Trusting Enough to Live in the Moment

A tough parable leads to tough conclusions

I’ve wrestled with this parable a lot over the years. It’s one that doesn’t settle easily, and even once you try to pick it apart, it remains…elusive, resisting quick conclusions. It doesn’t seem to reward the kind of character we expect Jesus to uphold.

When we look at the whole of this section of Luke, Jesus seems to be teaching about the impending nature of an end, or a movement toward eternity. There is a demarcation point in this parable and the coming one (Lazarus & the rich man). At the same time, he is using economics in both - in the first, the often dishonest nature of it all, and in the second, the financial disparity between social groups.

What I think we can be clear on is that Jesus is not commending dishonesty. But perhaps he is drawing attention to something that is harder for us to accept. The manager sees what is coming and acts decisively in light of it. He recognizes that his current situation is temporary, that what he has access to will not last, and so he uses it with intention toward what is next.

That seems to be the point of comparison. Not the morality of the act, but the clarity and urgency behind it. (Though some historical interpreters have squeezed the parable enough to say that the manager was being compassionate and fixing burdensome debt into manageable ones for those who owed.)

So maybe it’s that Jesus is pointing out that more often than not, we treat what is temporary as though it is permanent. We hold tightly to what we have, organize our lives around it, and assume it will carry us forward. So Jesus wants to remind us that it will not. Holding on to debt that is not being paid does nothing. That, in itself, actually is financial savvy.

So the question becomes less about whether the manager was right or wrong, and more about whether we are paying attention at all. Are we living with any sense that what we have is not ours to keep? That it is passing through our hands for a time? That it might be used in ways that reach beyond our immediate security or comfort?

Maybe there is also something here about urgency. The manager does not delay. He does not wait for a better moment. He acts with what he has, when he has it.

In another parable we read a bit ago, Jesus implies that the one who builds bigger barns to store his stuff is not wise. In the terms of the Kingdom of God, what is the point of storing things up?

This really presses in our ways, particularly in Western, capitalistic economic understandings. Even in the Church, we are pressured to store up as individuals. Retirement, savings, etc. - you know it all.

Yet I wonder if we could imagine a community of Christ that is always giving - that those who are older or unable to work are actually taken care of because they are part of something that is more generous in the moment of need than we can imagine.

Luke 16:1-9

Jesus also said to the disciples, “A certain rich man heard that his household manager was wasting his estate. He called the manager in and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give me a report of your administration because you can no longer serve as my manager.’

“The household manager said to himself, What will I do now that my master is firing me as his manager? I’m not strong enough to dig and too proud to beg. I know what I’ll do so that, when I am removed from my management position, people will welcome me into their houses.

“One by one, the manager sent for each person who owed his master money. He said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your contract, sit down quickly, and write four hundred fifty gallons.’ Then the manager said to another, ‘How much do you owe?’ He said, ‘One thousand bushels of wheat.’ He said, ‘Take your contract and write eight hundred.’

“The master commended the dishonest manager because he acted cleverly. People who belong to this world are more clever in dealing with their peers than are people who belong to the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves so that when it’s gone, you will be welcomed into the eternal homes.

Prayer

God,

You remind us again that what we hold is not ours to keep. And yet we cling to it. We organize our lives around it. We trust it more than we would like to admit.

So help us to see clearly. To recognize what is temporary and what is not. Give us the courage to act with what we have, not later, but now.

And form us into a people who trust you enough to live open-handed lives together.

By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.