Trinity 9
Lk
16:1-8
8/2/26
Bernie Ebbers was a great success
story. He founded a long distance phone service company in the early 1980’s. By
the late 1990’s this had turned into WorldCom, the second largest long distance
telecommunications company in the United States. Under his leadership WorldCom
aggressively expanded through a series of rapid acquisitions.
But there was a problem. The rapid
expansion put WorldCom in a difficult position as its profits began to decline
and this threatened its stock value. So Ebbers cooked the books. He used
various false means to improve the company’s profit and loss position by $3.8
billion. In the end, he was caught. WorldCom filed for bankruptcy as 30,000
people lost their jobs and investors lost $180 billion. Ebbers was sentenced to
twenty five years in prison.
Now to hear Jesus tell it this
morning, Bernie Ebbers is a man to admire and emulate. At least, that’s what
our Lord’s parable seems to say. He tells a parable about a manager who
defrauds his employer, and then the employer praises him for his shrewdness. We
are left to wonder: Why is Jesus encouraging us to break the Seventh
Commandment by stealing?
In our text, Jesus tells a parable
as he says, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were
brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.” The manager was supposed to run the rich
man’s business affairs in order to make more money for him. But apparently, the
manager was doing a terrible job. We
learn that he was wasting his possessions – the same verb that has just been
used in the parable of the Prodigal Son to describe how the son had burned
through his inheritance in wild living.
The rich man found out about this
and knew he had to make a change. He called the manager and told him, “Turn in
the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.” The manger had been fired, and he faced a
moment of crisis. He said, “What shall I
do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong
enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.” He had lost his job, and he couldn’t
see any other possibility by which he would support himself.
But then, he formed a plan that
would secure his future. He said, “I have decided what to do, so that when I am
removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.” He still had
the financial books, and if he moved quickly he could ingratiate himself to
those who owed the rich man.
He summoned his master’s debtors and
told each of them to reduce the amount on their bill that they owed. A hundred
measures of oil became fifty. A hundred measures of wheat became eighty. It has
been estimated that the manger was saving the debtors five hundred denarii –
five hundred days wages. He was giving
them a significant benefit … and defrauding the rich man of serious money.
At the end of the parable we expect
the rich man to be angry. But instead, we learn that the master commended the
dishonest manager for his shrewdness.
Then Jesus explained, “For 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.”
At first glance, this certainly is
one of Jesus’ most puzzling parables.
But things begin to make a little more sense when we look at what
happens after our text in this chapter. First our Lord says, “No servant can
serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he
will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and
money.”
Then Luke tells us, “The Pharisees,
who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed
him.” In response, Christ said, “You are those who justify yourselves
before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among
men is an abomination in the sight of God.” Then the Lord follows up by telling the
parable of the rich man and Lazarus which tells of how the rich man failed to
use his wealth in order to help his neighbor.
It becomes clear that in this
section of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is teaching us about how we are to use money –
about the place it is to have in our life. And he teaches us how we are to view
and use it in light of what has happened in Christ.
In the parable the manger finds
himself at a critical moment. He has lost his job. However, he still has the
financial books. And so if he can use his continuing control over these
possessions in a shrewd manner he can secure his future. But he must act decisively.
Note how he says, “Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write
fifty.”
Our Lord is leading us to recognize
that we must view and use our money in the understanding of what has happened
in him. In Christ the saving reign of God has broken into the world. The
critical moment in God’s plan of salvation has arrived. Paul told the
Galatians, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his
Son, born of woman, born under the law,
to
redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as
sons.”
At the exact right moment in God’s
plan, he sent his Son into the world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and
born of the virgin Mary. By his death on
the cross and resurrection from the dead Jesus has redeemed you – he has freed
you. Earlier in Galatians the apostle described how Christ “gave himself for
our sins to deliver us from the present evil age.”
Jesus has freed you from sin and the
devil. By his resurrection he has delivered you from death, because death
cannot hold on to our bodies. To die is to be with Christ, and on the Last Day
our bodies will share in the resurrection that began with Jesus on Easter.
Christ has given you new life through the work of the Spirit, and it is through
the Spirit now in you that God will raise you up. With good reason Paul tells
the Corinthians in our epistle lesson today that we are those “on whom the end
of the ages has come.”
This is what God has done in Christ
for you. He has called you to be his own, and made you part of the people God.
