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Sermon - September 23rd, 2007
Outrageous Grace
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Luke 16:1-13
We live in a perplexing time. The parable read today is a perplexing parable. A perplexing parable for a perplexing time. There is a rich man who calls in his manager, accuses him of jilting him out of his money, and demands that he pay up right now what he owes him. The manager, thinking to himself “What a low life I am, how unsuited I am for honest labor,” scurries out, doctors up the master’s record books, talks the master’s debtors into conspiring with him, and then presents the master with the money that he owed, money which he has obtained through some hook and a lot of crook. And what happens after this scam? The master praises the dishonest manager.
This parable has caused problems for the church ever since Jesus told it. But just maybe, maybe, it has a message for us today in this time.
We love to simplify our lives by categorizing people into the good guys and the bad guys. So, when we watch a TV show or a movie, read a book, or listen to a parable, we listen and watch, wanting to figure out just who is who. Is the rich master the good guy? Probably not. Because he’s rich. He’s the boss who lives in the big house over-looking the shanties behind his mill. While others slave away to make minimum wage, he sits by his pool ordering people around talking on his cell phone. We aren’t on HIS side. Our sympathy is with the underdog, the little guy. We love stories where the rich go down and the little guy goes up. We all love a good Cinderella story. Or, better yet, Robin Hood who robs the rich and gives to the poor. If some little guy, some Robin Hood wants to put one over on the rich boss, fine!
So, if we are not on the side of the evil rich man, then we must be on the side of the manager, the shrewd steward. He has won our sympathy from the very first when the boss called him in and said, “I have heard some terrible things about you, so tell me what you’ve done now or get out!” He is standing there, the poor guy, trembling in his sandals before the man behind the big desk. He is in trouble, we don’t know what he has done, it doesn’t sound good, it doesn’t sound fair, and we are on his side…maybe.
“What am I to do?” the manager says to himself, and then his true character begins to emerge. The master had heard that the manager was “squandering” his property. That’s not good. Squandering property is not good, we don’t approve. Maybe the master was wise in firing this guy.
Now, an interesting side note is that this parable follows on the heels of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The Greek word for “squandering” is the very same word used in both parables. The Prodigal Son squandered the inheritance he received from his father. The manager squandered his master’s property. They both blew it, wasted it, spent it foolishly. So, now the manager in today’s parable was going to have to pay up or get out. Now-- whose side are you on? The rich master or the wasteful manager?
Then the manager’s thoughts about his predicament go this way: “What am I to do? I’m unable to do honest work like digging ditches and I am too proud to beg.” He has been putting on airs, living high on the cotton through his master’s money for so long, the thought of falling backwards into poverty is more than he can bear. His master drives a BMW and he drives a full loaded Buick. His Master owns a condo in Palm Springs and he has a timeshare in Seaside. He isn’t about to give up what he has.
“Master, I’ll be happy to turn in the books to you after a few.., um…uh…..er… adjustments.”
So, he calls in those who owe his master. And the swindle begins. He calls in one debtor who owes the master a hundred thousand dollars. “Change your bill,” he tells him. “Quick, make it fifty thousand.” Large amount are being written off here.
This little Robin Hood is turning out to be someone who tampers with the evidence. He is not robbing from the rich to help the poor. He has no moral purpose. He is just out to save his own pathetic skin.
We love getting even, don’t we? We like watching the underdogs win. But it is clear that this guy is a scoundrel with his lies and cheating and stealing. We like the Robin Hood story. But this is not a Robin Hood story. We are clear about that. Let the manager get away with this—and who knows what he will feel justified doing next—like--lead a revolution?
That’s what I think anyway! Wrong is wrong, justice needs to be done, the manager needs to learn he can’t get away with embezzling, lying, cheating, and stealing.
So what happened? “And the master commended the dishonest manager…” That’s what Jesus said, end of the parable. And my response is not just curiosity—it is outrage! This parable has no business being in the Bible. Somebody must have got it wrong. Or, if not, what was Jesus thinking???? Heaven help us all. The master praised his dishonest manager. That doesn’t even sound Christian!!!
Now, I admit, I have really flip-flopped through this parable like a racquetball game. First, we were on the side of the manager, not the rich master. Then the more we got to know the sleazy manager, we sided with the master. And now, by the end of the story, after the master has praised the crookedness of the manager, I don’t know about you, but I have had it with the both of them. They are two feathers of the same bird—two peas in a pod.
At first we believe that the rich master was bad (after all, he’s rich), the manager was good (after all, he is more like us). Then manager upset our moral code through his laziness and conniving and we are back on the side of the rich master.
