September 22, 2019
Amos 8:4-7; Luke 16:1-13
First Presbyterian Church, Sterling IL
Christina Berry
The prophet Amos was active in Israel during the 8th century BCE. His major themes were social justice, God's omnipotence, and divine judgment. Amos wrote at a time of relative peace and prosperity in Israel, but it was also a time when Israelites were neglecting God’s laws. They were not being faithful to the covenant. Amos spoke out against a widening gap between the very wealthy and the very poor. Let’s listen for God’s word to us in the challenging words of Amos 8:4-7
Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
saying, "When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
and practice deceit with false balances,
buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and selling the sweepings of the wheat."
The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Our gospel reading is another of Jesus’ parables from the Gospel of Luke. It is a complex and confusing parable, and every preacher I talked to this week who is preaching on it has a different perspective on what to make of it. When we hear the parables Jesus told, it is worth remembering that they are “multivalent.” That is a fancy word that means they can have many different meanings.
And boy, oh boy, is this parable multivalent!
In the previous chapter, Jesus has told the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, which you heard last week. The next story he told was of the prodigal son, the son who squandered his inheritance and came dragging home, hoping to be hired on as a servant. Instead, the father went running to meet the son, rejoicing that the son he had lost was now found. This parable serves as a bridge between that story of the Prodigal Son (15:11-32) and the story we will hear next week, the parable of the and the Rich Man and Lazarus (16:19-31). Like the prodigal son in chapter 15, the dishonest manager has “squandered” what was entrusted to him And, like the story that follows, this parable begins with the phrase, “There was a rich man”.[1]
Let’s listen for God’s word to us today in Luke 16:1-13
Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager,
and charges were brought to him that this man
was squandering his property.
So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you?
Give me an accounting of your management,
because you cannot be my manager any longer.'
Then the manager said to himself,
'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me?
I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.
I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager,
people may welcome me into their homes.'
So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first,
'How much do you owe my master?'
He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.'
He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.'
Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?'
He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.'
He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.'
Thanks be to God.
Our gospel reading is another of Jesus’ parables from the Gospel of Luke. It is a complex and confusing parable, and every preacher I talked to this week who is preaching on it has a different perspective on what to make of it. When we hear the parables Jesus told, it is worth remembering that they are “multivalent.” That is a fancy word that means they can have many different meanings.
And boy, oh boy, is this parable multivalent!
In the previous chapter, Jesus has told the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin, which you heard last week. The next story he told was of the prodigal son, the son who squandered his inheritance and came dragging home, hoping to be hired on as a servant. Instead, the father went running to meet the son, rejoicing that the son he had lost was now found. This parable serves as a bridge between that story of the Prodigal Son (15:11-32) and the story we will hear next week, the parable of the and the Rich Man and Lazarus (16:19-31). Like the prodigal son in chapter 15, the dishonest manager has “squandered” what was entrusted to him And, like the story that follows, this parable begins with the phrase, “There was a rich man”.[1]
Let’s listen for God’s word to us today in Luke 16:1-13
Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager,
and charges were brought to him that this man
was squandering his property.
So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you?
Give me an accounting of your management,
because you cannot be my manager any longer.'
Then the manager said to himself,
'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me?
I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.
I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager,
people may welcome me into their homes.'
So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first,
'How much do you owe my master?'
He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.'
He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.'
Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?'
He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.'
He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.'
And his master commended the dishonest manager
because he had acted shrewdly;
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 for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth
so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
"Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much;
and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.
If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth,
who will entrust to you the true riches?
And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another,
who will give you what is your own?
No slave can serve two masters;
for a slave will either hate the one and love the other,
or be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and wealth."
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
I was in Bloomington Thursday night, at dinner with a bunch of preachers from all sorts of denominations. And what do you suppose came up as the topic of conversation? This parable! Marvin, a UCC preacher, was sitting across from me, and about the time we were ordering dessert, he said, “I can’t leave here tonight without asking y’all about Sunday. WHAT are you going to preach about that parable?”
We all kicked around our ideas, and I wish I could say we decided on the exact meaning, but we didn’t. There were as many interpretations as there were ministers. After all, how is it that this cheating manager, who is about to be fired, goes around and reduces the loan amounts of money owed to his boss, and the boss COMMENDS the man?!
We call this story “The Shrewd Manager” but the word shrewd could just as rightly be translated “prudent” or “wise. So maybe it is about the “Prudent Manager.”
because he had acted shrewdly;
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 for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth
so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
"Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much;
and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.
If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth,
who will entrust to you the true riches?
And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another,
who will give you what is your own?
No slave can serve two masters;
for a slave will either hate the one and love the other,
or be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and wealth."
