Quick to forgive the debt

Scripture Lessons: 1st Timothy 2: 1-7 and Luke 16: 1-15, NT page 208 Sermon Title: Quick to forgive the debt Preached on September 18, 2016 Well, that wasn’t very easy to understand. A parable about a dishonest manager who cheats his employer by reducing debts. And Jesus says, “You see that guy? Be like him.” Be like this man, so worried about losing his job and doesn’t want to end up digging a ditch for a living or begging on the street that he goes around to the people who owe this rich man money, who owe his employer money, in the hopes that one of them might take him in once he really gets fired. And there are two kinds of getting fired – there’s the kind of fired where you get to keep some dignity and there’s the kind of fired where you really go out with a bang! This guy knew what was coming down the pike. Chargers were brought against him “that this man was squandering” the rich man’s property, probably spending his bosses’ money on himself, and since he knew he was on his way out, why not go out with a bang, why not go around telling the rich man’s debtors that their debts have been reduced by 20% or 50%. I wish someone at First Farmers would do that. I’d take him in, but I haven’t been teaching our children to be like him. So it’s surprising to read in verse 8: “And his master commended the dishonest manager.” Why? I’ve been asking for help all week to understand this passage. Thank you to those of you who have helped me. Thank you to those who didn’t feel like you could help and so told me that you’d pray for me. After reading what the Bible Scholars have to say and after hearing some of your thoughts I am convinced that part of the wisdom that Jesus offers us in this parable has to do with the realization that this rich man wanted the debts to be forgiven more than he wanted the money. Finally, this manager who was on the brink of being fired for squandering the rich man’s property is commended because out of desperation and self-preservation he finally reduced those debts, and in so doing he finally did the thing that the rich man wanted him to do all along. You can imagine this happening – an employee failing to understand what his employer wants, because people misread such situations all the time. Years ago I was given some advice. A man told me that every boss really only wants one thing from his employees, and if you can figure out what that is and can manage to do it you’ll always be in good shape. The problem is, sometimes people think they have their boss figured out but they don’t. So maybe you work long hours because you think your boss wants you to work long hours, but instead of a pat on the back you end up in trouble because your boss hates to pay overtime. Or maybe you bake a dozen muffins for her birthday, only it turns out the boss has a gluten allergy. Sometimes we act as though people are one thing, and then we’re surprised by who they actually are. It’s like this story that I heard about a waitress at Bucky’s. She was walking down the beach and some young men approached her. “So what’s your name sweetheart?” they say. The Bucky’s waitress responds: “Well, my grandkids call me Nana.” Sometimes we act and speak to people with one image of who they are in our mind, only to find out that they aren’t who we thought they were and they don’t want what we thought they wanted. The same kind of thing happens with cats. Have you ever had a cat who really wanted to thank you, who really wanted to honor you for being such a great master and so the cat left a dead mouse for you at the front door? This act of kindness, much like the young men who propositioned the Bucky’s waitress, is based on a misunderstanding. The cat assumed something about you – the cat assumed that you like the kinds of things that he likes, that you are kind of like a bigger version of himself, and so in an effort to appreciate you he gives you the kind of gift that he would want to receive. He assumes that you love mice – because he loves mice - but you don’t. Now what does the dishonest manager think that the rich man wants? Like a cat who assumes that his master loves mice the manager assumes that the rich man loves money – that the rich man wants him to collect as much of the debt that he can, so only in disobedience, assuming that he’ll invite the master’s wrath does he go around reducing these debts when in reality, by doing so, he’s finally giving the rich man what he wanted all along. This is a funny thing – but it happens. And why? Why does it happen? Because the manager bases his understanding of the rich man in himself. Jesus is saying that sometimes those who serve a master fail to understand what their master wants because they assume that their master wants what they want, that their master loves what they love, and he makes this point to the Pharisees, those who represent God to the people and we read there in verse 14: “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. So he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God.” “What