Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, come.  Take my lips and speak with them.  Take our minds and think with them.  Take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you.  In Christ’s name, we ask it.  Amen

Once upon a time, a poor man was caught stealing and was ordered to be hanged by the king.  On the way to the gallows he said to the governor, who was in charge of carrying out the execution, that he knew a wonderful secret and it would be a pity to allow it die with him.  He also said that he would like to disclose the secret to the king.  What he would was put the seed of a pomegranate in the ground and through a secret taught to him by his father he would make it grow and bear fruit overnight.  So the thief was brought before the king and all of the king’s high officers of the state.  Standing before these powerful men, the thief dug a hole in the ground and said, “Here’s the secret: this seed must only be put in the ground by a person who has never stolen or taken anything which did not belong to him.  I being a thief cannot do it.” 

So the thief turned to the prime minister who, frightened, said that in his younger days he had retained something that did not belong to him.  Next the thief turned to the treasurer who said that while dealing with such large sums of money, he might have at one point or another entered too much or too little.  Finally the thief turned to the king, who embarrassingly admitted to keeping a necklace of his father’s with out his permission.  Then the thief said, “ You are all mighty and powerful men who lack no material comfort, and yet you cannot plant this seed, while I who have stolen a little because I was starving am to be hanged.”  The king, pleased with the shrewdness of the thief, pardoned the man.

This story is from a book of collected works written by various rabbis dating back to the Middle Ages.  Stories like this one about the shrewd thief were popular in Jewish folklore.  In fact, stories of clever tricksters and wise rogues were common teaching tools for rabbis.  Of course, the most famous trickster of them all in the Jewish tradition (and for that matter Christian tradition as well) is a man we discover in the pages of the Old Testament—Jacob.  Jacob, who is the patriarch of the nation of Israel, deceived his father, cheated his brother, and then made off with most of his father-in-laws flock of sheep, not exactly commendable behavior.  Nonetheless, right or wrong, Jacob’s behavior pays off.  First, he receives his father’s blessing, then he becomes very rich, and, finally, he fathers twelve boys whose descendents are the forbearers of the Jewish people and the keepers of the Jewish faith.  It could be argued that, despite Jacob’s questionable character, his decision to deceive was wise beyond measure.   

In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus, who is very much rooted in the Jewish tradition of his day, tells the story of another one of these clever tricksters or wise rogues.  The story goes something like this:

There’s a rich man who hires a manager to handle his business.  At some point along the way, the rich man discovers that the manager is doing a poor job and squandering all of his money.  So the rich man asks the manager to make an account of all of his work.  Now, the manager knows that he is going to lose his position, as soon as, his boss sees what a poor job he’s doing, so he takes a dramatic and dishonest, for that matter, course of action to try and save his own tail.  So here’s what he does.  The manager goes to several different people, who owe his boss a lot, and I mean a whole lot of money; and he tells them to quickly doctor their receipts so that it looks like they owe less than they really do.  This will save the debtors a considerable amount of money.  The manager, of course, is hoping that these people who he’s giving a significant break to will remember him and help him out after his boss kicks him to the curb.  The story goes on to imply that the rich man figures it out.  He discovers the manager’s attempt to ingratiate himself to his debtors by cheating him out of an incredible amount of money.  Now, here is where the story gets interesting and for some people maybe even frustrating.  Jesus ends the parable with these words, “And his master [that’s the rich man] commended…commended the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly.”  That simply doesn’t make any sense.  How can the rich man commend this dishonest manager and call his actions shrewd?  How is he not simply furious at the dishonest manager? 

The answers to these questions are not easy to unravel.  However, I think we should begin by considering how things function in the economy of God rather than the economy of this world.  God is not some how bound hand and foot to our ideas of fairness.  The very concept of Grace, which is a central concept to the Christian faith, is counter-intuitive for human’s who see the world as existing in dual polarities.  Most people would agree that there is right and there is wrong.  Moreover, we should be rewarded when we do things right, and we should be punished when we do things wrong.  Speaking for myself, I am happy to say that things work differently with God. 

Grace is defined as an unmerited gift.  That is Grace is a gift given to people who do not deserve it.  Grace is being rewarded when we do wrong, not right.  You see God’s love transcends, human notions of justice.  God sent Jesus into the world as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of all people—deserving or not.  In the death and resurrection of Jesus, God has reached out to us to gather us into his loving arms despite our dishonesty, despite our weak moral fiber, despite our hurtful actions toward one another.  We can never live up to the perfection we are called to as people created in the image of God.  And the Good News is we don’t have to because in the economy of God Grace is the guiding principle.  Just as the rich man seems to look beyond the dishonest manager’s dubious behavior, God in Christ looks beyond human sin and brokenness and sees only His beloved children who He desires to heal, to prosper, to love. 

At its core, this parable points to the primacy of Grace in the economy of God; however, there is at least one other level of meaning in this story.  That meaning is connected to the character of the dishonest manager in the parable.  It’s been conjectured by some scholars that Jesus’ use of a manager, which can also be called a steward, in this and other parables led to its use in the early church to describe the duties of Christians.  The idea is that God has given the church management, if you will, of the created world and all that is in it—in particular each other.  God is our “owner,” but he has entrusted us into the stewardship each other’s hands so that we can mutually care for one another.  St. Peter writes in his first letter, “Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.”  Further more, Ignatius, who was an early church father, living in the second century, once wrote, “Labor with one another, struggle together, run together, suffer together, rest together, rise up together as God’s stewards and servants.  Be pleasing to God in whose ranks you serve, and from whom you receive your pay.” 

Reflecting again on Jesus’ parable, you remember what the dishonest manager was commended for.  He was commended by his boss for being shrewd which is the same thing as saying that the manager was commended for being prudent or wise.  Those who bear the name of Christ, Christians, are called to be wise as we manage and serve those things and those people entrusted into our care.  The parable asks us to consider whether we’ve been shrewd in determining the best way to serve the people in our lives?  Whether we’ve been prudent in the way we spend our money?  Whether we’ve made wise decisions when determining the best use of our time? 

Jesus says, “Whoever is faithful in very little is faithful also in much.”  The reality is our sphere of influence is relatively small, and there are only so many commitments that you or I can make in a single day.  Nonetheless, we need to ask the question, are we, in our own small way, prudently, faithfully serving God by caring for those things and those people entrusted to us.  Fred Craddock, a noted professor of preaching, once wrote, “Most of us will not this week christen a ship, write a book, end a war, appoint a cabinet, dine with a queen, convert a nation, or be burned at the stake.  More likely the week will present no more than a chance to give a cup of water, write a note, visit a nursing home, vote for a political leader, teach a Sunday school class, share a meal, tell a child a story, go to choir practice, and feed a neighbors cat.” 

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