The Gospel of the Lord? Is that really the Gospel of the Lord?
While I am very happy to be in the pulpit here at St. Paul’s again, I must say I think that Fr. Wray and Fr. Chuck looked at today’s readings and decided that a Seminarian ought to have to preach on today’s Gospel instead of them. Honestly I did actually look at the readings before I agreed to preach today. In fact I really did want to engage with today’s Gospel reading because it has come up for me repeatedly over the years in the Daily Office Lectionary and it has really puzzled me. I’ve often wondered what such sayings are doing in the bible at all, let alone being attributed to Jesus. In talking online with friends about today’s Gospel reading more than one of them has remarked to me that it sounds more like “the Gospel according to Dick Cheney” or “the Gospel according to Enron” than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So how are we to make meaning of today’s Gospel reading? What on earth is God trying to tell us in these bizarre and unexpected passages of scripture?
First of all I have to say that sometimes the authors and the editors of the Gospels did a real hack job. Some 1,930 years after the Gospel attributed to Luke was written scholars today hotly debate what Jesus may have actually said from the passage that we heard read and what he didn’t say, and what is the Gospel writers’ added commentary. In short it is difficult to figure out where the quotation marks should go. Did Jesus really tell us to make friends by means of dishonest wealth? Should these verses even be a part of the bible? Maybe not, but they are there and were for some strange reason included as a part of God’s Word that we might learn from them. So what are we to learn from this strange and bizarre story?
This story is often referred to as the parable of the “dishonest steward” or the “unjust manager”. Labels matter and these two labels influence our view in looking at the manager in a negative light. The NRSV translation that we use called the main character in this parable a “dishonest manager” which actually doesn’t properly catch the nuance of the original Greek. The old King James translation in this case is actually closer when it calls him the “unjust steward”. However, in the original Greek the manager is literally called “the manager of injustice”. The manager is also described in this parable as having acted “shrewdly” or “intelligently”. Perhaps we ought to have a second, more sympathetic look at the manager in this story, looking at him as the “shrewd manager”.
The original hearers of this story would have been familiar with the practice of absentee landownership that was the norm in first-century Palestine and around the known world. In this parable the “rich man” is just such an absentee landlord who has set a manager over his holdings and put him in charge of collecting the rents and revenues of the land. Rents were often collected “in kind” in the form of produce from the anticipated harvest, like jugs of olive oil and the containers of wheat spoken of in the story. The amount of the “bills” owed by the debtors to the landowner also would have included a commission paid to the manger, which would have been the manager’s salary for his services.
The manager in the Gospel story today while not doing his job very well, is actually not doing anything dishonest or illegal, he’s just squandering and mismanaging his own future salary, as well as the profits of the landowner. He gets fired solely for his mismanagement, with no severance pay and no good references for another job. Faced with these rather grim future prospects the manager acts quickly to reduce the amounts the tenants owe the landowner. In the process of doing so the manager shifts from being a representative of the wealthy land owner to being a friend of the poor tenants who in gratitude and out of their indebtedness to him, would provide him hospitality in the future when he inevitably lands on hard times. The land owner would have to go along with the new arrangements made by the manager because cancelling them would leave the owner with angry tenants who would be in a position to do even more damage to the estate. The manager was shrewd for protecting his own best interesting while at the same time providing some relief to the poor tenants. The owner of the land compliments the manager as being “shrewd” because he not only saved his own skin, but he also has managed to put the rich man over the proverbial barrel at the same time.
Even given all this explanation the “shrewd manager of injustice” still hardly seems like a great role model for Jesus to be telling parables about and extolling his virtues. Or is he? For you see the Gospel of Luke often portrays a Jesus who tells parables with central characters who are either on the margins of society and proper religious observance, or are frankly down right disreputable unsavoury characters, who despite their short comings illustrate for us what God is like, and what we should be like. Throughout the six months of the Sundays after Pentecost we have been and we will be exposed to these Lucan parables of Jesus where those who were looked down on by society and the religious hierarchy are portrayed as the true heroes of Faith.
