God and Wealth

How do you serve both God and wealth?

© Seth Olson 2019
September 22, 2019—The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost—Proper 20 (Gospel Reflection Track)
Amos 8:4-7
Psalm 113
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Luke 16:1-13

Lord, let my words be your words, and when my words are not your words, let your people be cunning enough to know the same. Amen.

What’s your favorite board game or card game? As a kid, my family loved playing Scattegories. When I was in seminary, my friends and I often played Settlers of Catan. And at clergy conference, our Bishop, Kee is known to lead some pretty fun games of Poker. What’s your favorite?

If you Google the most popular board games of all-time, near the top of most lists is the classic Monopoly. I imagine most of us have spent several hours of our lives playing this game of strategy. The object of Monopoly is to own the most property and to become the richest player. Players lose one-by-one as they owe more than they can pay—after selling off the property to make payments to other players, the bank, etc. Monopoly, like Scattegories, Settler of Catan, or poker push us to put the game over relationships. And, Monopoly’s emphasis on accumulating property forces us to put money over our friendly or familial bonds.[1]

Does this sound at all familiar? When else have we heard about someone putting money over relationship? No, not any recent headlines, but in today’s Gospel story! 

Today’s bit of Good News—and it is good news!—focuses upon some characters who put possessions over relationships in much the same way that we might if we were playing Monopoly on family game night. Hold onto this for just a moment because we need to hop back to what Jesus said right before this story to get a fuller picture.

This Parable of the Shrewd Manager—today’s story—falls right on the heels of three beautiful, familiar parables that make up the chapter before it. Last week we heard two of those parables—the ones about the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin. In both, items are lost and a character seeks out the lost until they are found at which point that character throws a big party to celebrate. What we did not hear last week is the story of the Prodigal Son or what I like to call the Parable of the Lost Sons. 

In this familiar story, Jesus described a younger son who put his love of money over his love of family by asking for his inheritance early. The son essentially told his father, “I wish you were dead, so I can go ahead and get my money.” Strangely the father granted the son’s request. In the story of the Prodigal Son, the younger child went off and squandered his property on riotous living. That sounds pretty fun until we discover that he woke up one day wishing he could eat pig slop, as his own funds were insufficient to get a decent meal. The story does contain a semi-happy ending, as the younger son decided to return to his father, so that he could be his servant. Being the loving father he was though the dad did not grant his son’s request of being his servant. Instead he restored the son to full familial status. That’s not where the story ends.

The father throws a party to celebrate the restoration of his relationship with his son. However, the disgruntled older brother didn’t get the point—his brother had returned, but the older brother had been loyal, hard-working, even like a servant his entire life. All the older brother wanted was one moment of celebration, but he didn’t get it. The father told his first born, “All that I have is yours.” In other words, you could have celebrated with your friends anytime, but when my younger son, your brother, returned we had to celebrate. We thought he was dead, but he’s alive. 

Jesus seemingly told this story and the ones about a lost sheep and a lost coin to inform the Pharisees that they were like the older brother. They weren’t understanding that they were invited to rejoice at the return of the younger son. They were invited to rejoice when a sinner came home to God. Unfortunately the Pharisees were putting a love of rules over a love of relationship. So, what about what Jesus said in today’s Parable of the Shrewd Manager?

Well, like the Pharisees who rejected tax collectors and sinners, and like the elder son who rejected the younger son, and like some of us when we play Monopoly, the Master and the Manager in today’s story both put the love of money over the love of someone else—at least at first. Let’s take a closer look at this story. 

Immediately in this story we discover that the Master was a very rich man. In Luke’s telling of the Good News, as soon as we hear the word rich, it’s a dead give away informing us to be on the lookout. Riches were not typically earned gainfully. Wealth in and of itself was a neutral force, but Jesus throughout Luke’s account charged the wealthy to use their resources to help the poor. Remember at the very beginning of this Gospel account, Mary was singing to an unborn Jesus that God would feed the poor, while God would send the rich away empty! Even though the Master was abundantly rich—more on this in a moment—when the Manager squandered what he was given it was a problem. In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the Father forgave the son’s squandering, but not here. The Master wanting to ensure he was turning a profit called in a third party to audit what was happening. 

