There’s always a villain in a good story
- wicked stepmothers, Sheriff of Nottingham…..
So, who’s the villain in this story Jesus tells to his disciples? He them
about a dishonest manager. He’s the sort
Del boy would probably admire, not maybe quite up to the standard of the
wheeler-dealers we’re used to reading about in the press, but nonetheless, he’s
a scoundrel. He’s losing his job because
he wastes his master’s possessions, and he’s not too keen on the prospect of having
to do a job that’s too physical (he’s not strong enough to dig) or on doing anything
that might damage his pride (he’s too ashamed to beg). So he tries to save his skin, to make friends
and influence people, by using his boss’ money. After all, he needs to secure his future. He calls in the people that owe his boss
money, and does deals with them. “How
much do you owe?” he asks the first one, “Nine hundred gallons of olive oil”,
he replies. “Take your bill” he says,
“sit down quickly and make it four hundred and fifty”. That would be a real result if you owed the debt
and you would want to return the favour – you’d want to welcome the manager
into your house. You would be indebted
to him.
I don’t know about you, but with
stories like this, I want to read on to the end to hear what happens to the
villain; to when the villain gets his or her comeuppance because then the moral
of the story becomes clear just as the baddies get what’s coming to them. But hang on … something’s not quite right in
this story … something shocking happens … this scoundrel’s plan actually succeeds!
His boss, the one whose estate he’s
mismanaged, the one whose wealth he has just shared out to feather his own nest,
commends him, “because he acted shrewdly.”
That doesn’t make sense. This is
the manager who disseminates his master’s investment portfolio to protect his
own future! You wouldn’t want this guy
looking after your pension plan (half of it might disappear) and yet here’s his
boss commending him, as if he were some sort of business genius!
But then what’s even more shocking is
that Jesus says this dishonest manager is more shrewd in dealing with the world
than the believers, the people of light.
Puzzling isn’t it… Jesus tells a story about a dishonest manager and
then praises him and commends him to us – and implies that we should act like
him!
In his parables, Jesus uses
illustrations from everyday life, but they don’t always portray normal everyday
actions – it’s not unusual for Jesus to tell stories where the unexpected
happens, where he connects the ordinariness of everyday life with the
extraordinary nature of God. He often
leaves his listeners pondering on the meaning – and this parable certainly
needs a lot of pondering. It has the
reputation of being the most confusing of them all! One commentator calls it “the problem child
of the parables!” So, if we’re confused,
that’s normal – everyone else reading it this morning probably is too! I know of at least 6 other newly ordained
curates who are preaching on this passage this morning. We sat together last Thursday lunchtime on
our first curates’ training day together, debating the meaning of the parable. We all had different ideas about the manager’s
actions; we wondered how the story would have sounded to the first listeners; we
thought about how the parable fitted in with the rest of Luke’s Gospel and even
discussed the nuances of 1st century financial systems. We all agreed too that in 3 years time, when
this reading comes up in the cycle of readings again, we’re all booking a
holiday! But, joking aside, despite our
different ideas, we all came to a similar conclusion. We came to the same end, but not necessarily by
following the same route. One route
might be …
…to consider, that maybe what Jesus
says, isn’t quite as shocking as it first sounds. The master commends the manager, not for his
dishonesty, but for his ‘shrewdness’. Jesus
is not saying, “be dishonest like this manager”, he’s saying, “be shrewd like
this manager”! Hmm … still sounds a bit
dodgy to me. But maybe that’s because today,
if we call someone shrewd, it can have negative connotations. To be shrewd is sometimes interpreted as
being crafty or canny, but a shrewd person is really someone who’s good at
judging a situation; it actually means astute or wise. So, maybe this parable should be called the Parable
of the Wise, Dishonest Manager.
But what is he doing that’s shrewd,
that’s wise? In his precarious position,
he uses what he has, to secure his immediate future. He manages the resources he has at his disposal
to secure an earthly home. How much more
then, should God’s people, be shrewd in using their resources for God’s
purposes, to secure their eternal future, their eternal home? Jesus says, if we cannot be trusted with
worldly wealth, we cannot be trusted with true riches.
Every morning on Radio 5Live there’s a
programme called “Wake up to Money”; it’s a programme about the financial
markets and the economy. The title of
the programme, “Wake up to Money”, is clever.
It’s a play on words – the programme is on in the early morning (it
starts at 5.30am), but it also means “to be savvy about money” to be aware. And as a group of assistant curates sitting
round discussing this parable, we all came to the conclusion that Jesus was
telling a story urging us to “Wake up to money”. “Wake up to how we use what we have”. Be shrewd, get real, we’re in a world full of
the stuff – we can’t operate without it, so as people of the light, how do we
deal with it – how do we deal with ‘worldly wealth’?
Well, not as the Israelites did that’s
for sure. Approximately 750 years before
Jesus shares this parable with his disciples, the prophet Amos warns the
Israelites about their behaviour, about how they’re dealing with their worldly
wealth. As
a society, they’ve never had it so good; the country was going through a period
of relative economic and political stability and yet they were exploiting the
poor, and businessman and traders were cheating in the marketplace. So Amos warns them, and us, of the
consequences. To treat others badly, by
using what we have to exert power in our relationships, offends God and he will
not trust us with true riches. As people of the light, we serve
God. And serving God means that loving
others, not money, is always the bottom line. Therefore, we should be using our worldly
wealth, whatever it is, to bless others.
Not just as individuals, but as a church community and as a
society.
It’s difficult – we don’t always know
where our money is going or how it’s being used. The Church of England having shares in a
company that backs the payday loan company Wonga, is a prime example of how we
get it wrong! In our own parish, the
statistics from the 2011 Census paint a picture that may surprise you. 9% of the population are on out of work
benefits and shockingly, 12% of children are defined as living in poverty. To be a child living in poverty is tough, it
means you don’t go on school trips, or to the Arena for a swim; you don’t have
your friends round for tea or go on holiday. We can speak out against such social injustice,
we can speak out against payday loans, we can support credit unions, we can buy
ethically produced goods.
Money is powerful – it can ensnare us,
but if we serve wealth for its own sake, we will be poor, even though we are
‘rich’. But if we serve God and shrewdly
use what we have for his purposes, he will give us the greatest treasure. He will give us true riches. We will enjoy the blessing of life with Him …
and that life promises peace, forgiveness, justice and joy. So, let’s wake up – let’s wake up to money!
Questions
1.
Is there really a ‘villain’
in the story and if there is, is it the ‘rich man’ or the manager? You might
want to consider what it means to be a ‘rich man’ in the Gospels.
2. What
do you find challenging about the Parable of the Shrewd Manager?
3.
Walter Brueggeman says that in the Gospels “letting go is to have and keeping
is the way to lose”. What do you think this means? Why is ‘letting go’ so difficult?
4. How
would you define ‘wealth’? Is it more
than money?
Statistics taken
from:
http://www.cofeguildford.org.uk/parish-life/parish-spotlights/
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