This saving action by God has meaning for all aspects of life. After all, Jesus
is your Lord as you are in Christ. And in our text the Lord says that
faith in Christ will determine the way we view and use our money and wealth.
Jesus says, “The master commended
the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this
world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation
than the sons of light.” Christ is talking about money and wealth, and he
says that the sons of this world – literally “the sons of this age” – are more
shrewd. That is, they are more consistent in applying their guiding principles.
If God isn’t in the picture, then a
person should act like money is his or her god. Money and wealth should be the
center of life. Attention should always be focused on getting more. And the use
of money should always be directed in selfish ways. Everything should be about
me – clothes, house, cars, electronic gadgets, and travel for me. That is what
it should look like if money is your god and lord.
But of course, you have a different Lord – the Lord Jesus. And he
warns, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and
love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You
cannot serve God and money.”
It turns out that money is an inherent temptation because of the
old Adam in us. A god is anything that
we value most – anything in which we find our true sense of security and worth.
Jesus says later in this chapter, “For where your treasure it, there will your
heart be also.” Money stands in competition with God for the rightful place of
Lord in our life.
Jesus promises that God will provide us with daily bread – with
what we need to support this body and life. He points to how God provides food
for the ravens and clothes the lilies in beauty. God will certainly also feed
and clothe us. Christ says, “And do not seek what you are to eat and what you
are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek
after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.
Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added
to you.”
So how do we seek the kingdom of God – the reign of God – as we
deal with money? The place to start is to recognize that everything you have
comes from God. Everything belongs to him. The Psalmist says, “The earth is the
Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.”
What we have belongs to God and he has given it to us as a gift to manage –
something for which we are a steward.
Christ says that we are to “seek his kingdom.” We do this
by focusing our attention on the means by which God’s reign comes to us to
forgive sins and strengthen faith. The
Means of Grace need to be at center of our life in our weekly attendance at the
Divine Service, and in our daily reading of God’s Word.
And we seek his kingdom using our money as we support the Means of
Grace. Christ has given his Office of
the Ministry to the Church to administer the Means of Grace - to preach the
Word and administer the Sacraments. His Spirit has worked through the Church to
place a pastor in that Office here at Good Shepherd.
The apostle Paul told the Corinthians, “In the same way, the Lord
commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by
the gospel.” He has commanded his church to give offerings that support a
pastor in your midst. And while a pastor may be the most expensive thing needed
for the Means of Grace, he is in no way the only thing. There is a building to
maintain in which we meet – a building in which you probably want electricity;
a building in which you probably want that electricity to provide air
conditioning.
God has commanded you to seek his kingdom by supporting the Means
of Grace through your offering. He says that your offering should be the
willing and cheerful act of faith. Paul
told the Corinthians, “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also
reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or
under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
And in his Word, God has provided direction about how you are to
give your offering. Paul told the
Corinthians, “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put
something aside and store it up, as he may prosper.” The apostle teaches us two things here.
First, our offering is to be first fruits. We give by starting with what God
has given to us, not by giving of what is leftover after we are done with
everything else in life.
And second, our offering is to be proportional – it is to reflect
how God has prospered us. It is not the size of the offering that matters.
Instead, what matters to God is how it stands in relation to the blessings he
has given you. As those blessings increase or decrease, so also will your
offering.
This proportional nature of our offering is captured in the
practice of the tithe. The Church has drawn upon this Old Testament model of
giving, and has recognized that 10% is an ideal starting point for the offering
given by Christians. When you return a tithe of your income back to God in your
offering you are seeking God’s kingdom in the way you are using your money. You
are demonstrating that all you have is a blessing from God. You are supporting
the administration of the Means of Grace by which Christ’s reign comes to you
to give forgiveness and keep you in the faith.
At first glance, our Gospel lesson this morning seems puzzling. But
when we look more closely we find that Jesus is teaching us about how we are to
deal with money as those who upon whom the end of the ages has come. The end
time salvation of God has arrived in Jesus Christ. By his death and
resurrection he has rescued us from sin, death, and the devil.
Because of this, we now use our money guided by faith in the Lord.
In particular, we follow our Lord’s command by supporting the Means of Grace
that go on in our midst through our offering. We give willingly and cheerfully. We give a first fruits offering that is
proportional – that reflects the way God has blessed us. We do this because of
what Jesus has done for us. As Paul said when he was instructing the Corinthians
about their offering: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by
his poverty might become rich.”
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