The Dishonest Manager

September 18, 2022
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

Luke 16:1-13[1]

What a strange parable. Jesus tells us a story about a crook, a dishonest manager, and in the end seems to recommend the shrewd behavior of the crook. Jesus has used some unsavory characters in parables before – the Prodigal Son who leaves home and spends all of his inheritance, a crooked judge, landowners who exploit their laborers. But here the boss praises the manager for being dishonest. Weird. Even Luke, who wrote this account seems to try several times to explain it away.

Let’s face it, there are a lot of unsavory people in the Bible that seem to be loved by God. Cain, who murdered his brother, is protected by God (Genesis 4:15). Jacob cheated his brother Esau out of his inheritance (Genesis 25:31-34), and yet he was later renamed Israel (Genesis 32:28). David, the King, made sure Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, was killed in battle (2 Samuel 11:15), yet we know David as the ideal king. There are many stories of dishonest people who God loves anyway. Perhaps we get stuck on some of these stories because we don’t think they’re about us.

I think of myself as a good person. When I think about that story in Matthew 25 about the separating of the sheep and the goats, I’m putting myself in the category of sheep every time. I have a mental list, and you might too, where I categorize good people and bad people. Hitler-bad, Mother Teresa-good. Jefferson Davis-bad, Abraham Lincoln-good. There are different degrees of badness and goodness, but always, I am on the good list. Except, I shouldn’t be.

I am not always a good person. I have done and said things that were hurtful to others. I am trying to do better, but I’m not perfect. I am both good and evil, as Martin Luther, the protestant reformer, said, we are at the same time righteous and sinners. I belong on both lists, and maybe the best I can do is try to lean mostly to one side.

Now this dishonest manager knows he’s been caught. He’s probably going to be fired. He’s likely been skimming from the rich man’s profits, adding a little on top of the bills he’s been writing. The manager is not going to turn to digging or begging for a living, but maybe he can find a clever way out. So, he calls in the debtors one-by-one and reduces their bill. Pretty slick. He makes some friends so that when he gets fired, he’ll have somewhere to go. Smart guy. We kind of admire him. He’s bucking the system, and if we look at it, it’s an immoral system to begin with.

The laws that are recorded in Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy – they all renounce charging interest, especially to fellow Jews. But there are ways around the laws, right? We won’t call it interest. I’ll loan you fifty jugs of olive oil, but in the contract, I’ll say you owe me seventy. The boss gets back what is owed, maybe a little more, and I get my cut. It’s the price of doing business. Everyone is doing it, so it can’t be that bad. That’s how the system works.

We expect the parable to have some reversal, some way of setting the system right. We expect a lesson in morality. Then the master commends the dishonest manager, and wait, what just happened? The master knows the manager is a crook, but that’s fine, he’s a shrewd crook. And in that society, just as in ours, good business sometimes means getting away with it. Increasing shareholder value is the primary goal, after all; we’re in this to make money, right?

The thing is, the way in which this dishonest yet shrewd manager handled the situation resulted in a positive outcome. For what might be the first time, the manager put people ahead of profit. His motives may be self-serving, but he makes some friends. The manager turns out to be faithful to what really matters, relationships. In this moment, the manager has been faithful with the dishonest wealth, and begins to build a portfolio of true riches.

Profits are the name of the game in our world today. Corporations downsize to increase profits at the expense of sending workers off to unemployment. Cheaper labor is found overseas. CEO’s who make the stocks go up are celebrated, even when the workers strike for better pay. In this parable, however, we get a glimpse of someone in the middle of the dishonest system make a turn for the better. Even though the crook gets praised, we see that what he’s done is good. People have been helped, relationships have been strengthened, and friends have won out over profits.

We aren’t always good. Sometimes we find ourselves on the bad side of the list. But when we put people first over profits, when we lean toward the good, we are faithful to the idea of a better way, a better world. Every little bit of good counts, and even dishonest people have a part to play in the story told by God.  Amen.

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[1] The scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

You're Invited

October 11, 2020

St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

1 Corinthians 13; Matthew 22:1-10

A king gave a wedding banquet for his son. Imagine the pageantry, the sumptuous feast, the decorations and music! Think about the people who will be there, the rich and famous, the beautiful and bold! Who wouldn’t want to go to this banquet?

Excuses. “They made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business” (v. 5). Not only that, they killed the messengers. What is going on? Is this some terrible king, someone beneath notice? Maybe this king is not any good, so the very important people dismiss the invitation.

Maybe this king is bad in another way. A tyrant, maybe, who sends the troops in and burns the city. Going to the banquet may be walking into a trap; it’s dangerous. Or it could be like a time-share meeting. You go because of a promise of a big reward at the end, but the meeting never seems to end. Maybe no one likes the son, the one for whom the banquet is being given. You’re throwing a party for that guy? No thanks!

Perhaps this king keeps throwing parties, week after week, the same party, the same food, the same music and pageantry. It was interesting enough at the beginning, but it’s boring. We go, and we eat, but we’re not being fed. We’re not satisfied with the feast anymore. Besides, we’re busy, we’ve got things to do. The cows need milking and the business doesn’t run itself. There will be another banquet, another time to go, but not now.

Are we the ones who won’t go to the banquet? There are plenty of things to occupy our time. We have jobs, volunteer work, clubs and time with friends. We have food to cook, dishes to wash, children’s activities to manage, and the laundry, always the laundry. There are things we’d like to do if we ever had time, but even in the COVID downtime we still didn’t manage to do them. So much to do and so little time, energy, and motivation to do them.

There are those who wouldn’t get a chance to go to the banquet. The nobodies, the poor, the strangers and weird ones. Some don’t get that first invitation. Perhaps there are some who don’t even know that there is a banquet at all. There are some who are simply alone, lost, or forgotten.

The kingdom of heaven is like a banquet where no one came. So, the king sent word: “Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet” (v. 9). The wealthy and powerful are too busy? Fine, bring in anyone you can find. Everyone is invited. The good and the bad, the rich and the poor, the normals and the weirds. Everyone has a place at this table, everyone who wants to be here can get in the door.

There’s that old hymn, “Oh when the saints go marching in.” We want to be in that number, but even if we’re not, even if we’re not saints, but sinners, we’re invited. The doctor and the doorman, the maid and the magistrate, the students and CEOs are all invited. Imagine it.

Imagine sitting down to eat with your hero, the woman you most admire, the athlete or author who captures your dreams. But don’t stop there, imagine sitting with the ones who admire you, who find you to be amazing and brilliant. Imagine sitting with your best friend, an old enemy, or someone you could never have known.

Our friend Errol has left this world behind. I imagine him sitting in the great banquet hall surrounded by those he had loved and lost. A celebration indeed, and we can join him there one day if we but come when we’re called. The invitation has been extended to all. Will you come to the banquet of the kingdom of heaven?