Proper 20 C - September 18, 2022

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY

Br. Josép Martinez-Cubero, OHC

Pentecost, Proper 20 C - September 18, 2022

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Luke 16:1-13

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Studying this gospel passage has been quite a trip. I have read so

much about it that begins with something like: “Scholars are conflicted about the meaning of this gospel passage and cannot agree.” Or “This is a very difficult text.” Or “This is the hardest of Jesus’ parables.” Or “Interpret this parable at your own peril!” The parable strikes a chord because we don’t want to hear that a dishonest manager (or steward, as he is referred to in some translations,) was praised for his shrewdness. In fact, we want to get as far away from that idea as possible, thank you very much!

A long time ago in a different life, I worked as a Human Resources Administrator for a large corporation in New York City. My position required quite a bit of continuing training, and I remember one particular training seminar about knowing when people lie. We were taught how to tell from someone’s body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice whether they were lying. The seminar speaker began the seminar by saying that, the first thing she wanted to make very clear is that everyone lies. No exception. We all lie. And the first lie is to say we don’t lie. She said that those who get the most incensed about being lied to, are usually very good liars themselves.

Those of us who pray the psalms and read the scriptures every day are reminded, hour by hour, of the human condition, and propensity to point the finger and look at the sins of others. We are all saints and sinners. The best thing we can do for ourselves is to stop pointing the finger, come to terms with our own brokenness, give in to God’s eternal loving grace and be grateful for it.

It always works the same way. What annoys us the most, what we judge most, what makes our righteous indignation flair up the most is simply a mirror showing us the parts of ourselves we don’t want to see or accept or love. The degree of our hidden shame is proportionate to the degree of our intolerance or self-righteous judgment. So, of course, a gospel story in which Jesus is talking about a master commending a dishonest manager for acting shrewdly is going to make us very uncomfortable. We want the manager to pay for his dishonesty. We want a God who is just and fair. We want a God who is predictable and follows the rule of law. We want a God with whom we can reconcile our scorekeeping. Why? Well, because as long as we are busy blaming another for their dishonesty, we don’t have to look at our own.

And the idea that Jesus might be placing himself in the position of the shrewd manager? Shocking! In his great book, “Kingdom, Grace, Judgement”, American Episcopal priest, author, chef and Holy Cross Associate, the late Robert Farrar Capon wrote: “[Jesus] was not respectable. He broke the sabbath. He consorted with crooks. And he died as a criminal. Now at last, in the light of this parable, we see why he refused to be respectable: he did it to catch a world that respectability could only terrify and condemn. He became sin for us sinners, weak for us weaklings, lost for us losers, and dead for us dead.”

Jesus was repeatedly criticized and called upon by the religious authorities for his breaches of the law and of decent behavior- healing on the Sabbath, eating with those whom the religious leaders saw as despicable people, ignoring rules of ritual cleanness. None of these might seem particularly offensive today, so, what indecent or immoral individual would scandalize our sensibilities? Is it the woman who wants to get an abortion, the white-collar criminal, or the person transitioning to a different gender? We can be very certain those are some of the people Jesus would be hanging out with. 

By the time of today’s gospel passage, Jesus has been preaching the good news of the Reign of God, healing the sick, raising the dead, and stepping on the toes of every religious leader around Jerusalem. In his dealings with sinners and tax collectors he pronounces to them, “go, your sins are forgiven.” Those who have staked their lives on following the law to the letter do not appreciate this Jesus guy acting as God’s steward and going around forgiving debts. His message to the religious leaders, though, is that God is the eternal creditor and not them. The debts he is cancelling are owed to God, and God commends him for it. So, the Scribes and Pharisees grumble, but instead of answering their criticism Jesus tells a series of Parables:

A shepherd had one hundred sheep. One wandered off, and the shepherd, leaving the ninety-nine sheep behind, goes in search of the lost one. When he finds the sheep, he gathers his friends and rejoices.

A woman had ten silver coins. One disappears, so she lights a lamp and turns her house upside down until she finds it. When she finds the coin, she throws a party with all her friends, costing more than the coin’s worth.

A father had two sons. One demands his inheritance while his father is still alive, runs off to the city and squanders his money. Realizing he can’t possibly survive if he continues making the selfish choices he has been making, he decides to return home to daddy with a nicely prepared speech of repentance. His father seeing him from afar welcomes him home with open arms and throws a party to celebrate his son’s return. His faithful, generous, and devout older son wants none of it. But the father says: “This son of mine that was dead is now alive, the one who was lost is now found.”

A dishonest manager is about to be fired for squandering his master’s funds. Because he doesn’t want to do manual labor and is too proud to beg for charity, he goes around to all his employer’s debtors and cuts deals with them, so they’ll owe him hospitality when he loses his job. Yes, crafty, but he transforms a bad situation into one that benefits, not only him, but also others, and in doing so, repairs relationships. Surprisingly, the employer commends the manager for his shrewdness.

So, I can’t tell you what every sentence of this parable about the dishonest manager means and won’t try to do so. But I can tell you a few things I know about God.

• God seeks for us even when we wander off.
• God will turn our lives upside down to find us, and when we are found, God celebrates.
• God waits for us with open arms, ready to forgive us, even when our selfishness and self-interest has blinded us to the harm we cause ourselves and others.
• God commends us for repairing broken relationships and takes our expectations, perceptions, and preconceived notions and turns them upside down with a grace so crazy, it is incomprehensible to us. And we are called, not to earn it, but to live in it. It is a grace that is freely given. What? That’s right! It is when we consent to that grace that we are able to extend Christ’s love and forgiveness to others.

In God’s economy, Christ, the shrewd manager is squandering forgiveness left and right. The more we grow in our awareness of this, the more we come to realize we are not the scorekeepers. The one who is, has a very different idea of who we are. In the words of Barbara Brown Taylor, “To give in to grace is to surrender our ideas about who God should be in order to embrace God’s idea of who we are, and to have the good sense (simply) to say thank you.” (Barbara Brown Taylor, Living Pulpit, 1995) ¡Que así sea en el nombre del Padre, del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo! ~Amen+
found, God celebrates. 