Sermon: Children of the Living God

Date Preached: Sunday 19th September 2010

Bible Reference: Luke Chapter 16, verses 1 to 3

Well here’s a challenge! What on earth is being said in this reading from Luke’s gospel? There’s a story of an irate parishioner who came up to her very well-known vicar (who’s now a bishop) after the service demanding to know what the readings meant. And it was this same parable from Luke, and like today, it came after the Old Testament reading from the prophet Amos denouncing the commercial activities of the businessmen who just couldn’t wait to get the religious festival over so they could get back to ripping off the poor people. (Like you all have I’m sure) she’d been listening hard to the readings, but couldn’t make head or tail of what was going on. ‘Was the Bible against making money out of other money?’, or was it – indeed was Jesus – telling us we should use any sharp practices we could to get ourselves out of financial difficulties? And was he implying we could buy our way into heaven?

Well it’s a great temptation to try and avoid this particular one and pick something easier! But let’s at least try and make sure first that we understand how the story works – otherwise we’ll be doing all sorts of modern takes on it that will get us into difficulties.

At first glance it certainly looks as though the rich man – the ‘master’ in the story - had been involved himself in some shady dealings. Let’s not forget Jews were forbidden to lend money with interest, so many entrepreneurs of the time got around this by dealing in commodities – like oil and wheat – and it’s likely that what the manager or steward was deducting from the bills was the interest that his master had been charging If he reduced the simple amount that had been lent to the debtor in each case of course they’d have been delighted – but the master couldn’t complain about it to his manager without owning up to his own shady business practices.

But the second thing to realize, as the whole setting in Luke’s gospel helps us to do, is what this parable is really about. It is, after all a parable (a story-telling device to get some kind of point across), it’s not a piece of managerial advice on how to use money (even though I can imagine getting something like it in one of the more popular management text books when I did an MBA a while ago).

If we were faced with a first-century Jewish story we’d never heard before, about a master and his manager, we’d know at once what it was most likely to be about. The master (?) well that would be God; and the the steward or manager (?) that would stand for Israel - the people of God. Israel is supposed to be God’s property manager, they’re supposed to be the light of God’s world, responsible to him, and set over his possessions. But they’ve failed abysmally in the task – very much like today’s Church (also God’s people) if we’re honest – and so they’re under threat of imminent dismissal. And the story’s about what Israel is supposed to be doing about this serious predicament?

What was the Pharisees’ answer to things going pear ’shaped? (Remember they were those staunch members of the religious establishment of the time). Well what they were about was stressing all the regulations and the need to tighten these up – to try and make Israel more holy – and the consequent stress that caused for ordinary people clearly drove Jesus nuts!. The problem with that course of action – then as now – is that it excludes the very people that Jesus enjoys reaching out to, and places such a heavy burden on them. Jesus is trying to say that when faced with such a crisis – like the one the established church faces today – there’s a different answer. Through this story he seems to be recoomending that they:

throw caution to the winds

forget the extra bits and pieces of the law which the Pharisees tended to heap up on people (like the strict requirements of some Christian groups today)

to “chill” (as they’d say these days) and to make friends when and wherever they can.

That’s what the so-called ‘children of this age’ would do; and the children of light might do well to learn from them how to shrewdly manage a crisis. If something isn’t working – change it! And we’re not terribly good at that are we? Which brings to mind that joke: Q how many Anglicans does it take to change a light bulb? A. Change? Who ever said anything about change? And what’s wrong about the light bulb we’ve always had – even if it gave out long ago?!

So (back to the story) instead of hoarding money and land, Jesus’ advice was to make use of it. A crisis was coming when alternative homes would be needed; homes that would last – which is what is meant by ‘eternal’ in the story – this isn’t about heaven.

Are you with me so far? Okay. So if this is a parable directed very specifically to the situation of Jesus’ day – what sense does it have for us today? What can we get from it?

Well just so no-one goes away with the idea that what we’re about in the Church is commending sharp business practice, isn’t this about sitting more lightly on all those heavy regulations we tend to impose on one another, not least in the church – and which we set over and above the Christian gospel message itself, like:

What you’re supposed to wear

Whether your face fits

How you’re supposed to act

The Church is passing through turbulent times – and honestly needs to re-assess what matters and what doesn’t: What it’s here for.

We need to discover again what true fellowship in the gospel is all about – which is why our worship together needs to keep focussed on what’s important - like discovering the love of God in Jesus Christ!

And did you get that bit of Jesus’ teaching at the end of our reading? He shoots from the hip doesn’t he?! Wealth is a killer!

About half the stories in our newspapers seem to be about money in one way or another:

the glamour and the glitz it seems to provide for the few;

the consequences of cutbacks for the rest of us – and the recriminations when money runs out.

And the never-ending scandals about people getting it, embezzling it, losing it and getting it again.

The lines between legitimate business and shady practices are often difficult to define (let alone the utter lunacy of paying the Wayne Rooneys of this world; hundreds of thousands a week for kicking a football – hmmm!)

So we’ve been thinking about a passage containing some of Jesus’ strongest and most explicit warnings about the dangers of all that – and experience suggests that neither the church nor the world have taken these sufficiently to heart. Somewhere along the line, serious repentance seems to be called for: a renewed determination to turn right around and hear Jesus teaching us about what real living is all about.

- Because if we don’t stop and listen, we’re going to find ourselves torn between two masters. And here Jesus insists that God’s standards are not just subtly different from human ones, so we can have a bit of both; a bit of church on the side – they’re the exact opposite.

With the coming of Jesus, something fresh, radical and subversive is happening: something that makes a nonsense of conventional wisdom about making it in life, like “getting them before they get you”; “clawing your way to the top” - regardless of who gets hurt in the process – all that stuff that screams at us from our soap operas and self-improvement guides.

I’m through (better stop ranting) (!). Putting all the readings together, we find the underlying challenge to build our lives on a totally different set of considerations than we’re used to. Did you get it?

To be socially responsible in the way we use our money;

To be faithful and humble in our hearts, not just in outward appearances, or when we feel like it;

To commit ourselves wholeheartedly to the gentle and strong rule of the kingdom which has begun in Jesus.

And here’s the main thing (I guess): as soon as we begin to think of money or land or church or even other people as commodities (things) – guess what? – we do what comes naturally to us without Jesus: we  exploit them for our own ends – and in doing so we take a huge step away from our vocation, our calling, to be truly human beings – children of the living God.

Here’s one of our verses from the Psalm we read from ‘The Message’ translation:

Who can compare with the Lord our God – so majestically enthroned – he picks up the poor from out of the dust – rescues the wretched who’ve been thrown out with the trash – and sets them among the honoured guests. It’s all wonderful, upside-down stuff!

And (to quote Philip Yancey yet again) there (really is) nothing we can do to make God love us any more; and nothing we can do to make God love us any less. That’s what’s so amazing about grace. Amen