Commended!
Luke 16:1-13
One of things I do in the community will be coming up in late October. Evan Melkersman, of Community Action Center, is putting together a Poverty Simulation exercise, to be followed by a brain-storming session to think about possible new jobs or industries for the community. Well, I don't like to wait until the last minute, so I have already come up with a few ideas – if we can find the right entrepreneur to lead the projects.
In no particular order of feasibility or desirability, I have five ideas.
1)Converting field stubble into fruit baskets. Almost 40 years ago, a scientist found a way to do this, but then his idea was bought by an overseas conglomerate who said this process would not be done in the US. Surely, someone can figure out another way to do this.
2)3-D printing houses with concrete. There are two companies in the US, with differing approaches, which either make modules or frames for housing which could survive a tornado – and this community has experience in mass producing housing.
3)Converting a warehouse into an indoor shrimp farm. The first one, built in an old mattress factory in out-state New York, controls all the steps of raising, harvesting, selling, and shipping a certified clean product without the risk of fishing in the ocean.
4)Artisanal salt from the Boonslick. The Boone brothers came here for the salt, and if there is any more to be found, it could be sold at a premium as the Salt of the Pioneers.
5)Computer Server Farm for a new clearinghouse website – and I want to say a bit more about this one.
The website, which I believe would need its own server farm, might be called “Disclaimers.com.” Imagine, instead of those full page ads in magazines, with type so small they can’t be read, you would go to Disclaimers.com and find it in a big enough font so you can actually read it. You could search for key words about the risks which concern you, and be linked to other information about the medication.
Or imagine, instead of the fine print in light colors at the bottom of the television screen, you would go to Disclaimers.com and find out what this offer does and does not include. In keeping with the video format, you could watch a video which spent more time explaining the risks, or conditions, or whatever else they needed to further explain that required the fine print in the first place.
Or imagine, instead of the rapid-fire speech of the announcer on a radio ad which always makes the deal sound a little bit shady, you would go to Disclaimers.com and listen to a longer, slower version which can adequately fill in the gaps, and possibly assure you that this offer really is something you might be interested in.
Once you are on the website, which practically every product and business in the world could make use of, the disclaimers could be printed out, or listened to over and over again, or viewed in a short video, as suits the users need. There would be no more “try our medication, which we are legally obligated to inform you has some ghastly side effects for some people with very specific risk factors.” Instead, commercials might become “This product works well for a lot of folks, but not everyone. Go to Disclaimers.com for more information.”
I've been thinking about this idea for a while, because it would create a lot of jobs, and a lot of different kinds of jobs – from tech, to sales, to accounting,to production, to legal, to maintenance. I thought of this idea again this week because of our reading for today.
Disclaimers, rightly done, can help clarify and further the truth. I think we are more likely to be closer to the truth when we know there are exceptions and qualifications, and not just claims and assertions. Some things may be good for a lot of people and in a lot of circumstance, but only God is good for all the people all the time – that's what Jesus said. Or, the way we say it liturgically, God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. Anyone who claims to have something which will be good for all the people all the time, when this something isn’t God, is being intentionally dishonest and is trying to sell you something.
And sometimes, we need disclaimers because you can have two equally good things which can seem to be contradictory. For example, in the church we hold together vital piety and social holiness – one is inner and one is outer. They are equally good and equally necessary, but people try to make them seem contradictory, which is the issue James dealt with in the second chapter of his letter to the church.
Personal responsibility and social responsibility can seem contradictory, as can justice and mercy. And if we make one point too strongly, then we need to present the other point almost as a disclaimer to help clarify and further the truth – which brings us to our reading.
We have this scandalous parable told by Jesus, which includes a dishonest steward apparently cheating the boss, involving the community in the scam, and then being praised and rewarded for his nefarious doings. This parable is so scandalous that most commentaries suggest staying as far away from it as possible. And yet, it comes up every three years in the common revised lectionary, which is intended to cover the fullness of the gospel and not just the parts which make us feel good or with which we already agree.
The commentators often suggest that preachers look to the other lectionary passages for this Sunday, which include the much less threatening passages of the despair of Jeremiah and Paul's admonition to pray for our leaders. I can assure you that there will be many sermons this week which will say something like this: When our leaders and people are separated from God, there is despair in our nation. Therefore, we need to pray for our leaders if we want to receive God’s blessings and become all that God’s Chosen People can be. And while that is good spiritual direction, it is not Good News.
It's not just the commentators and the preachers who are leery of this parable. Even the writer of Luke's gospel knows this is a touchy parable. We know this because it is immediately followed by a series of verseswhich seem contradictory to the parable, or which serve as disclaimers.
