I’ve never gotten
into fantasy sports, but I understand the allure; especially fantasy
football. The last time I was in the
barber shop a guy was saying that he’s doing really well this year simply by
picking his offensive players from whatever team is playing against the Miami
Dolphins!
If you don’t know
what fantasy sports are, it is simply creating your own team based upon the
actual performance of real-life players in their games. It can involve a lot of strategy and thinking
– and a certain amount of luck.
I think most
people use the same principles in their day to day lives. I suppose you could call it street smarts, or
survival instinct. If you see an
opportunity you grab it.
If there’s no opportunity, but you see a way to create one, you
create it.
We are all smart
and clever people. There’s nothing wrong
with that. It’s part of the creativity
God created us to have. But we all too easily
start to plot and scheme to get the things we want, or to get ahead of others.
The first parable
we encountered in our gospel reading is called The Parable of the Dishonest
Manager. It puzzles many people. How can Jesus be praising the shrewd and
underhanded dealings of this corrupt manager.
Shouldn’t Jesus be condemning him for being so manipulative?
But that’s just
how parables work. They play on
extremes. They twist things around. They surprise us. The Parable of the Dishonest Manager unfolds
as it goes along. Jesus sets the stage
with a rich man who has a manager who is squandering the rich man’s money. So he summons the manager and asks to see the
books. It surely would have been prudent
to send someone along to keep an eye on this swindler, but the rich man does not.
We see the
cleverness of this manager as he uses the last minutes of his position to buy
favors for himself from other people. We
discover just how rich the rich man is when we see the amounts this man
forgives. He takes a debt of 100 jugs of
olive oil and makes it 50. He takes 100
containers of wheat and makes it 80. These
are huge sums! This is not forgiving the
debt of some tenant or peasant laborer.
These are commercial sums – think millions of dollars.
And of course, as
long as the manager still has his position the actions he takes on his master’s
behalf are legally binding. He’s done
people big favors and he expects to call them in big time.
In the real world
no rich person would commend a manager who is so exploitative but Jesus has the
rich man commend the manager in the parable.
It sets up what Jesus is wanting to teach – that as people of faith we
should also be shrewd, clever, creative, and cunning; leaving no stone unturned
in our efforts for God’s kingdom.
The dishonest
manager has manipulated both the world of finance and social obligations in his
favor. Are we so clever in our faith?
Growing up I had
friends who would say how they would deliberately do a poor job at something
their parents asked them to do so they wouldn’t have to do it again. That tactic wouldn’t work with my parents! I had to keep at it until it was done and
done well. And they had this uncanny
ability to detect when I wasn’t doing something with my full effort.
But how often do we do that with God’s
work? We make an effort, a polite try,
and then when it fails we quit and say, “See, I told you I couldn’t do it.”
It is all too easy for us to live in
our snug homes away from many of the problems of the world and the communities
around us. We may make token efforts,
make token gifts, token sacrifices, but not really try with all our effort.
Jesus goes on with another
parable. The teaching about the law and
divorce are an interlude about priorities.
Here we have a better known parable – the Rich Man and Lazarus. Please, please, please do not wrongfully
impose the body/soul split of Greek philosophy onto this parable. Jesus teaches in a Hebrew way, not
Greek. Plus this is a parable, it plays
on extremes and images. It is not meant
to be a revelation about what happens after you die. It is a description of the thinking of those
whose lives are focused on money.
Both the rich man and Lazarus
die. Their life circumstances are
completely reversed. In life the rich
man ignored Lazarus, as if he didn’t exist though he lay at the gate to his
house. In death the rich man now recognizes
Lazarus (Even calls him by name!) but still wants him to serve as a personal
servant: get water for him to quench his thirst, go give a warning to his
brothers. How much more arrogant and
unrepentant can a person be!?!
Yet do we do the same? How easy it is to ignore the plights of those
suffering. How easy it is to focus on
our own comforts and needs, then tell ourselves that we rightfully consume all
that we do and we legitimately have none left over to share!
I think one of the greatest blessings
of the Family Promise program is that we get to see and interact with real
homeless people first-hand. They don’t
have to share, but they often do. We see
and understand the complexities of their problems, the precariousness of their
lives, and their hopes for a solid future.
At least they aren’t left at the gate outside but literally brought in
to share the food.
Indeed, many have made numerous bad
choices. Some are exploitative and
manipulative. Some are dealing the
problems of their own creation. But they
are all made in the image of God and children of God. That does not mean we should be blindly nice,
but it does mean we should be constructive in our loving.
Most interpreters of Luke agree that
the gospel changes topics after this parable.
Our reading today continued on, and I think it does fit.
The Parable of the Dishonest Manager
confuses us. The Rich Man and Lazarus
parable may frighten us. The sayings of
Jesus that open Chapter 17 offend our deepest sense of justice and
fairness. How dare Jesus say, “Who among
you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep
in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper
for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat
and drink’? Do you thank the slave for
doing what was commanded? So you also,
when you have don all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless
slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’”
To every
sense of justice we know God seems deeply unfair. We think that if we do what we are commanded
we deserve some sort of payment or reward; particularly since the demands of
discipleship that the two preceding parables gave are so high.
But not so. Here is the key. Our relationship with God is based on grace
and grace alone. God will not have us on
our own terms of righteousness.
God will have us on God’s own terms – those of grace. God owes us nothing for living good, clean,
Christian lives. God owes us nothing if
we fight for justice, live in harmony with creation, and work to build God’s
kingdom. That may sound depressing. Yet if we claim that our own self-worth and
merit reside within ourselves then we have made a fundamental mistake about
life. God has made us good. God has made us strong. God has made us beautiful. God has made us excellent! Those are God’s gifts to us. No one can take them from us, ever. And we cannot claim them as products of our
own righteousness.
Deep joy comes
when we realize our value is held securely by God forever. We need to reframe our lives. Instead of thinking that we must work to
please God, we need to see our lives as an opportunity God has given us to do
something amazing. Then we do not feel like
worthless slaves of God, but those whom by grace God has entered into
partnership with for accomplishing the work of God’s kingdom. We do it persistently, creatively, shrewdly
even. Then we turn the teaching of the
worthless slave around and instead say, “Thanks be to God for honoring me
enough to accomplish great work through my hands.”
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