| The Rev. Catharine W. Montgomery | 17 Pentecost |
| Grace Memorial Episcopal Church | Year C, RCL |
| September 23, 2007 |
What does Jesus mean when he says, “Make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth?” Is this where payday loan managers get their permission to charge 300 to 400 percent interest to the working poor? (responsiblelending.org) Is this how credit card companies justify seducing their customers into deeper debt with small monthly minimum payments…or what about the credit card commercial that says plastic gives more life than cold hard cash at the fast food counter? The parable of the dishonest steward is a strange one because we have no way of knowing the manager’s motives for reducing what the debtors owed. All we are told is he decided he was too weak to dig ditches and too proud to beg. And he suddenly found himself with no friends to help him out.
Here are three possibilities for his reductions in what was owed: First, the manager, with pink slip in hand, decides to get the last shot and cheats his master out of even more money. The second possibility is that he is deducting his illegal interest payments prohibited by the Bible in Deut. 23:20 –which says, “Do not charge interest to your kinsmen on any loan…” (The Message) (this one makes the bankers squirm) This is where the literal interpretation of Scripture could really be helpful to us!
The third possibility is that the manager decided to deduct his own exorbitant commission and give the debtors a break and make some friends now that he was unemployed. Perhaps he began to see the error of his ways- he began to repent – to turn his life around. Isn’t that what Jesus wants? The trouble is there is no clear evidence for any of these motives even though a whole sermon could be built around any one of them.
Jesus’ subject was money and the use of money. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says much more about money and possessions and how to use them than he does about those other hot topics like politics or sex.
Luke apparently believed that all money is tainted and can lead to sin, and that readers of the parable would try to avoid the real issue. So he paired the subject of money with the short familiar sayings about faithfulness and honesty…. ending with the clincher…”You can’t love God and the Bank. (The Message) Someone once said our money has three spiritual issues attached to it…. bondage, burden and blessing. Bondage we understand. Have you ever felt that you are held in bondage to the powers that drive a consumer market? Here is an example of bondage in a quote from a woman who had a payday loan…she said, “I felt like I was in a stranglehold each payday. After awhile I thought, 'I'm never going to get off this merry-go-round'. During this time, I got a promotion and a raise, but I never saw any of that money. It all went to pay the fees on my loan." That is bondage. This is not what God wants for us. (responsiblelending.org,Questions and Answers, Anita Monti, NC payday borrower.)
What do you do when your children want something that is outrageously expensive and all their friends have it? And your better sense says no, but you eventually give in and then you get the credit card bill….That is bondage… For us in this day wealth becomes dishonest because we allow market driven powers to have the ability to change our identity from children of God to “consumers.” The next time you watch TV or read a magazine pay attention to how the ads try to tell you who you are and what is important. That is bondage.
When I think of money as a burden, I think of the verse from Hebrews, “The weight of sin that clings so closely?” (HEB. 12:1) Money has weight and power and Christians struggle with the tension of how to faithfully provide for our families and yet be faithful stewards of all that God has given to us. Think for a moment how we recklessly use up more than the earth can produce. Money and possessions have the potential to be heavy loads that keep us focused on ourselves, needing more, comparing ourselves with others, protecting our interests, coveting. And think about all the ways struggles over money damage human relationships. What a burden… This is not what God wants for us.
We are blessed with many riches. Most of us are blessed to have what we need and more to live. Our God who created us also sustains our lives with every breath we take. We have been given a strong drive to survive. We have intelligence and the ability to reason….Our wealth is often a result of our God-given creativity and ability to work hard – or like the manager, our shrewdness if you will. Any feelings we have of well-being and contentment, gratitude for what we have, joy in the morning, are part of the blessing of being children of God. All of this adds up to 100 percent of God’s love and care for us. When it comes to sharing our wealth, someone said how wonderful it is… how blessed we are… that we have 90 percent to keep and all God asks is that we give away 10 per cent in thanksgiving for all that we have.
The dishonest manager in the story used his resources to secure his future. Jesus said it is important to secure your future, but we have to decide and make a choice….which future is the most important? You cannot serve God and wealth.” In other words, “Who is our master? Is it God or the bank? Jesus says we cannot have it both ways.
Luke implies that money by its very nature is dishonest. But the parable tells us we can use it responsibly and generously and the most important duty of a steward is to be faithful in all things large or small. Preacher Fred Craddock put it this way… “Most of us will not this week christen a ship, write a book, end a war. Appoint a cabinet, dine with a queen, convert a nation, or be burned at the stake. More likely the week will present no more than a chance to give a cup of water, write a note, visit a nursing home, vote for a county commissioner, teach a Sunday school class, share a meal, tell a child a story, go to choir practice, and feed the neighbor’s cat. “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much.” Amen
(Fred B. Craddock, Luke , Interpretation (Louisville; Westminster/John Knox, 1990) 192. as cited in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Luke. Pg. 311.)