The Rat Pack

by Dave Wilkinson

Luke 16:1-13, Mark 12:38-44, 13-17

October 28, 2001

Last Sunday Carol shared with you about an experience we had last summer in Kenya. We had gone to Makobe to put a roof on a church and help build an orphanage. We accomplished most of what we came to do. But there was more to be done. The church needed a floor over the rough cement slab. It needed windows and doors. All of this costs money.

They didn't pass a plate down the rows for the collection. That was a good thing since some of the gifts were chickens, eggs, cocoanuts, and fifteen foot long lengths of sugar cane. But people also brought forward money. Monetary gifts ranged from five Schillings -- seven cents to several thousand Schillings -- about fifty dollars. I knew how much each person gave because the pastor announced the size of each gift to the gathered congregation and guests.

I wondered how this would this play in Moorpark. It would be a little different here because of our much greater resources. Instead of a live chicken, a live BMW; instead of a thousand shillings, a thousand dollars.

Of course, if two eggs is your equivalent of two weeks income as it was for the people who gave sacrificially in Makobe -- we would celebrate that sacrifice and recognize what it means -- just as Jesus celebrated the gift of a poor widow who gave all she had.

I don't think that we're ready to hold up each persons pledge card next Sunday and read off the amount. We're not going to do that.

But one thing I like about this congregation is that I don't have to be afraid to talk about money. I don't have to protect anyone here from financial reality. That's good because there's some reality we need to face as a church.

Fact 1. Our church is basically healthy. Many of the problems we face as a church are problems that come from moving forward. We have real high quality problems. Together, we are accomplishing something good for the Kingdom.

Fact 2. We do more with less than most any church I know. For example, we ended last year with a little over 400 members and an average worship attendance of 355. Our total giving for the operating budget was about $392,000. This comes out to a contribution per member of $958. By contrast, Eastminster Presbyterian in Ventura has a membership of 285 with an average worship attendance of 253. But their operating budget in 2000 was $450,000 or $1,583 per member. Trinity Presbyterian in Camarillo has 451 members and an average attendance of 257. Their operating budget was $456,000. Ojai Presbyterian with 472 members and 360 average in worship has an operating budget of $583,000. We do more with less than most any church I know.

Fact 3. We have a lot of needs in 2002. We need to continue to expand our exciting ministry to youth and children while we also absorb the cost of the new land. After twelve years, we need to finally increase the Associate Pastor's position to full time. We are looking at a twelve to thirteen percent increase in both our operating budget and building fund.

Now with the events of September 11 and the ripple impact on the economy, that may seem excessive. But we certainly don't want to allow terrorists to set our agenda and the church of Jesus Christ. Since September 11, the need is more evident than ever. For our family the needed increase to our present tithe would be about $66 a month. We can do that.

Those are the facts. And with the facts, I also have a concern. Let me be blunt. The concern comes from the fact that I will be away on sabbatical for four months from late April until mid-August. My concern is that rather than going up, giving will actually go down while I am away. That sometimes happens. We can easily get into a financial wringer as a congregation. That doesn't mean a sabbatical is a bad thing to do. After fifteen years it's needed for me to continue to minister here over the long haul. I'm just being realistic about what may be a time of testing.. It's actually a good chance to discover how solidly we've built together.

If I'm realistic, I at least have a biblical counterpart who just happens to be a thief. In Luke 16:1-13, Jesus tells a parable of another man who is realistic.

This is a very difficult parable to interpret. Many people consider it the most difficult. But it shouldn't be too hard for we Presbyterians because of who we are.

One wit has pointed out that the Presbyterians are a Scottish sect that would rather be forgiven its debts than its trespasses. Someone else has said that the Presbyterian church is the Republican Party at prayer. What that says about the independents and Democrats here this morning, I don't know.

Now those, of course, are cracks or jokes. But they point to something that tends to be true. At the time of John Calvin, the shaper of our church tradition, capitalism was on the rise in Europe. And this has worked its way into our church and influences the kinds of people who feel at home in a Presbyterian Church.

So it is safe to say, speaking in very general terms of course, that Presbyterians are frugal, that Presbyterians are thrifty, that they have a tendency to be rather thoughtful as far as their business investments are concerned, and that they are generally conservative by nature. I'm not talking about our radical congregation, of course, but about all those others -- that it is safe to say, not just as a joke, that we know that business is business. So when Jesus sits down and tells a parable about business, it ought to be right up our alley.