If we were to put verses 10-13 on Disclaimers.com, they might read: This is a parable, not an actual economic model. We are not endorsing the practice of cheating your boss, lying on invoices or other financial records, or playing two sides against each other for your own personal gain. Remember, do what God wants, not what some in the world have done to get ahead. Whether it is a big deal or a little deal, honesty and fidelity matter – now and for the hereafter. For more information about what God wants, humble your hearts, read your Bible, and continue to listen to Jesus.
Now that we have the disclaimers out of the way, which might also be summed up as “don’t try this at home,” we can get at what it was that Jesus was trying to say to the disciples. Or, to put this another way, what is the good news found in this parable, the good news which the apostles understood and shared so that it could be part of the gospel, even considering its scandalous nature?
This will be easier for us if we remember one important truth in the Bible – we cannot save ourselves. So if we approach this as if the steward is trying to save himself by his cleverness, we know this is not a plan we can borrow -- because we cannot save ourselves.
We should also be clear that we are not the rich man to whom everyone else is in debt. This should be clear, even as a parable and not as an allegory, that the rich man is a stand-in for God, the one to whom we owe everything.
God has a manager who, it is clear to the people so it must be clear to God, is not doing a very good job. This is a manager who needs to be fired from the job of being the agent between God and the people who owe God. This manager needs to be fired so someone else can be the new messiah – I mean, manager.
For many of the people in that day, Jesus would have seemed like a pretty poor choice for being the messiah, for being that go-between. The Pharisees don't trust him, the Sadducees thought he was delusional, and the Zealots don't think he is aggressive enough. The Romans don't even consider Jesus to be a threat, and they though everyone and everything was a threat. Clearly, to anyone paying attention and who desperately wants a messiah to save them from their despair, someone other than Jesus needs to be the new messiah, because what he was doing just doesn't cut it.
In that day, the rich owner wouldn't have cared how the steward got the money, as long as he got it all. If the steward was falling short, he would simply demand more from those who owed the master. And the poor would pay it because they had no power to resist. That's what the disciples would have expected the steward in this parable to do. Their experience in the world was that the manager would do what he could to save himself, even if it meant hurting so many others. But that is not what the steward does in our parable.
Instead, the steward in our parable does what he can to make things better for those who owe the master. There might be a benefit for the steward later, if enough of the people are grateful, which is always a big risk, but the steward knows there is a price which must be paid. Notice that the steward didn't ask or require the favor as he helped the people. The plan is freely offered, which means that their response must be freely given.
Each person is brought before the steward and asked the important question which we all must answer in faith. The question is, “How much do you owe my master?” I think our faithful answer is reflected in the hymn, “O Love, That Will Not Let Me Go.” We sing “I give thee back the life I owe.” To say this less poetically, we owe God everything we are and have and could ever be.
The inference is that each person owed more than they could pay to the one to whom they are in debt. The steward understands this, and we get this interesting interaction. The steward asks, “how much?” The person cites a figure, and the steward (who knows what each one is capable of giving), gives them a figure to write down which I believe represents their best. The percentage or value is not the same from person to person, so I think the steward – who still wants these people to be accountable, makes the deal for what each one can be responsible for giving.
Again, in that culture, the assumption is that the rich man will get his full share from the steward. The debt must be honored, or we bring shame upon ourselves. The only way this plan works is if the steward can make us the difference between what is owed to God and what the people can give to God. And that is what Jesus does for us.
This is why the parable is included in Luke’s gospel. This manager, this steward, this messiah – who seems to be lacking in so many other worldly ways – makes up the difference between what we owe to God and what we can give to God. We are to do our best – to live in righteousness and faithfulness, in matters both great and small – even as we know that we can’t save ourselves, that we can’t pay the debt we owe to God for our life, and our life together.
Jesus took on our debt, our sin, and paid the price on the cross. And this is why we welcome Jesus into our homes, and into our hearts. This is why God commends Jesus to us. Jesus did not try to save himself because he came to save us. This is why, on the third day, Jesus was raised from the tomb, the price having been paid.
People today, even within the church, still struggle sometimes with what can seem to be contradictory truths. Our reading for today helps clarify and further the truth of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. We are saved from the wrath of hell by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we are also saved for life in the kingdom of God now, doing our holy best to honor the debt we owe to God.
If we can hold these two things together, there won’t be any further need for disclaimers. There will just be our need to love God and to love our neighbors, as we praise the power of Jesus’ name!
Hymn 154 “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name”