"Using What Fails to Gain What Lasts" Ninth Sunday after Trinity Commemoration of Johann Gerhard, Theologian August 17, 2014 Luke 16:1–9
"The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness." The Gospel reading today would appear to have Jesus speaking favorably of a dishonest manager and then exhorting us Christians to act accordingly. Even if that’s what Jesus were saying, we couldn’t do that, right? Certainly Jesus is not desiring that we should be dishonest like that manager was who was commended by his master. Yes, we could take the approach of, It just couldn’t be that that is what Jesus is teaching, so it has to mean something else. The better approach, though, is to read the passage carefully and look to see just exactly what it is the manager was doing, exactly what his master commended him for, and exactly what Jesus is exhorting us to do. The storyline is pretty straightforward. A manager was called on the carpet for being wasteful and so was asked by his master to turn in the account of his management and then he would be let go. The manager realizes he’s in a bind. When he’s let go he’ll be out on the streets. What can he do? He’s not cut out for manual labor. He’s ashamed to beg. He decides to quickly go to those who owe his master and has them pay back a percentage of what they owe rather than the entire amount. This is a bonanza for the debtors and the manager knows that once he’s out on his own people will look favorably on him. Now comes the strange part. The manager just ripped off his master but his master commends him! And things get even more strange! Jesus speaks of how the sons of this world know better how to deal in the ways of the world than the sons of light. So, Jesus says, we ought to “make friends for ourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive us into the eternal dwellings.” That’s the basic storyline and Jesus’ brief summary and exhortation. So what does it mean? Is Jesus trying to do some sort of reverse psychology on us here, telling us the opposite of what we know is true so that we see all the more the truth of what we really know? Jesus is sometimes very brief and very clear. At other times He comes at us with something like this, that is difficult, that challenges us. In telling of the manager we see a man who knows what he’s doing. We don’t know the details of how he was wasting his master’s money, but we know that when he was called on the carpet he immediately considered how to get himself out of this difficult spot. How he did it is by settling the debts quickly of his master’s debtors. If you have the chance to pay back fifty percent or eighty percent of what you owe, you do it quickly. And so the manager who now was out of a job was at the very same time viewed very positively by others. Was the master upset with him? We don’t know. All we know is that he commended the manager. It’s almost as if he was saying, “That was pretty impressive. True, you lost me some money, but you showed ingenuity in getting yourself out of your bad situation.” Even if it’s not on the up-and-up, the people of this world know how to deal in this way. Christians are not so readily able to act in this way because acting in this way would violate their conscience. But here Jesus is telling us we ought be like them. Should we start being dishonest? Should we start getting ourselves acquainted with the ways of the world so that we can operate much more ably there than we are able to now? Actually, what Jesus is saying is not that we must act like them but we must learn to be more shrewd, or wise in the way we operate with the things we have. The master did not commend his manger for being dishonest but for being shrewd. Jesus does not tell us to be dishonest or even try to get ahead like the manager. He tells that we must use the things already at our disposal for something that is far greater than the things themselves and than the very life we have here on earth. Jesus says, “make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” The word ‘wealth’ here in ‘unrighteous wealth’ is translated from the word that we’ve heard before, ‘mammon.’ As in, you cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon is the stuff of this world. It’s all that stuff you can’t get enough of, whether it be money, or toys, or tools, or the many things you use in your life for your everyday life. And Jesus here in the Gospel reading doesn’t talk only about this wealth, this mammon, but about ‘unrighteous wealth’. The things in this life God has given us are good, they are gifts from God. But the things of this life have been tainted by sin, just as all creation has, including us. The mammon in our lives often becomes ‘unrighteous wealth’ to us when we use it for our selfish gain. It is this very stuff Jesus is telling us to use. However, as the manager used it to get himself out of a bind, we are exhorted by Jesus to use it for a very different purpose. Whereas the manger would be welcomed into the homes of those he had made friends with by his cunning action of slashing the debt of the debtors, we who use this unrighteous wealth to make friends for ourselves in this life do it to be welcomed into eternal dwellings, heaven itself. So how do we do this? What does Jesus want us to do to make use of this unrighteous wealth; and how are we to make friends with it; and how it is that from this we will be welcomed by these people into the eternal dwellings of heaven? The money and possessions we have can very easily take the place of God in our lives. Therefore, Jesus is showing us that we must not simply have them. We must not continue to seek more and more without being content. What He has given us we ought to use. The money and possessions we have are temporal. These things will not last. Jesus says that these things will fail. We have them, and we ought to use them, but they will come to an end. Ultimately we must seek the things above, the things that will last. And that brings us back to using the things we own. If you are using what you have you don’t have as much time to dwell on what you don’t have. It is these very things God wants you to use for a good purpose. We certainly can enjoy the temporal blessings God gives us. But we shouldn’t get caught up in them. While we certainly can use them for our own enjoyment, Jesus here is showing us a better way. We ought to use them for others as well. This is what He means by making use of these things that won’t last by making friends. When we use our money and possessions to help others they are blessed in a way they otherwise might not have been. Look beyond the present circumstances to when you will see them in the place that lasts eternally. If we see the things we have as simply things to use in this lifetime we are missing out on the eternal blessings God wants to give us. God does this Himself, using the things He created to bless us eternally. Not only does He use the things He created to bless us in this life He uses them also to give us things that will last. We see this first in His Son. Jesus took on the very things of this creation in taking on human flesh. He used the things of this world in order to help us and save us. His making friends with us took the ultimate form, laying down His life for us that we may live eternally. He continues to use the things He has created to help us and save us, as He forgives us in the water of Baptism and strengthens us in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, giving us the eternal things of His body and blood for our forgiveness. Through these things, the things of the world in which He brings us things that will last, He blesses us that we may be a blessing to others. We are able to be wise and realize that everything is at our disposal in order to serve others. We have been served by God so that we may serve others. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list [email protected] http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
