Luke 16:1-15
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
23 September 2007
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
I saw many of you tense up just a few minutes ago as I read the Gospel. You often do that and I often do that when the topics of money and finances are raised. I invite you to unbristle for a second because as has been my practice here over the past 13 years, I am not going to preach on money. I am not going to tell you that our offering income has been a little low lately and we need all of you to be better managers of your money. I am not going to preach on that over-used stewardship text that you cannot serve both God and money. I am not going to mention that when you donate to the church you are building something for all time and all eternity. Instead of preaching about any of that, we’re going to set aside the topic of money, but just because we’re doing that, don’t think you’re off the hook.
Instead of the topic of money, I hope you will permit me the freedom to swap in another topic. It will well fit that parable just as Jesus taught it.
Let’s make sense of this parable that Jesus taught. Let’s start by identifying the characters. You and I are that shrewd manager spoken of by Jesus in that parable this morning. We have been entrusted much by our big boss, our Creator-God, Who has turned over to us the management of His entire world [Genesis 2:15]. One day He will call each of us before Him to account for our management of all He has given to us [Romans 14:11-12]. Between that time when that trust was places in us and until that time when we shall give an accounting, He entrusts to us much more than simply money to manage. As one song that we sing regularly states, our God has given us “all that we are and all that we have and all that we hope to be.”
So like the shrewd manager in the parable, we together put those things entrusted to us to work. We invest in the lives of people. We don’t just invest money. We invest so much more. We as a congregation have invested much time over the past 115 years in building people up, providing people of all ages a Christian education. We don’t do that lightly. Whenever we baptize a baby or welcome a new member into our congregation, we do ask them to make a commitment.
In the liturgy of baptism we ask parents to recognize and affirm that their job isn’t over in baptism, that their job as Christian parents is really just beginning in baptism, that part of their job is to make sure that their child is raised as a child of God, that the Bible is placed into their child’s hands and that the truths of the Bible are unwrapped and taught them. We as members of this church covenant to help those parents do all that. That, you could say, is the book where we keep track of how we have invested what God has entrusted to us. But, honestly, my friends, when we start feeling a little bit of pressure from our big boss, our Creator God, Who has placed us into this place to be His managers of His sweet Gospel message, we often figuratively sit down with those parents and say to them, “Here. Go ahead and change what you owe. You don’t want to bring your kids to Sunday School? That’s okay. Just change what you rightfully owe God. Change what you have promised to do. I’ll let you get away with it and God will never be the wiser.”
In the liturgy of new membership, basically the same commitment is made. Whether they have stood before us as a young confirmand, whether they have stood before us as an adult confirmand, or whether they have simply received a letter from me recognizing that their membership transfer has been received from another congregation, every new adult member of this congregation has made a commitment to be active in worship, to be active in Bible class, to keep this congregation and its leaders and members in daily prayer and to financially support the work of this congregation (I promise that will be the only time I mention money). That, you could say, is the book where we keep track of how we have invested what God has entrusted to us. But, honestly, my friends, when we start feeling a little bit of pressure from our big boss, our Creator God, Who has placed us into this place to be His managers of His sweet Gospel message, we often figuratively sit down with those congregation members and say to them, “Here. Go ahead and change what you owe. You don’t want to attend worship or Bible class? That’s okay. Just change what you rightfully owe God. Change what you have promised to do. I’ll let you get away with it and God will never be the wiser.”
What we see in our congregation today is exactly the result of that happening over and over and over again. Look through our membership directory and see how many names you don’t recognize. See how many people you haven’t seen in worship for many weeks, many months and even many years. Whether or not we like to admit it, the books are out of balance. What God has entrusted to us as His people in this place to invest, we have invested in people. I do believe we’ve been good managers to that degree. We are a missional congregation. We do, as our mission statement reads, reach out and welcome “ALL PEOPLE” into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, through the power of the Word and prayer.”
But, while we’ve been good investors, we haven’t always followed through as good managers. We haven’t always been as committed to the last phrase in our mission statement – “followed by action of faith.” We haven’t always been faithful in reminding people – and even reminding ourselves – that they have been the recipients of some incredible grace and mercy from God. We haven’t been always dutiful in reminding members of this congregation of their obligation to God that “all that they have and all that they are and all that they hope to be” belongs to Him, to Him Who gave His all for them, to Him Who laid down His life into death so that they could enjoy life, so that they could be the recipients of God’s good gifts.
For the good of this congregation, that needs to be an action of re-commitment today. Like the manager in the parable, we as a congregation, we as God’s managers, shouldn’t just be looking out for ourselves and make the books balance to our benefit – and we could do that very easily by simply removing all those who haven’t been active. We could present to God a set of membership books that show that 100% of our membership is active in worship. God could commend us for our shrewdness, but we’d know the truth, wouldn’t we? And, whether or not we like it, God would know the truth.
So today needs to be a fresh start – and it can be. Today can be a fresh start at the Table of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as He again invests in us His Body and Blood. Today can be a fresh start as we forget our past managerial failures and our past personal recipient failures and allow God’s Holy Spirit to improve us to be better managers and to be better recipients, to plant deeply into our hearts a commitment to follow our own commitments and a commitment as God’s manager toward the care and concern for those we haven’t seen in worship, to reach out to them in love, to hold them responsible, reminding them of what God has done for them and their rightful duty and commitment in return.
When we do that, the books will balance. When we do that, God will be pleased. When we do that, God will indeed say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servants.”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena