Sermon: “Squandering What Is Squirreled” “Then Jesus said to the disciples: ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this manager was squandering the rich man’s property….’” What a strange, troublesome parable. A manager stands accused –for squandering his the property of his wealthy employer – he’s about to be fired. He’s ordered to turn over the books – but he has a little time to consider his situation and “get the books in order”. What to do? He makes a peculiar business decision that sounds odd to us. He renegotiates with those who owe a debt to the rich man employer. He lowers their debt - charges them less, from 20, even up to 50 percent less - which we suppose pleases the debtors, whose overall debt was reduced. I know I’d be pleased if my mortgage company would do that for me. Unlike the financial realities of our day, according to the commandments in the Bible, you cannot charge interest on loans to members of the community; it’s called usury – and it’s not allowed. It is interesting that today, we easily and routinely ignore this commandment in the Bible, while we lift up others as sacrosanct and revered and say these should never be ignored at any cost – but that’s another sermon. Still, it is one of the reasons why one of our loans for our parking lot from our local Mid-Kentucky Presbytery is a no-interest loan. And why Habitat for Humanity does not charge interest to partners who help build and buy Habitat homes. Now there was, of course, a way to get around this command about charging interest, and it seems this manager took full advantage of this loophole. One could “embellish” – add to, or pad the amount that is owed – like a “commission” – often a large one – so it did not look like you were charging interest, just tacking on a commission which would go as salary to the manager. So by reducing the amount owed to the rich man, this dishonest, squandering manager was cutting out his own commission – squandering, perhaps yet again, what was his. And yet – when we come to the end of the parable, we still expect Jesus to condemn this manager. We expect him to say something like, “Don’t act like this squandering, embezzling manager - be honest in your financial dealings” – a nice, reasonable, moral sounding conclusion to a confusing parable. Or at the very least we’d think the parable should end with the rich man having the manager thrown into prison for his past and current squandering of property. But of course Jesus doesn’t say that, the parable does not end like we expect. Like a lot of parables, there is a surprise, and this one is among the most startling. Instead of condemning the squandering manager, Jesus offers some words of praise for the guy, in the voice of the rich man - “And his master, the rich man, commended his dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.” Now why would Jesus finish a parable like that? If you and I are bothered by this parable, and I certainly am, then we are in good company. As far back as 300 AD, St. Augustine – one of the early church fathers, who had a great influence on our Reformed and Presbyterian Church leader John Calvin – Augustine said about this parable: “I can’t believe that this story came from the lips of our Lord.” I’m with Augustine. Even Luke himself, the gospel writer, seems troubled by this parable – because you notice at the end of the parable Luke adds some additional comments, some related teachings on money – perhaps in an attempt to clarify or interpret what Jesus is saying the parable.
Eugene Peterson in the Message Bible translates this: “You can’t serve God and the Bank.” At least some of those added sayings make some sense to us. They certainly make more sense than this parable about a dishonest, squandering manager, who is lifted up for us as an example of kingdom living and disciple-shaping behavior. So let me suggest for us one way – one way to look at and hear this parable – though it may still be troublesome for us – even still so for ole’ St. Augustine. I hope though this way might move us a bit closer to allowing this parable to be for us “The Word of the Lord” - so that it can mold us and shape us into the disciples Jesus wants us to be. What I want say has to do with one word – a word Luke uses only here in this parable and in the one immediately preceding it. The word is “squandered” – and let me be equally troublesome to this parable and suggest that as disciples of Jesus Christ today we are encouraged and challenged to “squander” – to squander what is squirreled” – that which otherwise might be squirreled away. It is interesting that in layout of Luke’s gospel, immediately preceding this parable, comes a parable many of us have heard of and know well – the Parable of the Prodigal Son – or as we tend to say today, the Parable of the Loving Father. In that parable, the Loving Father welcomes back a son, a son who earlier had gathered his money - money from the sale of a portion of his father’s land - and went off to a far country, where he “squandered” his property is dissolute living. Here the word “squandered” is used in a clearly negative way – this son was wasteful, the money misspent, used in dissolute, self-indulgent ways – squandering – this is bad behavior. But then Luke – right after this Squandering Prodigal Son parable – Luke uses this same word in today’s parable, about a squandering manager – who was accused of “squandering his employer’s property” - an accusation, by the way, that we are never told is true or false. When the rich owner said he was going to fire the manager, the manager comes to a moment of clarity. Like the prodigal son, working in the pig pen, he “came to himself” – had an inner dialogue: “What am I going to do? Too weak to dig, to proud to beg – what will I do? Aha – I know what I will do, so that after I am fired, people may welcome me into their homes.” Then he begins this reduction of commission strategy. He uses the tools and abilities he had – he acted “shrewdly” to gain favor with lots of other people. We could conclude that he “squandered” his own commission, and perhaps a bit of his own pride, in order to gain favor with others. And when that happened, his master, the rich man, was impressed. Word got around about this “reduction strategy” – how in the midst of trouble, a shrewd, clever business plan was hatched and executed, which contained some hope of future welcome and perhaps even future employment. The word squandered here I suspect, is being used in a different sense – not as “wasting in dissolute living” – but as “scattering” – spreading around and abroad – disbursing what one has in order for some gain. Notice how Jesus himself, at the end of the parable, repeats almost exactly what the manager says about being welcomed into other people’s homes - but now, instead of being welcomed into “their homes” – the homes of people who debt was reduced, Jesus tells us to “make friends by means of dishonest wealth – so that when that wealth is gone – when it is squandered and scattered around and disbursed for the benefit of others - you – and you – and I - may be welcome into the eternal homes.” Squandering, spreading around, sharing - disbursing that which otherwise might be squirreled away for our own benefit and safe-keeping – but in the economics of God it doesn’t work that way. Remember Luke also has the parable of the foolish farmer, who plans to tear down his barns and build bigger barns, in order to store all his stuff – and that night he dies and God calls him a fool? Jesus says here, “It’s time to squander – time to spread around what you might rather squirrel away and hide and keep for yourself.” Money and wealth, as Jesus sees it, does a whole lot more good when it is spread around and scattered, more good then when it is kept all in one place, for one’s own self. Money should be kept moving. It is as the farm saying goes – “Money is like manure – it should be spread around.” It does a whole lot more good spread around – and it’s rotten and stinky when it’s kept all in one place. About once a week now I walk up from the church building here, up across the parking lot to check out the building progress on the Fern Creek / Highview United Ministries building. As you can see from the parking lot, the windows are in, and the brick work is nearly complete. In light of this today’s text, it occurred to me how really proud I am of this congregation – of all of you – for your willingness to squander what was squirreled. Beulah has owed that piece of property for a long time. We could have kept it, kept it squirreled away “for our own use.” Looked at it and admired it – and said “good for us – this is a good investment.” Later we could have sold it – for what – maybe 100 or 200 hundred thousand? That surely would help our budget out right now. But now look what we have done – we squandered it. We’ve spread it around – leasing it for one dollar a year – for a community ministries building to be built - for the benefit of others, others in our community who are struggling to make ends meet, to feed and shelter their families - and for the frail, elderly adults who need a place to go for day care so that their loved ones can go to work. That kind of squandering is encouraging to me. It is, I believe, what Jesus wants us to do. This text also makes me think of my own money, and yours. Am I and are we “squirreling” it away more so that we ought? Or are we spreading it around, scattering it, squandering it more than we have in the past, to benefit others? Something to think about – and to act upon – and something that gains us welcome into the eternal homes. And all God’s people said. Amen. |