Homily for Trinity 9 - 2020

"Free to Be Shrewd" 

Luke 16:1-13

Listen here.

Put yourself in the shoes of the manager. For some time you’ve worked for this successful, very wealthy man. He has always been fair and honest—a good boss. He’s also a shrewd business man. He seeks out and acts on every good business opportunity he can. He’s one of those CEOs who wants to bless and benefit others. Because of this, the company has done quite well. Your boss also has many loyal clients. They rent property from him so they can plant, grow, and harvest their crops, usually olive oil or wheat. From their harvests they pay the rent to your boss—various agreed upon amounts of olive oil or wheat.

Your job has always been to manage these business transactions. Make sure the rent comes in on time. Keep the ledger to show who owes how much and who has paid up or not. Inventory the olive oil and wheat that come in and how well they sell in the market. Your boss has entrusted you with a great responsibility. He has trusted you to keep everything running smoothly. As his “estate agent,” you’ve done well and made a good salary. The business owner and all of his clients all seem to respect the job you’ve done.

Until now. Out of the blue, just this morning, your boss came to your workspace and said, “You’re fired. Please hand over the company’s accounting books, gather up your things, and be gone by the end of the day.” You were stunned. You did muster the courage to ask, “Why? What have I done?” The boss said, “I’ve heard word about you, how you’ve been dipping into the profits, taking olive oil and wheat for yourself. You’ve been squandering my possessions.” Then the boss left.

Squandering? Then you remember that story Jesus told—the one about that willful, prodigal son demanding his inheritance while his dad was still alive and then going off to another country and squandering it on the party scene. What wretch that guy was!

Now what will you do? You’re not in shape for strenuous manual labor. And rely on handouts? Never! One of the landowners must have seen something and said something. How could you be so careless? Yeah, not exactly the right thing to dip into the profits for yourself. But now, your family, how will you feed them? Remorse can wait. It won’t help you land on your feet. Now what? Time is short. This is an existential crisis.

Then it hits you. You know your boss is honorable, truly a man of mercy. So you call in his debtors. You tell them to reduce their rent payments. They’ll think he gave the order and you’re simply implementing it. They’ll be happy and, hey, one of them may even give you a job. Perhaps you can land on your feet.

What happens when the boss—this man of mercy—hears what you’ve done? He actually commends you! No anger, no dressing down. No, he does not approve of your dishonesty or your cheating. He did have every right to throw you in jail for your theft, but he didn’t. Instead, he compliments you on your shrewdness, your street smarts.

There’s one major problem with this parable from our Lord’s lips. It’s not that Jesus commends the dishonest manager, as troublesome as that appears. The real problem is that it’s so true. You and I do not have to pretend to be the dishonest manager—put ourselves in his shoes; we ARE that dishonest manager. God Himself is the rich man—the One who owns everything under the sun. He is the wealthiest, fairest, most honest One. And He shows Himself merciful. You and I are but His managers, His “estate agents.” We can only work with what belongs to Him—His possessions. Even we belong only to Him, not to ourselves.

We ARE that dishonest manager, and Jesus confronts us with that truth. We have wasted and do waste His possessions in thought, word, and deed. We routinely squander our heavenly Father’s possessions—both physical and spiritual—in selfishness and “ingrown eyeball-itis.” (That’s another term for “sin,” by the way.) It could be money and stuff. It could be Word and Sacrament. We squander it and deserve to have the management taken from us, forever.

What do you do with such an existential crisis? What do you do when the wealthy, merciful God of the universe confronts you, gives you your pink slip, and says, “Out of my presence”? You can’t do anything. There’s no human escape from this crisis. The solution must come from outside yourself.

Just as the manager in the parable did, you must trust the character of your Master—God—and stake everything on His mercy. He shows that mercy by sending His only-begotten Son to be the best and only honest manager. He comes, bringing all of the Father’s treasures, and He cancels your debt, your dishonesty, your doubts, your fears, all by going to a cross. His forgiveness for you is honored by His Father because of that death on a cross.

Your Lord Jesus is also shrewd in dispensing that cross-won forgiveness for you in the anointing of your Baptism and in the wheat of His Supper. When you have, receive, and use your Lord’s Sacraments, you have an eternal home when this earthly home fails you.

So it was the master’s mercy that freed the dishonest manager to be shrewd. Jesus highlights this with His parable punchline: “the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” When you stake everything on your Lord’s mercy, you are free to be shrewd—but shrewd with honesty—in all of life. After all, Jesus also said, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise—that’s shrewd (same Greek word)—as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt. 10:16).

Let’s pray for shrewdness, or wisdom, in all of our management of God’s possessions, everything from His money and stuff to His mysteries of the Gospel and the Sacraments to our dealings with one another. His mercy in Christ frees us from our mismanagement and dishonesties. Now we are free to manage and use all things for His glory, for the good of His Church, and to benefit our neighbors.

On that note, let me encourage you in some shrewdness and then thank you for some shrewdness. First, the encouragement. I encourage you to view our time together in this place as both “political event” and “peaceful protest.” After all, this is the city of God in the midst of the city of fallen man. This place is God’s embassy in a foreign land, as are all Christian churches faithful to His Word and Sacraments. We are called to peacefully protest all the injustices and oppressions of our sinful flesh, this fallen world, and the devil himself. We must protest when leaders find ways to keep churches closed, punish them for opening, or otherwise muzzle the Gospel. We must protest when leaders prompt us to suspicion of one another, division from one another, and reporting one another, even over what we wear or don’t wear on our faces. Most of all, we must protest the old evil foe who stirs all of this up to distract us from the Lord’s mercy and our life together. After all, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of evil, especially in times of pandemic and pandemonium.

Now the “Thank you.” Please receive a hearty “Thank you” for your shrewdness in stewardship these past few very trying months. During this time when so many people, families, businesses and even churches are struggling, you—all of you—by God’s grace, have made sure that Hope congregation is not struggling. In fact, we have been operating in the black and continue to do so. And all it took was a pandemic to bring out such shrewdness! So thank you for strongly supporting the preaching of the Gospel and the giving out of Jesus’ Sacraments. Thank you for taking care of your servants, both called and hired. And thank you for your shrewdness to use “unrighteous wealth” for our Lord’s eternal purposes.

Our Lord’s mercy frees us to be shrewd for the sake of proclaiming Him. Amen.