Presented to Swift Current
Corps 21 March 2010 and 30 November 2014. Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale
Corps, 29 July 2007 by Captain Michael Ramsay
This is the 2014 version. To read the 2007 version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2007/08/luke-161-13-sudden-death-overtime.html
Thank you to everyone who is helping out with all of our events this
Christmas season. Kettles are well under way; we have finished the first week
of hamper registrations; Friday we were at the Tree Lighting and had a float in
the Light Parade. The Teddy Bear, Toque, and Mitt Toss is coming up next
weekend: Saturday, December 6th at the Broncos Game.
I enjoy the SC Broncos games. It is neat going to see WHL games. I
remember watching the Victoria Cougars play when I was a kid with my dad and it
was always a good time too. When there was a World Juniors game here in Swift
Current a few years ago I went to see the game with my girls and they actually
caught the game puck! That was exciting. Hockey at the local rink can be a lot
of fun.
When Rebecca was just born, I used to listen to hockey every Friday
night. I worked almost every other night (and day, I owned my own business) and
Friday night was my night to be home with Rebecca and clean the house; so I
would listen to the junior hockey games on the radio after I put her to bed as
I was doing the dishes and other things around the home.
I remember this one game. I caught the 3rd period. The
home team had just dominated the game. It was three or even four to nothing
coming into the last minute of play. These players had worked really hard;
completely controlling the game and they started celebrating the winning of the
last game of their season… with one minute left to
go. Then the other team scored. Then again. 30 seconds left. Then
again. 10 seconds left. It was four nothing less than a minute ago – they were
celebrating – now they are up 4-3 with only 5 seconds left and they aren’t so
confident – and now there’s a face-off in their own zone. And you know what
happens? The away team scores with less than a second left to force
sudden-death overtime. Our team squanders their lead and as a result they face
sudden death.
If you’ll turn with me back to Luke Chapter 16, the manager we read
about also squanders from his position, and now he faces sudden death – or
sudden unemployment anyway: he is fired.
Jesus tells this parable directly to his disciples right after he
tells the story of the prodigal son. Remember, the point of that parable (which
we looked at earlier today)? What happens when the son squanders what (the) God
(figure) gives him? He is forgiven. The parable of the prodigal is about God’s
forgiveness of the son who squanders everything on wild (NIV) or dissolute
(NRSV) living. As we return to God, He will forgive us - whatever we have done.
But this parable raises another question then…can we just keep
sinning and it doesn’t matter?[1]
If we are members of God’s family, His household, can we just squander
everything on ‘wild living’ and sin, like the son? After all, the father not
only forgave him but he also threw a big party for him. So, why not just keep
sinning?
And this is a question that Jesus answers right away in the next
parable:[2]
God (the father) in the prodigal story forgives the one that squanders what he
is given but God (the owner) at the commencement of the manager story does not.
Jesus says, Luke
16:1-2, “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of SQUANDERING (NRSV)
his possessions. So he called him in
and asked him, ‘what is this I hear about you? Give an account of your
management, because you cannot be manager any longer.' You face sudden death –
sudden unemployment.
The prodigal son is forgiven but the wicked manager is fired. Jesus
is right away stopping any thoughts people might be having that we can just
keep sinning when we work for God. If there are any who think that they can go
out and waste everything that God has given us, Jesus answers us emphatically…
No – No – No, He says, give me an account.
The manager is working for (the) God (figure) in this story –just
like the disciples are and just like we are - and now the
manager, he is fired and he never saw this coming.
Verse 3, he asks: “what shall I do now… I’m not strong enough to
dig. I’m too proud to beg.” He’s being fired for squandering what God has given
him and he probably didn’t see it coming.
Well, how are we doing with what God has given us? We know, of
course, that our jobs, our businesses, farms, car, home, family, and all the
gifts and talents we have really all belong to God and we are just managing
them until Jesus returns; so, how have we been doing with that?
Are we using them for the Kingdom and God or are we squandering them
on ourselves? At anytime, Jesus will come back. At anytime the owner will ask
us for an account of what we’ve done with his possessions: are we using them
for what he wants us to use them or are we squandering them on ourselves and on
‘wild living’?
