Well Done Manager! Luke 16:1-13

Bible Reading : Luke 16:1-13

Topic : Well Done Manger! - The Shrewd Manager Discounted the Debts

Pentecost 20 59C G

Lamentations 1:1-6; Psalm 37:1-9 or Psalm 137; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17: 5-10

         How can we be happy? 
         A lesson by the parable of the dishonest manager in the Bible..^^* 
        어떻게 행복할 수 있을까? 
        부정직한 청지기에게서 배우는 교훈..^^*

I believe that today’s reading gives us a clue about how we can be happy. 

Today’s Gospel Reading shows us several numbers. It also gives us information about losing jobs, outstanding debts, accounting documents, and the inter-relationship of people and communities.

I did not study Economics, but I have read some popular books about it. Recently, I have read a book Expulsions-Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy by Saskia Sassen. Sassen’s book also told me about the same kind of numbers as we already saw it in the reading, and gave some information about global relationships of our society.

There has been a 60 percent increase in the wealth of the top 1 percent globally in the past twenty years; at the top of that 1 percent, the richest “100 billionaires added $240 billion to their wealth in 2012 - enough to end world poverty four times over.” …….

In 2010, still a period of crisis, the profits of the 5.8 million corporations in the United States rose 53 percent over 2009, but despite skyrocketing profits, their United States corporate income tax bills actually shrank by $1.9 billion, or 2.6 percent.

Today’s biblical story and Sassen’s words are giving overlapping information about wealth. As a theological learner I want to talk about social justice by studying the numbers in the biblical text.

Who is the rich man?

Who is the rich man and how much wealth does he have?

We have some limited information about the rich man, but he has a personal manager to manage his farm and company. And also there are several debtors who have to pay him quite a lot of money. One hundred barrels of olive oil, that one debtor had to pay, was worth 1,000 silver denarii, and a thousand sacks of wheat, that the other debtor should pay, was worth 2,500 silver denarii. One denarius was a day's wage for a laborer in biblical times. If we compare this with the minimum wage in New Zealand, it would be NZ$122,000 for the first debtor and NZ$305,000 for the second debtor in today’s money. According to Luke the Gospel writer who recognised the two copper coins in a very poor widow’s hand(Luke 21:2), the amounts the denarii of debts in silver coins are astronomical compared to the two copper coins. As we know, the value of the two copper coins was 1/40^th of a denarius, and it was the widow’s total living cost in her limited circumstance. There was a huge gap between the rich and the poor in Jesus’ day.

We can easily imagine that the rich man is a billionaire who is living in a luxury world far away from his farm and the debtors. The amount of the debts we calculated might not be an important amount of money to him. Most of all in the context, the rich man does not need to keep an intimate relationship with his property manager. For example, he gave notice of termination to his manager just after he heard a complaint about his work. A scholar studied that the complaint was said from another person who might have hostile intent.(Luke 16:1-2) It was quite an easy process to dismiss the manager.

Who are the debtors?

Let us think of the debtors. They might be poor tenant farmers who rent the farm from the rich man. Their debts had increased so much several years. It might be added to the original debts. Those days, the average price of a slave was about 600 denarii. According to the calculation, the tenants including their family members might become slaves of the master because of their unpaid debts.

In fact, we can think that their labour was very hard back in those days. Let us remember the words of the dishonest manager. He said, “What shall I do? I am not strong enough to dig ditches, and I am ashamed to beg.”(Luke 16:3) His complaint explains the normal situation of their society. The manager could become a slave on short notice. Digging and farming were hard labour and begging was too shameful to live by in their culture. For the poor farmers, if they could earn 400 denarii a year in a normal situation, they could not buy enough things necessary for their daily lives.

John Chrysostom, the Archbishop of Constantinople in 4th century, told about the farmers situation like this.

“Could there be more unjust people [than the owners of land who draw their wealth from the earth]? For when we examine how they treat the poor and miserable country people, we reach the conclusion that they are more inhumane than barbarians. On the people who must hunger and suffer all their lives they constantly lay impossible levies, burden them with toilsome duties, and use them like donkeys and mules, and even stones; ……. [They] now stand there with empty hands, still deep in debt, when they then shiver and quake not just from hunger and failure but also from the tormenting of the overseer, from the warrants, the arrests, the calling to account, the foreclosure of the lease, and from the unrelenting demands? Who can enumerate all the things that are done to them, all the advantage that is taken of them? From their work, from their sweat, storage bins and cellars are filled, but they are not allowed to take home even a little bit; rather, [the landowner] hoards the whole harvest in his own chests and throws them a trifling sum as a wage.”  Ekkenhard Stegemann and Wolfgang Stegemann, translated by O.C. Dean Jr. Minreapolis, The Jesus movement - A social history of its first century, Fortress Press, 1999.

