AN ECONOMIC LESSON FOR TODAY

Luke 16: 1-13

There are many old sayings that are not necessarilygood.  For example, when someonesays “Desperate times call for desperate measures,” does it mean his arm istrapped and he’s about to cut it off with a pocketknife, or does it mean that aman with no money decides to rob a convenience store and in his escape, runsover an innocent bystander? What is good about desperate times? And how manydesperate measures pan out to be more foolish than brilliant? In our day, thedreadful economy has made people do, or consider doing, foolish things.  People who’ve had a mortgage they couldno longer pay simply walked away from it and the bank foreclosed on them.Foolish or brilliant? The bank could have tried to negotiate for differentterms, but in most cases no negotiation occurs. Foolish or brilliant? If therewere negotiation, the bank would have gotten less money instead of no money, and the homeowners would havepaid less money now but stretching out the terms of the mortgage, still had ahome in which to live. In my neighborhood, and the house next door to our sonChris, and perhaps in your neighborhood, there are foreclosed properties withchoking weeds, high grass, cracked cement, and mildewed eaves: just anotherhouse in foreclosure.  Some peopledeclare bankruptcy as a last resort option. Foolish or brilliant?  I know people who did that; for some itwas exactly the right move for a desperate time, for other, not so much. This yearI think more copper tubing has been stolen and sold than any other time inrecent history! Crimes could continue to rise as people choose desperatemeasures. But there are other choices that are not criminal:  some families move in together,choosing shared meals and living space over law-breaking.  Some families have an unemployed dad goto stand in a labor pool line at 3:00 am each day when the office not even openuntil 5:00 am. All because there will not be a job for every man in line thatday. They do it have a chance at a $7.70 an hour job. Dad then comes homeexhausted and will do it again tomorrow, but his moral fiber is intact and hishard work has earned a meager wage.I have seen those who have lost their job hold those signs on streetcorners, start working at a fast food restaurant, or find extra seasonal workaround the holiday. Others have found out hotels continue to have employment turnoversand in the housekeeping department. What are the measures you or your familymembers are taking to deal with your desperate times?

