Sermon: Trinity 9 - 2021

1 August 2021

Text: Luke 16:1-13

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

An attorney friend of mine liked to say, “This is chess, not checkers.”  If we were to retell the Parable of the Dishonest Manager in modern terms, this expression about chess and checkers might well be something that he would say.

The dishonest manager is a fictional character created by Jesus for the purpose of gently goading Christians, the “sons of light,” into being wise stewards of the kingdom of God.

For God’s kingdom works differently than the world.  The kingdom of heaven operates by different rules than the world works, and yet, Jesus manages to explain how the kingdom works by means of his own stories, like this one today.

And the “hero” (if you can call him that) of this tale is a bad employee, a dishonest manager who is being fired.  The manager is “wasting” the “possessions” of the business owner.  He has not been a good steward of that which has been entrusted to him.  And so, the “rich man” who is the business owner, calls him in to tell him that he is being fired: “What is this that I hear about you?  Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.”

And this is where the manager must think strategically, like a chess player.  He is “not strong enough to dig,” so he can’t just take a day laborer’s job like he might have been able to do as a younger man.  He is “ashamed to beg,” and so standing on the street asking for money is not a viable alternative.  He has to think his way out of this jam.

And this is where the dishonest manager comes up with a strategy to make friends in high places, to wheel and deal and buy the favor of other people who can help him.  It’s a pretty remarkable plan – as dishonest as it is.  And it is a bold strategy, like a chess-player taking the ultimate risk and sacrificing his queen hoping to score a knock-out punch.  The stakes are high, and as the old saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures. 

Here is what our dishonest manager does: he meets “his master’s debtors one by one.”  And without consulting the boss who has just told him to clean out his desk and finish his paperwork because he is fired, he takes it upon himself to rewrite the bills that his boss’s customers owe. 

He rewrites the contracts and offers favorable terms.  He forgives debts and makes friends with people who can help him.  So in the first example, he asks about the contract: “a hundred measures of oil.”  The dishonest manager rewrites the contract as fifty.  In other words, he slashes the price by fifty percent.

The second customer owes “a hundred measures of wheat.”  The dishonest manager rewrites the bill as eighty.

Why did he do this?  Because he is going to need a job.  He can come to these two important men, clients of his original boss, and he can ask for a favor to pay back his own favor.  Of course, the original contracts have been rewritten without the owner’s approval.  But a contract is a contract, and he is – for the time being – the owner’s representative.  So the business owner has to accept less from his customers because of the dishonest manager. 

Think about how audacious this is, dear friends!  In our Lord’s story, the business owner is amazed.  He “commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness.”  Of course he is losing money, but he is stunned by the boldness of his former employee.  He describes this kind of dishonesty as being “shrewd.” 

Jesus tells us the moral of the story: “The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”  In other words, while the world plays chess, we Christians often play checkers.  While the world resorts to boldness and thinking outside of the box to advance its agenda, we Christians often act naively, or at very least, not shrewdly.  For the Lord has given us a job: to be stewards of the kingdom of God.  But we’re too timid, too afraid to take bold action.

We Christians provide hope for the world, light in the midst of darkness, life in the midst of death.  We have Good News for the world!  We are the Lord’s managers entrusted with “the account of our management.”  Do we spend time in prayer for the sake of our neighbors in need of salvation?  Do we invite people, as did Phillip, the disciple of our Lord, to “Come and see!”, to bring them to Jesus in the Divine Service?  Do we put offerings in the plate – even a little if that’s all we can afford – for the sake of advancing the kingdom of God?  Do we think about how our congregation can have an impact on people in our community?  Do we look for ways to be better stewards with our resources for the sake of seeking and saving the lost? 

Are we playing checkers when we should be playing chess?

Our Lord has another lesson from this story as well.  He says, “Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into eternal dwellings.”

This is along the same lines.  We should look for ways to fund the kingdom of God by means of “unrighteous wealth,” while we ourselves retain our righteousness.  We need to think outside the box for the sake of the kingdom, for people are dying, and they need the Good News.  So how can we bring that Good News to them?  How can we get people inside the “ark of the church” – as we say in the baptismal liturgy, here, where the Word of God is proclaimed, here, where the sacraments are administered, here, where God is miraculously present for us by means of the Lord’s Supper, forgiving our sins and giving us the free gift of everlasting life?  How do we draw men into the nets of the Gospel the way that a wise and experienced fisherman knows how to use the best techniques and strategies?

That is our task, dear friends, as the church.  We are not here to simply think about ourselves, but rather to love and serve our neighbors by bringing them to the kingdom.  We are fishers of men.

But unlike the dishonest manager, we are to be honest.  As our Lord says, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.”  He says that we must use worldly wealth wisely to store up the “true riches.”  And “no servant can serve two masters.”  We cannot be like the world and serve money. 

For God is our master, and money is to be put into His service.  Money is to serve us, not the other way around.  This calls for wisdom and discernment, dear friends.  It calls for shrewdness.  The stakes are high.  And it is ultimately Jesus who slashes our bill, actually reducing it to zero.  For He has paid it all with the blessing of the Father.  And that is the life-giving Good News that we have to share with the world!

This is chess, not checkers. 

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.