C, Pentecost 17 Proper 20 - Luke 16:1-8 "Management Woes Made Right"
Text
1 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’ 3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— 4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ 5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 ”‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’ 7 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ ”‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’ 8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.
Sermon
This reading is possibly one of the hardest to understand in the whole bible. Hearing the master’s commendation of the dishonest manager for being shrewd goes against the grain of our thought. It seems Jesus is giving out licences to be dishonest and fraudulent. Surely, this is not Jesus’ intention! The parable of the shrewd servant seems to stand out like a sore thumb in the context of other things Jesus says.
Who is the rich man in the parable? Who is the manager? Only once we understand who these people are, we can understand the parable, letting it have an effect on our lives. Couldn’t God be the rich man? After all, he is rich in everything, and it is from him that we have received all things. So if God is the rich man in the parable then we must be the managers. God has given us his creation to manage.
How have we managed God’s affairs lately? As a parent, as an employer, as holders of God’s image, as a server of the common good of Australia, as a member of this congregation, as a Christian, as one whom God has made holy through the blood of Jesus – what’s your management been like?
In the text Jesus tells of a manager who has to give an account of his management just before he is removed from his position by the rich man. This servant, his household head, the manager of his possessions, is a rogue, and a deceiver. His negligence to care for the boss’s possessions is nothing short of fraud and dishonourable deception. He is one who has been given the responsibility of much, he is entrusted with the rich man’s wealth, his kingdom, everything that is his.
Jesus tells us the manager is accused of wasting possessions; he scatters the seeds of his boss’s resources with recklessness. It is surly right that he is accused, this is something that shouldn’t be left from the owner’s attention. The owner must be told; this bloke is out of control. How dare he do something so thoughtless, so wasteful, and so stupid! And if this is not enough, after he is exposed as a fraud, he seeks to feather his own nest by taking more from his employer by reducing the accounts of the boss’s debtors. This scandalous action deserves the full force of the law.
If Jesus reports in the parable that the servant’s management is untenable, let us remember that all of us have many possessions, we are rich in possessions given to us by our Heavenly Father. He is the One who gives us relationships with others, our friends, our families, and our enemies. He is the One who gives us enjoyment, love so we can love others, he gives us our senses and our bodies made in his image. He is the One who gives us a land and homes in which to live, free from oppression, and with freedom to choose. Yes! Our Heavenly father gives us everything to manage and enjoy. Moreover, he gives us himself through his Son, the Holy Spirit, and the church. How does your management of these gifts shape up in the sight of God?
You and I are the managers misusing the possessions and mysteries God has given to us. We take these gifts as if they were products of our own doing, any interest gained from these gifts we pat ourselves on the shoulder and credit it to our own tab, our own self-interest. We make a mess of the world in which we live, we rape and pillage the earth rather than care for it, and we abuse and look down on others and in doing so discredit God’s creation, God’s very own image. So he calls us in and asks us, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’ Surely, we must pay for this deception, this misuse of funds, and this fraudulent activity with his creation.
In this text, the manager is shrewd. He acts in a way that gains the favour of his master’s debtors by cutting their huge bills. Surprisingly this behaviour, which seems to be even more deceptive and scandalous than the manager’s original activity, attracts the master’s praise. In verse eight Jesus says, ‘The master commended the dishonest servant because he had acted shrewdly.’
How do we act shrewdly? We know that to misuse God’s gifts is wrong. God’s word and our conscience tells us so. How can I win the master’s favour? The answer is as scandalous as this text. Pass the buck! Pass it onto the one true manager of the Father’s gifts, the manager of managers, the Lord of Lords, the shrewdest servant ever to walk the face of the earth. Christ Jesus is the servant, the manager who takes our responsibility, our wasteful and fraudulent management, who calls us to pass the buck over to him. He is the one, whom God entrusts with his gifts, his possessions, and his riches. With great thoughtfulness, prudence and wisdom Christ came to us, the scoundrels of this world. He shrewdly came into the world so that we could live lives as managers of God’s gifts. Jesus Christ takes the debt of God’s huge bill from our shoulders.
How can this be that Jesus Christ is the shrewd manager? The manager in this parable is in a process of being removed from the rich man’s service, for dishonourable deception. He is being removed for his foolishness, dishonesty; for the scandalous way he managed.
Dear friends, we preach Christ crucified, a scandal, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. These are the words of St Paul to the Corinthians. The scandal is the management of Christ. The deception is one of deception over our sin, our natures, and of Satan. On the cross, the sign of shame and scandal, Christ bore our sin, our shame, our foolishness; our poor management. At that time he was removed from the Father’s house, his purpose for doing so, was not for himself, but for the management and service of the whole world. He humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Satan, the deceiver, was deceived. Just when he thought he had won the victory over us, he lost and Christ stepped in and took our place in death. And the Father commended the manager because he had acted shrewdly. The manager, Christ, became as though he was worldly, wicked, unjust, in the likeness of humanity; he dwelt in the presence of dishonesty, his disciples were frauds when the crunch came, he hung between criminals. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, Jesus is our Lord; and he is a very shrewd manager. We are dishonest servants but he is the shrewd servant who swapped places with us. What a scandal, what a deception!
In the same way we too are scandalous. St Paul confesses in Gal 2: 20, ‘I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’. The scandal is alive in all of us, we are the shrewd servants of God’s gifts, because God owns us, he lives in us, through Christ we reflect the true image of God. Through Christ we manage the world, as Christ manages. Because of what Christ scandalously did, we too can go out and give Christ’s love to the unbelievers, to the scoundrels, and to the rogues of this world with graciousness and freedom. Through Christ, we can deceive the devil too.
Are we foolish? Yes! Are we scandalous, scoundrels, weak and lowly? Yes! For the foolishness and shrewdness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness and scandal of God is stronger than man’s strength.
Let each of us not only look to our own interests, but also to the interests of others. Let our attitude be the same as that of Christ Jesus. Let us serve the world here in the presence of God as his holy people in our day to day lives. Let us shrewdly, pass the buck, hand our debt of sin over to Christ, so that we too can be commended, not for our sinful activity, but for the shrewdness we have gained in Christ. Amen!
Dear Lord Jesus Christ continually renew us so our management is your management! Amen.
