Philemon.  Useless, perhaps, because he has run away from his master; useful now because as he appeals for forgiveness and liberation, he offers both Paul and Philemon a chance to practice extravagant love.

Paul wrote the words, “for freedom Christ has set us free,” and, “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  These are from the latter to the Galatians, but Paul wrote similar words to the very church in which Philemon was a member, the Colossian church.

It is not possible to be brothers and sisters to those we refuse to see as fully human. Paul felt it was time to bring out this truth. Inevitably, eventually, it would lead to the understanding that slavery is not compatible with Christian faith, although it would take many hundreds of years, nearly two thousand years, for the church to fully embrace it. And, truthfully, we still bear the scars of it -- as a nation and as a church.

Being reformed takes time.  But the scriptures we hear today tell us it is God’s work – to re-form us, reshape us.

We see it so well in this story from Jeremiah.  “Go down to the potter’s house and I will let you hear my word,” the Lord says to Jeremiah.

Jeremiah watches the potter working a lump of clay into a vessel, something that will be useful – a cup, a pot, a bowl. But the clay becomes ruined in the potter’s hands.  It became misshapen or torn, somehow not salvageable, the potter knows.  And so he picks up the clay and begins the process again.  A shapeless lump will be formed into a useful vessel.

“Can I not do with you just what this potter has done with the clay?”  says the Lord to Jeremiah. 

And so God continues, through the work of the Holy Spirit, to reform and reshape us, when we have become less than useful to God’s purposes for reconciliation and love.

Again and again we need to be reformed. Until we can look at every man, woman, and child as a fully human being, just like us; beloved of God just like us.

Being reformed is hard work, but God is patient.

How will God reform us?  Where are the blind spots, the flaws which make us less than useful?  Each one of us may answer that for him or herself; each of us may offer our personal prayer to God, to reshape us closer to God’s image, closer to God’s original intent for humankind.  But let us pray also for the church, that God will reform us into the church that Christ desires: a community called together in Christ; where we may grow together in faith and grace; and where all of God’s children are welcomed with love.

Photo Credit: By Gary Bridgman - Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1892183

Pillars of Faith, Part 4: Faith Waits

Luke 14:1-11     

It’s curious that, after just having put his opponents to shame, the leader of the religious leaders, the Arch-Pharisee, invites him over for dinner. Why might he have done that?

He might have been invited because the Pharisees thought this had gotten out of hand and they wanted to try to reconcile. Good intentions. So, maybe that was it.

He might have been invited because the Pharisees’ professional reputation was on the line. Their credibility was at risk because the crowds of witnesses were cheering Jesus on while he was humiliating the leaders.

He might have been invited because they decided to take the high road. They would show that they could “turn the other cheek” with the best of them.

Or, he might have been invited because they were keeping a close eye on him. Remember that they have been trying to catch him in a serious offense so they can stop him.

So, what do you think? Was it pure coincidence then, that as they are watching him closely, he encounters a man with dropsy? Another curiosity.

It might have been a simply coincidence and nothing more.

Or it might be that the man with dropsy was there because word was out that Jesus was healing and all kinds of people were coming around seeking his attention. although the text doesn't mention that.

Or it might be a set-up. Maybe that man was planted there by the Pharisees, to step right in front of Jesus at that moment when he is surrounded by Pharisees. Would he be so bold as to heal this man in such a setting?

I hope I don't sound like a conspiracy theorist.

But think about it: These men of authority and power have been publicly shamed. They would not shrug this off easily; they live in a culture that revolves around honor and shame.

Honor and shame, in this world, are parts of a zero-sum game, no different really from baseball. If you are going to win then somebody else has got to lose – there are only so many games in a season. In the same way, there is only a certain amount of honor to go around, so if you are going to gain honor it will have to be at someone else’s expense. Jesus is gaining honor, in the eyes of the people, and it is coming at the expense of the Pharisees.

Zero-sum, win-lose. When you lose honor you gain shame. And shame was as bad then as it is today, or worse. When, in the last chapter, Jesus had put his opponents to shame, this whole situation became more serious – now everything is at stake for these men.

They would very much like to put Jesus to shame. But, so far, they are unable to do that.

