Scorsese Is Directing? I’m Ok With That. Jesus? Not So Much.

Brad Sullivan

Proper 20, Year C

September 18, 2016

Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX

Luke 16:1-13

Scorsese Is Directing?  I’m Ok With That.  Jesus?  Not So Much.

At first glance, in our Gospel story today, it seems as though Jesus is telling us we should be dishonest, and we’re pretty much confused through his entire parable.  By the end, the wraps things up pretty clearly, saying, “You cannot serve God and wealth.”  Ok, we pretty much get that.  We may not like it, but, we get it. 

In the middle, though, the master of the house praises a dishonest manager for being dishonest?  Does that make any sense to us?  I think it really kinda does.

Years ago, I saw a reality show called, “Big brother.”  It was the typical thing, a last man standing contest where people voted each other off the show, and they all lived in a house together.  They formed alliances and tried being friends and living together, and they really wanted to be friends with each other, until the times came when they ultimately all had to stab each other in the back so they could win.  All except this one guy, the guy who won.  He never actually tried to be anyone’s friend.  He’d agree to an alliance and then he’d break it.  He’d manipulate people and act like their friend and then vote them off the show.  There was no one whom he hadn’t made angry during the show.  When it finally came down to two people, there was the guy who won, and this other young woman, who had been pretty nice throughout the show.  They were making their pleas to everyone who’d been kicked off, saying basically, “Vote for me to win.” 

The young woman, who lost, was apologetic that the others had been kicked off and said she really did like them…she was so nice.  The guy who won?  He said that the whole time, his objective was to win, so of course he lied, manipulated, and made and broken alliances.  Everyone else there was a danger to him, and he wanted to win, not make friends with people he’d never see again.  They all realized he was the only one who was truly honest with them throughout the entire process.  He was shrewd in his dealings with them, and they all voted for him to win.

The master in the story that Jesus told kinda felt like the audience and the other members of that show.  “You’ve actually done kinda well here,” he’d say to his manager.  “You’ve swindled me a bit, but you actually managed something, and quite well.  You’re actually pretty good at this if there’s a gun to your head.  I just might keep you on.”

We totally get rooting for this guy in the show who was shrewd in his dealings, and we totally get rooting for the dishonest manager being shrewd in his dealings.    If his life were a movie with the right script and a good director, we’d all be rooting for the dishonest manager by the end of the movie. 

We’re somehow just not so comfortable hearing Jesus tell the story.  Scorsese writing and directing the movie, “OK.”  Jesus writing and directing it, “Ahh, I feel weird.”
      

Here’s the thing.  The context is that Jesus was being shrewd in eating with sinners and tax collectors.  He didn’t threaten them, and he didn’t shun them, and he didn’t assume they didn’t have enough money to be worth his time.  He ate with them and loved them into repentance. 

Also, it started with genuine love.  They weren’t his projects; they were people whom he loved.

The manager in the story Jesus told didn’t care one whit about the people, and yet he still figured out how to do well by them and create some decent community of the Kingdom of God.  He’d be relying on their generosity just as they were grateful for his.  It was quid pro quo, to be sure, but he was going to be getting to know the people in any case.  Kingdom of God kind of living was going to happen.  Out of purely selfish desires, he got some kingdom living done.  The people of this age, Jesus said, are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.

For the children of light, those disciples of Jesus who believe in his Kingdom way and the light that he is, if only they were as shrewd to care for those around them, Jesus was saying.

Remember, this is a polemic against the Pharisees and the Scribes who didn’t like that Jesus ate with sinners.  “There is grace,” the Pharisees and the Scribes would say, “but only if you follow the religious rules and clean up your act before approaching God, and pay for the temple.”  Jesus said, “There is grace.  Here, have some.  Have forgiveness, have dignity, have humanity and love.  Now let’s work on repentance so you can then also share grace, forgiveness, dignity, humanity, and love with others who need it.”

Jesus gave away grace rather than charge for it.  Jesus forgave sins when they hadn’t been paid for yet.  Jesus broke the rules of grace, at least the rules which the scribes and the Pharisees thought grace should have.  The Pharisees seemed to love their religion, the symbols and rituals of their religion.  They honored those symbols and rituals because those symbols and rituals were instruments of grace.  Unfortunately, they turned the symbols and rituals into idols by honoring the symbols and rituals rather than honoring God, God’s Kingdom, and God’s grace, which is what those symbols and rituals were meant to help them live out.

The dishonest manager broke the rules of money in order to bring about the best possible outcome for the most people.  In the same way, Jesus broke his religion’s rules of God’s grace in order to bring about the most good and the most grace for the most people so that they could live out God’s kingdom.    

“You cannot serve God and money,” Jesus said.  You cannot serve God and your rules about grace.  You cannot serve God and hold onto grace as if it is your personal possession to give out to those whom you deem worthy.  Life in the Jesus movement gives grace extravagantly.

Life in the Jesus movement also gives money and possessions extravagantly.  Jesus was also talking about money.  He was talking about how people lived their lives and how they used what they had.

The rules of our possessions says, “keep them, they are yours.”  The rules of our money say, “You earned it, it’s yours.”  Quid Pro Quo.  This for that.  Give only for what you are going to get in return.  Also, be afraid about tomorrow.  Save up and store up as much as you can, because tomorrow you just might be relying on your possessions to live. 

Jesus’ kingdom breaks the rules of money and the rules of possessions.  The rules of money in Jesus’ kingdom say, “it’s not yours, it’s God’s.  Use it for the benefit of others, for the benefit of God’s kingdom.  Use it for the benefit of those who are in need, not those whom you deem worthy.”  The rules of possessions in Jesus’ kingdom say, “Do not rely on your wealth and possessions to take care of you during hard times.  Rely on the people whom you have cared for and loved during their hard times to care for and love you during your hard times. 

Politicians get quid pro quo.  I’ll do you a favor, you do me a favor.  The children of this age are shrewd in their dealings with each other.  Would that the children of light were just as shrewd, caring for and relying on one another so that when the tables are reversed, people will be able to depend on the kindness of people to whom kindness has been shown.  Security found in people using their stuff for others, rather than security found in stuff while ignoring others. 

Give of your money and possessions extravagantly.  Give grace extravagantly.  As Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said, “That is life in the Jesus movement.” 

A way of love that seeks the good and the well-being of the other before the self’s own unenlightened interest. A way of love that is not self-centered, but other-directed. A way of love grounded in compassion and goodness and justice and forgiveness. It is that way of love that is the way of Jesus. And that way of love that can set us all free.

Someone once said, “When you look at Jesus, you see one who is loving, one who is liberating, and one who is life-giving.”  And that is what the way of Jesus is about. And that is the Movement of Jesus. A community of people committed to living the way of Jesus, loving, liberating, and life-giving, and committed to going into the world to help this world become one that is loving, liberating, and life-giving.

Break the rules and be dishonest in how you give so that you can bring about the most grace, and the most well-being for the most people.  Rather than be protectors of God’s grace, hoarders of God’s possessions, like the Pharisees and the Scribes, we are the people of Jesus who extravagantly give God’s grace and share our possessions with those who are in need both.  Amen.