The Church of St.
Paul & Incarnation, Jersey City
September 22, 2019
Year C, Proper 20:
The 15th Sunday after Pentecost
Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
Psalm 79:1-98
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Luke 16:1-13
Clever, Quick, and Strong
Probably
thanks to the recent arrival of our ministry intern, Lorna Woodham, lately I’ve
been thinking back to my own preparation for ordained ministry: my studies in
seminary and my own field education at two different churches in our diocese.
In
a lot of ways that time and those experiences prepared me pretty well for being
a parish priest:
I
learned a lot about the Bible and about Theology and about Church History.
I
learned how to perform a Baptism and celebrate the Eucharist and how to lead
the other sacramental rites of the Church.
I
learned how to offer pastoral care to people who are sick or in some other
kinds of distress.
I
learned how to run a vestry meeting and how to try to deal with disagreement
and conflict in a congregation.
I
even learned how to chant (more or less)!
But,
looking back on it, there was at least one big gap in my preparation: I never
really learned very much about church finance.
Now,
I’m sure seminaries could and should do a better job of prepping future priests
for the financial issues and challenges (many, many challenges) that they – we -
will face.
But,
I should take some responsibility for this myself. Because, I have to admit it,
that church finance is just about my least favorite part of this job.
Although
over the years I’ve learned a lot finance and what we might call the “business
side” of the church, often I still feel out of my depth and knowing how the
high the stakes are it all makes me very anxious.
(That anxiety
probably has deep roots in my lifelong struggle with, and even fear of, math!)
I
don’t know whether this is good news or bad news but my sense is that I am not
alone in feeling this way – not just among clergy who would rather be praying
with people than reviewing a financial statement – but among a lot of people
who are not as attentive to financial matters as they should be – probably
because it’s complicated and maybe depressing or scary to think about.
And,
while I’m admitting my own weaknesses I’ll say that Sue does nearly all of the
financial planning in our family.
But,
when it comes to the church, I have no choice. The wardens, vestry, and I are
responsible for the financial health of our church.
And,
as much as I’d like to separate church finance from everything else we do, the
truth is that our finances – our church finances and also our personal finances
– are a spiritual responsibility, too.
Our
budgets – both our church budget and our own personal budget – are moral
documents.
How
we spend our money says a whole lot about what’s important to us – and what’s
not so important.
God
has given us so much – just look around – and God expects us to take care of
what we’ve been given and to use it to care for God’s people and to share the
Good News.
Our
finances are a spiritual responsibility.
Which
brings us to today’s parable.
If
you were here last Sunday you may remember that we heard two parables – they
are usually called the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost
Coin – two parables that along with the Parable of the Prodigal Son have the
same, pretty easy to understand theme: lost – found – rejoicing.
Luke
tells us that those parables were told to a larger crowd, not just people who
were followers of Jesus, and may have included people who were skeptical of, or
even hostile to, Jesus.
But,
today’s parable – usually called the Parable of the Dishonest Steward (or
Manager) – this parable is directed to the disciples – so maybe we’re
getting some more advanced information from Jesus, more sophisticated and more
challenging than what he offered to the general public.
Even
if I’m wrong about that, we can all agree that that this is a very difficult to
understand parable. If you were following along you may have been perplexed by -
or even disturbed by - some of what you heard.
Even
Luke the Evangelist who retells this story doesn’t seem to know what to make of
it.
There
was a rich man who discovered that his manager was apparently stealing from
him. Now, generally, in parables when someone is identified as a “rich man” he
is not presented favorably but here the “rich man” seems to be OK (though we’re not given much information – no one
would be shocked he’s been treating his employees, including the manager,
unfairly. That’s a familiar story, right?)
But, in the
parable, it’s the manager who comes across as sneaky and hard to like.
When
the rich man confronts the manager about his theft, he’s afraid he’s going to
lose his job, afraid he’s going to lose everything, so the frightened but
clever manager thinks fast.
The
manager decides to cut the bill for each of the people who supply the rich man,
hoping that these people will be so grateful that they will welcome him into
their homes after the rich man gives him the axe.
(He
seems pretty sure that this plan will work, though I have my doubts.)
Now,
I have to stop here for a second because it’s not really clear what exactly the
manager is doing.
He
may be cutting out his own take (or, let’s be polite, “commission”), which
would be fine, right?
Or,
he might be stealing some more from the rich man, which would seem to be not
right, right?
Anyway,
the manager hopes that all of this bill cutting will be an insurance policy for
the future. Maybe yes, maybe no.
And,
now things get very weird because we’re told that the rich man “commended” – applauded,
approved of, what the manager did,
because he liked his shrewdness.
And
then Jesus offers some unsettling commentary:
“…for
the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation
than are the children of light. And, I tell you, make friends of yourselves by
means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into
the eternal homes.”
Got
that?
The
Evangelist Luke then adds some Jesus sayings about wealth, which are all true
and important – “whoever is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in
much” – “You cannot serve God and wealth.”
But,
they don’t seem to really connect with today’s parable.
So,
what to make of all of this?
Recognizing
that scholars have long puzzled over this parable and always will, here’s what
I think:
There’s
no way that Jesus is approving of the manager’s dishonesty, but he does seem to
admire his cleverness and quickness and that he keeps his wits about him even
when he’s under a whole lot of stress, even when it seems like his whole life
is in real danger of being ruined.
God
has given us good brains that allow us to be quick and clever.
God
has given us strength to keep our cool even when it seems like everything is
about to be lost.
And
so, it seems to me, that Jesus wants us to use our cleverness and quickness and
strength to take good care of what has been given to us, and to use it to care
for God’s people and to share the Good News.
I
hate talking about, or really even thinking about, money – both my own money
and the money of the church.
But,
you and I need to think about if how I spend my money really reflects what I
say I believe – what I say is truly important.
Seeing
those huge numbers of young people here in our own country and all around the
world taking to the streets on Friday as part of the “Climate Strike,”
demanding that we all and especially our leaders take immediate steps to stop
and turn back the life-threatening damage we are doing to our planet, really
gets me thinking about the choices I make and that we make together here.
We
try at least somewhat but there is still some low-hanging fruit, some easy
changes we can make. For example, finally, at long last, please, for the love
of God, we have to stop using Styrofoam. I know it’s cheaper but we need to be
clever like the manager – a few extra bucks won’t help any of us when our
oceans are dead.
Here
at church, one of the things I’m proudest of is that we now have a very
competent, thoughtful, and devoted Finance Committee – a group of parishioners who
are clever, quick, and strong, not for their own benefit but for our common
good.
We
have been given so much – both individually and as a community here -and as
temporary residents of this beautiful planet – just look around.
And
in today’s parable, Jesus uses the example of the dishonest manager to
challenge us to be clever, quick, and strong – not just for ourselves, but for
our church, for our world, and for the Kingdom of God.
Amen.
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