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SERMONS

The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 23, 2001

By David Christian

The Lilly Foundation recently surveyed the religious attitudes of young adults in this country. They found that most young adults today look for a church with "clear moral values."

That makes a lot of sense. Over the last few decades our culture has been going through enormous change. At times it feels as if we are trying to build our lives on shifting sand. We have a real need for some place in our lives where things can be well defined. A place where there can be some clarity. A place where we can learn to distinguish the good from the bad.

I suspect that that is part of the reason many of us are here today. We are here looking for examples of the kind of life we should lead. And then the church gives us this gospel.

The parable of the dishonest steward is one of the most difficult of Jesus' teachings. It has troubled and perplexed Christians throughout the ages. And it continues to trouble us today.

Where is the moral example in this story? Who is the good guy here? Is it the rich man? Surely not. This is the fat cat living well off the work of others. He's the one in the big house sleeping late and eating well while his middle management is increasing productivity by pushers his laborers harder and harder. He's the one heading out of town for long weekends while his slaves work fourteen hours a day for barely enough to survive.

He can't be the good guy. We always pull for the under dog. For Robin Hood. For the clever guy who figures out some way to get by in even the worst of situations. So maybe the manager is the good guy. Is he the one you're pulling for?

He certainly looks more promising than the fat cat. In the beginning of the story he is standing there while this rich man is screaming at him, threatening to throw him out on his ear. Surely he deserves some of our sympathy.

But then his true character begins to emerge. We hear him mumbling to himself as he hurries back to his office. "What am I going to do? I could never do any real work. I'm not strong enough for that. And I'm too proud to beg."

So what does he do? He begins to cook the books. He begins to cut deals with his master's debtors figuring if he is generous enough one of them may help him when he gets tossed out. Generous enough with someone else's money, that is.

This is no Robin Hood, taking from the rich to give to the poor. This is the Pentagon general cutting deals with contractors so that he can get a comfortable job when he retires from active duty. This is the congressman who loses re-election and goes to work as a lobbyist the next week for big bucks.

This guy is pond scum. He's the one you liked? This lazy thieving, cheating liar? I'm surprised at you. You need to be more careful who you hang around with.

This guy deserves what he is going to get. No wonder the master wants to get rid of him. It would serve him right if the master discovered exactly what was going on? And the master does discover. And what does he do? He congratulates the dishonest manager for his cleverness.

Just when we have decided that maybe the rich guy isn't so bad at all; just when we begin to see what he has been putting up with in this manager; just when we begin to feel some sympathy for him- he gets right down and rolls around in the slime with the manager.

We go through this parable looking for the good guy, looking for the hero, looking for the moral example, and there just isn't one.

The parables of Jesus have sometimes been likened to windows. When we look through the window of this parable we see an unpleasant world. We see a world of exploiter, swindlers, thieves, and cheaters.

Sometimes the glass of a window becomes a mirror. Sometimes as we look out at the world we see our own reflection. Sometimes we recognize ourselves.

We come to church looking for labels. We come to church looking for ways to distinguish the good from the bad. And sometimes we get stuck.

Who are you? Are you the manager? Always looking out for Number One? Looking for the angle that will be best for me? Willing to fudge the truth a bit if it serves your interest? Are you the master? Condoning immoral behavior in others? Secretly admiring the scoundrels?

If I look hard enough, I can see myself all through this parable. As a preacher I can't shake my finger to hard at you; I might hit myself in the face.

We have met the scoundrel and he is us. We really are a moral mess. We really do need a savior. Someone who isn't too respectable. Because we certainly aren't. Someone who knows what it's like.

And we have one. Jesus was not too respectable. He was accused of consorting with riffraff, with sinners and prostitutes. He lowered moral standards. He disrupted clear moral values. And he was killed by the respectable people as a common criminal.

So we come to church all cleaned up and scrubbed up. We come looking good. We come looking for some way to doctor the books. Some way to get things fixed so we won't get what we really deserve.

And he looks down on us sitting here. He sees our desperate attempts to save ourselves. He sees all our wheeling and dealing, which have nailed him to the cross. He looks down. And he says, "Father, forgive."

David Christian
The Chapel of the Cross
Madison, Mississippi

Proper 20, Year C
Amos 8.4-12
1 Timothy 2.1-8
Luke 16.1-13