Charming Rogue or Kingdom Citizen

Charming Rogue or Kingdom Citizen

Reverend Litton Logan

Scriptures:

Jesus said to his disciples, “There was once a rich man who had a manager. He got reports that the manager had been taking advantage of his position by running up huge personal expenses. So he called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? You’re fired. And I want a complete audit of your books.’

“The manager said to himself, ‘What am I going to do? I’ve lost my job as manager. I’m not strong enough for a laboring job, and I’m too proud to beg.… Ah, I’ve got a plan. Here’s what I’ll do … then when I’m turned out into the street, people will take me into their houses.’

“Then he went at it. One after another, he called in the people who were in debt to his master. He said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

“He replied, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’

“The manager said, ‘Here, take your bill, sit down here—quick now—write “fifty.”’

“To the next he said, ‘And you, what do you owe?’

“He answered, ‘A hundred sacks of wheat.’

“He said, ‘Take your bill, write in “eighty.”’

“Now here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior.”

God Sees Behind Appearances

Jesus went on to make these comments:

“If you’re honest in small things,

you’ll be honest in big things;

If you’re a crook in small things,

you’ll be a crook in big things.

If you’re not honest in small jobs,

who will put you in charge of the store?

No worker can serve two bosses:

He’ll either hate the first and love the second

Or adore the first and despise the second.

You can’t serve both God and the Bank.”

When the Pharisees, a money-obsessed bunch, heard him say these things, they rolled their eyes, dismissing him as hopelessly out of touch. So Jesus spoke to them: “You are masters at making yourselves look good in front of others, but God knows what’s behind the appearance.

What society sees and calls monumental,

God sees through and calls monstrous.

God’s Law and the Prophets climaxed in John;

Now it’s all kingdom of God—the glad news

and compelling invitation to every man and woman.

The sky will disintegrate and the earth dissolve

before a single letter of God’s Law wears out.

Using the legalities of divorce

as a cover for lust is adultery;

Using the legalities of marriage

as a cover for lust is adultery. Luke 16: 1-18 (TMNT)

Sermon:

Today’s parable in Luke 16 is intended to upset the listener’s sense of the expected and to pull us into moments of uncomfortable self-reflection. Thereafter, Jesus slips in a deeper, spiritual lesson.

Jesus’ Palestinian audience would have understood this parable much as we understand the story of Robin Hood, the roguish folk hero of England, who all ways seemed to get one up on the man. We all know that Robin Hood was a bandit but because the authorities were harsh and unmerciful it was somehow okay for Robin to steal from them, especially if he shared some of the loot with the common folks. This sharing, however, may not have been altruistic. It may have been Robin’s way of paying for people’s silence and taking him in times of difficulty not unlike the self-serving dishonesty of the steward in our scriptures today.

This parable of the dishonest steward is one of several accounting parables, which consists mainly of warnings and instructions about using one’s wealth wisely. These warnings start with Jesus’ denunciation of the Pharisees in Luke, chapter 11, and progress through the parables of the rich fool, who forfeits his soul, and the prudent steward, who was praised by his master. This theme continues in the stories of the prodigal son who “squandered his property” and in our scriptures today with a dishonest steward who “squandered his master’s property.”

To understand today’s scripture, one must place themselves in the minds of those first-century listeners. Jesus’ audiences were mostly the poor people. They and their kind have been yanked around by the rich and powerful and lived at the caprice of kings and rulers across the ages.

Let’ try this--you are a poor black or white sharecropper. You attend a little, predominantly black Baptist church on King and Anderson Plantation just outside Clarksdale, Mississippi. The year is 1955; it is July. Jesus is setting outside the church under a huge cottonwood tree in the bed of mule-drawn wagon.

It is hotter than Hades on the outside of the church but cooler than inside the tin-roofed oven of the Baptist Church. Every one is dressed in their Sunday best. The give-a-way, handheld fans from Couch’s Lumber Company, Delta Hardware, or the National Funeral Home with pictures of Jesus knocking on a door or an icon of the Virgin Mary on them provide little relief from the slow-bake heat.

A hush radiates out from where Jesus is setting as he begins to speak. He says, “There was this large plantation owner, who had an overseer, whom some said was not doing right by the plantation owner.” At the first mention of the plantation owner, possibly an absentee owner, the audiences’ teeth would have been set on edge. Racing through the minds of the congregation would be such thoughts as, “What do we care about de owner and his overseer?” Couldn’t care less what dey do to each other, ain’t no bidness of our’ern. Good riddance, hope dey mess each other up good.”

Then Jesus tells them that the plantation owner summarily dismisses the overseer without even a chance to defend himself. “Go get your accounts ledger, boy, I’m gonna check you out right now”, comes the plantation owner’s imperious command. Hearing this, the congregation begins to feel a little, just a little, sympathy for the overseer. They know how it is to work for the man and to have their life and livelihood in the hands of others as well as to be jerked around with no power of redress when wrongly accused.

