Sermon for September 20th, 2020 - Revision history

Iraneal at 04:32, 20 September 2020

2020-09-20T04:32:59Z

Iraneal at 04:32, 20 September 2020

2020-09-20T04:32:29Z

Iraneal at 04:28, 20 September 2020

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Iraneal at 03:33, 20 September 2020

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Iraneal at 03:07, 20 September 2020

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Iraneal at 02:44, 20 September 2020

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Iraneal at 02:33, 20 September 2020

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Iraneal at 02:11, 20 September 2020

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Iraneal at 04:21, 19 September 2020

2020-09-19T04:21:54Z

Iraneal at 03:51, 19 September 2020

2020-09-19T03:51:53Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 04:32, 20 September 2020
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	It is only in letting go that we may be truly free to live. The dishonest manager in today's parable lets go of his position, his pride, and his fear, in order to be generous with what has been entrusted to him. In doing this, he finds freedom, life, the praise of his master and of his fellow human beings.		It is only in letting go that we may be truly free to live. The dishonest manager in today's parable lets go of his position, his pride, and his fear, in order to be generous with what has been entrusted to him. In doing this, he finds freedom, life, the praise of his master and of his fellow human beings.

−	And that's good news for a dishonest, unscrupulous, ungenerous~~, selfish~~, stubborn sinner like me.	+	And that's good news for a dishonest, unscrupulous, ungenerous, stubborn, self-righteous sinner like me.

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 It is only in letting go that we may be truly free to live.  The dishonest manager in today's parable lets go of his position, his pride, and his fear, in order to be generous with what has been entrusted to him.  In doing this, he finds freedom, life, the praise of his master and of his fellow human beings.
+And that's good news for a dishonest, unscrupulous, ungenerous, selfish, stubborn sinner like me.
-*"Jesus is suggesting in this reading that it is possible to manage possessions and money in ways that can lead us into life with God."
-*monkey trap? It's only when we let go of the things we think are important/necessary that we can grasp the dynamics (economics?) of God's kingdom. You have to lose in order to win.
-*God takes the unrighteous (money, people, etc.) and makes them righteous. First/Last, Last/First.

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 Verse 8: And his master commended the dishonest manager (and here, when Jesus calls the manager "dishonest" I think he probably did so with a wink and smile to his listeners) because he had acted shrewdly, or wisely... or compassionately.
-Here the parable ends, but Jesus goes on to add to it several sayings about money and possessions.
+Here the parable ends, but Jesus goes on to add to it several sayings about money and possessions. Biblical scholars have debated for centuries whether these are actually connected to the parable, or whether Luke, in writing his gospel, was just adding all of his spare "Jesus talks about money" sayings to a parable that seems on the surface to be about money.
-*"Jesus is suggesting in this reading that it is possible to manage possessions and money in ways that can lead us into life with God."
+I'm not going to resolve that debate today, but I do think this parable has a lot to say about generosity.  The generosity of the manager who forgives the debts of the people.  The generosity of his master who praises him for his shrewdness.  The implied generosity of the people who will welcome the manager into their homes when and if he loses his position.
-*monkey trap? It's only when we let go of the things we think are important/necessary that we can grasp the dynamics (economics?) of God's kingdom. You have to lose in order to win.
-*God takes the unrighteous (money, people, etc.) and makes them righteous. First/Last, Last/First.
-***********
+But here Jesus is clearly saying that if you can't be generous with what you already have, what makes you think you actually would be generous with more?  A habit is a habit.  If you have developed the habit of not being generous--out of fear, out of caution, or whatever excuse you're making--then you will most likely carry forward that habit regardless of your circumstances.
-A rich businessman wandering by the shore of a lake one day was disturbed to find a fisherman sitting lazily on the bank, beside his overturned boat.
+So be generous now.  As a pastor, I can tell you that I have witnessed (and been humbled) by great acts of generosity from wealthy people and poor people alike.  They aren't generous because of what they have.  They are generous because of who they are?
-“Why aren’t you out there fishing?” he asked. “Because I’ve caught enough fish for today,” said the fisherman. “Why don’t you catch more fish than you need?” the rich man asked.
+Who are you, today?  And who will you choose to be?
-"What would I do with them?”
+In rural Africa, a farmer will catch a troublesome monkey by carving a hole in a tree, and placing some food inside the hole.  The hole is just large enough for the monkey to put his hand inside it, but when he grabs the food, his fist becomes too big to remove from the hole.  Instead of letting go of the food, the monkey will continue to struggle and pull against the tree... while the farmer runs up and hits the monkey over the head with his club (or, I suppose if it's a kind and compassionate farmer, he might simply catch the monkey and release him elsewhere).
-“You could earn more money,” came the impatient reply, “and buy a better boat so you could go deeper and catch more fish. You could purchase nylon nets, catch even more fish, and make more money. Soon you’d have a fleet of boats and be rich like me.”
+We laugh at this and say, "Foolish monkey--just let go of the food and save your life instead!"  But the joke is on us.  We are like the monkey.  We get so caught up in clinging to what pitiful possessions, property, or money we have, that we don't realize the danger to our lives and our freedom.
-The fisherman asked, “Then what would I do?”
+It is only in letting go that we may be truly free to live.  The dishonest manager in today's parable lets go of his position, his pride, and his fear, in order to be generous with what has been entrusted to him.  In doing this, he finds freedom, life, the praise of his master and of his fellow human beings.
-“What do you think I’m doing now?” the fisherman replied as he looked calmly out to sea.
+*"Jesus is suggesting in this reading that it is possible to manage possessions and money in ways that can lead us into life with God."