is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God,” because God isn’t just a bigger version of us. We can’t go assuming that God wants what we want or that God thinks the way we think. The Pharisees were trying to please God the way a cat tries to pleases his master – but God doesn’t care about the money that they brought any more than the rich man cared about collecting the debts in full, any more than a master valued the dead mouse his cat laid at his feet. What you think God wants is one thing – but what God actually wants is another. Now did you get all that? Are we starting to get somewhere with this difficult parable? Good – because I believe this passage has something really important to say to us. For one thing it makes clear the truth that sometimes we get God wrong, just as we get each other wrong. That happens with fathers. In some ways fathers are all alike – all fathers make dumb jokes. Just last Saturday Sara and I were at a small concert off the square. A singer songwriter type of thing, and Kara Huckabee from the Chamber of Commerce was there and she asked Sara and I, “Who’s watching the girls tonight.” I told her that our daughters were getting pretty old – 5 and 7, so we decided to just let the dogs keep an eye on them. Now that’s a dumb dad joke for you, but a few minutes later I was talking with Wil and Katie Evans. Their beautiful baby girl is just a few months old, so I asked, “Who is watching your baby while ya’ll are out on the town?” Wil said: “The dog is pretty well trained, so we just let him keep an eye on her.” Then, and this story is true. Then the songwriter and her husband get up on the stage and he starts talking about how they’ve been on tour for weeks and had to leave their two-year-old at home, but guess who’s watching him? “The dog,” he says. And maybe you think that you can get into the head of a dad because we make the same dumb jokes but for years my dad coached my baseball and basketball teams and I was sure that what he wanted was for our team to win and for me to run fast and hit hard and throw far so I tried my very best to give him those things that I thought he wanted. Like a cat who leaves a mouse outside his master’s door, like a manager who thinks that collecting debts in full is what the rich man wants, only to find that the master doesn’t eat mice, the rich man wants the debts forgiven, and my dad was just coaching those games so he could spend time with his son. Do you know how much better life can be if we understand each other? How many times did I beat myself up for striking out imagining that I was embarrassing my father who was there watching when all he wanted was to be there with me. And how many hours do we waste agonizing over debts owed to our Father in Heaven, imagining some bigger and more powerful version of our own selves – a strict task master, a miserly rich man, a harsh judge who wants punishment – when instead, here Jesus is saying that if God is like a rich man then rejoice – for all this rich man wants is for the debt to be forgiven and for the debt to be forgiven as quickly as possible. Why then do people imagine a God who reigns from heaven in wrath? With fire and brimstone and hell and damnation? Maybe it’s because the manager assumed that the rich man valued the same things that the manager valued – and the Pharisees of old like too many of the preachers of today assume that God values the same things that they value. So even while what God wants is a debtor out of debt – a relationship restored – the preacher wants a pound of flesh and a bunch of guilt, and if I’m ever going to forgive you than I’m going to make you hurt a little bit first. If you’ve ever been to that church than its time to realize that this way of thinking says more about the manager than it does the rich man. It says more about the cat than it does the master. This way of thinking says more about the preacher than it does the God who he is preaching about because God is far more quick to forgive the debt than we are – even though the money is all his. What does God want? The debts forgiven, for God values you more than God values the money. But what do we want? Sometimes. Too often it’s the money so if we are to be more like God, if our standards are to live up to God’s standards, and if we want to please our master than we have to listen to Jesus and Jesus says, “be like that dishonest manager – use that money to make friends,” don’t let it get in the way of friendship. Use the money to bring the family together – don’t let money fuel conflict when the will is read. We even let money get in the way of happiness for “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” and if you try – if you value money more than family or friendship – there is no need for God to punish you, for you will create for yourself your own hell. Money can’t buy happiness, and anyway – it comes and it goes, so let us all use what we have been given to build up what truly matters in the eyes of God – family, friendship, and love. Amen.