I can think of a time when I was a pre-teen and I was in the living
room when my dad was watching some telethon to help the needy kids. He was
talking to me about it for a while. Trying to instil in me the values of
helping others – or something like that – and then right when they are asking
for money –on purpose – he says, "thanks Mike for all the help you’ve
given me working around the yard this summer" ...and he gives me five
bucks... while he’s picking up the telephone. He says, "now you can spend
this on anything you want"…while he dials…"anything at all…Hello
telethon"…and he hands me the phone…immediately, I’m thinking about giving
the telethon $2.50 (or less), but I know what my father is saying that I should
do with this money and I do it.
Are we doing what our Heavenly Father wants with what He gives us?
What are we doing with His money, yes, but also – can you teach? Are you
teaching others about Jesus? Are you organised? Are you using your administration
skills for the Kingdom? Are you are social person? Are you telling people about
Jesus and visiting them when they are sick? All of this is included in the
first question Jesus is addressing with the parable of the manager but he
doesn’t stop there.
Look at Verses 4-7. These are controversial verses for some scholars
but let’s see what we can make of them, shall we?[3]
The manager says to himself, ‘What shall I do now? — I know what I’ll do so
that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ “So he called in each one of his master’s
debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
“‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.
“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make
it four hundred.’
“Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’”
‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied.
“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
So do you see what the manager is doing here? Now this isn’t his
money, remember. This is his bosses’, the master’s money – in one way or
another[4]
– this is the master’s money and the manager’s plan is to give it away; isn’t
this what he got in trouble for in the first place – wasting his master’s
money?! Isn’t that what he was fired for in the first place?
And now he is out on his ear, this is his idea: he slashes what
people owe his master and he makes a lot of friends in the process. No kidding…
can you imagine? And these are not just small personal loans. This is big
business, these amounts, by the way. This isn’t just a family operation. Can
you imagine if the CEO of RBC –faced sudden death, sudden unemployment- can you
imagine if he just got his pink slip and went out and cancelled everybody’s
mortgage or student loans…no kidding people would like him and offer him jobs.
Or like a politician, who looks like he’ll lose an election, bails out big
business or privatises something, selling it to his friends. No kidding someone
will offer him a job.
So then, what is Jesus saying here? Is he saying that it is okay to
cheat God like the manager cheats the owner? This is another question inherent
to the parable…and look at Verse 8. When all this happens and the owner
potentially loses the equivalent of millions of dollars in the process, it says
“the master commended [praised] the dishonest manager because he acted
shrewdly.” He commended him for wasting his money, which is what he fired him
for in the first place. What?!?
What is Jesus saying? …Is Jesus saying that we can be tricky and
waste God’s possessions? Well…no. And this is where the first part of this
parable that we spent so much time looking at comes into play. No, the Bible
says you cannot waste that which God has given you and Jesus is pretty clear
about this. If we can’t be trusted, if we squander what God has given us, we
will be fired. We will lose. It is the same as stopping playing hockey in the
last minute. We will face sudden death overtime and - if we stop playing - we
will lose.
Further, if we have any doubts about this, in Verses 10-12 Jesus is
explicit. There is no ambiguity. He says, “Whoever can be trusted
with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest
with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have
not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust
you with true riches?
Do you see that? Jesus is saying it is not the untrustworthiness,
the shrewdness, the trickiness that is being applauded in this parable. It is
not the fact that the manager has -without permission- reduced all these debts
for his own personal gain; it is not this that Jesus is applauding. He says if
you are dishonest with a little, you will be dishonest
with a lot. And if you do squander -waste the talents and other things God
gives you- you will not be eternally employed.
So then, if it is not the manager’s untrustworthiness that is being
applauded? Why is the owner happy with the manager who wastes and squanders his
things after he has already been fired for wasting and squandering his things?
Is it that he put profit first? He cut a deal with big business to get a new
job like a corrupt politician about to be kicked out the door selling off a
country’s possessions. The manager doesn’t want to do any physical work but he
still wants to make big bucks. Is this what the parable is talking about?[5]
Is this what is being applauded: planning for his own financial
security?