As the overseer heads to his office behind the plantation store to get his ledger, the congregation is invited into his thoughts. What am I going to do, he thinks. I am not fit enough to do manual labor, and I can’t shame myself by going on welfare. With these musings of the overseer, what little sympathy the congregation of the Baptist Church may have had evaporates. Most of the overseers were an overfed, soft, and lazy lot. The listeners thought it might serve the overseer right if he had to work for a living at bare subsistence level as they did.

Nevertheless, about the time the overseer reaches the front steps of the store, he slows down and a roguish smile spreads across his broad, flaccid face--he has an idea.

It is at this point that we must leave the Deep South of 1955 and journey back to ancient Palestine. Quickly, the overseer sends for one of the more prosperous sharecroppers who has extensive farming rights and owes his master about 900 gallons of olive oil. He tells the sharecropper to cut his debt in half. He calls in another sharecropper, who owes the plantation owner a hundred sacks of wheat. He tells this man to knock off twenty percent.

Many scholars maintain that the steward is discounting the debts by the amount of his commission in exchange for future upkeep. Other scholars say that the steward is forgiving the interest or usury on a loan, which was forbidden to be levied on a fellow Jew by Levitical law, however it could be accounted for and expressed in terms of agriculture products. If this is the case, then the steward comes out looking good by endearing himself to his master’s debtors, and his master looks good for not having charged interest on the debts. Another perspective has been that the steward drops his commission in order to increase his master’s profits hoping to re-ingratiate himself to his master and keep his job.

I doubt any of these attempts to make the steward look better than he was are accurate. The commissions would have been unreasonable, as would the interest rates. Therefore, we are left with just what the scriptures tell us--this guy is dishonest. Therefore, he calls in two sharecroppers to help him cook the books before the audit so he will have ingratiated himself to them and they will help take care of him when he is dismissed.

Now the early Palestinian crowd and the congregation of the Baptist Church would have been amused and pleased with the steward—sly as a fox that one--he got one up on the man—the plantation owner, the least favorite of the two central characters. However, they would have been left with some uncomfortable feelings. You see, given their harsh and hopeless life with its predispositions to resent the owner and the steward they have been led into admiring and approving of a thief and his crime.

Then the real surprise comes—the plantation owner, praises the dishonest steward for his cleverness in a time of crisis.

To further compound the surprise with abject horror, Jesus tells his audience that they should be as shrewd as this steward in taking care of themselves and their fellow Christians in difficult times. The audiences’ ideas of justice and kingdom values are now turned upside down.

Is this parable saying as a follower of Christ, we are to look for opportunities to make ourselves look good in God’s eyes through acts of charity and getting one over on the world by beating the world at its own game. Are we to become streetwise to the point of turning bad situations into opportunities to prosper beyond necessity? Does this parable mean we are to use our money to help the poor so that when we enter the kingdom and give account of ourselves we will have merit on God’s books?

Yes, that is exactly what this parable is saying my friends. We are to be shrewd in taking care of ourselves and our own. We are to use every loophole in the regulations, laws, and social processes to our benefit and to help others, regardless of whether to do so is in and of itself right or moral.

Now that we are uncomfortable--

Jesus went on to make these comments:

“If you’re honest in small things,

you’ll be honest in big things;

If you’re a crook in small things,

you’ll be a crook in big things.

If you’re not honest in small jobs,

who will put you in charge of the store?

No worker can serve two bosses:

He’ll either hate the first and love the second

Or adore the first and despise the second.

You can’t serve both God and the Bank [Materialism].”

What society sees and calls monumental,

God sees through and calls monstrous.

God’s Law and the Prophets climaxed in John;

Now it’s all kingdom of God, the glad news—[There is no secular and religious world only the kingdom of God, here, now, and yet to be fulfilled. Comments mine]--the glad news [offers a] ~~and~~ compelling invitation to every man and woman.

The sky will disintegrate and the earth dissolve

before a single letter of God’s Law wears out.

Using the legalities of divorce

as a cover for lust is adultery;

Using the legalities of marriage

as a cover for lust is adultery.

In short, God sees and knows our motivations in all things. God knows when we attempt to look good in the eyes of others at the expense of real kingdom values and motivations. God knows that if we are faithful in the smallest of kingdom values and ethics, we can be trusted to be faithful in the larger projects of kingdom coming. God knows good, moral character is not dependent upon the size of the job but on the moral and spiritual conscience of the individual—steal a penny, steal a million dollars, cheat on a spouse; cheat the corporation or the government.

The world may think a person is a “good Christian” because of all their wonderful deeds of charity and elegant words of care and concern. However, God knows the truth of a person’s soul. In God’s eyes, kingdom values trump what is legal and socially permissible. Even when we use the letter of the law in an unethical and un-kingdom-like manner as charming Christian rouges to get a leg up on an unjust and unethical world, God knows and the Spirit judges us as un-worthy citizens of the kingdom. In summary, the Christian end never justifies the un-Christ-like means.