Shrewdness for the kingdom. Luke 16

During the Second World war the Vatican was neutral territory, and by and large the Germans respected that. However, they knew that British airman POWs were using the Vatican as an escape route out of Europe, and that there was monsignor who was organising these escaping POWs. It’s a true story told in the film The Scarlet and the Black, with Gregory Peck as Monsignor O’Flaherty and Christopher Plummer as Herbert Kappler the German security chief in Italy.

O’Flaherty started his work with very little, and gradually over the months people put their money, their time and their homes at his disposal. They were investing in the allied war effort against Nazi Germany in whatever small way they could. O’Flaherty was totally entrusted with it, and he enlisted his diplomatic connections and friends in and around the Vatican to ensure the allied airman would remain hidden from the Kappler and his forces. The film tells the story of O’Flaherty’s ingenuity and shrewdness in how he used what was entrusted to him. He would rent property as safe houses to hide the escapes; he would buy food on the black market to feed them. And at the end of the war he was honoured for his services to the allies. O’Flaherty was faithful with little, therefore he was honoured with much.

Kappler, on the other hand, served another master. His wealth was obtained through extortion, demanding the local Jews hand over 100 pounds of gold in return for protection, which of course never eventuated. Where did Kappler end up after the war? A life sentence in prison for war crimes.

Kappler was not faithful with worldly wealth, so how could he expect true riches?

It’s classic, and the parable of the dishonest manger is all about how we use worldly wealth for Kingdom outcomes, with a warning that we should not allow worldly wealth to become our master. That’s why Luke writes his Greek as “unrighteous money”, in that only God is righteous and therefore only he should be our master.

Now this parable has often left Christians scratching their heads, because on a superficial reading it comes across as Jesus commending a dishonest manager who squanders his master’s property. The man is going to lose his job, so he goes round discounting his master’s debts to serve his own interests because he knows he is very shortly going to be homeless. Plus, at the end of the story, Jesus says, I tell you make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth. How are we going to unravel this? Obviously Jesus isn’t going to commend dishonesty. But what he does commend is the manager’s shrewdness, the way he used his smarts when faced with a challenging situation.

Let’s have a look at it: the first thing to notice is that the manager is moving towards the day of accountability, and what he has done has reached the ears of his master. What is this I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management. And like the manager in the story, we all moving towards our own day of accountability for the stewardship of what we’ve been entrusted with, are we not? The manager goes out and calls in those who owe debts, and they are very large debts. It would take more than a lifetime for debts of those magnitudes to be repaid. Sons and daughters would have inherited the debts. Either that or they would have been sold into slavery for them.

Now it appears the manager is discounting his master’s debts, such that his master is losing up to fifty percent of loan earnings. But he isn’t, because those debts will have been in form of bonds stipulating a fixed amount of payment by a due date. So the real loan might have been 50 gallons of oil, plus some fee for the master’s return on his loan investment, plus the manager’s fee as the master’s agent. The bonds couldn’t stipulate a rate of interest because that would be usury, which was illegal under the Law of Moses. So lenders required borrowers to write IOUs or bonds. Hence the manager in the story got the debtors to write new IOUs without his own large fee as agent. And in the process the debtors would have seen both the manager and the master as very generous. New friends for life are made; a win, win situation.

Whether the manager proved himself at that point, or whether he still lost his job, Jesus doesn’t conclude the story either way. The story is meant to raise questions. It’s told to the disciples who are in training for going into the world with a message of good news that there is a god who wishes to redeem mankind from itself and its refusal of that god. In other words, the disciples are going to be charged with the responsibility of continuing Jesus’ ministry to the world after he has returned to the Father in heaven. And it carries a serious responsibility, one which they, and us as disciples today, are going to have to give an account of. What’s this I hear about you? Give me an account of yourself.

How have we as Christ’s followers used what he has given us in terms of worldly things? That’s the question the parable is asking. We in Australia are very wealthy. Most of us have jobs, leisure time, a house of some sort, the freedom to worship and proclaim the Christian message. It is not illegal to do that in this country.

Our own parish here in Lara has a lot entrusted to it. We have wonderful plant and facilities and an effective opportunity shop that provides a good and necessary income. Without it we wouldn’t have a full time parish priest who does an enormous amount of work for the good of the community at large, as well as for her own parishioners. We have generous donors to our food bank that feeds those who cannot always afford good food for themselves.

All of us have time. We are not without free time. All of us have something of ourselves to contribute to parish work and mission. The question is, how are you using those? How are you investing your time and availability for Kingdom outcomes? And are you using them well, being strategic and positive in thought about them? I tell you, use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves, so that what it is gone you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

It doesn’t matter how much or how little you have. What matters is how faithful you are in using it for Kingdom outcomes and your relationship with God. Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much.

Jesus isn’t condemning the possession of worldly wealth. It’s not a sin to be rich. The problem is what you do with it. Will it become your master, or will you be its master for Kingdom outcomes? This is the question Jesus raises at the end of parable, because he sees the Pharisees, who love money, listening in. They are double agents serving two masters. They keep the law of Moses, yet they also keep the law of worldly wealth. And you can’t serve two masters. Double agents in the world of espionage ended up getting shot on both sides. Poor miserable wretches they became.

To bring the point home, Jesus tells them another parable, the rich man and Lazarus. There’s a rich man who accumulates wealth for himself, and when he dies he finds himself outside eternal dwellings. Looking across the uncrossable chasm, he sees poor man Lazarus enjoying those eternal dwellings in the arms of Abraham. The fact that the rich man had wealth is the not the problem. Abraham was a very wealthy man, yet there he is in eternal dwellings. The reason Abraham is where he is, is because he was faithful with his wealth, put it at God’s disposal and did not allow it to master him. Not so the rich man across the chasm outside eternal dwellings. Message to lovers of money: this is where you will end up if worldly wealth becomes your master.

And there’s also the parable of the talents with the same message. You all know the story: three people are given a store of worldly wealth. Those who were given ten and five talents acted shrewdly and brought back a good return on what the master had entrusted them with. But the one who was given little just sat on it thinking it’s too little, too late, and I can’t do much with it anyhow, so I’ll just hand it back. At least it won’t be lost. But he was still called to account. What did he do with his worldly wealth? If he couldn’t be faithful with little, how then could he be faithful with much. And his talent was taken away and given to those who had acted smartly and invested for a good return.

For the past two years, this parish has participated in the parish renewal program called Pathways. It’s a program that trains parish teams in a method of appraising what they have, where they want to go (the focus group), and how to move along the path in the right direction. It’s all about strategic thinking for Kingdom outcomes. This parish has a focus group of people seeking connections. In other words, we are well aware of people in Lara who are disconnected, perhaps because of unemployment, recently retired struggling with transiting from an active working life, loss of a relationship, single parents, the aged, and any who are burdened by needs of many sorts such that they experience loneliness. Did not Jesus say, come to me all who are burdened and you will find rest for your souls. That’s why our parish renewal team in the program has chosen people seeking connections as our focus group. Many of them may well need to experience rest for their weary souls.

We are a parish entrusted with a ministry to the disconnected. So let us keep thinking shrewdly about how we use the resources we have. And the whole thing of course must be underscored with prayer. It is the Holy Spirit who brings people to us for help. Our job is to respond and to offer ourselves in his service.

So, the question for the week I want to leave you with this morning is: are we being shrewd and faithful stewards of this world for the next?

Philip Starks
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