What has the manager done for the debtors?

I could read again this dishonest manager’s story in the light of the law in the Bible. The teaching of the Bible gave me a different view on the manager’s actions.

Leviticus taught us not to charge any interest by this statement; “Do not make them pay interest on the money you lend them, and do not make a profit on the food you sell them.(Leviticus 25:37)” In the same way, Jesus taught his disciples too; “If you lend only to those from whom you hope to get it back, why should you receive a blessing? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount! No! Love your enemies and do good to them; lend and expect nothing back.(Luke 6:34-35)” Deuteronomy in the Bible recorded the law of the seventh year; “At the end of every seventh year you are to cancel the debts of those who owe you money.”(Deuteronomy 15:1) In this way, the people of God had to be generous and help the needy around them.

According to these teachings, the manager was not a dishonest person, but did the right things for the debtors. Only in the view of the rich man, he was dishonest, but in the view of the biblical teachings and the poor debtors, he was good. The manager’s actions could not be understood in the view of the modern economic system which is based on a money system of interest or benefit.

In this view, Jesus could praise the dishonest manager, because the manager is no longer bad but a good manager who treated the poor debtors well. I believe that Jesus called him dishonest because most of the wealthy people thought him as dishonest. Jesus might use the title, “dishonest”, to accuse the wealthy people, especially Pharisees(cf. Luke 16:14). This is possible because Jesus clearly praised the manager’s actions as good and wise. In addition, we might remember that Jesus had told to the disciples to be better than the Pharisees when he taught the Beatitudes.(Matthew 5:20)

The manager was living in a village conquered by Roman Empire and where Greek culture invaded. In the Roman or Greek law, the manager can be judged as a dishonest manager. But what a brave and good manger is he in the view of the biblical message.  

Conclusion and Blessings

Jesus confirmed how money can be treated. He said, “No servant can be the slave of two masters. ……. You cannot serve both God and money.”(Luke 16:13)

Today’s text is a well-known biblical story but as one of the most difficult to be understood. However, the message is clearer than any other stories in the Bible. We as the followers of Jesus cannot serve money even though we are living in a culture of modern developed capitalism. Let us keep our love, faith and hope to serve God rather than serve money. Well done, Manager.

May God bless the poor around us to be happy in God’s Kingdom. May God bless us to serve God as well as our neighbours..^^*

Loving God and Your Neighbours Luke 14:1, 7-14

Bible Reading : Luke 14:1, 7-14 Topic : Loving God and Your Neighbours

Pentecost 15 54C G Jeremiah 2:4-13, Psalm 81:1, 10-16, Hebrew 13:1-8, 15-16, Luke 14:1, 7-14

According to the Gospel Reading today, a leader of the Pharisees invited Jesus for a meal on the Sabbath. The invitation was their culture of generosity. Especially on the Sabbath and for the Pharisees it was good to show off their faithful living in love. They had strong religious beliefs and tried to practice it in their way of living. Practicing it was not just by inviting people for a meal but also giving to the needy, praying in the synagogues or on the street corners, and fasting twice every week.

Let us remember the biblical text that we read today. When one of the leading Pharisees invited Jesus, the other Pharisees also were invited. This was good for them, but the people at the table were watching Jesus closely. It was because Jesus had criticised the Pharisees to their faces several times before. Some of the Pharisees respected Jesus, but others did not.

Hard Questions in front of me

While preparing today’s sermon, I felt that I unintentionally bumped into this story of Jesus and Pharisees. I have been challenged for the past few weeks. Reading the story several times and researching the details about the message, I asked myself, “How can I find the Good News in this story for me and for the church? I like happy and good message for sermons. But, today’s text gives us hard questions. Let me explain why I have been wrestling with this text.

1. Are the Pharisees mirrors of us?

First, it was because of the Pharisees. I felt the Pharisees are like mirrors that reflect contemporary Christian life in various ways. I am looking myself through the Pharisees. They, the Pharisees, were not accused of their teaching itself but accused of their practice that they showed off. While reading today’s biblical text, I felt uncomfortable. Jesus said to the host in the presence of all the guests, “....... Do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your rich neighbours - for they will invite you back, and in this way you will be paid for what you did. When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind; and you will be blessed, because they are not able to pay you back. God will repay you on the day the good people rise from death.”(Luke 14:12-14) I remember that my grandmother invited the poor(the beggar in this text). Nowadays in today’s society, it is difficult to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind for a meal in my home, because they are strangers and also they are not my best friends. So, this is way when Jesus talked to the Pharisees, I felt ashamed of myself.