He has survived another confrontation, and maybe plucked a little more honor away from these guys. And as they are summoned to the dinner table, Jesus watches what they do.

In the book of proverbs, chapter 25, you find the topic of shame. Among other bits of advice, there is this: “Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence or stand in the place of the great; for it is better to be told, ‘Come up here,’ than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.”

But these guests of the Arch-Pharisee don’t seem to recall this lesson. And I’m not surprised, because people who are accustomed to power rarely do recall this lesson.

In the 1950’s, the laws of segregation in Montgomery, Alabama required African Americans to sit in the back of the bus – in what they called the “colored” section. Seats in the front were reserved for white people. And even though African Americans made up 75% of the riders, they were pushed to the back. Adding insult to injury, if the white section happened to fill up, African American riders sitting near the front of the “colored” section were made to give up their seats and move back to allow all white passengers to sit. They could get pushed back farther and farther until they were pushed right out the back door.

The white leadership of Montgomery were eager to pile shame upon their African American brothers and sisters. This was really the only way they could maintain their superiority. They just had to have the seats in the front.

One day, though, it just stopped working for them.

What’s always hard to remember is that you can’t just take honor. You can’t grab it, steal it, from someone else. Honor must be given.

As much as the authorities tried again and again to take honor for themselves, taking it from Jesus and replacing it with shame, they were surprised by the outcome. As much as they tried to shame him – by putting him in positions they assumed would be awkward or even humiliating for him – they failed. As much as they contrived situations in which he would be forced to take the wrong step, say the wrong thing, condemn himself by his own words or actions, they failed. Eventually they just resorted to brute force, co-opting the power of the Empire. He was arrested, tortured, and crucified on the cross he was made to carry across his bloodied back. They taunted him, nailed him to the cross, and watched him die.

Bringing even more honor upon him as they did, and shame upon themselves.

There is no honor in shoving others out of your way as you reach for the front row. There is no honor in stepping on them as you climb up the ladder of prominence.

Jesus watches these men of authority and power at that dinner party to see how they will handle themselves. He watches as they elbow others aside in the rush to get the best seats at the table. He watches the expressions on their faces, knowing they are desperately trying to avoid the shame of being left with the last seat. He watches from the side, a spectator to all this pushing and striving, and he gently reminds them of the words from the proverb. Wouldn’t it be a shame to you if you won the contest for the best seat and then your host had to ask you to move, because there was someone better he wanted to sit there. Wouldn’t that be a shame.

Better to wait, my friends. Faith waits.

As we finish this series on the pillars of faith today, let us look at each one. We consider first that as we embark on a faith journey, it requires certain actions. We remember our ancestors in faith who stepped out boldly into uncharted territory when they were called by God to do so. And that as we step out in faith, through new territory, we have the examples of these courageous men and women to guide us.

We consider how faith enables us to see in a new way. Faith shows us how to look through the eyes of the heart and approach things in new ways, with open hearts, seeing them as God sees them. When we see through the eyes of the heart, old molds are broken and new truths are confronted.

When you start breaking molds and losing chains, there is going to be opposition. But faith allows us to stand firm in the face of that opposition. Because, as Martin Luther said when he was brought before the authorities, “Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God.”

This is what faith is: it gives us courage to step out in a new direction. It enables us to see with new eyes the things that God wants to show us. It gives us the strength to stand firm in the face of opposition, and finally, it waits for the inevitable results.

When we act in faith, for God’s purposes, God will see it through.

The history of faith shows the evidence. In our ancestors we have seen the faith that has moved them closer, step by step, to the promises of God. We have seen it – in Abraham and Moses and the prophets of Israel. We have seen it in Jesus, the one who never wavered from his path, the one who could not be shamed. We have seen it in the apostles who followed in his way.

We have seen the power of faith in many more throughout the ages, who have boldly stepped forward in the path God has laid for them, looking back and drawing strength from the ones who have gone before. We too are called to step forward, blazing new trails in the name of Christ and for the sake of the promises of God.

To follow in faith, even when it challenges our status, our relationships, and the values of our culture. To stand where Jesus stands, with the weak and the vulnerable and downtrodden. To stand with love, against hate. To take a stand, and wait in faith, for the hope to become reality.

This is our calling. We can do no other.