Taming of the Shrewd

Luke 16:1-13

The Lord Be With You.

Here lies a parable …

There once were two men, Bob and Ted, who lived next door to each other and each had very large gardens. Bob and Ted were best friends and would spend days talking with each other over each side of their fence. However, one of the men, Ted, decided to plant a rare mustard bush and the end result was that – that bush grew into a very large tree. SO MUCH SO, in fact, that its roots began to spread over into Bob’s garden taking over everything he had planted and choking everything out. Bob became infuriated at his neighbor Ted and one night took an axe to that tree. The next morning Ted came out to a chopped down tree and confronted Bob with what he had done. When Ted asked Bob why he had not expressed his displeasure before, Bob said that he had not noticed the damage from Ted’s tree until it had already invaded his garden but by that time it was too late. Ted replied that he was not aware that this tree would do what it did and would not have planted it there if he had known. Bob apologized for his actions and the two agreed to consult with the other in the future. 

Here ends the parable.

The message this morning is called “Taming of the Shrewd”. I call it that because sometimes our decisions may seem wise or shrewd but each decision has an impact on others that may not be visible or known at the time. But they have an impact never the less and we, as true disciples of the one true Christ, are cautioned that we must take into account the implications they may have on others.

However, it’s hard to keep that in mind when we come across a good deal or our gut is telling us to take this or that action. Everything we do has a reaction. You know the old saying, “For every action there is a corresponding reaction”. But sometimes, that reaction is not immediately evident and we don’t see the long term consequences of what we do. Other times, it surprises us only after we have acted and then it may have an effect we DIDN’T count on. Sort of like the story I’m reminded of …

A famous art collector is walking through the city when he notices a mangy cat lapping milk from a saucer in the doorway of a store and he does a double take.

He knows that the saucer that the cat is drinking from is extremely old, very rare and very valuable, so he walks casually into the store and offers to buy the cat for two dollars.

The store owner replies, "I'm sorry, but the cat isn't for sale.

The collector says, "Please, I need a hungry cat around the house to catch mice. I'll pay you twenty dollars for that cat."

And the owner says "Sold," and hands over the cat.

The collector continues, "Hey, for the twenty bucks I wonder if you could throw in that old saucer. The cat's used to it and it'll save me from having to get a dish."

To which the owner says, "Sorry buddy, but that's my lucky saucer. So far this week I've sold sixty-eight cats."

We can be surprised, many times, by our own decisions. They may, at times, have outcomes that negate the original decision. Jesus says look to heaven to understand the whole picture. It gives light to a decision that may be clouded. May be hidden.

But, our Gospel, this morning, is bit more confusing. In it, it seems that Jesus is advocating for the one that has cheated their boss. Sort of like if you or I steal from our boss and then the boss says it’s OK if you only pay him back ? of what you stole. That cheating another is OK if you’re doing it to curry favor with those who would benefit from that cheating. I’m afraid when I FIRST read this and realized that I’d have to come up with a message on it, I just said to myself, “You gotta be kidding”. But here we are.

However, we have to go deeper into what this parable was about and to whom it was told in order to get the fuller picture. You see, Jesus was telling this to the Pharisees. Those same ones that had been dogging him over and over again. Those same ones that had a problem giving up even a little bit of their power and the wealth that came with it. They concentrated on the earthly, making others suffer, so that they could buy their way into heaven. Buy their way into God’s graces.

But Jesus is pushing that back in their face. He’s saying that the love of money and God at the same time, in the same way, isn’t possible. That what they SHOULD focus on is using all their talents to raise up their brethren, YOU know the ones, their neighbors – to recognize that the kingdom of God that’s all around them. So, the PHARISEES were the ones who Jesus was talking to in order to get them to realize that the earthly treasures they had built up for themselves would do them absolutely no good in the life hereafter. And by talking to them, He’s also directly talking to us.

The pattern of this Gospel speaks directly to the things listed in Deuteronomy 23 about what good followers should pay attention to, ancient political correctness, usury or interest against another, vows of purity with another, and restrictions on what’s the proper way to conduct yourselves with others in your business community. This is a short list, there are many more if you go back and look.

Now the manager here used his position to parlay a future with others in his community. He was using the business of his master to cushion his evident and pending downfall by the master. But what Jesus is telling us is that this manager is really you and me. We’re the ones who are forced to relook at our own lives and the gifts that God has already given to us in His grace and mercy and to see if what we already have is being used to further the kingdom. Are our gifts by God being used to prop ourselves up or are they being used to further His message and His purpose? Are they being used to cushion our own comforts or are they being put to task in bringing up another that may be in pain and seek to relieve that pain? Are they something we hold in reserve for when we feel we might need them or are they gifts that we have that we put out there for all to benefit?

Jesus is telling this story to get you and me to take inventory of all those wonderful assets we have and realign them so that we’re more able to invite others into this kingdom that God has established. But we have a tendency to spend our waking, and sometimes sleepless hours, worrying and re-planning about how we’re gonna pay for all that we’ve built up. Have we done all we can, is there maybe something we could do different? Folks, these are every day and real concerns.

And if ANYBODY understands our human nature, I believe it’s God. After all, he made us this way. He sent His only Son to us in order that we might be reminded that there’s a BIGGER picture to this whole thing. To look towards the heavens and align our desires and wants towards THAT direction. Jesus is saying, “Folks, if you could take some of that planning, that worrying, those thoughts and efforts and desires, that shrewdness, and redirect them to the only one who can truly give you relief then MAYBE you TOO could begin to grasp the enormous content of this grace and mercy that the Father gives on a day to day basis.”

