Service for September 21 Fifteenth Sunday of Pentecost

Sermon for  September  21, 2025                             Fifteenth Sunday of Pentecost

This might be the most baffling parable Jesus told. But Jesus’ message for us is meant to be accessible. If we feel like we have to do interpretation somersaults to squeeze Jesus into something we can understand, maybe we’re on the wrong track.

Lutherans have a long tradition of reading the Bible in its own context, respecting that it was written in a very different culture, that language has evolved over the millennia, that recent archaeological discoveries shed light on what the words themselves meant then so that we can better apply them to today. We value learning so we listen to people who dedicate their lives to understanding what the Bible says and how the time in which it was written was very different than today.

So, this story of a “manager” and a “rich man” comes immediately after three stories in the gospel of Luke that Jesus tells about being lost and being found. We heard two of them last week, one about a lost sheep and another about a lost coin. The story that immediately follows those two is about the lost son; the “prodigal son.” We won’t hear that one in this year’s cycle of readings. But we will hear it next year.

So, looking at all of these stories, it’s pretty clear that what is lost in each of them: the coin, the sheep and the son all represent people who have strayed away from trusting God. And the one who does the finding in the stories is God. We see how God rejoices and throws a party when what was lost has been found. Being found, being brought back into the fold; being reunited with God is important. And no one rejoices more than God when we are found.

In today’s story, the manager is the one who is lost. As the story is told, it sounds as if the shock of realizing he’s about to lose his job has shaken him to his core. It may even have realigned his whole perspective of what is right and wrong; what is important and what is trivial, as huge shake-ups in our lives can do!

The manager has been working for a wealthy man and in his work the parable says he’s been “squandering” the man’s money. It’s not a good idea to speculate about scripture. But we also have to be careful that we don’t bring our own modern biases to the story. We shouldn’t read something into the story that isn’t there.

But, seen from the perspective, not of our relative comfort and wealth in the world, but from the perspective of people more like those Jesus was speaking to in his day: the poor and the marginalized, if we listen with their ears, wouldn’t this story make MORE sense if the “squandering” that was happening was only squandering from the perspective of the WEALTHY MAN? Maybe what the wealthy man called squandering is actually just being 'fair’ to those in debt to the wealthy man. What if what the wealthy man wanted the manager to charge too much, we’d say he was charging what the market would bear. But maybe the manager was just charging the people what was fair. Not what the market would bear, but what the people could bear? He may have been a go-between, getting the wealthy man’s product sold but at a price that kept the people out of poverty.

But now the manager realizes the whole thing is falling apart. His job, his position, his standing in the eyes of his boss, his ability to help people; it’s all crashing down around him. So, seeing the situation for what it is, with the clear-eyed certainty that comes when we realize we’re about to lose everything, he sees clearly that the wealthy man doesn’t really care about him or anyone but himself. He cares only for his people and his profit. The manager realizes that the wealthy man only cares about him as far as he is useful to the landowner; that with a sentence the wealthy man can destroy him and all those who depend on him. So, when the manager sees the reality of his position, he understands who his real friends are. And he throws his lot in with the people who live not for profit, but who live for relationship.  

The wealthy man recognizes the shrewdness of his managers actions. He doesn’t approve of it, but he sees the wisdom of the manager’s actions for his own survival.

A friend made a comparison that I think is helpful here. He compared the “dishonest wealth” Jesus mentions to the fate of the Confederate currency near the end of the Civil War. As it became clear that the Confederate army was not going to win, Confederate money became increasingly worthless. So, those with confederate money spent it freely, hoping to purchase something of value, before their money was totally worthless.

Maybe the “dishonest wealth” of the parable is like that. It is the wealth of a kingdom that is in fact in decline and will ultimately fail. The kingdom built on profit at the expense of people will only last until the people no longer support it. One person suggested that instead of dishonest wealth it should be called “the wealth of unrighteousness” – the wealth, that is, of the kingdom of the world that is in decline and that will not ultimately be victorious.

I’m not crazy about that term: ‘wealth of unrighteousness.’. It makes it sound as if it’s about ‘holiness’ or something not related to our everyday lives. Jesus was as “down to earth” as it gets. When Jesus talked about the lostness of the sheep or the lostness of the coin that was found, he didn’t say they were found because of their holiness or righteousness or anything they did or anything at all having to do with the coin or the sheep itself.

The coin was important in itself. The sheep was important in itself. When they were found, the rejoicing was simply because they had returned not because they could do anything for God who found them. They were loved simply because they existed; simply because God is love and God loved them.

Instead of “wealth of righteousness or unrighteousness” maybe we should call it the wealth of relationship as opposed to the wealth of individualism. God’s kingdom, God’s dream for humanity is always one of relationships and interdependence, not individuals looking out for themselves or their own interests alone.

When all hell breaks loose, when life gets really real and all our plans and maneuvering are put into perspective, it’s relationships that matter. That has always been true and it has always been God’s dream for humanity, that we would live in healthy relationship with each other, with creation and with God. So, Jesus ends this parable saying, “No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Serving God means living in right relationship with those around us, our family, our friends, those we are in business with, those we interact with every day. Jesus tells us that we should be as shrewd in all in all our day-to-day interactions in our relationships as the so-called “dishonest manager” was. “Shrewd” in the sense that we keep in the forefront of our minds what is truly important; what is right and how we can live as people of integrity and act accordingly.

We should act in every interaction as if the battle we’re in is about to end and the currency we’ve been accumulating, like the confederate dollars that southerners relied on, like the system of slavery that the south relied on is coming to an end, and we better divest ourselves of that currency and put our hopes in the currency of God’s dream: relationships. Another way to say all of this of course is, “Love your neighbor.” “Love God and express that love, as Jesus said, by loving your neighbor.”  

May we have the wisdom, the courage and the strong relationships we need to support us to live that way in each moment and may God help us! Amen.