2. Who are the Poor of Today?

Secondly, the word, “the poor”, who Jesus mentioned in his talking, hurt my feelings. When I asked myself, “What does the word “poor” mean to me?” and “Who are the poor around me?”, I felt dizzy. In the biblical Greek, there is a word for “poor” that means a relatively poor condition. But, in today’s reading, Jesus used another word for the poor that refers to the absolute poverty having no resources, no food, no home etc. Later in his teaching, Jesus intentionally used this word to describe Lazarus, the beggar. As we know, Lazarus was begging at a rich man's door, hoping to eat the bits of food that fell from the rich man's table, but died there.(Luke 16:20-22) Who are the poor today? The food banks of our city are busier than ever.

When Jesus strongly said to the host, the leader of Pharisees, he delivered his saying in an imperative present active form. Also, the word “Invite the poor!” in today’s text meant “Invite the absolute poor like the beggar Lazarus in your society, for the meal!”.

3. God is always on the side of the Poor.

God is always on the side of the poor throughout the Old Testament and especially the teaching of Jesus. They are special to God.

I was shocked when I realised the meaning of the Greek word that Jesus used in this time. Earlier, when Jesus said, “Happy are you poor; the Kingdom of God is yours!”(Luke 6:20), he used the same word for the absolute poor in this proclamation. The Gospel of Matthew added “spirit” to the word “poor”. But in the context of their society, there were many beggars like Lazarus around the Pharisees in those days. I have come to believe that the poor in spirit were living in their extremely poor condition.

After reading this story again, one more question had remained in my mind, “Do I have suffering people around me in my suburb?” I could not find a person like that around me. I drive through the government housing several times every week, but I cannot find any real poor condition there. I maybe a blind to the poor.

Meeting Pharisees again today

I checked again the Pharisees at the table around Jesus.

First, the Pharisees were only sharing their meals with their friends, brothers, relatives, or rich neighbours. All of them were safe people within the purity system of their religion. They were too religious to have “open table” with unclean people religiously. They did not want to be defiled.

Secondly, they liked to show themselves to the public. Most of all, they tried to sit in the best places as much as they possible could. Jesus had to teach them, “Go and sit in the lowest place.”(Luke 14:10), and added this, “For those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great.”(Luke 14:11)

Thirdly, they might not be able to notice the poor around them. It can be thought because Jesus mentioned the poor Lazarus later in his teaching. Jesus wanted and taught his disciples to focus on the poor around them. This teaching has been connected to the teaching about humility. Jesus’ disciples had to sit in the lowest place and honour the unimportant people around them. What did the Pharisees learn and feel? Were they ashamed, embarrassed, or did they become angry?

One more Hope and the Good News Jesus taught

Let me focus on Jesus’ message today. Jesus intentionally emphasised clearly that those powerless people are the more important in God’s kingdom. They belong. They have a special place there, because they are poor. (The rich could not have their places in the kingdom of God, because they already have enough wealth and the good things that are given.(Luke 16:25))

Jesus did not stop teaching. He went further and enforced again on the Pharisees to open their minds and hearts to strangers and the Gentiles around them. When he mentioned “Go out to the highways and hedges”(Luke 14:23), the phrase in the story means “Go out to roads and places outside the town”. Several scholars have interpreted the phrase refers to foreigners who were not members of God’s people in the biblical time.

The Pharisees needed to practice their teaching by accepting the poor and the foreigners into their boundaries and life. Jesus already taught the same love when he commanded, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your friends, hate your enemies.’ But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for them.”(Matthew 5:43-44) I believe this message is good for all the people of the whole world nowadays.

Conclusion and Blessings

Please, let me conclude my sermon today. Jesus pushed me to open my eyes with today’s message to the Pharisees. I have to open my mind to the poor - beggars like Lazarus and invite them to a meal. Would you teach me how I can be able to recognise the poor and focus on them? And also, how could we be with them? Carefully I want to invite you, “Would you join this Jesus’ message of loving the poor neighbours around us today?”

Loving God is the same as loving neighbours. And, neighbours include the poor. Jesus wants us to open our lives to the poor(the beggar), the crippled, the lame, the blind and the Gentiles(foreigners). He wanted to love all the people by teaching the Pharisees to their faces. This is the Good News for them and us when the poor are invited.

May God bless us to love God and our neighbours with all heart, with all soul, with all strength, and with all mind. May God bless the poor to live with us as important members of our society..^^*