IS SOMEONE KEEPING SCORE?
Ladies and gentlemen, there are certain questions that have plagued the mind of humankind since the dawn of time. Now it could be that these are questions that simply cannot be answered. In any case, here are some intriguing points to ponder.
· Why is a round pizza delivered in a square box?
· Why did Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
· Why is it that we put a man on the moon before we finally figured out that it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?
· Why is it that people say they slept like a baby, when babies seem to wake up about every two hours?
· Why do people pay good money to go up in tall buildings, then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?
· If the professor on Gilligan’s Island was smart enough to make a radio out of a coconut, why couldn’t he fix the hole in the boat?
· And last but not least, why is it that if you blow in your dog’s face he gets mad, but when you take him for a ride in the car, he sticks his head out the window?
Ah, these are some of the questions that have plagued the mind of humankind since the dawn of time. Yet on a somewhat more serious note, I have a perplexing theological question for you. Are the things we do in this earthly lifetime simply the non-punitive exercising of human free will or is someone keeping score? Again, are the things we do in this earthly lifetime simply the non-punitive exercising of human free will, or is someone keeping score? Keep that thought in mind as we move on.
Before we tackle the answer to that question, I need to lead you into the passage we read from the gospel according to Luke. Yet in order to lead you into the passage we read from the gospel according to Luke, I need to paint a picture in your minds. So sit back, relax, and feel free to use your imagination.
Imagine, if you will, that you are the owner of a business. It’s not a huge business, but it’s big enough to keep you and your family comfortable. As the owner of the business, you soon develop other interests, so you hire a manager to handle the day-to-day routine. This manager is in charge of making sure that the product is made, shipping is handled, billing is done, and, of course, payment is received. Isn’t that about what you’d expect a manager to do?
Eventually, however, it comes to your attention that your manager isn’t doing a very good job. He’s often late to work and he shirks a few of his responsibilities. Quality control of the product has lagged and a lot of your customers are very unhappy. Thus, on a Friday afternoon you shoot him an e-mail telling him that you want to see him in your office first thing Monday morning.
Now your manager may not be terribly effective, but he isn’t stupid either. From the tone of your e-mail, he surmises that after your meeting with him on Monday morning, he may not have a job come Monday afternoon. So he gets in touch with some of your customers who have un-paid bills. One customer owes you, say, $100,000.00. Your manager tells him to reduce his bill to $50,000.00. Another customer owes you, say, $50,000.00. Your manager tells him to reduce his bill to $30,000.00. Now I’m no businessman, but that’s a pretty serious chunk of change for a small business to absorb, is it not? What your manager is doing is looking out for number one. Maybe one of those debtors will hire him when he finds himself unemployed.
How would you, as the owner of that business, feel about the way your manager handled things? I suspect you’d feel like he sold you out. You’d be angry, you’d feel betrayed, and you’d very likely fire him on the spot, would you not? My guess is the last thing in the world you’d do is praise him for his shrewdness. Am I right?
Well that is exactly what the master did in the parable we read from the gospel according to Luke. Now before someone tries to read too much into this story, let me tell you exactly what a parable is. A parable has often been called an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, and that may be true. A parable, however, is not an allegory. In an allegory, every character or part in the story is meant to represent something else. For example, Jesus tells a story in which a sower went out to sow. Some seeds fell on rocky ground, some seeds fell on the path, some seeds fell amongst the thorns, and some seeds fell on fertile soil. Each of those seeds is meant to represent the word of God falling upon the minds of the various people who hear it. That is what we call an allegory. Everything in the story is meant to represent something else. A parable is different. A parable is a story told by Jesus that always contains a twist and a central meaning.
Case in point, the parable of the dishonest steward in the passage we read in the gospel according to Luke. The master actually praised his dishonest steward for his shrewdness. The parable reads almost exactly the same as the story I just told you. There was a rich man who had a steward to take care of his property. When charges were brought against the steward for squandering the master’s property, the steward went to his master’s debtors. One debtor owed the master 100 jugs of olive oil. The steward reduced his debt to 50. Another debtor owned the master 100 containers of wheat. The steward reduced his debt to 80. Why did the steward do that? He was looking out for number one. He figured he was too old to take a labor job and he was too proud to beg. So he ingratiated himself to his master’s debtors so that maybe they would take him in when he found himself unemployed.
And what did the master in Jesus’ parable do? He praised the steward for his shrewdness! That’s the twist in the story. Now Jesus doesn’t tell us what became of the dishonest steward, but we can presume he was allowed to keep his job. In short, the twist of the story is that it appears as though the steward has been rewarded for his dishonesty. Yet we still need to discern the central truth.
Jesus tells us the central truth of this parable in verses 8 and 9. The trick, however, is understanding what it means. Jesus says, “The master commended the dishonest steward for his shrewdness; for the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations.” What on earth does that mean?
