Misaligned Value

Luke 16:1-13 - September 18th, 2022

The Lord Be With You.

A parable on our Gospel …

There once was a young man who dreamed of sailing around the world. He learned all he could about how to maintain a boat. How to speak different languages. How to fix the sails. How to chart a course. He dreamed of visiting faraway places to see things he had only read about. The only thing was, this young man soon found that he suffered from thalassophobia. A phobia that makes a person afraid of deep water. Afraid of the imagined sea monsters that live in those dark waters. It differs from aquaphobia in that it’s just mainly the deep water, as in an ocean, that scares people. Anyways, the young man believed he could stay close to shore and overcome his fear. His fear of venturing out into the deep. But, the more he sailed, the more he found that his fear didn’t go away – it just got worse. So he stayed close to shore. Never venturing past the break waters. Never seeing all those new places. Never meeting all those new people. Never experiencing all the gifts that awaited him. It wasn’t until a huge storm arose and captured his boat and drove him out to sea that he found that he really wasn’t that afraid after all. It took an act of God, the storm, to show the man that his fears were of his own making. The storm of God was bigger than this man’s own created limits. The value this man had on his own creation, the phobia, was misaligned with the gifts from God that would overrule his own fear. So it is with us many times. But, if we cannot trust what God has given us in the now, how do we trust God in the forever?

Here ends the parable.

Verse 11 says “So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?” and despite all that I read trying lead me down one path, I just had to stop and relook at what this passage is really trying to get at. The worldly wealth that Jesus is talking about is not anything that’s in some bank somewhere. It’s not the fact that the manager essentially stole from his employer in order to set himself up for life. It’s not even about the employer giving the manager a thumbs up in the end. It’s about what value do you or I hold onto what we’ve convinced ourselves that we can manage by ourselves. And it’s that limitation we’ve created that puts limitations on our God, the Father. You know, that pesky free will.

Jesus is using the manager reducing what’s owed to his boss as a way to admonish His hearers to cast caution aside, seize the moment of opportunity and make provisions for their future before God. The kingdom is at hand. He’s telling His followers to see their material goods for the benefit of the kingdom so that when their “unrighteous mammon” fails they will have an eternal home that they recognized was eminent. He’s telling His followers to not make friends with that “unrighteous mammon” but make means of it by recognizing what value they have put on the earthly and measure that against what value God puts on the worldly.

But value can be a tricky thing. What’s worldly valuable to one is not to another. That’s probably why we have garage sales. But anyway you put it, what God values in each of us is infinitely more than we could imagine. Of course, one cannot help but help God along. It’s like the three men who were riding to work, and the subject of success came up. One said, “Success is being asked to the White House to consult with the President.” The second commented. “No, success is being asked to the White House to consult with the President, and the red phone rings, but the President won’t answer because he is listening to you.” Finally the third added, “No, success is when you’re at the White House consulting with the President, and the red phone rings, the President picks it up, listens, then says ‘It’s for you.’” Our values are definitely relative.

Jesus is telling those around Him to trust in the light rather than their own created security. Their own set of values. John 12:36 says this, “put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light” and Ephesians 5:8 goes on to say “for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light” which tells us that, like the manager who was faced with an uncertain future because of his past, our own futures can be those that we have shown God glory in the company of those that are uncertain. The sons of light are those who have seen the kingdom dawning in Jesus the Christ. Pure and simple.

I called this message “Misaligned Value” because sometimes we can bypass, overlook, be blind to what value God has put on our lives. And because of this, we can go against the very grain of our purpose created by God. Verse 10 spells out that faithfulness and honesty are not related to wealth and power because one who is faithful to what is Gods can be truly faithful to themselves. The world’s materialism enslaves us just as the world’s materialism enslaved Eve first, then Adam through the apple. Ya just gotta ask what did she really, really want when she listen to that snake back then. She put her own desire above that which was God’s. Deuteronomy 6:5 spells it out, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” When we do that, we can begin to align our values with our Fathers. Remember, a truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty.

Fred Craddock, the professor of preaching at the Chandler School of Theology, in his book on Luke, said “Most of us will not this week christen a ship, write a book, end a war, appoint a cabinet, dine with a queen, convert a nation, or be burned at the stake. More likely the week will present no more than a chance to give a cup of water, write a note, visit a nursing home, vote for a county commissioner, teach a Sunday school class, share a meal, tell a child a story, go to choir practice, and feed the neighbor’s cat. ‘Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much’” Professor Craddock was really asking the question do you value this life or the next? This life with the limited or the unlimited when you will, for sure, pass on? Do you hold onto a grudge and have no more room in your heart for the light? Do we hold onto what we think others owe us? What do we do with the days we have left in order to further His kingdom? Is Sunday one day a week or more? Is that little voice in your head coming from this world or the voice of Jesus whispering to you?

