The dishonest manager

From time to time Jesus said some difficult things - many things are challenging because they ask us to look at ourselves, at how we truly love and care for one another, or challenge us as to how we work for justice in the world, or defend the needs of those who can't do it for themselves.

Today our Old Testament reading from Amos (8:4-7) talks about the greed of those who can't wait to get up and start trading - money is what the people are after and Amos is just reminding them that with riches come responsibility and privilege. The more we have the more is expected of us.

And then we have Paul writing to Timothy (1 Tim.2:1-7) urging prayer for those in authority. Lots of us in our own prayer lives might offer prayers for other people, but those prayers often begin with those closest to us and work outwards from there - Paul is not saying this is wrong but is reminding us that those in authority, who may seem a little bit distant from us, are as much in need of our prayer as anyone else. The decisions they are making don't affect just us or our families and friends, but can affect whole nations or even the world.

And so both of those readings are talking of a big picture - a need to recognise the gifts we have and to use them wisely, not just to secure more and more material wealth, but for the good of as many people as we can.

And then we come to this gospel reading (Luke 16:1-13) and it seems extraordinary. Here, Jesus, the man of supreme justice, compassion and love, seems to offer some sort of praise to a dishonest manager. It doesn't look good, and many people have discussed its meaning for many years.

First, the basics of the parable - a man realises that his manager has been acting corruptly with his property and so he tells him that he will be sacked. There was no real benefit system and the man seemed to have very little in the way of other qualities, and so he came up with a plan. In order to get some friends to support him he would use his last actions as a manager to forgive parts of the debts that were owed to his boss, and thereby he would win himself some friends.

It was a cunning plan but he got caught, but then in a real twist, instead of being angrier,  the man praised his manager for being so shrewd...

So was Jesus saying that its ok to be dishonest as long as we're shrewd ? I suspect not. But he did make a lot of points in this parable which are of use to us. Firstly I think we need to recognise that Jesus was capable of surprises. Here, in a rather ironic way, he was making the point that sometimes the children of this generation as he says are wiser than the children of light.

Here he was suggesting that sometimes a person who is streetwise may actually be a little smarter than the children of light - another name for Jesus' followers. And perhaps that is still sometimes true. We've all watched or heard of arguments in the church over things which are not of huge importance but which have made news headlines and hidden the true message of the gospel.

While Christians are arguing over things which are pretty trivial at times the world outside watches and shakes their heads, or perhaps even worse still, have stopped watching altogether. In the church there is a need to be smart, to meet the needs of an age where people won't just sit and take what's been said but will want answers and explanations, and above all where people will want authenticity - one critical example is that when we talk about loving each other we have to mean it and we have to be seen to do it !

The second message of this parable is similar. The manager when faced with a crisis thought of a plan. He wasn't strong enough to be a labourer and he didn't want to beg. What he knew best was trading, and so he traded off some of the debts to get himself some friends. In other words he used what he had in order to benefit others.

Now Jesus wouldn't approve of the way he did it, but he was again making the point that some people know how to use the gifts they're given to benefit others, whilst others don't. As Christians we are recipients of huge amounts of grace from God; we are recipients of his love; we see the wonder of creation; we can feel the warmth of fellowship; the support of prayer; the comfort of the bible and so on... And we need to show it.

As we are blessed so abundantly we need to share those blessings. I'm reading a book by a lady called Kay Warren at the moment and she has struggled with lots of problems in life including depression but, recognising God's love for her, she hasn't given in but has chosen actively to rejoice - to enjoy her life, to make the most of it and to recognise that even in her hardest and darkest times she can still choose joy, because she knows that the person who offers eternal joy will never leave her.

Life can be hard at times - it isn't easy to always smile and be joyful, but if we can constantly look at the blessings we know about - that unbreakable bond of love, that offer of life for all eternity, that comfort of knowing a Saviour who walks alongside us every moment of every day, then we will be able to reflect at least a degree of the joy God wishes for us.

And then, the third message of this parable and that is forgiveness. The dishonest manager didn't have any right to forgive these debts and his motivation for doing it wasn't good, but I wonder if Jesus was saying that forgiveness isn't always straight forward, and it certainly isn't always easy.

People who forgive others who have hurt them or who have hurt a loved one often become centres of news stories, and that happens because its often so remarkable - think of Gordon Wilson whose daughter Marie was killed in the Enniskillen bombing.

Heartbroken, his response to the bombing was, 'I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge'.

Think of some quotes - Martin Luther King said, 'I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear' and Mother Theresa, 'if we really want to love, we must learn how to forgive.'

In this parable Jesus was emphasising the importance of forgiveness, of how essential a quality it is. In the Lords Prayer we say, 'forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive... those who trespass against us...'

This isn't an easy parable to understand and sometimes I think Jesus could have offered more of an explanation for this one ! But if we consider the need to be people who live as Christians and are respected as Christians in a world which sometimes turns its back on Christianity; if we recognise the blessings we have and seek to share them with others in word or in action and if we seek to forgive those who hurt us as we hope to be forgiven when we make mistakes, then we will have learnt a lot from these words.  

May God inspire us not to be people who are seeking to build a material fortune that benefits nobody in the long run, but to be people who can change the world by a small deed or word, and may we also be people who continually pray for those who are in authority making decisions which can change the lives of millions. Our prayers, our words and our actions will be noticed. Amen