Luke 16: 1-13

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost | September 18, 2022 | Luke 16:1-13 | Samuel D. Zumwalt |

Luke 16:1-13

1He also said to the disciples, „There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2And he called him and said to him, ‚What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.‘ 3And the manager said to himself, ‚What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.‘ 5So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‚How much do you owe my master?‘ 6He said, ‚A hundred measures of oil.‘ He said to him, ‚Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.‘ 7Then he said to another, ‚And how much do you owe?‘ He said, ‚A hundred measures of wheat.‘ He said to him, ‚Take your bill, and write eighty.‘ 8The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings. 10 „One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.“

FAITHFULNESS

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Having just read the Gospel lesson for Sunday in their sermon study group, one person immediately said: “I don’t get it.  Why does this manager get commended?”

Another person answered: “Well, in my study Bible it says that the guy was working on commission.  So what he did was basically to eliminate his part of the deal.”

The person that asked the question said: “Wow!  That changes how you hear this text.  So the manager wasn’t cheating his boss or the debtors.  He was cutting himself out of the deal entirely.”

Another person jumped in: “So then the manager is commended, because he is shrewd enough to figure out how to make friends out of the debtors without cheating his boss.”

At that point, still another person said: “But don’t you have to tie it all into what Jesus says at the end of the Gospel?  Isn’t it finally about which master you serve?”

The person that asked the first question said: “OK.  So Jesus’ point is that we can’t serve God and something else.  But what does He mean about making friends through money so that you’ll be received into eternal dwellings?  Surely He isn’t saying you can buy your way into heaven!”

At that point, the person with the study Bible said: “My notes give a cross reference to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6 where Jesus says to lay up treasures for yourself in heaven.  I think what He means is that you can make a difference in peoples’ lives here by how you share the money you’ve been given by God. When we get to heaven, we are not only going to have to answer for how we used God’s money, we will also get commended when we have done well.”

One of the others said: “OK, that makes sense.  But if the manager was so shrewd, why was the boss going to fire him in the first place?  Jesus begins the story by saying that the man had been wasting his boss’ property.”

The person with the study Bible said: “I don’t know that we should try to take apart every single detail in Jesus’ story.  I think instead that we are to try to make sense of what He is telling us about how we are to live in a sinful world.”

A member of their group said: “Alright, Jesus seems to be saying that God’s children aren’t always as clever as worldly people.”

Another chimed in: “At least with money.  Isn’t that what this lesson is all about?  How we use money?”

The person with the study Bible said: “Well, Jesus certainly talked about money more than anything else, because money, or Mammon as He originally said, is God’s single greatest competitor.  We say: ‘In God we trust,’ but if you notice the god we trust is usually the green-colored paper with those words on it!”

The first person to ask a question said: “So how the guy in the story was so clever was that he let go of caring about the money and focused instead on securing his future.  Of course, in the story, he did it with money.  He shorted himself in the present in order to make sure that someone would help him out in the future.”

The person with the study Bible said: “So if that guy was so shrewd in securing a better future for himself, what do you think Jesus is saying to us?”

The quietest person in the group said: “Jesus wants us to be singularly focused on our future with God.  He wants us to remember that each of us is going to see God face to face someday.  And when we believe that, it changes how we live today.”

Another person jumped in: “But isn’t that what is so tough about following Jesus?  He is so undivided in His loyalty to God.  He is so faithful.  Who among us can do that?

The first person said: “Let’s be honest here.  He was God’s Son.  He was sinless.  But we aren’t sinless.  And we get so divided in our loyalties.  I mean we have families and jobs and debts and responsibilities.  Jesus didn’t own anything.  He didn’t owe anybody.  He didn’t have a family to take care of.”

The person with the study Bible said: “No. We aren’t sinless.  We aren’t God in human flesh.  We can’t be.  And we won’t ever be what we aren’t.  But we are children of God by virtue of our baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection.  That means that we are to die daily to our selfish selves, so that the Lord Jesus may live in us.”

The quietist person in the group said: “It seems to me that the greatest benefit of coming to worship, of studying the Bible, and of praying is that we learn to bring all those divided loyalties to Jesus so that He can help us!”

Another person said: “Exactly.  The more I try to handle my life by myself the more of a mess I make and the more stressed that I get.  I’m not God, and when I forget that, things always go badly.”

The first person said: “That’s the hardest part for me.  I was raised to trust myself and to take care of things on my own.  I have always been hyper-responsible.  I tell myself that God expects me to handle things the right way.”

The quietist person said: “Yeah, and then see what happens to us.  We end up squandering the life God gives us, because we’re trying to be what we can never be.  We end up trying to be God or trying to turn someone or something else into God.”

The person with the study Bible said: “So what do you think it means to live shrewdly?”

The quietist person said: “I’m not certain of this, but I think it means that we are to keep loyalty to God at the center of every relationship even when we’re dealing with some really clever scoundrels.”

The first person said: “So how do you remain faithful to God when you’re dealing with somebody that tries to use your being a Christian against you?”

Another said: “Yeah, I hate it when somebody tries to accuse you of not being a very good Christian, but what they really want is for you to let them have their way.”

The person with the study Bible said: “We need to remember that the devil is the one that is always accusing us.  Paul says in Ephesians 6 that we are not fighting against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities.”

The first person said: “What’s your point?”

The person with the study Bible said: “We are sinners like everyone else, and we shouldn’t be surprised that evil is very real and very clever.  I think that the devil is always trying to use our flaws against us so that we won’t trust God with our lives.”

The quietist person said: “Exactly. We shouldn’t be afraid to admit that we aren’t perfect, but, at the same time, to stay focused on doing what God wants and asking God’s help.”

Another person said: “Yeah, it’s like the old hymn says: ‘Take it to the Lord in prayer.’”

The first person said: “OK, but I’m getting lost in this discussion.  Wasn’t Jesus talking about money and what we do with it?”

The person with the study Bible answered: “Yes, He was talking about money, but He was really talking about everyone in our life, and everything we have, and everything we are!  He was talking about what it means to follow Him.”

The quietist person said: “The clever steward in Jesus’ story never forgot that he couldn’t make it on his own.  If his boss was going to cut him loose, then he needed to make friends quickly with people who would be kind to him.”

The person with the study Bible said: “So if he was smart enough to figure out a way to keep from being thrown into jail while cutting a good deal for his boss’ debtors, maybe we need to take a page from his book.  Jesus doesn’t mean that we are to try to earn our way to heaven.  And He doesn’t mean we’re on our own.  He means that we need His friendship when everything else in this life fails – and it will!”

The first person said: “Yeah, it’s like that old saying: ‘There’s no U-Haul behind the hearse.’”

The quietist person said: “The only friend that will never leave any of us is Jesus.  If we talk about all our struggles with Him, He can help us to stay focused on doing what His Heavenly Father wants.  That’s what it means to be faithful.”

About that time the door opened and the pastor walked in: “Sorry to be so late, everyone.  I had an emergency and couldn’t get to class on time.  Did you have a good discussion without me?”

The first person said: “Yeah, I think we have a handle on this Gospel lesson.”

“Great,” said the pastor, “you guys can preach this week!”

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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©Samuel D. Zumwalt, STS

szumwalt@bellsouth.net

St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

Wilmington, North Carolina USA