18th Sunday after Pentecost
October 3, 2004
Luke 16:1-13

^16:1Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. ²So 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.' ³The 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-- ⁴I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.' ⁵So 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.' ⁷Then 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.' ⁸The 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.

⁹I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. ¹⁰Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. ¹¹So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹²And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? ¹³No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." (NIV).

Wise and Faithful Managers.

  In two weeks you will be called upon to vote in Nova Scotia. One of the issues on the ballot will be the Plebiscite on Sunday Shopping. The government wants to know if you are for or against some or all of the proposed increases to Sunday shopping. To be blunt, the issue is whether or not we need more time for making and spending money.

  How will you determine what your response will be? You might sit down and do some time and financial calculations to determine whether you or maybe others stand to make a profit. You might make the deciding factor your shopping convenience. Or you might make your decision based on whether or not it's good for the Kingdom of God. Would Sunday shopping be a good use of the time and treasure that God has entrusted to us?

  Today's Gospel lesson is about you and me and the wealth that God has entrusted to us. Jesus teaches us to be wise and faithful managers of worldly wealth. And that has direct bearing on the plebiscite and on innumerable other questions of daily life.

  Now first of all, understand that to be a Christian means not only to be Jesus' disciple, one who learns from and imitates him, but also to be his manager. Jesus repeatedly spoke to his disciples of their role as his managers. They were to think of themselves as managers of his house, of his kingdom. He expressed this especially in various parables where a king or master leaves his servants in charge of his property and goes on a journey. The master is expecting the servants to be wise and faithful. If then we are Jesus' disciples, we are also managers of everything that he has entrusted to our care.

  Jesus wants us to be good managers and disciples so he taught us how. In this parable he teaches how to be faithful stewards of material wealth. The parable presents a very wise, shrewd man. He is quite dishonest, but he is also intelligent and effective. He knows what he wants and how to get it. That is all that the parable is meant to convey, an example of focused, intelligent action.

  Jesus' point is that just as this unrighteous man needed to be shrewd or wise, so the righteous also need to be shrewd and wise. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. In other words, people who are not Jesus' disciples are usually more effective in their use of worldly wealth than Jesus' disciples. They have something on which their heart is set like fame or power. That is their treasure, so they pursue it with their whole being. They use whatever wealth is at their disposal to pursue that goal. They are focused and intelligent like the man in the parable.

  You know what I mean. Surely you have met someone who is bent on getting rich. Everything he or she does is geared toward that purpose. Surely you have met a woman who is devoted to being the most beautiful woman. Whether or not she is doesn't matter. That's what she wants to be and everything she does somehow serves that purpose. We may criticise such people, but what we want to recognize here is their focused, effective use of wealth to pursue their goal. They give themselves to the pursuit of their treasure.

  That is what Jesus commends to us, a focused, wise and effective pursuit of our treasure. In our case our treasure is for Jesus to receive us into his kingdom when he returns and to hear his words, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"

  So then, we are not just spectators in life. We are Jesus' managers, servants to whom he has entrusted the care of much of his kingdom at the present time. We fully recognize the fundamental truth that we create and own nothing. God is maker and owner of everything and has entrusted his world to our care. We read in Genesis, Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." (Genesis 1:26-28). We are God's managers. We are responsible for our use of his world. So we must wisely and faithfully use the worldly wealth entrusted to us.

  Jesus gives us some specific direction on how to do that. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. We are to use worldly wealth! We can't waste it or let it sit idle. We must put it to good use, the use for which God intended it.

  Perhaps that is why Jesus calls it "worldly wealth," literally the wealth of unrighteousness. Rather than see wealth as a part of God's creation, entrusted to our care and to be used according to his plan, we naturally see wealth as our possession and power. We worked for it! But when we think of our wealth as ours, we don't use it according to God's will. Whatever is not according to God's will is unrighteous, sinful!

  Jesus says to use this wealth to make friends, like the crooked manager did. God's greatest concern at the present time is that we use our wealth to serve others and bring them into the kingdom. That is how we serve, love and honour God. That's what Jesus also taught in the parable of the judgement where the king said to those who had properly used their wealth, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. (Matthew 25:40).

  When we do that, when we use worldly wealth to make such friends, we are living by faith in Christ. He will honour that faith and return to receive us into the eternal dwellings as he has promised. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. (John 14:2-3).

  You see, our use of worldly wealth is something that matters very much to Jesus. In fact, it is a test of our faithfulness. Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?

  People who forget or reject the fact that God is the maker and owner of everything often have a lack of correspondence between their faith and how they act in daily life. They don't see that their faith should inform their understanding and use of wealth. They look at all they have and wonder how much if any of it they should give to God. But they need to ask exactly the opposite question. How much of God's property do I use for my own personal needs? The Sunday Shopping question is relevant. Do we really need another opportunity to make and spend money? Does that correspond with the truth that God has revealed to us?

  In this way, our use of wealth is a test of our faithfulness to the truth God has revealed. The implication seems to be that the way we handle things in this world is indicative of how we will handle things in the new world at the resurrection. If we prove to be reliable, wise, effective managers of a little bit of God's property now, then we will be able to handle even greater responsibility in the age to come. Some of Jesus' other parables like the one on faithful servants and the one about the talents lead to the same conclusion. He is testing us not unlike when he tested Abraham. God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac to test the depth of Abraham's love for God. Thank God that our test only concerns our use of wealth. That's much easier than sacrificing one's child. Or is it? How many have really sacrificed their children or spouse in their pursuit of money.

  That we are being tested need not be a negative thought. Through faith in Christ it is a promise of blessings to come. If you listen to Jesus and trust him and handle a little now, you'll get much later! If you properly use the things of this world which will pass away, then God will entrust to you things of the new and eternal world. If you faithfully handle God's property now, something for which you must give an account, then you'll be competent to handle your own property. In other words, God is not testing us to make us suffer, but to reveal our true value as stewards so that he can once again put us in charge of the new heaven and earth. It doesn't get any better than that!

  Finally, one's use of wealth reveals one's real master. No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Serving money is idolatry. It's an attempt to be God yourself. This is what we do by nature and it shows itself in the way we use our money. But the end of this way of thinking is death. It puts us in the same category as the rich guy who with much wealth stored up for many years told himself to eat, drink and take life easy because he was set for life. It's the pursuit of the "Set for Life" lottery. To that God says, "You fool, this very day your life will be required of you. Then who will enjoy all that you count on?" That is the judgement for all who serve themselves or money.

  But things are quite different when God is our master. He is the one who raises the dead! He has great things in store for us! This he proved when he gave his Son as a sacrifice for our sin and raised him from the dead. Jesus bought us back from the penalty of sin by paying the penalty for us. Then he called us to be his own and made us his disciples. He transferred us from death to life, from being under the influence of the devil and subject to God's judgement to adoption as God's sons and daughters. He opens our eyes to see that serving God is not degrading slavery, but true freedom in the hope of the resurrection. With that kind of love on God's part we understand that it is good for us to fit into his plan. Let him be the creator and owner of all things and let us be his managers. That is the true nature of things.

  In two weeks you will have the opportunity to express your opinion on Sunday shopping. Moreover, today and every day of your life, you will have the opportunity to use the wealth God has entrusted to you. Prayerfully ponder how to be a wise and faithful manager of God's property. Do everything so that you too will hear Jesus say, "Well done good and faithful servant!"