Jesus' parable is about a choice a set of rats as you could meet anywhere. The first crooked character we meet is the steward -- the financial manager. He has followed a career of embezzlement. His fraud is finally discovered and he is called to account for what he has done with the master's money.

In verse 3, Jesus gives us his realistic evaluation of his danger: "What shall I do, since my master is taking away the stewardship from me? I am not strong enough to dig and I'm ashamed to beg."

Then, beginning in verse 4, he makes a plan so that he will be welcomed into the homes of his master's creditors. He calls them in one by one and invites them to change the records of what they owe his master -- reducing a hundred measure of oil debt to fifty and a hundred measures of wheat to eighty.

We can understand what Jesus pictures here in terms of first century business practice. The Jewish law forbade Jews from collecting interest from fellow Jews when they lent them money. Of course, this gets in the way of business. So the rule is avoided by stating a debt not in money but in terms of wheat or oil. An IOU is written that reflects the value of the original debt plus an additional amount -- say a twenty-five or fifty percent mark-up. This way there is no written indication that interest is being charged. It's all carried as part of the original debt.

But of course game playing with the law is no way for a pious Jew to behave. So such transactions are carried out by stewards without the master's "formal" knowledge. There is no "paper trail" to lead to the boss. Plausible deniability is preserved.

Understood this way, the parable presents us with a steward faced with sudden loss of employment who allows his master's creditors to rewrite their IOUs so they no longer carry interest. Then, they will welcome him into their homes and employ him after he is fired -- either because they are grateful or, perhaps, because the steward is now in a position to exercise a little judicious blackmail.

The master returns and catches the dishonest manager in the act. This is the climax of the story and you can see how the disciple are all set for some word of judgement. The master catches the steward cheating him for a second time and now he's really going to lower the boom. This is going to be a parable of what happens to you when you cheat. And Jesus looks at His disciples -- I suspect with a twinkle in His eye and a smile on his face -- and says: "then the master returned and saw what the manager had done he said: "I want to congratulate you on how clever and far-sighted you are."

What else can the master do? He can't publicly object or he will be admitting that he knew about the unlawful contracts. So, as a pious man who cares deeply about the law, he publicly commends his steward for canceling those horrible IOUs. The steward is finally conforming to the law of God and the master is seen as applauding his obedience.

Everyone in the parable is a crook. But what is shocking is that Jesus seems to agree with the Master's assessment of the Steward's wisdom. Everyone looks kind of puzzled and Jesus says to them: "You know, I wish you were as serious about your faith as these crooks were about their crookedness."

Then, to underscore His point, Jesus says: "My advice to you is to use your money, tainted as it is, to make friends for yourself for My sake so that when the end comes for you, your friends may welcome you into the eternal dwellings." We'll return to this hard verse a little later.

What is Jesus saying to us about our Christian lives? What does this dishonest steward, of all people, have to teach us?

Well, first, he is a person of action. As soon as he learns that he's going to be handed his pink slip he asks: "What shall I do?" He sees a problem and he heads into it. He acts! He doesn't just react.

Second, he is a fact facer. He realistically confronts his situation. "I am too out of shape to work and I am too proud to start begging."

A professional football coach was hired to take over the team in the middle of a bad season -- probably Dallas. When he arrived for his first day he was handed two sealed envelopes. He was told that when he got into difficulty he was to open the first sealed envelope. It was a note of encouragement from the former coach telling him that "he should blame everything on him.." The new coach should put out the information that the present failures of the team are because of the former coach.

If the disappointment of the season persisted -- which it did -- he was to open the second sealed envelope. The second note merely read: "Prepare two envelopes."

Jesus says that we need to recognize when it is time to prepare our envelopes. We need to be see our issues and options clearly.

The steward might have tried to wish away his problem or forget it in meaningless activity or an alcoholic haze. But he does neither. He knows that it is time to plan his future as best he could.

