#but with this it feels like all those words are just... exaggerations. hyperbole. dishonest.

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Sermon for 25th August at 11 a.m. Luke 16. 1-13. THE UNJUST STEWARD  Kay Morison

Intro:   I have been preaching for 45 years and my husband John probably for about 60. We have kept and filed all our sermons from those years.

One very interesting thing emerged when I looked back:  Apparently, neither of us has ever actually preached before on today’s passage from Luke!  

I don’t really know why that has happened, but John thinks it may be because clergy don’t deliberately set out to confuse their congregations by their preaching!

But what I do know, is that in all the six commentaries I have studied on this passage, words just read so well by Carolyn, each Biblical Commentator has said something very similar along the lines (and I quote):

“This is a very difficult parable to interpret” Or “This is notoriously one of the most difficult of all parables to interpret” Or “The parable of the dishonest steward bristles with difficulties”.

So we are clearly in for some challenging thinking this morning!   However, I will do my best to be simple! BUT first I want to remind you of how Biblical scholars tell us to understand Parables….

Scholars tell us that a Parable has just One basic meaning.  The parable of the sower may well be an exception, but often we look at a parable and assume it is an analogy: A story in which every person, each event, means something significant.   Not so!

Consequently, we are not seeking to find a whole variety of applications in our parable today.  Rather, I am highlighting just two distinct, basic principles.  These were two principles, applying separately, to the two different groups of hearers present, when Jesus told this parable: Group One, the disciples:  the faithful followers of Jesus. Group Two: the Pharisees – the very critical religious leaders, who were deliberately seeking to trip Jesus up and get rid of him just as soon as possible.

So now let’s see what this parable may have been saying to: 1. Jesus’ faithful Disciples.

If you think about the Bible words,  which Carolyn read, you will realise much of the story and its language is “ironic”: Jesus is ruefully showing: “this is how unjust people think, you know!”…..  For our Lord often used exaggeration and hyperbole, phrases like “pluck out your eye” ,“cut off your right hand”. Words not meant literally, but to make a point.  And this parable seems to be one long irony.  

We are not intended to take the shrewd manager as an example of how to conduct our business lives!   That is, if we are still having to work out how to look after our money in an ethical way.  You need to understand that, in the days in which this parable was taught, wealth in the Holy Land, was mostly tied up by the affluent in terms of “oil” and “wheat”  and other commodities.…..  But today we deal with pounds and pence and these days not so many of the latter!

At rock bottom, Jesus is challenging his disciples to think. They may have followed him faithfully, but they still have a huge amount to learn and understand about life and faith. Does that say something to you too?  You may have been a Christian for years but there is always still more to learn.

Professor Tom Wright has this to say about the followers of Jesus: “The disciples have learnt so little,  understood so little,  grasped so little, of what their wonderful master has been doing in their midst.”

So in the parable, the shrewd money-grabbing steward is thinking of the rapidly forthcoming day when he would be given the sack:  he is too old to dig……. begging is too undignified!  He makes a cunning plan to bolster his savings for the future.

His action was plainly wrong, but his purpose - in secular terms - made plain sense.  He is actually commended for getting his future organised.   Behaviour described with  tongue in cheek, resulting in much muttering and head-wagging as the hearers grasped the irony of it all.

For the parable definitely does speak about the need to consciously think and plan for the future: The manager asks himself: “What shall I do now???” He’s going to lose his job and he needs to be ready to cope with the adversity he has brought upon himself.  

Sometimes we, as Christians, can be rather naïve about life.  Every one of us needs to ask the question “What do I need to do now - to prepare for the future?”  We need to be ready for our later life:

And where are we spending Eternity?  Do we confidently know ourselves to be members of Jesus’ spiritual family?  Basically, the parable teaches us that each one of us here needs to make the decision to follow Jesus day by day and not put it off!  In the same way,  as the unjust Manager in the parable needed to stop and think, then put his plan into action.

It was a wrong plan, but a right principle.

So there is a genuine challenge for each of us today. A challenge, even from this very strange parable. A parable set in a world which was so different to our own world.  But the message is the same: Are we ready for the future?   Not so much financially, but rather, spiritually: relying on Jesus as our constant friend and companion: The Loving Lord with whom we shall spend eternity.

So we move on in this Parable to:

2. The Unrighteous Pharisees.

As we heard, verse 1 of Chapter 16 read just now. says  that this parable was spoken  to Jesus’ Disciples.  

But we know  that the Pharisees were also on hand, listening intently and trying to find a way of condemning Jesus. Trying to catch him out.  However as so often happened, the Pharisees don’t catch Jesus out.  He catches them out, and also challenges their worldliness and focus on wealth.

Verse 14 says: “The Pharisees who loved money heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.”

Sneering is an unpleasant word isn’t it?  Jesus had clearly said something to upset the Pharisees.

For this parable about essential daily items , oil and wheat, is really about acquiring “this world’s goods”.  Which the Pharisees really loved, as they provided Power over people.   Oil and wheat etc. were the universal commodities that could be exchanged for other basic necessities.  In our 21st century way of life we use money.      So you can see that Jesus’ parable plus its conclusion hit the Pharisees hard.

Jesus said plainly in v. 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 despite the other:   You cannot serve God and Money” :

That’s precisely what the majority of acquisitive Pharisees were doing!

The Pharisees wanted to be seen as lovers of God, following all the Jewish laws: not just the Ten Commandments, but also, an additional 613 different rules!   And they loved their positions of power.   Positions of prestige.  They wanted to be admired for their apparent piety –

You remember the parable of  TheTwo Men Praying? The tax collector and the Pharisee.  The Pharisee stood up boldly and prayed all about himself. Boasted of all he did……but the tax collector bowed low at a distance and said  “God be merciful to me a Sinner” Well he was a sinner, but he is the one who was forgiven!

And the true story we all know from our childhood, the one about Jesus meeting Zacchaeus the Tax collector - and then his subsequent conversion, is a vivid demonstration of this very truth.

Even if you have found the parable of the Dishonest Steward hard to grasp, the parable of the Tax Collector and Pharisee is crystal clear…… and the behaviour of Zacchaeus is plain as a pikestaff!

Let me ask you a question:  If we’re really honest, each of us is a mixture of good and bad. But in your heart of hearts, into which category do you feel you mostly belong?

Faithful Disciple …. OR … Unrighteous Pharisee  (Pause)

You don’t need to tell anyone - apart from God!

As I finish, let me tell you a true story:

I have a great nephew called James…….He trained down here at Moorlands College near Christchurch, so we saw him often in those days.  He has been a church youth worker for a few years now.  Just recently he inherited some money from his Grandfather.  A grandfather who decided it was wise to give money to his grandchildren now, and not make them wait until the next generation died, before the youngsters could inherit.

You may not realise that a church youth worker often has no personal home, but lives in basic accommodation provided by his church, or has to rent, on quite a low salary,  his home as he moves from job to job.     A couple or so years ago, James married a lovely American wife, who is a full time mother to their small toddler.

I accidentally heard on the family grapevine how that James remembered our Lord’s teaching on money. He kept extremely quiet about it, but from his inheritance, he gave one tenth away to his church (that’s a very biblical amount) It is to help with his church’s work and outreach.  John and I much admire him for really practising what he preaches.

Jesus told us to store up treasure in heaven, and that’s precisely what WE need to do!

(LET’S HAVE A SHORT TIME OF SILENT PRAYER NOW…..I’LL FINISH WITH   “AMEN”.)