Pentecost 11 (NL2) John B. Valentine
Luke 16:1-13 August 11, 2024

“RESPONSIBILITY”

Truth be told ... if you’re wondering what it was that Jesus meant when he spoke those words we read as this morning’s gospel lesson ... you’re NOT alone.

• Saints and sages ...
• Pastors and professors ...
• People in the pews and people in monasteries ...
• Even ol’ Pastor John ...

We’ve ALL struggled with this parable.

In fact ... the Church has struggled with it for darn near two thousand years!

I mean ...

• Some folks have wondered why Jesus would tell it.
• Some folks have wondered why Luke would record it.
• Some have wondered if Jesus was really telling a joke.

And ... honestly ... a whole lot of us have wondered why anybody would ever think of using it as the basis of a sermon!

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You see ...

Jesus rattles off this story that feels like some contemporary Wall Street Journal expose’.

How there’s this fairly good-sized company in which one of the employees goes to the owner and rats out one of his co-workers.

“Sir ... I hate to inform you ... but you need to know ... that one of your employees ... one of my co-workers ... one of your middle managers ... is actively embezzling the company.”

Anyhow ... having listened to the accusations ... and having done enough fact-checking to know that this isn’t just some nasty break room gossip ...

The owner calls this manager-slash-embezzler fellow into his office ... and tells him he’s got twenty-four hours to clean up his books ... and clear out his desk ...... for he is being summarily dismissed.

And this soon-to-be-EX-manager ... realizing that his goose is effectively cooked ... begins to weigh his future options:

• “Door Number One” is “Start over. Take an hourly-wage job.”

Except that won’t work because he realizes that he wouldn’t last five minutes doing anything that looks like manual labor...

• “Door Number Two” is “File for unemployment or take the early out with Social Security.”

Except there’s no way he’s scaling back his upper-middle-class lifestyle and moving into a studio apartment ...

• And then there’s “Door Number Three” .......

“Door Number Three” ....... hmmmmm .......

Next thing you know ... this so-called ‘dishonest manager’ fellow has assembled his boss’s biggest clients at an urgent meeting at the spendiest restaurant in town ... one last fling on the company card.

And ... over the course of that meal ... he inquires of each one ... “Just how much do you owe us?”

Turns out ... they owe huge sums ...

And Mister Embezzler says to each one of them in turn ... “How about I do you a favor and we just write off a chunk of those debts?”

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Now ... we need to pause things here for just a minute ... just so we’re really clear ...

Do NOT read this story and try to “justify” the manger’s behavior!

Biblical scholars have been trying to do that for centuries ... to no avail.

They’ve come up with all sorts of cockamamie excuses as to how the manager was really doing his boss a favor ... by just writing off the interest or cutting his own commission or whatever ...

But NONE of their theological excuses hold any water ....

For the line that ends the story itself ... the one that says “And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly” ...

Makes it painfully clear that this dishonest behavior is being actively commended!

Do you see WHY this is such a strange and confusing story???

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But what are WE going to make of all this?

I mean ... we say this is God’s Word ... that it’s ‘Good News’ ... but what good is this word to us?

• Does it tell us that we ought to rip off our employers every chance we get?

• That we ought to adopt as our own personal motto “Don’t get mad, get even”?

• That we who call ourselves Christians ought to just chuck whatever thoughts we have about morality and ethics and upright behavior out the proverbial second-story window?

No ... no ... and again ... no!

Honestly ... I’m not just sure.

Four years of college ... four years of seminary ... three years in a doctoral program ... I’ve got an office full of books and a file full of sermons ... and anything like a clear understanding of the meaning of these words STILL sails right over my head.

But there’s one thing about this story that I DO know ...

In fact ... there something that is clear enough about it that made me select it as our lesson for this morning ... and that is this:

However you slice it ... this parable of the so-called ‘dishonest manager’ is grounded in the concept of ‘stewardship.

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STEWARDSHIP ...

You know ... that thing that our late-summer sermon series is focused on.

• Stewardship is this idea that one is entrusted with things that don’t rightly belong to you.