So, what was Jesus possibly talking about when He told this story? He’s talking about relationships. The relationship you have with your loved ones, your neighbors, your community. Those relationships He has given to you without you even being aware of it. He’s saying if you can’t take care of your relationships here, how do you begin to have a relationship with Him. If you can’t encourage your relationships in this world, how do you begin to have an encouraging relationship with the one who gets to decide where your forever world will be. The next that is the true riches. The relationships that are the true earthly riches.

And relationships come in all shapes and sizes and with built in surprises. One never knows what the other is thinking for sure. It’s like the other day when a mother chanced by the nursery and noticed her husband was standing in rapt contemplation by the crib of his sleeping son. Silently, she watched him for a while, wondering what deep and emotional thoughts were going through his mind as he looked at his own flesh and blood asleep in the crib. At last she slipped into the room and put her arm through his and asked, “What are you thinking of dear?” He came to with a start. “Oh, I was just wondering how in the world they can make a crib like this for $46.95.” Relationship value can be priceless.

Many, many years ago, when our family lived on a little street called Meadowview, my brother was setting off on his bicycle. He asked me if I wanted to go along. I told him that the other kids thought I was too little and didn’t want me around. He told me that I was his brother and that I was always welcomed as long as he was around. He would make sure of it. You know? It might have been a small thing to him, I don’t know if he even remembers it, but it made a big enough impression on me that I remember it to this very day. The same can be said of the encounters you may have. It’s relationships. Relationships are like that.

The young man, in our parable, is indicative of the very limits we voluntarily put on what God has given to us. Limits that affect our own perceived value to ourselves which affects our relationships with others. When we decline from reaching out to stretch ourselves then we become encapsulated by the limits of this world and, sooner or later, we become trapped by the boundaries we’ve convinced ourselves we have. It’s when we start to look at our possibilities that our assurances actually come into the light. The young man never actually knew he was afraid of something he had never experienced. The same with us. But by being afraid of the unknown then we have forgone the trust, forgone our own outlook of what worth we are that God has in us and it’s very possible that He may hold back on our true riches.

When we cannot be trusted to trust in the one that created the trust to begin with then our own trust in ourselves devolves into a negativity that can only spiral us downward to look at everything in eyes shrouded by this world. Because it’s this world that puts limits on our gifts. Our gifts from God. And when our world becomes darkened by all the negativity that surrounds us will be when our own view of ourselves begins to reflect what we believe we are seeing. We become hypocrites just like those who are in charge in our capital. Or in the cities that say one thing but really believe another. Or in the organizations that say one thing but do another.

However, what we think we are seeing is not reality because our tomorrows are as yet unknown by us. We just believe they are. Even many in prison wake up with some hope for the day because they don’t really know if it’s gonna be their last day or not in the slammer. The young, wanna be, sailor buried his hope and desire to confine itself to just what he could comprehend.

What if everyone, here and listening, made this day the last day to define themselves by all that has been built up around them by themselves and others? What if everyone, here and listening, made a conscious choice to go beyond what limits they have created and grasp ahold of the true promises laid down by the Father? What if everyone, here and listening, made a promise to themselves that they would extend their possibilities by just one thing or one person? What if? Folks, if each of us just made that decision and acted on it, imagine the difference it could make to this world we live in. Imagine the number of people that could be touched with the promise and the grace and the light of God. Imagine what lies that are circulating around our media would be instantly silenced. Imagine. Remember, the folks of Jesus’ time didn’t have the news or the papers or even the social media to tell them Jesus was near – they did it one person to another. Word of mouth. The faithful to those wanting to believe or just curious.

You know, folks, it’s all within your grasp. You just gotta convince yourself that it’s possible. You just gotta look to your heart and hear the promises of God. You just gotta start handling the worldly wealth of truth so that the real riches of God’s gifts will shine through. And it will. We just gotta get confidence that we can, in fact, make that difference and realign the value that God has for us to be the value that we hold for ourselves. We just gotta get assurance from these verses of scripture that the truth will, in fact, win out in the end. We just gotta do it and then do it some more. Set sail if you may. You know? We just gotta make that choice to start. God said tonight. Jesus said today. When will you say I’m gonna make that choice to live in the light of God. It’s your choice after all. Make it wisely. Something to think about! Something to pray about?

Can we pray? …

Father. In our day to day lives we ask that you show us that we are unlimited in our ability to be the people you have created us to be. Be with us as we face each day with its own trials and give us a hint of your desired outcomes. Help us to stretch our abilities to enlighten others who may be walking in the darkness. Tell us your hope for our futures as we are bombarded by all the negativity that surrounds us. Show us that your way of truth and right will always win out in the end. Father, we thank you for your sacrifice of your Son so that we can have a place beside you for eternity. We ask that you send your Holy Spirit into our lives to comfort us in our times and heal us of our pains. We trust in you to always be the source of strength and truth. We ask for your grace and your mercy and your righteousness. We pray these things and more in the name of your Son, Jesus the Christ.

And all God’s people said – Amen?!

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