The Manager himself had not been careful in his dealings, as like the Prodigal Son he squandered a bunch of assets. This indicates he was not caring of his relationship with the Master. In an aside, the Manager wondered what he would do. The Manager was of some means, and not wanting to degrade himself by hard labor or begging, he figured out another way. He would cut deals with the people who owed his Master money. Now we only get two examples, but the phrase one-by-one indicates that he probably reduced the bills of many debtors. And these were not just a little bit of produce that the farmers owed the Master. For example, the oil is about 20-25 times what a normal family farm produced.[2] The Master truly was abundantly wealthy. But, you might be wondering how did the Manager accomplish these write offs?

The way in which the Manager reduced the debtors’ bills is the source of much debate. Some scholars think he gave up his own cut, which is admirable. Others think he simply got rid of the interest on the bill. Remember usury would have been illegal in Israel anyway. Still others think the Manager cheated the Master, which would have been popular among the anti-establishment crowd. However, I prefer that the Manager realized he was on the outs with his Master, so he simply switched sides. He realized what was happening—that he had squandered what he was to manage carefully and his Master was choosing wealth over him, so the Manger took control by choosing relationship over possessions. 

Now Jesus told this story to the disciples. Unlike the three previous stories, which Jesus told specifically to the Pharisees to address their grumbling about him eating with tax collectors and sinners. Quickly though, right after the story we heard cuts out, the Pharisees discovered what Jesus said. And, we learn that Jesus was again addressing the Pharisees’ problems. Except instead of putting rules over relationship, here Jesus was saying, “You are putting wealth over relationship.” 

Seemingly that’s the goal of Jesus’ story, right? Relationships are greater than wealth! Oddly enough though, the Master at the end of the story praised the Manager because he acted shrewdly or wisely. The ending though, and the morale of the story, leave me scratching my head.

Was Jesus through the Master praising dishonest means? Maybe, but he immediately said whoever is dishonest in little is dishonest in much. The point of this story may have been that those in the Kingdom of God—the children of light—ought to be wise and crafty. They could even go so far as to use cunning means to accomplish the furthering of the Kingdom. However, before we think we need to be like Robin Hood and steal from the wealthy to put money in the collection plate, know that Jesus’ ultimate aim was to be faithful to God. In other words, a Christian’s highest calling is to build up God’s reign in this world acting faithfully, not dishonestly. 

Thus, Jesus closed this section summarizing it by saying, “You cannot serve both God and wealth.” Brian McLaren, a noted Church scholar, claimed that we in the American churches have been making a deal for 400 years to turn the other cheek towards this commandment—we’ve made a deal with one another that we can serve both God and wealth. But, this makes me think of a parable we used this week in the Living Compass program.

“One evening an old Cherokee man told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, ‘My son, the battle is between two “wolves” inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

“‘The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.’

“The grandson thought about it for a moment and then asked his grandfather: ‘Which wolf wins?’

“The old man simply replied, ‘The one you feed.’”[3]

We cannot serve both God and wealth. We cannot put our love of wealth over our love of God, and expect our relationship with God to deepen, strengthen, and blossom. This is not a game of Monopoly. If we put a desire for wealth over a desire for relationship we will lose—not a game, but something much more important. So which wolf will you feed? Possessions or relationships? Loving things or loving neighbors? Wealth or God?

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[1] Allison LeBrun, Commentary on the Parable of the Unjust Steward, www.twitter.com/abbynormansays/status/1174770218603880448?s=21 (written September 19, 2019, accessed September 20, 2019).

[2] Joel B. Green, New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel of Luke, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), 592.

[3] Scott Stoner, Session Two Handout, Living Compass (Glendale, WI: Samaritan Family Wellness, 2016).