I considered whether to create a top 10 list of reasons why this parable is the most confusing parable in all of the New Testament. If you think I’m exaggerating, read this parable again and ask yourself:
What is Jesus telling us to do?
* to be clever by making deals behind a boss’s back?
* to think only of ourselves in time of crisis?
* or are we to read this ironically?
I thought it was just me, but heard from many of my colleagues and other preachers this week that they would rather preach on any other parable than this one. I take this as a challenge. To focus our discussion this morning, I think it’s wise to look at verse 13: “No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
If you have read any newspaper or online news site this week, you’ll know that it’s not hard to find examples of dishonest dealings in the stock market, in business, or in politics. But this week, we look no further than our morning meal to see a lie that was force-fed to us all, years ago. It turns out that sugar executives, paid off scientists to lie about the harmful effects of sugar and instead, told us, the American public, that FAT was the problem.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/eat/how-the-sugar-industry-shifted-blame-to-fat.html?_r=1
So we were taught through the 70s, 80s, 90s and today to have a fear of FAT. We were taught that bacon and eggs were the culprit for heart disease and weight gain. We were told that low fat was the way to go. In with the frosted, sugared, flavored cereals, out with avocados and natural fats. Natural butter was labeled as bad, but margarine was good. Or so they said.
Turns out the song, “Pour some sugar on me” should have been, “Pour some olive oil on me.” Or instead of calling our loved ones “honey” maybe we should call them, “Avocado” or “Bacon.” (There’s nothing better than bacon!)
In past decades there was an obsession in America about low fat, low calorie everything. But this week, we learned that sugar is bad, fat is good. What? All these years, fat had been the enemy…but now the enemy is sugar? Why do the rules keep changing?
How many people have suffered with heart disease as a result of this bad information? How many people have struggled with heart disease and diabetes, not knowing what to eat and what to avoid, based on the latest scientific information – information that keeps changing like the seasons?
Why did they do it? Why were scientists bribed to change their story, sending a false and harmful message to the public? It’s plain and simple. Greed.
This is the same kind of greed that leads people to aim for perfection, instead of being satisfied with excellence. This leads pro athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs to attain super-human results, rather than honoring the limits of the human body.
Why are perfection, money, power and winning so tempting? I suspect it has always been with us as humans, right from the first tree of life located in the Garden of Eden. No longer content with limited knowledge, as the story goes, the first humans wanted not to be like God, but they wanted to be God — having knowledge and insight that surpassed their human abilities. The creation story sure paints an ugly picture of the temptation that we as humans face — the temptation to have it all — essentially, to be perfection — to be God.
This is first commandment stuff. This is about idolatry.
Back to the parable: the shrewd businessman knew he had done wrong, but wanted to strike up another deal so that he would be liked, so that he would survive after being fired for some kind of mishandling of the business. He was in a bind. And that’s when Jesus says: “you cannot serve both God and wealth.”
Now I’m not going to stand here and say that wealth is bad. In fact, the money we have is a gift from God — along with the other gifts that we have — ourselves, our time, and everything else that have. It’s all a gift from God. But I think this statement can be threatening to some who have bought into the American Dream: the dream that says that in America anyone can pick themselves up by their boot straps and make a go of it. Anyone can become educated, wealthy, and secure…if only they work hard enough for long enough.
But the trouble is that this is false. It’s a lie.
If you’re thinking, “we have it pretty good in Minnesota,” I would argue that it depends whom you ask.
- In Minnesota, there is a huge educational gap between students of color and their white counterparts. Schools are not nearly as integrated, setting up schools in impoverished areas with huge disparities when it comes to offering students resources that would provide for an equal education
- Payday Lending practices, which are still permitted in this state, allow for working class and poor citizens to take out loans with a 300% annual interest rate, enslaving them in a cycle of debt and poverty that has no end.
- You’ve likely heard the stories about how the Epi Pen has increased by 300% in recent years, taking for granted that this life saving treatment would be available to all who need it.
Who made the rules that said this is ok?
Reflecting on the parable from Luke, I wonder what God is telling us.
What’s the alternative to unfair shrewdness? What’s the alternative to playing by the world’s rules/ethics?
We need look no further than the first commandment: I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods. Martin Luther taught that a god is anything in which we trust with our whole hearts. There are so many good things that can be at once turned into idols.
For example, competition in and of itself is a good thing — it’s what keeps me going back to the gym week after week – if only I’m competing with myself. But when the greed for winning is stronger than care of our human family, then winning becomes an idol. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I have seen two examples recently in athletic completion when care for others was valued over the almighty win.
- During the recent Olympic Games, New Zealand distance runner Nikki Hamblin and US runner Abbey D’Agostino were four laps from the end of the 5000m race in Rio when they collided. They both fell to the ground. That’s when the Nikki, the New Zealander, got up and helped her opponent to get up and they finished the race together. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/21/new-zealand-and-us-runners-awarded-for-sportsmanship
- This week there was a delightful example of compassion and mercy that came from Texas. Texas — the land where football is practically another religion. When a player from the opposing team was seriously injured during a football game and airlifted to a nearby hospital, this could have been the opportunity for the team in possession of the ball to score a game winning touchdown. Instead, at the coach’s suggestion, the team took a knee, ending the game. Players who were shaken by their teammate’s injury high five’d and hugged opposing players. After the game the coach said, “It was a very teachable moment for both teams to remember the moment you take a stand for what’s greater for humanity not what the scoreboard says.” http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/09/texas-jv-football-team-honors-injured-teammate-sportsmanship-woodlands-katy-tompkins
- In Detroit, a teenager who won a year’s worth of pizza donated it to a homeless shelter for other youth because she wanted to bring something good to her city. http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/detroit-couple-wins-free-pizza-year-donates-vouchers/story?id=42110028
Is this not a win for the kingdom of God – when caring for one another becomes more important than winning the game? Whenever we can set aside the all-important win to see the humanity in one another, to recognize the pain of another, it is then that we turn away from the idol to seek the face of God.
What other examples do you have — examples that perhaps didn’t make it on the evening news or in a newsfeed? Perhaps you have examples from your own life, your friends, family, or co-workers? How can we be the light of Christ by putting love into action? “Be the Light” is our theme for this year at Amazing Grace. This week, look around you to see the light of Christ in others and in yourself.
This is the challenge we have placed before ourselves — to BE the light of Christ — not just in theory, but in reality, to put our faith in action. Why? Because this world needs more light, more mercy, and definitely more Jesus.
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