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
I was in Bloomington Thursday night, at dinner with a bunch of preachers from all sorts of denominations. And what do you suppose came up as the topic of conversation? This parable! Marvin, a UCC preacher, was sitting across from me, and about the time we were ordering dessert, he said, “I can’t leave here tonight without asking y’all about Sunday. WHAT are you going to preach about that parable?”
We all kicked around our ideas, and I wish I could say we decided on the exact meaning, but we didn’t. There were as many interpretations as there were ministers. After all, how is it that this cheating manager, who is about to be fired, goes around and reduces the loan amounts of money owed to his boss, and the boss COMMENDS the man?!
We call this story “The Shrewd Manager” but the word shrewd could just as rightly be translated “prudent” or “wise. So maybe it is about the “Prudent Manager.”
Here are some ideas about how to think about this story.
First, there is the statement Jesus makes: “the children of this age are more shrewd – or prudent -- in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light”. In other words, Jesus’ disciples could learn something about acting prudently from the “children of this age.” What the disciples could learn from “the children of this age” has to do with “making friends” by means of “dishonest wealth,” so that those new friends might “welcome them into the eternal homes.” Perhaps Jesus is saying that instead acting like the rich, and using wealth to exploit others, disciples are to use resources to “make friends for themselves.”
After all, releasing other people from their debts, forgiving their debts, establishes a different kind of relationship than was had before. What takes the place of the debt of money that was owed is the debt of gratitude from the debtor. Kind of like the Lord’s Prayer, don’t you think?
If you remember, Jesus has just been criticized for welcoming sinners and eating with them. Whenever Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors, it was because they invited him, and not the other way ‘round. After all, Jesus didn’t have a home to which he could invite people. Like the shrewd or prudent manager, he relied on the hospitality of others.
There is also a connection in the story between being faithful (or dishonest) with “very little” and “very much.” How one deals with “dishonest wealth” and “what belongs to another” says much about how one will deal with “true riches” and “what is your own.”
And maybe that is where this multivalent parable speaks to us today.
Being faithful means being prudent and wise with what we’ve been given. It matters how we use the resources we’ve been given. It matters – especially in tight circumstances – how we handle our money, and how we use our time, and how we take care of the world around us.
We know, of course, that our true riches are in that place where “no thief can draw near and no moth destroys” (Luke 12:33-34) That is to say, we know that real wealth is spiritual, with God. But we can’t just spiritualize the whole story away, as if Jesus isn’t saying something vital about actual money!
Jesus’s final saying, at the end of the parable, calls to mind those being called to account in the reading from Amos. The prophet is calling the people to account not for making money, or for spending money, but for using their money to exploit others. They have been loaning money to the poor and taking such advantage that their debtors end up even poorer than they were before. Some of those debtors end up being slaves to those who loaned the money. These greedy people can hardly wait for the Sabbath to be over so they can get back to the office and start cheating their customers!
They are not loving their neighbor and being kind to the stranger and alien.
They are exploiting the poorest of the poor.
They are not serving the Lord their God!
They are serving only themselves.
They aren’t being faithful to the God of the covenant –
their faith is in their wealth, and they LOOOOVVVVE their money!
Jesus said, “no slave can serve two masters ... you cannot serve God and wealth”
If you are serving yourself, piling up money, you are not serving God.
First, there is the statement Jesus makes: “the children of this age are more shrewd – or prudent -- in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light”. In other words, Jesus’ disciples could learn something about acting prudently from the “children of this age.” What the disciples could learn from “the children of this age” has to do with “making friends” by means of “dishonest wealth,” so that those new friends might “welcome them into the eternal homes.” Perhaps Jesus is saying that instead acting like the rich, and using wealth to exploit others, disciples are to use resources to “make friends for themselves.”
After all, releasing other people from their debts, forgiving their debts, establishes a different kind of relationship than was had before. What takes the place of the debt of money that was owed is the debt of gratitude from the debtor. Kind of like the Lord’s Prayer, don’t you think?
If you remember, Jesus has just been criticized for welcoming sinners and eating with them. Whenever Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors, it was because they invited him, and not the other way ‘round. After all, Jesus didn’t have a home to which he could invite people. Like the shrewd or prudent manager, he relied on the hospitality of others.
There is also a connection in the story between being faithful (or dishonest) with “very little” and “very much.” How one deals with “dishonest wealth” and “what belongs to another” says much about how one will deal with “true riches” and “what is your own.”
And maybe that is where this multivalent parable speaks to us today.
Being faithful means being prudent and wise with what we’ve been given. It matters how we use the resources we’ve been given. It matters – especially in tight circumstances – how we handle our money, and how we use our time, and how we take care of the world around us.