In today’s story, like last week’s about the parablesof the lost, the context tells us much about the meaning. In one breath, Jesus hasfinished his last story. Quoting the father’s speech to his older son about thejoy he has in having his younger son return home. Jesus then continues with ourstory today. Our passage starts with: “Then Jesus said,” and we get today’sstory.  At a seminar on end of lifeissues at Stetson University on Friday, I was reminded of a lesson I learned onhospital visitation from a chaplain: he said, “Never take the emotions orinformation, good or bad, out of one room when you leave and carry it in to thenext room.” He was so right. Many of us, when we leave one hospital room,either walk around the floor to clear our heads, or wash our hands and at thesame time, to purge our recent experience so we are ready for the new one. As wemove to this new parable from chapter 15 to chapter 16, we cannot carry thecharacters from the last one into this one. Whereas the Father in the last storyhas been equated convincingly with God over the years and listeners oftenidentify with one of the sons or the father, this story has an entirelydifferent cast; it is not a second act of the same play. Here we have a richman who is described as an owner of property who, like many people, got amanager to take care of the property and collect the rent.  You perhaps have run into this. I knowsmall business owners in shopping centers and strip malls that, when they havea complaint, do not talk with the owner, who may be across town, across thecountry, or across the globe reaping income, they talk with the man hired to bethe go-between: the manager. In this case we should think twice beforeassigning any roll of crookedness to the rich man; he was doing business andhad a report, false or not, about his manager skimming money from him. So hecalls him in to the office: “What’s this I hear? Turn in your books, you cannotwork here any more.” The action of the rich man is not the point of the story. Butwe are now invited into the thought process of the employee. Some of you havebeen laid off or terminated in these tough times. But desperate times are lessdesperate with carefully considered measures to deal with income loss. Themanager says to himself: “What am I going to do?” We would do well not to takethe next lines as truth, but more as truth as the caught man sees things. Hesays, “I am not strong enough to dig!” Isn’t he? If he were forced to dig,could he? Or would he just rather not dig? Has his pride gotten in the way as the color of his color whenfrom white to blue; from management to laborer? Is that too much for his ego?Is the idea of pushing dirt instead of paper unseemly? Or could he apply for anew job under his pay grade to put food on his table? He’s not ready to dothat; so he slips into “desperate measures” mode. He also cuts out thepossibility of begging as well, even though, from what I have seen at the endof exit ramps and intersections, it must pay something or they wouldn’t standout there day after day. When visiting Jenny and Brian three weeks ago, I wasshocked to see beggars on street corners wearing reflective vests! When I askedabout it, I was told that beggars actually register with the city and are assignedreflective vests to wear and street corners on which to stand! Begging is controlledby registering them and giving them a place to stand! Who would do it day afterday if it didn’t pay something? But this manager cannot see hanging up hiswhite shirt and tie. So he does something dishonest, believing that his bosscan’t hurt him more than he already has (wrong), and that he can make newfriends who might employ him later. He lets those who owe his boss money givehim less money and puts “paid in full” on the bill. It’s a desperate measure.But people are opportunists. Yes, he got people to take his deal for now. Butwould any one of them really want to hire him knowing that he would just aslikely be unethical if he worked for them as well?  The manager used his position to enhance his presentcondition, but he was dooming his future even more. Martin Luther took thetitle in verse 8 (kyrios) which literally means lord, to mean the Lord Jesus,thereby making it sound as if Jesus blessed the dishonest manager. But there isanother interpretation. The word (kyrios) is not capitalized in verse 9 andthus the NIV and NRSV among other translations decide the word should be masterto keep from thinking the reference is to the Lord Jesus. In that case thetitle would refer back to the manager’s boss: the rich man. You might imagehim, who no longer employees this man, finding out from his new accountant whathis fired manager did. Imagine him pulling the manager aside saying “Off therecord, what you did was quick thinking. I might have done that if I were inyour shoes.” So the parable in that case would not have a hero in the cast ofcharacters at all; it just has a man trying to win points with customersthrough money, that wasn’t his with which to negotiate in the first place! Weshould not be sucked into the idea that such a lying man is commended by Jesus.But Jesus always wanted to make his audience think, and his stories masterfullyleave the audience to put their own epilogue on his three act plays. The masterfinishes his speech in verse 9; only in verse 10 do we certainly get thecomments of Jesus again. “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful inmuch.” Could that not mean that if you are even honest and humble enough to getin a labor pool line in pitch darkness for $7.70 an hour, then you will begiven more by the one above you, and those around you, who are watching? “Andwhoever is dishonest in small areas also will have no qualms about beingdishonest in big areas.” If you will lower the bill another man owes yourformer boss after you are already fired, how much more will you do dishonestlyif given the opportunity? As Jesus says, “If you have not been faithful withdishonest wealth, who will entrust true riches to you?” “True riches?” Thatsounds like Heaven talk. Jesus message from this parable might sound somethinglike this: “Do you want to risk sacrificing your soul for just a few dollars?”Do you want to see the look of disappointment in the eyes of your God when youmanipulate for money?” And then Jesus goes on in hyperbolic fashion: “If youwant to sell your soul for money, then money you will serve and worship. Youwill be lost like that manager. But, ifyou want to serve God, then work hard, work smart, but choose the high road.”

How important is it to read Jesus’ parables carefullyand not fall into well-worn interpretations of what they say? What would it sayto unemployed people if Jesus blessed dishonesty? There has to be a differentway to look at these amazing parables of Jesus. There is. We will continue tounpack them in weeks ahead. May desperate times not always call for desperatemeasures for you, especially when it comes to money.

Jeffrey SumnerSeptember 19, 2010