• Stewardship is this idea that I give something to you and that you take care of it ... you manage it ... you safeguard it ... you become responsible for it ... for me.

• Stewardship is this concept ... first articulated in the opening couple of chapters of the Book of Genesis ... that God entrusts what God has made ... to us!

As Pastor Pam reminded us last week ... right understandings of stewardship START with the realization that God is the rightful owner of all that is.

Life ... Creation ... the world ... isn’t ours per se ... to do with as we darn well please.

Rather ... all that is is entrusted to us ... to enjoy ... to tend ... to care for ... in the realization that it ISN’T ours in the first place.

It is entrusted to us .... we become responsible for it ....... but we don’t have ‘rights’ over it.

Now a spirit of “stewardship” says that we are called as God's stewards to actively manage that which belongs to God.

So ... while God has graciously entrusted us with the care ... the development ... and the enjoyment of that which God has made everything ...

We do so in the awareness that that trust brings with it a number of responsibilities ... do we not? Like maybe ....

• Wanting to make sure that we give our attention to that which is entrusted to us ... and not neglect it??

• And maybe wanting to maybe adopt some deliberate strategies that “maximize returns while minimizing risks” perhaps??

• And maybe being mindful of something of the desires and designs of the One who entrusted it to us in the first place!

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But ... you know ... living out this whole stewardship thing is not without some peril.

It wasn’t too many years ago now that ... in the context of one of our FaithBuilders Confirmation classes ... that I brought a coin to class one day and passed it around the room.

And so I asked each of the kids to look at it ... and examine it ... and then pass it on to their neighbor.

• One of them commenting that they’d never seen a coin quite like that before ...

• Another of them commenting that it seemed pretty solid and all ... and so on .... but no big deal.

Then I explained to them that that little coin was actually an American Gold Eagle ... and it was actually pretty valuable ...

And one of them piped up and publically wondered about how much such a thing might be worth ... and suggested “Fifty bucks???”

“No” ... I replied ... “More like twenty-five-hundred-bucks” ... and all the eyeballs in that room suddenly got big as saucers. “What you’re holding right there is a is one ounce of pure gold.”

Their reactions were ... to say the least ... priceless!

But here’s where the conversation got interesting.

I asked them if any of them would like to have it ... and ... needless to say ... each of them thought that that would be a great idea!

Then I asked them if any of them would like to borrow it ... and a number of them thought it would be fun to take it home and maybe show it off to their siblings and/or their friends.

But then I asked that if any of them would agree to put it in their pocket ... and take it with them to school every day for a week ... and then bring it back to class the following Sunday.

And not a one of those students would take me up on my offer!

I mean ...

Sure ... it would be fun to show it off to others ... but ... to their estimation ... that was just too much responsibility.

• “What if I lose it?” ...
• “What if somebody takes it? ...
• “What if” .... “What if” ... “what if” ......

The responsibility of it all was just too much ... WAY too much ... in fact.

To their credit ... when faced with the responsibility for being the steward of that coin for just a week ...

Those students realized that it was beyond their pay-grade ... and that they’d just as soon pass on that task.

They realized that being stewards of something that doesn’t rightfully belong to them can be rightfully terrifying.

Though none of them were willing to take me up on my offer ... I had to give them credit for being honest about how challenging such a responsibility can be.

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You know ... we’ll be talking more in the next couple three weeks about HOW we might dare to actually live into the awesome responsibility that God entrusts to us as stewards of all that God has made ....

But ... for today ... let me leave you with this.

• The fellow in the lesson which we heard read ... the so-called ‘dishonest steward’ ... while he certainly understood the concept of ‘ownership’ ... he KNEW that the boss had entrusted him with things that weren’t his ... but he didn’t understand the whole ‘responsibility thing.

• Those FaithBuilders students in that classroom ... they understood the ‘ownership’ thing too ... I made it awfully clear that while I would entrust them with something valuable ... I wasn’t willing to just give it to them ... but they ... on the other hand ... they GOT the whole ‘responsibility’ thing ... and made sure that they acted accordingly.

So ... at least for today ... maybe for the first time EVER ... can I ask you to emulate a group of adolescents???