A Better Investment [Proper 20C]

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson

Luke 16:1-13

A Better Investment

Well, it seems that either God or the lectionary committee, or perhaps both, has decided that we are talking about money today. OK...good, no one seems to be leaving – yet. And so I thought, maybe, I could make this a very short sermon and simply remind you of Jesus' final phrase in today's Gospel: “You cannot serve God and wealth” and then invite the Stewardship Committee to take it from there.

But alas, instead, I decided to drag this out a bit. Although, later in the service you will be hearing from the Stewardship Committee. We are doing that part.

Today, I want to talk about this Gospel. I want to talk about it because I think it is one of the more confusing parables that Jesus tells. And I think that is the case because we, the Church, are often not very good at reading parables; we do them wrong. We read them as if they are meant to be allegories – always with God as the most powerful or prominent character. And today, in this parable, that is this rich man, the master. And so today, that is, I think, problematic.

The parable is about a manager – a business manager. His job, it appears, is to manage and oversee his employer’s property and finances. He's the money guy. It is a good job – so much so that in the ancient world, men were known to sell themselves into a master’s household for the prestigious opportunity to oversee a rich man’s finances. The position seems to mean even more than usual to this particular manager. Beyond enjoying the prestige of the position, he has no safety net, no social security, no back-up plan. When he is informed that his job is on the line, rather than send out updated resumes, he starts to picture life as a homeless loner – unable to do manual labor and unwilling to transition from his corner office to the street corner.

But apparently willing and able to scheme. And so begins the scheming. It occurs to the manager that he has a couple of options: one, he could work really hard and do a better job, or he could create an elaborate scheme to exploit the fact that he has not yet been fired and squander some more of his master's resources to earn himself favors that he can then cash in when he is desperate and unemployed. And so, of course, being human, he chooses option number two. Rather than prove to his employer that he deserves to keep his job, the manager essentially plans to go out in a blaze of glory. Let's call it the Hail Mary of survival plans. The manager’s plan? To slash the debts of those indebted to his master thus creating goodwill for himself. And in doing so, perhaps he might earn, let's say, the number of days sleeping on someone's couch that fifty jugs of free olive oil could buy. I mean, just for example.

And so before the master pries the ledger from his hands, the manager goes to work – well, not work, scheme. The text gives us just a couple of examples but wants us to realize that this manager was going right down his list. He was slashing prices left and right, reducing debt everywhere he found it. Balance sheet be red, that manager was dealing, using that rich man’s quickly shrinking fortune to buy his way into some homes, gain himself some goodwill, bank for himself some favors.

Now, it was not all bad for the rich master. I mean, it was not all good, he was getting ripped off and his least favorite employee was publicly taking advantage of him, but also not all bad. It was pretty solid PR for the rich man; all the former debtors would praise his generosity. He just reduced their debt – and for seemingly no reason, other than just the goodness of his own heart. And not only that, also he recognizes in his manager, a man he was about to fire, an ability to plot and scheme and work the system – which apparently he values. And so, believe it or not, the master, rather than fire his manager, actually commends his manager for being shrewd – for showing keen foresight. And they live happily ever after – working the system, manipulating others for personal gain, and making money. The End.

So this is Jesus' parable. And I think it is fair for us to ask ourselves: what exactly is the lesson Jesus wants his followers to learn? Is Jesus imploring us to model our behavior after this scheming manager, a manager he himself describes as dishonest?

Probably not, right? And so this is why we have to be careful not to read this parable as an allegory – with God featured as the most powerful character, in this case the rich man, who's all about collecting on debts and celebrating dishonesty. You know, godly stuff. And us, the listeners, taking the role of the dishonest guy.

Parables are not allegories. They are stories lifted from the day-to-day world of the listeners, stories both familiar and yet twisted up just enough to keep the listeners' minds churning and puzzling. A dishonest businessman scheming – not entirely unbelievable. A ripped off business owner celebrating, rather than firing, his most dishonest employee – a little strange. It is admittedly less prose than poetry. But rather than a lecture, Jesus chooses to communicate these deep truths about the Christian life to his followers, chooses to challenge and encourage, through story.

And so I say: nobody in this parable is God; no one is Jesus. We're not supposed to be like the dishonest manager, scheming away in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is a parable, grounded in the real world, the world in which the audience lived and worked. And so what Jesus gives us today is a picture of an almost typical day in the business world. The rich man and the manager are just flawed human characters – they have positive and negative traits – going about their flawed human business.

Jesus does not mean for us to indiscriminately emulate the shrewd and dishonest manager. But the story does tells us something about how Jesus wants us to live our lives as Christians. And though that is not like the manager, one does have to admit, that the manager sure does put a lot of effort into his selfish scheme. He works really hard at being dishonest. He puts his heart and soul into it.

Which makes him a pretty believable human character. We put a lot of effort into a lot of things that, if we are being honest, don't have much eternal value. So that could be our financial security like the manager in the parable; or it could be getting a promotion at work, or asking out a beautiful woman, or writing the perfect political post for your facebook wall, or beating a video game, or winning your Fantasy Football league. Plotting, scheming, planning: investing heart and soul in all kinds of things. It's what we do. I'm sure it is also what Jesus' original audience did – though maybe fantasy camel racing or something instead of fantasy football.

And so Jesus tells this parable, a parable that challenges our priorities and the depth of our commitment to the work of God in this world. We put a lot of effort and energy into all of the little, minute details of our lives – into making money, into winning arguments, into being successful or popular, even into the ways in which we spend our leisure time. Imagine what this world could be if we invested as much of our hearts and souls, our energy and resources, into the kingdom of God, into the work God has given us to do. Imagine if the Church, the people of God, were as invested in spreading the Gospel as the dishonest manager in today's parable was about finding a place to bunk.

This parable is a call to a deeper commitment. Jesus is challenging us to invest our all in the one thing that is most important, but all too often low on our priority list: our relationship with God. Jesus is challenging us to go all in: heart and soul, time and money. With this strange parable, Jesus is calling us to make a choice for the Kingdom, to give ourselves to something eternal. Jesus is challenging each and every one of us to make a better investment.