Ordinary Saints - 2

Pentecost 17 (C)Luke 16:1-9
Then Jesus said to the disciples, ‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, “What is this that I hear about you? Give me an account of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.” Then the manager said to himself, “What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.” So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?” He answered, “A hundred jugs of olive oil.” He said to him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.” Then he asked another, “And how much do you owe?” He replied, “A hundred containers of wheat.” He said to him, “Take your bill and make it eighty.” And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

Sermon
(This sermon is the second of four sermons celebrating Christian vocation. Not only do pastors, priests, nuns, bishops, and popes have a call from Jesus to serve in the world, all do. The various ways we fulfill this call are called vocations. This series of four messages recognizes the vocations of those who work in education, public safety, healing professions, and business/crafts people.)

Leaves are beginning to change and fall. The air has cooled. Apple festivals are on the calendar. All these are unmistakable signs of the arrival of fall. As are all the yellow school buses that wind their ways through our neighborhoods, their wheels going round and round. It’s a season of change. And the children who go to their classes and do their homework are changing. Learning how to add, how to read, how to spell. They learn the laws of nature in photosynthesis. They learn the workings of the stars and their contributions to the periodic table of elements. The children are learning to see the world as it really is. They learn the laws that govern. They learn to see how things really are.

And the process doesn’t stop when you get to a certain grade. It doesn’t stop at the fifth grade or the eighth grade or after high school. We never stop learning to see things as they really are.

Learning to see how things really are is what Jesus is all about in today’s reading from Luke chapter 16. He tells the story about a man
of means, a man who is a well-to-do business man, a man whose holdings and assets require him to hire out its management. And after some time, word gets back to the owner that his manager is embezzling from the company. The manager is lining his own pocket with his boss’s money. There is corruption and graft and greed. An indictment is made. Charges are filed. Anger is aroused.

It sounds a lot like what goes on everyday in our world. Every time you turn around, there is some new breaking alert about theft and embezzlement. It’s like a broken record, the sound track to our national history. Surely you know this already. But just in case you don’t, let me just say it as plainly as I can. There are people in this world that will screw you over without giving it a second thought. There are all kinds of people in all kinds of situations who will take you for every dime you have without batting an eye. It’s all around you.


It was all around Jesus. He talked about it in Luke 16 as he told the story of the dishonest manager. When the owner caught wind of what was going on, when the whistle was blown, he called the manager on the carpet. Had him brought into the executive office for his firing. Demanding a full account of all that he had done. The dishonest manager was caught in the act. As he considered his situation he was horror-struck. He was too weak for manual labor and too proud to beg. So he develops a plan, devises a strategy.

He calls on those who owe his boss money and asks what they owe. If someone owes 100 jugs of oil, he discounted it to 50. If someone owed 100 containers of wheat, he discounted it to 80. What he did was he adjusted their debt down by cutting out his commission. In the process, he made friends. He created obligations. People now owed him for what he did. In the business world, these are called contacts. That’s what you might call taking your lemons and making lemonade. The owner was impressed. Jesus was impressed. Jesus said “The children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. What impressed Jesus was the man’s street smarts and how it contrasted with how people devoted to God function in the world.

Why is that? It’s probably because the children of light live out of a different set of values and beliefs than the rest of the world does. As a Christian, you dedicate yourself to keep you sights set on the love and light of Jesus Christ. You orient yourself, you position yourself, you direct yourself so that you can embrace all the God you can get. You study and pray and sing the teachings of Jesus into your life. His rule of life becomes yours. He says things to you like: “Pray for your enemies . . . If someone strikes you on the cheek turn to him your other cheek . . . If someone takes your coat, run home get your other coat and give it as well . . . Give your life . . . Forgive those who wrong you.” These are the kinds of things you and I say and pray and sing into our heart and soul. But the world doesn’t play by the same rules. And oftentimes, Christians are sitting ducks for being taking advantage of.

Jesus wants you to be able to see things as they really are. You might say to me “Now hold on you drop dead good looking preacher, when I look at the world all I see is corruption and greed and ugliness. It’s too much of a downer to see things as they really are. When we do feel like we see things as they are, we usually cope with it in one of two ways. One: We try to laugh at it. Just yesterday the Associated Press reported the story of a man who took his kid’s Darth Vader mask, put it on, and walked into a 7-Eleven with a butcher knife and demanded all the money. The clerk gave the money and called the police. Within a half an hour, the police showed up at the robber’s house. How did they do it so fast? Well as it turns out when the robber put the mask on he was next to the 7-Eleven building and in full view of the outside security cameras. Both the police and clerk knew the guy. Pretty stupid criminal, don’t you think. I love some of those shows that feature stupid criminals.

Another way we deal with the harsh realities of life is we let it get into our head. We turn cynical and suspicious and hard. I have a neighbor and friend who lives a few doors from my family. She grew up the daughter of a county sheriff. As a girl she remembers seeing photos of crime scenes on the dinner table. Terrible scenes. Scenes of some of the ugliest forms of human violence against others. And it got into her head. She never forgot it. It affected the way she saw things. She is a good person, a good Christian, a good mother and wife. And there are lots of good people like yourselves, good Christians like yourselves, good mother and fathers like yourselves, good wives and husbands like yourselves who have seen some ugly things in life.

Perhaps you know what that’s like to try to keep those images out of your mind. Perhaps you know what it is like to fight off the cynical spirit that makes us suspicious and hard against the world.

When I think of people who are regularly exposed to the dark side of human nature, I think of people in public safety, people who literally engage in hand to hand combat with social violence and destruction. Whether they are a law enforcement officer, or fire fighter, or military personnel, these are some of the people who see daily the forces of chaos raging through our communities.

But there is one thing you need to know about seeing things as they really are: To see things as they really are as a Christian is not to look at the world and feel defeated, dejected, and disappointed. To see things as they really are as a Christian is to look into the chaos of the world and see that God is right there in the middle of it, bringing order out of it all. Do you not know that has been the case from the beginning? “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a watery chaos, a formless void, a dark deep. God imposed his will upon the chaos and made beauty appear.

To see things as they really are is to see Savior of the Universe, Jesus Christ, standing in the midst of it all holding all things together. He is the one who brings peace in the midst of the conflict and fighting. To see things as they really are is the see Jesus Christ bring peace and reconciliation to marriages that were on the brink of collapse. To see things as they really are is to see Jesus Christ breathe new life into people on their death beds seemed to have one foot in the grave. To see the world as it really is to see Jesus Christ shine brighter than the brightest stars in the world’s darkest and most distant places.

Christians, alone, are able to see such things and to look at the hurt and pain and death of the world around and not be overwhelmed and overwrought. Christians, alone, are able to look upon life’s most despicable and dastardly deeds and see possibility and hope. Why else would we gather around a cross week after week? Why else would we remember the crucifixion with song and merriment? Why else would we belt out “I Know that My Redeemer Lives” just a few short days after he was executed?

You know why. It is because there is no darkness so dark that the light of Christ cannot dispel. You know that there is no hurt so deep that the healing of Christ cannot reach. You know that there is no brokenness so broken that the love of Christ can’t bridge. You know this.

You know this especially if you are a man or woman of Christ who has given your life to the cause of public safety, you who have dedicated yourselves for the common good. The stories you could tell of brushes with death. The events you have witnessed of near catastrophic loss where it not for intervention of God. You who serve the common good in public safety stand on the front lines of God’s work of justice and order in a world bent on self-destruction. Your hands and your feet are the hands and feet of Christ as you defend the innocent and needy. Your hands and feet are his hands and feet as you fight the raging fire. Your hands and your feet are those of Christ as he brings about the renewal of the world.