Monday
Morning in the Preacher’s Study
First
thoughts about next Sunday’s sermon
(18th Sunday after Pentecost, Sept 22, 2013)
D. Jay Koyle
Every time this clip from the
third Gospel pops up in the lectionary, a chorus of commentators names it as
the most difficult parable in the New Testament. The character it features and
the supposed moral of the tale sound so counter to anything we think Jesus
stood/stands for. Thus they wring their hands and wonder how a preacher is to
deal with the apparent scandal implicit in the parable.
I don’t want to suggest that
it poses no challenge or offense. However, the passage doesn’t appear all that scandalous
to me, at least not in the way many tend to portray. Any scandal it carries, to
my reckoning, echoes what we’ve encountered over the previous three or four
Sundays at least.
Part of the problem in
grappling with this little gem is that, for the most part, today’s church and
its preachers have misplaced their eschatological lenses.
There was a time when Christians
commonly lived in tiptoe expectation of the Kingdom of God. They understood
themselves to be a new creation through baptism, a people gathered as an
alternative society shaped according to the coming and imminent Reign of God.
Indeed, much of what we have in the New Testament was penned to restore this
vision when the cataracts of despair clouded the eyes of faith and obscured the
landscape of hope.
Therefore, just as we need to
don special glasses for the blurry images of a 3D movie to jump from the screen
with crisp resolve, so eschatological lenses provide definition for most of
what is going on in chapter sixteen of Luke.
"Make friends for yourselves by
means of dishonest wealth," says Jesus. It sounds like the rabbi from
Nazareth says it’s ok for his followers to use questionable proceeds in the
service of godly causes. Or maybe he is just echoing our ecclesial discomfort
with matters monetary, the persistent dualism that differentiates between “spiritual”
and “temporal” concerns in church life.
“Dishonest wealth," however, is a misleading
translation of Luke’s text. A better rendering would be “the currency of this
unrighteous age." In other words, it is not the cash that is corrupt, but
rather the culture. Jesus isn’t pitting good money against bad. He is talking
about all money, indeed, all of our resources. And Jesus is offering some
rather counter-cultural, “off the wall” investment advice to boot.
As a gift when I was first ordained, I was
enrolled in a fairly intense financial course. Navigating the tricky terrain of
the stock market, managing personal assets, determining whether to sink money
into bonds or real estate, deciding when to risk and when to “play it safe,”
even knowing with whom I should associate and spend both time and money – all
of these were covered in ways designed to shrewdly parlay a modest income into
substantial, long-term gains. The underlying presumption of the course was that
through the many social and political changes I would witness over the years,
the market economy would be the one constant. Therefore, wisdom dictated that I
handle my resources accordingly so there would be much to show for my many
years of work by the close of my “career.”
Jesus, however, offers different advice
because, as he sees it, the days of the current system are numbered. The
empires and powers, the glamour and norms of the current age are passing away. Already
God has “brought down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up the
lowly…filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” Thus, it
is shrewd to invest in the emerging Kingdom established by the raised-up,
crucified Messiah.
In another course, I heard Tom Long
unpack this parable using the analogy of Confederate money in 1863. A savvy
investor knowing the “Greyback” was the currency of a doomed sovereignty, he
reasoned, would have invested it in something of lasting value; something that
would still be an asset after the Confederate dollar became worthless.
“Make friends for yourselves by means
of dishonest wealth,” the Lukan Jesus counsels, “so that when it is gone, they
may welcome you into the eternal homes.”
He
has offered this investment advice before. “When you give a banquet,” he said,
“invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. You will be blessed…repaid
at the resurrection of the righteous." (Luke 14.13-14) Your investment
will prove wise because it is to these that the Kingdom of God belongs. (Luke
6.20)
So, this Sunday, name the ways
your congregation does or can invest in this way.
Do you feed the hungry? Offer
hospitality to strangers? Provide shelter to those without a roof? Are there
opportunities to do so?
Too many congregations invest in
nothing more than their survival, simply serving themselves, squandering the
riches of the gospel.
The shrewd, hope-filled church invests in
the world that, even now, is emerging by the grace and power of God.
Jay Koyle is president of The Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission. He serves on the Primate's Task Force on Hospitality, Christian Initiation and Discipleship Formation (Anglican Church of Canada).
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