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 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2 So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ 3 Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ 7 Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ 8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
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 But God chooses to send an intermediary, a "middle manager" if you will, to negotiate the balance.  And that would be Jesus.  I think Jesus is the "dishonest manager" in this story.  Wait a minute, Pastor Neal... are you saying that Jesus is dishonest? Unscrupulous? The Bad Guy???  Maybe you were right about not being qualified to be a pastor...
-Well, let's take a closer look.  In the beginning of the story, Jesus doesn't actually say that the manager was dishonest.  He says in
+Well, let's take a closer look.  In the beginning of the story, Jesus doesn't actually say that the manager was dishonest.  He says in verse one that "charges were brought" to the rich man that the manager was "squandering (or wasting) his property."  Who is bringing those charges?
 *"Jesus is suggesting in this reading that it is possible to manage possessions and money in ways that can lead us into life with God."

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 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2 So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ 3 Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ 7 Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ 8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.
 “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. 11 If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? 13 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.”
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 So yes, I can identify with the dishonest manager, in all of his flaws, and in all of his desperation to redeem himself in his hour of judgement.

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 On the other hand, the dishonest, unscrupulous manager, who squanders what has been entrusted to him, and when his actions finally catch up with him, he risks losing everything and being thrown out on the street, too weak for manual labor and too proud to beg?  Yeah, I can identify with that guy.  That may come as a surprise to some of you.
-When I first began to sense that God was calling me to ministry as a pastor, my honest reaction was, "Hell no!" I'm not qualified to be anyone's role model.  I was not--and still am not--a "good" person by any stretch of the imagination.  My closest friends from childhood, and my family members all validated this for me:  "You?  A Pastor?
+When I first began to sense that God was calling me to ministry as a pastor, my honest reaction was, "Hell no!" I'm not qualified to be anyone's role model.  I know what goes on in the deepest, darkest recesses of my mind.  I know all the horrible things I do when I think no one is looking.  I was not--and still am not--a "good" person by any stretch of the imagination.  My closest friends from childhood, and my family members all validated this for me:  "You?  A Pastor?
-Are you sure?"
+Are you sure about that?"
 *"Jesus is suggesting in this reading that it is possible to manage possessions and money in ways that can lead us into life with God."

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 ==Jesus and His Pair of Bowls: The Unjust Manager==
-Please forgive me if you've heard me tell this joke one too many times, but it's perfect for today's parable, so I couldn't resist.
+Please forgive me if you've heard me tell the following joke one too many times, but it's perfect for today's parable, so I couldn't resist.
 One day a wealthy businessman was riding in his limousine when he saw two men along the road eating grass. Disturbed, he yelled at his driver to stop, and he got out to investigate. He asked one man "Why are you eating the grass?" "We don't have any money for food" the poor man replied. "So we have to eat grass." "Well then, come with me to my house and I'll feed you" the businessman said. "But sir, I also have a wife and two children with me. They are over there, behind that tree." "Ok, bring them along too" the businessman replied. Turning to the other poor man he stated, "You come with us, also." The second man, in a pitiful voice, then said, "But sir, I also have a wife and SEVEN children with me!" "Very well then, bring them all" the businessman answered. They all piled into the limousine, which was no easy task. Once under way, one of the poor fellows turned to the businessman and said, "Sir, you are truly too kind.. Thank you for taking all of us with you. The businessman replied, "No problem, I'm glad I could help. Besides, you'll really love my place...the grass is almost a foot high!"
 *"Jesus is suggesting in this reading that it is possible to manage possessions and money in ways that can lead us into life with God."