Then just when we get it all figured out—the good separated from the bad, the wheat from the chaff, the saved from the damned—just when we have it all figured out the master goes and praises the crooked manager-- for heaven’s sake.
We struggle through this parable hoping to find just one good person with whom we can identify with (one good person like us), only to have this parable jump us from behind and grab us. What kind of people are we to approve, condone, justify, and identify with such folk? Who are we?
Many scholars have pointed out that a parable is like a window. We encounter a parable like this one as if we are looking through a window, looking out at the world. What sort of world do you see through this window? A world of cheats and scoundrels in high and low places; wheelings and dealings by the rich and the poor.
Yet sometimes, looking through a window, there is that moment when the window becomes a mirror and we become aware of our own reflection in the window. We see ourselves. Is it possible that we see a glimpse of ourselves in this parable?
We have come to church looking for labels to stick upon the good and the bad. We wanted to use Scripture as a knife to cut cleanly between the victims and the villains. Instead Scripture has become a two-edged sword. Now we are confused. And we do not like being confused!
Parables are also about what it is like in God’s world, in the Kingdom of God. In this parable the Kingdom is a time of accounting, a time to settle accounts, to face facts, to look at the books. When we do, in the searching light of biblical honesty, we find a message that we cannot even look at right now. Who are we? Our nation tells us that we are on a mission to free the world of terrorism, to protect our democracy and other democracies in the world. Are we capable of that without becoming terrorists to others? Jesus says, look in the mirror, always look in the mirror. We support freedom and justice and peace. We abhor terrorism, injustice, and violence. May God help us in knowing the difference. God help us.
What we have here is a parable that has left us with more questions than answers. People don’t act as we expect them to act. We have a parable that holds up a window and a mirror, and if we dare, we look into it, and if we are honest, we see ourselves. I know it is so hard to look at ourselves in this way. But the parable is telling us, look in the mirror before you act, look in the mirror.
Our faces are all over this parable. The parable tells us that we really are a mess. We have met the scoundrel, and the scoundrel is us. And that means we really do need someone to save us; someone who is not TOO respectable, for we certainly are not. We need someone like us. And you know what? He was a lot like us. He was human. He broke the Sabbath. He consorted and partied with crooks and sinners and harlots. Then he died, with a criminal on both sides of him, and looking like a crook himself.
A respectable savior could never have loved and saved a people like us. He became one of us in order to save us. He upset the world’s respectable moral order. He said he came to settle up accounts between us and God. So we got all cleaned up, put on our Sunday best, and scrambled to the front pew at church in hopes of doctoring up our books. And Jesus looked, in the end, upon all our wheelings and dealings which so neatly nailed him to the cross, he looked upon us, and then he did the most outrageous act of all—Jesus nailed us with his grace, his unconditional love, all of us, saying “Father, forgive.” “Father, forgive.”
I am not a politician, thank God, and I don’t know the answers to all our nation’s problems. I don’t know all the answers to the church’s problems either. But, I do know what Jesus said to us. And I know that God was crazy enough to call me to be your pastor at this time. Everyday, I ask for God’s help. I would love to have clarity and vision and answers for us as a church. I would love to be sure.
Jesus said, “The people of this world look out for themselves better than the people who belong to the light.” Supposedly we are the people of the light. Can God trust us with the light? Jesus also said, “We cannot be the slave of two masters.” Who is our master? Who is really our master?
You see, the battle that we are fighting is not happening over in Iraq or anywhere else in the world. The battle that we are fighting is taking place in our hearts. That’s why Jesus always held up a mirror called parable to people. He was saying, look at the parable and see yourself. Then choose your response, remembering you cannot serve two masters. Look inside yourself. For what goes on inside you, also goes on outside. Who will win the battle that is raging in our hearts? You know that battle. It is the battle between love and fear, good and evil, retaliation and forgiveness, war and peace, justice and vengeance. This is the battle that we need to pay attention to. This is the battle that affects us right here in Hillsboro, in our homes, in our hearts.
As your pastor, I’m here, not to give you answers, but to point out some directions you can take. The first direction I’ll give you, is to prayer. Pray first, and remember God can handle our anger, our despair, our fears, our hate. Take all of it, and place it before God in prayer, before you do anything else.
The second direction you need to take is to take good care of your self in every way—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Be good to yourself.
A third direction is to care for others. Be a caring person. Start with your family members, your neighbors. Find a way to be caring in all that you do.
The last direction I’ll give you is to love God. God knows us, loves us, is outrageously gracious with us.
Jesus is our example of God’s outrageous grace. Jesus is the prince of peace, the master we need in this perplexing time.
Amen.