No. Jesus answers this
question in Verses 13 and 15. He says emphatically, “No servant can serve two
masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted
to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” ...What
is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.” And
Jesus goes even further earlier in Luke when he says (14:33) that one should be
willing to give up all one’s possessions to follow him…
So why does he commend, why does he praise the manager? What’s he
talking about? What is he really talking about? Jesus makes it clear that he is
NOT saying that we should aim for material gain (v.15) and if we
do we are not serving God (v.13) and Jesus makes it clear that he is not
applauding untrustworthiness for he says clearly that those who are
untrustworthy here are not worthy of trust in the Kingdom of God; so what is
Jesus talking about in this parable?
Jesus' point to his disciples in this parable and Jesus' point to us
is this, if even the people of this world (v. 8), who are not even wise enough
to secure the ‘true riches’ for themselves (v.11), if even the people who
wickedly squander what they are entrusted with on themselves, if even the
people who don’t use God’s wealth for His purposes (cf. Luke 12:13-21) – if
even the people of this world are wise enough to prepare for their future when
they know it is near (v.8); so should not we, who have been entrusted with so
much more –the knowledge of the Kingdom of God – should not we be even more
wise than they?
In context this makes sense. The prodigal son comes back. He returns
to Father. He comes back to live with God. Sure he strays but he comes back
and, like the son, if we stray we can return. We are welcome back and the story
of the prodigal makes that clear. But don’t leave it too late.
The story of the manager picks up where the prodigal son leaves off.
The manager did not return to doing what was right until it was almost too
late. He is on his metaphorical deathbed before he realizes that it is just
about too late. He, like the hockey players in our earlier analogy has stopped
playing the game well before it is over and he is facing the natural and
logical consequences.
We need to remember this. If we assume that we are in God’s employ
so we can stop being holy and just start sinning because it doesn’t really
matter than we will find that we are in the same spot as the manager. We shouldn’t
celebrate so much that we stop playing before the game is over (cf. Lk
12:35-41,41-48), if we do we may find out that we are not actually on the
winning side.
On that note, how are we doing at managing God’s time, money, and
skills that He has given us? How are we doing? Are we using our gifts for the
Kingdom? If we are, this is what the Kingdom looks like; this is what it is
like when we have returned to the father and when we are trustworthy managers:
If our dad gives us five bucks and tells us to give it to Jerry’s kids, we will
give it to Jerry’s kids. If our Father lets us have a good job with good pay
and invites us to give some of that money back in tithes, offerings or other
ways, we will give it back. If He gives us the skills to teach Sunday school,
fix the church; if He nudges us to invite our friends to church, we will do
that and more. When we do this will avoid being in the same position as the
manager. You see, we have already been entrusted with the true riches of the
Kingdom of God. It is not too late.
The third period’s not over. We can play the full game and we can
experience the victory with Jesus. We can. No matter if we’ve already started
to squander our lead like the son or the manager, it is not too late. We can
come back. We can come back. We can return and experience the victory with
Jesus, we can. Praise the Lord. Halleluiah. Let's avoid 'sudden death' and let
us build on that lead playing for the Lord for now and forever.
Let us pray.
---
[1] This is one of the questions that is being answered for his
disciples (cf. Lk 8:8-10; Mt 13:10-17; Mk 4:10-12).
[2] This is not the only place where it can be argued that Jesus
answers a parable with a parable. One of Luke’s two references to the parable
`hiding your light under a jar` appears to be part of his explanation to his
disciples of the parable of the Soils (Luke 8).
[3] The scholars varied opinions are around things such as whether or
not the manager was acting honourably or dishonourably here, whether or not
this section is making a comment about the character of God, and questions
about if the manager's untrustworthiness and love of money were actually
rewarded; I argue alongside the majority opinion, based on the larger context
as I address later in this sermon, that it is not these things that are being
rewarded at all.
[4] R. Alan Culpepper, NIB IX: Luke, John, 308-309 has a good
discussion of various theories around how the wealth was acquired and why or
why not the manager’s actions here are justifiable. This is a contentious issue;
I don’t think that it need be however. If even the ‘wicked’ are smart enough to
prepare for the future in their wicked ways, how much more should the
trustworthy (faithful) (v. 11) prepare for the future and how much more
seriously should we take the true riches (v. 12) with which we have been
entrusted
[5] Some may suggest that we act this way; you’ve heard the argument
that you can only take care of others once you take care of yourself. What good
would we be to the poor, if we were broke ourselves?
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