First there was the Centurion who’s slave is dying, the Centurion seeks Jesus out to heal have him heal his beloved slave. He a Roman pagan isn’t supposed to be bothering an itinerant Jewish teacher and healer, but he’s bold enough to do it anyway and his slave is restored to health and wholeness. (Luke 7:1-10)
Then there was the sinful woman with the alabaster jar of ointment who comes as an act of repentance and welcome to clean the feet of Jesus. She’s not even supposed to touch a man, let alone to embarrass herself with such a public display of affection for her Lord, but she’s tenacious enough to do it anyway, and Jesus declares that she is more righteous and faithful to the Law of God than the Pharisees. (Luke 7:36-8:3)
Then we heard the story of the Good Samaritan, that term “Good Samaritan” was an oxymoron in and of itself to the people of Israel, and yet Jesus tells this parable to demonstrate what God is like and what true love of neighbour is all about and the Samaritan is made an example of true Faith and obedience to God’s will. (Luke 10:25-37)
Then there was the story of Mary and Martha of Bethany. Mary who sat at the feet of Jesus her teacher, as if she were equal to the male disciples. She wasn’t supposed to be doing that, she was supposed to be in the kitchen with her sister Martha, but she was determined enough in her life of faith to count herself worthy enough to sit in on the teaching session of Jesus in her own home and was commended for it. (Luke 10:38-42)
We also heard about the woman who was crippled with a spirit for eighteen years, who despite her infirmities was still resolved to get to near Jesus that he might heal her on the Sabbath, something that wasn’t supposed to be done, but Jesus did it because of the crippled woman’s determination and faith. (Luke 13:10-17)
Last week we heard of the persistence of the shepherd who left the ninety-nine sheep to go after the one lost one. He wasn’t supposed to do that, he was supposed to stay and guard the ninety-nine sheep, but he boldly set off to find the lost one and brought it back with rejoicing. We also heard last week of the determination of woman who lost one of her ten coins and sought after it until it was found and was extolled as an example of active faithfulness. (Luke 15:1-10)
Three weeks from today we will hear about the ten leapers who come to Jesus begging for God’s mercy and are healed. The only one of the ten to return to thank Jesus is a Samaritan, its supposed to be the Sons of Israel who are the truly grateful ones, but its not its only the Samaritan who’s bold enough to return to thank Jesus face to face and to be commended for his Faith. (Luke 17:11-19)
Then there will be the story of the judge and the widow. The judge, who’s supposed to be about justice but isn’t, who would only give a poor widow her due after she tenaciously bothered him over and over again. The poor widow is another example of determination in the face of adversity and Jesus commended her for her faithfulness. (Luke 18:1-8)
Then we will hear the story of the Pharisee and the Tax-Collector praying in the temple, the righteous Pharisee is full of boastful, self-congratulatory prayers, the Tax-Collector says only, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Jesus says that because of this it is the despised collaborating Tax-Collector that is justified in God’s eyes and not the righteous Pharisee. Quite the opposite of the way its supposed to be. (Luke 18:9-14)
Then another Tax-Collector story, this time short little Zacchaeus who climbs a tree just so he could see Jesus go by. Not very dignified behaviour for a tax collector is it? Jesus sees him and calls him down, and says that he must stay in his house because God wants salvation proclaimed even to money grubbing short little tax-collectors and their households. Zacchaeus’ determination to just see Jesus leads to Salvation coming to his house. (Luke 19:1-10)
All these parables from Luke’s Gospel are stories about persistence, tenacity, boldness, determination and resolve to see the Salvation of God despite the barriers society and religion have put in the way of the heroes of each of these stories. The ordinary, the weak and the unsavoury are so bold and resolved in their actions so as to become heroes of the Faith. Each of these examples tells us something important about how we should live our faith and something important about God.
So it is too with the manager of injustice in today’s Gospel reading. Rather than giving up and running away like he probably should have, hanging his head in shame, he endured to the end and obtained his salvation by his shrewd actions. By reducing the amount owed by the poor debtors the manager is doing justice. He does his job as the manager of injustice in a way that no longer aims at perpetuating and even adding to old inequities, but instead his actions reflects the new “economy” of the Kingdom of God of which Jesus is the herald.
Today’s Gospel says, “for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” This statement is an indictment of religious people who are so oriented towards “heavenly” things that they are reluctant to get their hands dirty with impure money, impure sex, and impure politics and with the difficulties of everyday ordinary life. This statement is a commendation of those who faced with the difficult circumstances that happen to all of us in everyday ordinary life who faced with crisis do our best to endure to the end.
What God is asking us today in this statement is just how shrewd, how clever, and how committed are the children of light when it comes to their faith?
Just how committed are we to the life of faith? In secular society, as children of this age, people in their daily professional lives, are shrewd, clever and committed if they want to achieve their goals and to move ahead in life. The children of this age need to be organized; to have a plan of action, to balance the risks they take with the pay offs they will gain in the end.
What are our goals as children of light? Are we shrewd, cleaver and committed to the advancement of the Kingdom of God? What do we see as our part in building up the Kingdom of God here at St. Paul’s? Are we bold enough to strive for it?
If the manager of injustice is willing to do whatever it takes to secure his future. If the children of this age are willing to do whatever it takes to secure wealth. How much more then should we boldly expend every effort to secure our future in the Kingdom of God?