Let me state first of all that Jesus is not commending the steward’s dishonesty. He is commending the steward’s shrewdness. He was willing to do whatever it took to make his way in the world. Jesus’ point is that what he calls the children of light – what we might call the chosen people of God – don’t seem to be nearly as creative or voracious in their attempts to please God. Then Jesus adds, “Make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations.” That statement, too, takes a little unpacking.
The gospel of Luke records Jesus speaking of dishonest wealth. Luke is essentially calling all wealth dishonest or unrighteous. In Luke’s mind, wealth is just bad. Why? Because wealth frequently becomes one’s central focus. Luke believes that those who have wealth seem to be more concerned with the preservation of that wealth than they are with pleasing God. Luke’s philosophies aside, I think what Jesus is really saying is this. Money is not meant to be an end in itself. Money is merely a means to an end. Again, money is not meant to be an end in itself. Money is merely a means to an end.
Once upon a time, there was a miserly old man who was dying. He had obtained great wealth, but he had stepped on many a toe to get it. Lying on his deathbed, he told his wife to put a large chest of money in the attic. When his wife asked him why, he replied, “I plan to grab it and take it with me on my way up to heaven.”
Well, the time finally came when the old man passed away. His wife quickly ran up to the attic to see if the chest of money was still there. It was, of course. “The fool!” his wife exclaimed to herself. “I told him he should have put that money in the basement!” Think about that one for a minute.
Ladies and gentlemen, you can’t take it with you. As Jesus said, money is not meant to be an
end in itself. Money is merely a means to an end. That’s why Jesus says, “Make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations.” Jesus is saying in essence, “You can’t take it with you. Make it serve eternal purposes while you’re here.” As one biblical commentator put it, “The wealthy can help the poor while they’re here on earth, but the poor can help the wealthy in the eternal habitations.” Do you understand what that means? What that means is that someone IS keeping score. Use your money to help others now because you may need them to vouch for you in heaven.
Someone once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Some attribute that quote to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, others attribute it to Spiderman. In any case, what Jesus seems to be saying is that with great wealth comes great responsibility as well. In fact that is part and parcel to why we formed churches in the first place. Peter Steinke of the Alban Institute puts it this way in an article entitled, “Avoiding Mission Drift.” He writes:
A congregation is a group of people who believe that more can be accomplished by joining with others. They come together with a purpose. To create more life, the people create a community of purpose…Mission is the expression of the church’s deep, abiding beliefs. Mission provides the major standard against which all activities, services, and decisions are evaluated. Mission is the preserver of congregational integrity. It is about God’s love for the world, not about what I like or don’t like about my church.
This church gives thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to mission every year. We support the Meadville Area Free Clinic. We support Fairview/Fairmont low income housing. We support missionaries in Africa, Thailand, and Ecuador. We support the World Mission Initiative at the Pittsburgh Seminary. We supply funds for Love, Incorporated – a local mission project – and I have a discretionary account to help people out as well. The list goes on and on. This church gives thousands of dollars to mission every year. This church truly uses its funds as a means to an end, not as an end in itself. You are a part of all of that. You have good reason to believe that you have answered Christ’s call in this parable, in part.
Of course, I might also mention that our pledges are currently $45,000.00 behind. In all fairness, every church in this town is facing a similar dilemma. Churches all across the country are in the same boat as well. Of course, at this point we should also ask, “What does it say about the depth of our faith when so many of God’s churches are struggling financially?” But my point here today is not to chastise anyone. My point is to open eyes. Ladies and gentlemen, there are givers and there are takers in this world. I believe God is asking us to be givers. The question is, what does God really expect us to give? As 21st century Christians, we want to know the bottom line. How much is enough?
The church has long advocated the practice of tithing. Tithing is an Old Testament concept in which the Israelites were called to give 10% of everything they earned to the Temple or the synagogue. Thus, for us to tithe, we are called upon to give 10% of everything we earn to the church as well. Of course, the first thing people ask when they hear that is this: “Is that 10% of net or 10% of gross?” I once heard a wise old minister respond to that by saying, “You get to 10% of net, and then we’ll talk about gross.”
Now I may be shooting myself in the foot when I say this but, here goes anyway. Nowhere in the New Testament is there designated a percentage of income that should be given to the church. In the first book of Corinthians Paul says that giving should be, and I quote, “In keeping with income.” In other words, some should be giving a lot more than others. In the book of James it says that each Christian should diligently pray and seek God’s wisdom in the matter of tithing. Yet perhaps Paul put it best in the second book of Corinthians when he said, “Each should give what he has decided in his heart to give – not reluctantly or under compulsion – for the Lord loves a cheerful giver.” Let no one think they are being browbeaten about money today, because if your heart isn’t in it, no amount of money is going to save you anyway.
The lesson here is clear. We have been blessed financially for a reason. Part of that reason is to provide for our families. Part of that reason is to share with others. Ladies and gentlemen, attitude is everything here. Do not give out of compulsion or obligation, but out of gratitude for everything God has done for you. God knows what’s deep inside your heart. After all, he’s the one who’s keeping score. Amen.
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