We know, of course, that our true riches are in that place where “no thief can draw near and no moth destroys” (Luke 12:33-34) That is to say, we know that real wealth is spiritual, with God. But we can’t just spiritualize the whole story away, as if Jesus isn’t saying something vital about actual money!
Jesus’s final saying, at the end of the parable, calls to mind those being called to account in the reading from Amos. The prophet is calling the people to account not for making money, or for spending money, but for using their money to exploit others. They have been loaning money to the poor and taking such advantage that their debtors end up even poorer than they were before. Some of those debtors end up being slaves to those who loaned the money. These greedy people can hardly wait for the Sabbath to be over so they can get back to the office and start cheating their customers!
They are not loving their neighbor and being kind to the stranger and alien.
They are exploiting the poorest of the poor.
They are not serving the Lord their God!
They are serving only themselves.
They aren’t being faithful to the God of the covenant –
their faith is in their wealth, and they LOOOOVVVVE their money!
Jesus said, “no slave can serve two masters ... you cannot serve God and wealth”
If you are serving yourself, piling up money, you are not serving God.
As that great theologian Bob Dylan puts it, “Ya gotta serve somebody.”
“You may be a construction worker working on a home
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome
You might own guns and you might even own tanks
You might be somebody’s landlord, you might even own banks
You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride
You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side
You may be workin’ in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair
You may be somebody’s mistress, may be somebody’s heir
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody”
As much as we American Christians dislike hearing it, the truth is, we can’t serve God and serve ourselves. “The kingdom of God entails giving up all other commitments, including the commitment to economic security.”
Ouch.
Our wealth – our individual wealth – YOUR checkbook! - belongs to God.
Our wealth – the church’s bank accounts – belong to God.
As much as we like to believe that we have earned it, that we deserve it,
it all belongs to God. Our resources as households and as a congregation are for one purpose: the purposes of God’s reign among us.[2]
That is only bad news if you haven’t yet recognized the truth behind it all:
that you belong to God!
Our Brief Statement of Faith in our Book of Confessions begins with that:
“In life and in death, we belong to God.”
Our catechism says it with questions and answers:
Question 1. Who are you?
I am a child of God.
Question 2. What does it mean to be a child of God?
That I belong to God, who loves me.
Question 3. What makes you a child of God?
Grace -- God's free gift of love that I do not deserve and cannot earn.
The generosity of the prudent manager brings him a welcome from others,
even though he is being generous with someone else’s wealth!
That’s the crazy thing about God’s justice:
grace comes freely, maybe even unexpectedly,
like the debt cancellation of the manager:
forgiveness of debts that we cannot repay,
and a call to offer that same forgiveness to others.
If we are to be faith-full in small things and faith-full in great things,
we can do it only through the grace of God.
Fortunately, there’s plenty of it, and it is unending.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
[1] Lois Malcolm, Working Preacher, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1783
[2] [2] Lois Malcolm, Working Preacher, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1783
“You may be a construction worker working on a home
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome
You might own guns and you might even own tanks
You might be somebody’s landlord, you might even own banks
You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride
You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side
You may be workin’ in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair
You may be somebody’s mistress, may be somebody’s heir
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody”
As much as we American Christians dislike hearing it, the truth is, we can’t serve God and serve ourselves. “The kingdom of God entails giving up all other commitments, including the commitment to economic security.”
Ouch.
Our wealth – our individual wealth – YOUR checkbook! - belongs to God.
Our wealth – the church’s bank accounts – belong to God.
As much as we like to believe that we have earned it, that we deserve it,
it all belongs to God. Our resources as households and as a congregation are for one purpose: the purposes of God’s reign among us.[2]
That is only bad news if you haven’t yet recognized the truth behind it all:
that you belong to God!
Our Brief Statement of Faith in our Book of Confessions begins with that:
“In life and in death, we belong to God.”
Our catechism says it with questions and answers:
Question 1. Who are you?
I am a child of God.
Question 2. What does it mean to be a child of God?
That I belong to God, who loves me.
Question 3. What makes you a child of God?
Grace -- God's free gift of love that I do not deserve and cannot earn.
The generosity of the prudent manager brings him a welcome from others,
even though he is being generous with someone else’s wealth!
That’s the crazy thing about God’s justice:
grace comes freely, maybe even unexpectedly,
like the debt cancellation of the manager:
forgiveness of debts that we cannot repay,
and a call to offer that same forgiveness to others.
If we are to be faith-full in small things and faith-full in great things,
we can do it only through the grace of God.
Fortunately, there’s plenty of it, and it is unending.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
[1] Lois Malcolm, Working Preacher, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1783
[2] [2] Lois Malcolm, Working Preacher, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1783
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