If Jesus were spelling out the lessons of this parable He might say at this point: "It would be good if all people could see the issues of life this clearly. You are all stewards of what God has entrusted to you. One day you must give an accounting. Think how it will stand with you in that day and prepare for it. People prepare themselves for all kinds of things -- the majority of which never happen. But they do not care enough for their souls to insure themselves against the one thing that most certainly will happen. They must meet God, and give an accounting.

In verses ten and eleven Jesus tells us once again that we are being tested that none of us will advance to a higher position until we demonstrate our faithfulness in a small position. The way we fulfill a smaller task demonstrates our fitness or unfitness to be given a greater task. This was also the theme of the parable of the talents that we looked at two weeks ago.

Here Jesus extends this principle to eternity. "On earth you are in charge of things that aren't really yours. You cannot take them with you when you die. On the other hand, in heaven you will get what is really and truly and eternally yours. And what you get in heaven depends on how you use the things of earth. What you are given as your own depends on how you now use the things of which you are only a steward.

The point of this disturbing parable is that we need to put first things first. We can't have it both ways. That what Jesus says in verse 13 -- a verse usually pulled our for stewardship sermon -- like today: "No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will hold fast to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."

Now Jesus doesn't say there is anything wrong with being thrifty. But He does say the kingdom of heaven isn't reserved for the cautious. He says: "the person who loses his life is the one who will save it." Face the fact that a person is no fool to spend what he or she can't keep to gain that which he or she can't never lose.

George Buttrick said of the steward: "This rogue acted with foresight. He bought friends with money."

Of course Jesus is not suggesting that we get our friends involved in some crooked deal so we can blackmail them into helping us. But He does say, as we return to verse 9: "Make friends for yourselves by means of your tainted money so that when it fails, your friends may receive you into the eternal dwellings."

Jesus isn't talking about salvation here. Salvation comes to us only as a free gift of God through Jesus Christ. I am not suggesting anything else. But Jesus clearly tells us that our future opportunities in the eternal service of God largely depend on our stewardship of the opportunities we have had on earth. We are undergoing a test. And the standard is the impact we have on other people.

I am not prepared to build a whole theology of heavenly rewards on one verse. But we shouldn't ignore what Jesus is saying here either.

We can't take it with us. Hearses don’t pull u-hauls. But in this parable Jesus suggests that in some special way we can send it on ahead. The imagery of verse 9 suggests a time when we will each stand before God stripped of all we possess. There will be no bank books, no properties, no securities, no university degrees, no titles, no marks of honor. And as we stand before our God, He will say in the imagery of this verse, "is there anyone here who will speak for this person?"

And Jesus suggests that if we have spent what is ours in the service of our brothers and sisters in Christ and those we are seeking to bring to Christ, they will come and welcome us into the eternal dwellings.

A boy will come forward and say: "My parents never would have brought me to church. I would have never found Jesus if it was up to them. But a youth ministry this man supported reached me for Christ's sake and my life was changed."

A baby who died in a mission hospital overseas, but who was tended and much loved in her last hours will say: "this woman loved enough that though she never saw me, she spent what was hers so that I might be blessed."

A Papua New Guinea native will say: "This family gave and prayed so Steve and Kathryn Christensen could give me God's word."

An old, old minister who looks a lot like me -- surprisingly handsome and well preserved -- will say: "Because this woman gave so faithfully, I was enabled to devote my life to the preaching of the gospel."

A middle aged man will say: "my life was changed because one day I stepped into a church building this girl helped build. She moved from the community before it was completed. She never knew me. But her gift helped change my life and heal my family."

Maybe even your children will gather around and say: "Our dad didn't give us a dollar for ice cream and a nickel for church. He taught us that the business of the Kingdom is real business. He tithed and he taught us to tithe. We learned about Jesus from his life and we are here because of him."

So once there was a crooked steward who did some crooked things to fool his crooked boss. Jesus told that story to Presbyterians.

You know who Presbyterians are, don't you? They are the folks who know that business is business.

Or do they?

When the roll is called up yonder will someone say of you: "She was as fervent in giving as she was in getting." Will someone say: "He faced the true facts of life and had the priorities of Jesus always in mind." Then you will also hear God say to you in the words of Matthew 25:21: "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord and enjoy the treasure that has been stored up for you."

*I am indebted to the late Dr, Bruce Thielman, former pastor of Glendale Presbyterian Church for the inspiration for the final portion of this sermon.