Two Masters?
Luke 16:1-13
A Mafia boss suspects that his deaf bookkeeper has stolen 10 million dollars. The bookkeeper was hired in the first place partly because the boss assumed that a deaf bookkeeper could not hear anything, so he’d never have to testify if the boss was brought up on charges.
The Mafia boss brings along his accountant when he goes to confront the bookkeeper because the accountant knows sign language and the boss doesn’t.
The boss asks the bookkeeper, “Where’s the 10 million you embezzled from me?”
The accountant, using sign language, asks the bookkeeper where the 10 million is hidden.
The bookkeeper signs back, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
The accountant tells the Godfather: “He says he doesn’t know what you’re talking about.”
So the boss pulls out a Glock, puts it up to side of the bookkeeper’s head, cocks it, and says, “Ask again!”
The accountant signs to the bookkeeper, “He’s going to kill you if you don’t tell him!”
The bookkeeper relents and signs back, “Okay! You win! The money is in a brown briefcase, buried behind the shed in my cousin backyard in Queens!”
The boss watches this and asks the accountant, “Well, what’d he say?”
The accountant responds, “He says you don’t have the guts to pull the trigger.”
Of course, that story is just a silly joke but imagine this accountant being held up as the hero of this story. We’d all pull back and say, “Hey, hold on!” That’s probably the same reaction the original hearers had when they heard the parable from our reading.
Let’s get some context: Unlike previous parables, this one is not addressed to the crowds or religious leaders. It is addressed to the disciples.
Usual interpretation of this parable is that you can’t serve money and God at the same time so you need to make a choice. There is usually no analysis of the parable that was used because it appears to approve stealing from your boss in order to make sure other people will like you. And most come to this parable with the assumption that the manager was assisting families or small farmers by altering their bills. The ethics of the theft by the manager is glossed over as not that big a deal and simply a means to an end.
When we read the whole chapter of Luke 16 (which contains two parables as well as some explanation about them) we get a better understanding of what Jesus was trying to communicate. Rather than a simple “Money bad, God good” approach, the first thing we learn from this parable is that we need to be clear where we place ultimate value. We can place our ultimate value in money, in other people, in ourselves, in possessions, in social status. None of those things are evil, in and of themselves. They just aren’t a worthy source of ultimate value. Luke is not being anti-money with this story. He is being anti-greed. Greed is the outcome of placing too much value in wealth.
How do we get such an understanding from this text? First of all, we have to read the parable correctly. The debts forgiven by the unjust manager weren’t insignificant amounts. In fact, the amounts described were enormous. The debtors could not possibly be individuals or families but were probably distributors or large wholesale customers.
Some commentators believe Luke’s audience would have resonated with someone who successfully “stuck it to the Man” upon being fired. I mean, who wouldn’t want to get back at their boss for firing them? It may not be by taking away the company profit through re-writing people’s bills, but I bet most of us have had at least a lingering fantasy of retribution at one time or another. If it wasn’t a boss, it could have been a co-worker or a friend or a customer service representative who put you on hold for the ninth time and kept passing you around and around because nobody had any idea how to fix your one little problem. Oh yes, there would be some satisfaction in fantasizing their excruciating demise, if just for a moment. That’s why this parable caught the audience’s attention. The unjust manager’s resolution to his predicament was one we would all at least consider… on some level.
This parable is not about someone who demonstrates honesty, integrity or selflessness. When read correctly, the manager is not a hero but instead is the unwilling teacher of faith communities about how to use resources justly. Jesus loved using people who you wouldn’t expect to be those who could teach something – like the shepherd and the housewife last week. The unjust manager used money as a way to create friendships and community. It was not his dishonesty that was being praised. It was the fact that he shrewdly used his resources to build connection. That is why Luke has Jesus saying that the children of this age are smarter than the children of light. If someone so dishonest and corrupt could use his resources to create friendships – to build community – why can’t people of faith?
We all have resources. We have money. We have expertise. We have passion. We have time. We care about what is happening in our world. The parable tells us that it is not enough to simply sit on our assets and watch the world go by.
Most of this past year we have been using “Blessed and Blessing Others” as our guiding theme. The idea of this theme is that we are a richly blessed congregation and that we are blessed so that we may bless others. It was an awesome experience to watch so many people in this congregation creatively find ways to support the work and mission of this church so sacrificially. Lots and lots of us got it – that it is not simply about repairing furnaces or fixing the roof or buying billboards. It is about building community. There will be a time when future members of this church look back on these days and bless you as heroes.
The handout this morning from our denomination outlines all the diverse mission work and outreach we are doing around the world – from an AIDS orphanage in Zimbabwe to disaster relief to creating curriculum for teens to developing new leadership to targeting particularly difficult places in the world for GLBTQ people like Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Jamaica. We are creating community around our globe with people most of us here will never meet but I believe it is a fulfillment of this call from Jesus in our text that we be trustworthy with the resources we have to create a better world for all of us. That is why the Board and I wanted your input into which of these projects we want to champion in the next year. No one congregation can do all of these things, but 300 congregations choosing one or two of them can make a huge difference. Who knew when we chose “Blessed and Blessing Others” as our theme this year that it would include something quite this global? Using whatever resources we have to build connections to others, to seek friendships across barriers and to create community – that is what it means to follow Jesus – to live the Christian life.
Sources:
www.homileticsonline.com Smooth Operator, September 2007.
Schottroff, Luise. The Parables of Jesus, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press) 2006.
www.mccchurch.org Global Outreach/Ministry logos.