The truly shrewd is the one that recognizes what he has to do and what he has to work with and figures out a way to combine those TO DO works that bring the everlasting light into the dim recesses of the dark. To be the light of the nightstand. You know, there’s really no such thing as darkness – it’s only the absence of light. When we see someone walking around, supposedly lost in their OWN darkness, we can be assured that what has happened is that they’ve built up internal barriers against the light. The light that’s always shining. The light that can enter them and fill them from deep within themselves so that they can FINALLY hear the loving words of the one that made them. The light that enters YOU and fills YOUR life from deep within your own soul.

When our neighbors walk in this darkness, they’re closing themselves off to the many wondrous possibilities available to them. But it’s only through you and me shining that light on them that they can even BEGIN to see the light because once they’re exposed to that light it’s almost impossible to shut it off. To turn it out permanently.

You see, it keeps on shining and it gets brighter and brighter with each passing day and soon enough it completely eliminates all that darkness and THEN, like the guy in the parable that inadvertently planted a tree that threw darkness on his neighbors garden, our OWN gardens of life can be illuminated when that tree of darkness is finally cut down.

But the light of truth can be hard to see at times, can’t it. It can be overshadowed by the darkness of lies. It can be nuanced in a way that seems to change that truth but the truth is still the same. It has been for over 4000 years and It will be for the next 4000 years no matter what this broken generation has to say about it. The truth has a way of creeping up on you. It sometimes takes a minute sliver of honesty to begin to bring it to light. Either that or an event that takes each of us and grabs a hold of us in a way that makes us begin to be aware of that light of truth.

I read an old Jewish story about this truth and the light it can shine. It goes like this – a man was once caught stealing and was ordered by the king to be hanged. On the way to the gallows he said to the governor that he knew a wonderful secret and it would be a pity to allow it to die with him and he’d like to disclose it to the king. He could put a seed of a pomegranate in the ground and through the secret taught to him by his father, he could make it grow and bear fruit overnight. The thief was brought before the king and on the next morning the king, accompanied by the high officers of state, came to the place where the thief was waiting for them.

There the thief dug a hole and said, “This seed must only be put in the ground by a man who has never stolen or taken anything which did not belong to him. I being a thief cannot do it.” So he turned to the Vizier who, frightened, said that in his younger days he had retained something which did not belong to him. Then the treasurer said that dealing with such large sums, he might have entered too much or too little and even the KING owned that he had kept a necklace of his father’s. The thief then said, “You are all mighty and powerful men and want of nothing and yet you cannot plant the seed, while I, who have stolen a little because I was starving, am to be hanged.” The king, pleased with the ruse of the thief, pardoned him.

Sometimes our OWN lives are so caught up in looking for that needle of truth in our haystack of life, that slim thing that we hold on to, that we believe represents the whole, that we fail to see that the VERY needle we’re looking for is just a bigger part of the tapestry that IS God’s truth. The truth that Jesus came back for us to explain. In other words, when we try and pick apart the truth, the WHOLE of it has a way of opening our eyes if we allow it to elucidate in the direction we’re heading but SOMETIMES where we’re heading can hide what we’re really supposed to be doing.

The children of the light that Jesus spoke about in verse 8 are those persons that have seen the kingdom dawning in Jesus’ own actions and words. The shrewd person is that person that hears and sees the wondrous miracles that occur all the time, yes even today, and is able to use that to elevate their own actions in helping others to see and hear that very same thing.

John 12:36 and Ephesians 5:8 says it like this, “Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. LIVE as children of light.” While 1st Thessalonians sums it this way, “You are ALL sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.”

Brothers and sisters, all we must do is to listen, be shrewd in knowing for ourselves that the fruits of this world, as it says in verse 8, will certainly fail you but that’s when the promises of the hereafter can finally SHINE into the darkness that we all wander around. It’s only when we give up in our overriding quest to conquer THIS WORLD that we can begin to grab the person next to us, walk with them into a future that allows the love of Christ to be on top and truly conquer our own worlds in a way that’s lasting and surely fruitful. It’s not about the money or the things that we have stored up or what we DO have or what we’re in charge of but what we do with what we have.

Professor Fred Craddock from the Chandler School of Theology put it this way when summing up this passage, “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”.

If we could use some of what God has already given to us, some of that craftiness and shrewdness that we use for earthly gain and desires – for HEAVENLY wealth – THEN we’ll be pleasantly surprised with the outcomes and what lies in the future. I believe that Jesus is calling you and me to use our shrewdness that we use to secure our positions on this earth to begin to use those gifts for the glory of the kingdom of God. The ending to this passage speaks about how we cannot serve two masters. It seems simple but it goes deeper than what’s stated. It’s pointing to where our own expectations of our future may be. Do we build up our futures here or in the life hereafter? Do we focus on securing just those we’re comfortable being around or do we expand our own gardens to bring light to those who have not had the seeds of God’s love planted in them yet. Do we plant fruit that crowds out our neighbors or do we cut down those impediments to other lives bearing fruit. Something to think and pray about.

Can we pray? …

Father in heaven, we pray for guidance in our lives that shine the light on those who do not hear your calling. We pray for the knowledge that you have given us to be able to hear and speak with those around us so that they can begin to see your light. We pray that you send down your mercy and your love to us to give us strength to do the discipleship that we have been called to do. Give us courage to face the uncertainties of this time on earth. Help us to lift up your gifts so that it can be a beacon to this community. Help us to live as you would have us live so that others can see that you are alive within us. We pray this in the name of Jesus the Christ.

And all God’s people said – Amen?!