The Ninth Sunday after Trinity - August 1, 2010

The Church Season of Pentecost
The Ninth Sunday after Trinity, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (August 1, 2010)

“The Shrewd Manager”

Readings:   
    Psalm 51:1-12
    2 Samuel 22:26-34
    1 Corinthians 10:6-13
    Luke 16:1-13

Sermon Form    Deductive

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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today is as recorded in the New Testament Lesson from 16th chapter of St. Luke, especially the following verse:

Luke 16:1-13 (NIV)

1 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’ 3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— 4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ 5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 “‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’ 7 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’ 8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. 10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? 13 “No servant can serve two masters. 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 both God and Money.”

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Today’s reading of the shrewd manager comes right after the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  The word "prodigal" means "wastefully spending".  The Prodigal Son was "wasteful" with his father's inheritance because he spent it on wild living.

The shrewd steward in Luke 16 was also wasteful because he was misusing the money and goods of the rich man for whom he worked.  And if we think about it a little while we will come to the conclusion that all sinners are wasteful, just in different ways.  Sometimes, people wastefully misuse the Name of God.  Sometimes, they wastefully misuse the Divine Service and the hearing of God’s Word, either by having distracted minds or by being distracted by their surroundings.  Sometimes, we wastefully misuse life, or property, or even a marriage.  You’ve certainly heard it before, that comment about relationships, or hobbies, or possessions, that saying is, ‘What a waste of time, or waste of energy, or just plain, what a waste.   But truly none of the things which we pursue belong to us anyhow, they are all from God's gracious hand.  We are stewards who are supposed to wisely use the gifts that God gives us. 

But it is in our sinful nature to be wasteful in various ways.  Whenever a gift is misused, it is a waste of what God has given us.  All people misuse their tongues, which is the gift of language.  The eyes God gave you are misused when you covet something that is not yours but you want it to be.

Of course I could go on and on, and truly there is not a gift that could not be wasted.  I could speak of stewardship, and whether the saints of God give their time and money in a proper way.  For instance, Do you give your time for Bible Study, both at home and here?  Do you give enough for the proper support of God's ministry?

In these and many other ways, everyone here is a wasteful steward of the treasures God has given for His people's use.  If you succeed in one area of life, you will surely fail at a dozen more. But the most surprising thing happens.  And in our parable today something surprising did happen.  The rich man does not do what you would expect him to do.  Because, when he finds out that his worker the steward is wastefully misusing his goods, the rich man does not immediately have the steward arrested and thrown into jail, although he has the right to do that.  In fact, throwing that employee into jail would be sound business practice when an employee is caught in embezzlement.  But, instead the rich man does something unexpected, he is merciful.  He warns the steward that he cannot be a steward any more.  Yet he allows the steward time to put his affairs in order.

How does he put them in order?  From a purely human standpoint, it seems that the steward engages in dishonest practices.  He seems to be stealing more from the rich man by canceling the debts of those who owe him money.  But the rich man, when he discovers what the steward has done, praises him for his shrewdness. So what the steward discovered was that his master, the rich man, was merciful.  That is the key to the parable.  In the same way that the rich man did not immediately throw the steward in jail, he also wanted to show mercy and generosity to others.  So when the steward began canceling debts, that is exactly what the rich man wanted.

That is not a good business practice.  But it is perfect practice in the Kingdom of God.  God is a most merciful Lord and Master.  He wants His servants to use their resources in a merciful way. So each and every one of you should be exactly like the steward.  Meaning, you should first recognize the mercy of your Lord and Master.  Because of your errors, your sins, the things you have done, the things you have said, the things you have left undone, God has not immediately thrown you into the prison house of death.  And make no mistake, the wasteful misuse of God's gifts, does indeed deserve eternal death.  But our merciful Lord surprises us and He gives us life.

Therefore, His incredible mercy drives you to also act in mercy toward others.  In small ways and big ways, He leads you to give up your gifts for the sake of others.  Instead of greedily holding onto what you have and using it only for your own pleasure, the Master makes you like Him.  His Spirit puts your hands in motion to give away what you think is yours.

And you can only do this sort of thing if you are not consumed by the fear of poverty or death.  That is why the Lord first showed you His mercy so that you can rest securely in His mighty hand. Here is the parable unveiled, which is the mercy of God the Master.  Jesus Christ, Himself first became a steward, under the Law.  He took the form of a servant.  But He was not a greedy, scrounging, wasteful steward, since Jesus lived without sin.  Therefore, He showed mercy in His life more than any man has ever done.  He gave up the riches and comfort of heaven to become Man and live a life of poverty.  Yet He kept on giving away all that He had.  Jesus healed the sick, He fed the hungry, He drove out demons, and Jesus even raised the dead.

But that was not enough for Him, since His mercy is greater than any of us sinners can imagine.  He gave up even His own life.  He gave His body into torture.  He gave His blood to be shed.  He gave His very soul into the anguish of hell.  He gave His last breath.

Why did He do it?  Well that indeed seems very wasteful, and not shrewd at all from a purely human perspective.  Why in the world would God throw away the life of His only Son Jesus Christ for mere sinners? The answer is not found in the why’s of this world, rather the why’s are answered from heaven.

It was all for mercy.  This was exactly what Christs’s merciful Father wanted Him to do.  Through Christ, the Father gave His mercy to mankind.  In His blood and death, Christ canceled every debt of every sinner on earth. So, Jesus Christ, is the greatest Steward of all.  For God took your account and He examined your ledger.  God looked at the record of your life, an then He looks at Jesus Christ, and says to you, "Quickly, write down 'Zero.'" And because He said it, therefore it is true.  Your gigantic debt to your Lord is canceled completely.

That is the mercy of God for you.  God does not really care about having His debts paid back.  He wants to show mercy more than He wants to do anything else.  Let all the debts go unpaid!  God would rather have you in His kingdom. Therefore He has done it through His Son, and He has declared it publicly, just this morning.  He said, "I forgive you all your sins."  True, it was some lousy steward who spoke those words.  But the steward is Jesus Christ and He represents His Master God the Father, and God has given all authority to Jesus Christ to forgive every debt, right down to the last penny.  And that is not a wasteful effort for Jesus Christ has done all that just for you. Amen.

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