September 22, 2019 – Luke 16:1-13
Luke 16:1-13
Assume There’s a Future and Do Something New
Lectionary 25C – September 22, 2019
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
St. Augustine was sure Jesus himself never told this story.
How can Jesus hold up a dishonest person as someone to be admired?
This story has troubled preachers for 2000 years.
But let’s face it – that is what makes it so much fun to preach on!
And that is what makes Jesus so endlessly interesting.
With all due respect to St. Augustine,
let’s take the Bible at its word and assume that Jesus did in fact tell this story.
And let’s assume – as we do every Sunday – that Jesus is going to speak directly to us today
through this very difficult story.
What happens is clear enough:
a rich man discovers that his business manager is not very competent.
He has lost the company a lot of money – company money has been squandered.
So, the rich owner summons the manager and says,
“You’re fired! But before you go, show me the books!”
This is a decisive moment in the manager’s life.
He might be lazy but he is smart and he decides he is not going to go gently into that good night.
He decides to take action and do something about the crisis he finds himself in.
So one by one, he invites all the master’s clients out to lunch to Rae and Jerry’s.
He orders them a cocktail and the daily lunch special.
Then he says to each of them: “You know you owe quite a large debt, right?
Here’s what I’m gonna do: just pay us half what you owe us, and we’ll consider it even. Done!”
See: he figures if he does this, he’ll have some friends when it comes time for him to
look for a new job. All these people will owe him one!
Now: at the end of the story you expect Jesus to say:
this is a very good example of how not to act.
You should not be dishonest.
You should not be lazy and do a bad job of the daily work you’re called to so that
you don’t get into this position in the first place.
You should not be completely self-interested to the point of cheating your employer out of
more money just to secure your own future.
But that is not even close to what Jesus says.
In fact, it is the complete opposite of what Jesus says!
Jesus very surprisingly commends the dishonest manager for acting shrewdly!
Jesus looks at his disciples after telling the story and basically says,
“Look at how much smarter this guy is that all of you!”
So what is going on? Is Jesus telling us to be dishonest and self-centred?
Probably not, but you can see why Augustine thought that Jesus never told this story.
But still, let’s assume he did.
And let’s assume that Jesus is trying to tell us something very important this morning,
September 22nd, 2019, at Sargent and Victor in the West End of Winnipeg.
Jesus likes to observe people – he’s a very close observer of people.
He observes people and he thinks deeply about them.
He observes widows and shepherds and tax collectors and Pharisees . . . and business people.
And as he observes them he thinks about them –
and he wonders what his followers can learn from them.
In the manager he sees a person who squanders his master’s money and
has nothing to show for it.
There is no off-shore tax shelter in the story and there is no hidden Swiss bank account.
There is no nest egg he can live on for the rest of his life.
He’s simply squandered the money and has nothing to show for it –
and for that he is understandably fired.
To all intents and purposes he has no future. He is at a moment of crisis.
And it is this, this precise thing, that Jesus knows we can all relate to.
This is the essential element in the crazy store: there is a crisis here with apparently no future.
And what Jesus admires about the manager is that at this point
the manager refuses to accept that he doesn’t have a future.
He refuses to accept that he doesn’t have a future.
This is what Jesus finds admirable: he refuses to accept that he has no future.
And he takes action to secure a new future.
So he squanders his master’s money again but this time he does it to mark down the debts of
His master’s clients.
And these huge sums:
we are talking about a thousand gallons of olive oil and a thousand bushels of wheat.
Presumably he did the same for many other clients.
He refuses to accept that he has no future – and that, surely, is why the rich man commends him.
I am quite sure the rich man still fires him,
but he does find something to admire in the manager’s shrewdness –
in his assumption that he still has a future and doing something about it.
We all know what crisis feels like.
And we all know what it’s like when it feels like we have no future.
We have all been in situations of crisis in which we have thought, “There is no future.”
Relationship difficulties, employment woes, addictions, political turmoil, physical and mental health issues, poverty: these are some of the crises each of us in this room have all faced.
The good news in the story, though, – the gospel – is just this:
that God has a good future in store for you. And that future belongs to God.
God has a good future in store for you.
God has a good future in store for your family.
God has a good future in store for this congregation.
And God has a good future in store for this whole world and every person in it.
What motivates the manager to spring into action is the assumption that he still has a future.
So how much more, Jesus is saying, should we be motivated into action by assuming that
God has a wondrous future in store for all of us.
David and Tania and Lydia and Rogatien assumed that God had a future in store for them
and they acted on that assumption, on the assumption of God’s goodness.
On the assumption that God can be trusted.
Rebecca and the members of the Excel Empowerment Centre assume that God has a future
in store for immigrants from war-torn countries and they are acting on that assumption.
On the assumption that God can be trusted.
First Lutheran Church has been assuming for many many years that God has a future
in store for it and that it has a decisive part to play in God’s mission to
love bless and heal this world and every person in it.
Our congregation has been acting on that assumption.
And our members have been acting on that assumption by giving generously
of their time and talents and wealth.
On the assumption that God can be trusted.
On the assumption that God is at work even now:
Re-uniting families.
Welcoming all.
Caring for children.
Providing hospitality and feeding the hungry.
Promoting social justice and human rights for all people.
This story this morning is about taking a good hard look at what’s going on,
acknowledging what won’t work, and doing something new –
all the while assuming that God has a future in store for all of us.
God has a future for you, for your family, for this congregation and for this whole world.
Here you can find a part to play in that future.
Here you can find somewhere to invest your time and your talent and your wealth in that future.
Let’s keep taking action, assuming that God still has a future in mind for us,
and that it is a good one.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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