Luke 16:1-13
This is a confusing story. A manager who is on a performance plan decides to have one last hurrah before the ax falls. He quickly makes the round of his customers and drastically reduces the amounts they owe to the company owner so that they will show him hospitality once the power and prestige of his role are gone. They will be his golden parachute. And what does the big boss do? Does he get angry that this manager has cheated him? Nope. He thinks it’s pretty shrewd business.
It truly is a perplexing parable. But what is a parable after all? It’s an allegory, a story, words woven to convey an underlying reality meant to perplex us a bit, to make us dig deeper, to ponder. And not to provide us with quick easy answers. So I like this particular parable because it really makes us stop in our tracks. What the heck is Jesus teaching us? This parable gives us a lifetime of questions to work through.
The words that pop out for me are “dishonest wealth.” What is this dishonest wealth? It’s called “mammon” in the King James version. At first glance, it seems that this is a parable about money. But what if this mammon is the material world, of which money is a derivative, but not the original stuff? What if this wealth is the original stuff that God made for us? That is, the creation, all of it. The sky and the earth, light and darkness, time, plants, sea creatures, birds, animals, humans. What if our wealth is creation – even our own selves, our very lives, all gifts of God’s own hands?
And what do we do with this wealth? Think of global warming. Oil spills. Air pollution. Species extinction. Centralized animal farming operations. Contamination and commercialization of water. Domestic abuse. Child abuse. Mistreatment of indigenous people. Genocide. Addiction. Investment scams. Conceit. Jealousy. Big and small, public and personal, so many ways that we pervert the wealth that God has given us.
So if we can’t be trusted with this stuff, stuff that is just earthly treasure, this ashes-to-ashes and dust-to-dust stuff, there’s no way we’re going to be able to handle the real riches. What are those? Well, let’s look at what the manager did. He forgave debts, showed mercy, and extended grace. Forgiveness, mercy, grace. Those are the true riches.
So I have this great wealth, dishonest wealth that I have done nothing to deserve, and yet I don’t use it for the right purpose. I squander the precious time that has been given to me, the light of day and darkness of night, to build bigger barns for myself. I seek my success and worldly acknowledgement, while I overlook those in need right in front of my eyes. I let shame or guilt keep me from bringing the talents and gifts I have been given to the world. As for my own self, the creature that God has created me to be, I can either love my body and spend hours working out and money fixing it up – or I can despise my body and hate the way I look. I look down on some people and overly exalt others based on worldly accomplishments. I don’t love my neighbor as myself. I don’t love God when my life is one crisis after another, a fit of anger, a feast of self-involvement, or a valley of despair. A whole lifetime can be spent wasting the wealth that is given. And if I can’t be trusted with what belongs to another – for surely all that I am and have is a gift from God – how will I ever receive what is my own? That is, the promise of faith, hope, and love, those things that continue forever.
I once had a conversation with a man who was at wits end. He had been in an ugly legal battle for years. It was costing him his health, his happiness, his sleep, his peace. He just wanted it to be gone. He could settle in a court of law – a trivial amount compared to his net worth. But he could not forgive. Mercy and grace were out of the question. He was not going to be faithful with this dishonest wealth he had in abundance. So how could he ever know true riches?
But what if, like the shrewd manager, we use this dishonest wealth to create relationship? Our time, talents, resources, finances, love – all put to work to build stronger bonds with other human beings and to care for all creation? What if we start to see a world of plenty, not scarcity? A world of hope, not fear? A world of cooperation, not competition? And what if we begin to use this worldly stuff in a way that creates community, one body? Then, just maybe, the true riches will be ours. Because in forgiving, we are freed. In showing mercy, we are pardoned. In extending grace, we are blessed.
Forgiveness. Mercy. Grace. True riches intended for us by the Father when we get past the mammon-worship.
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