Archive for the ‘Luke’ Category
Thursday, September 20th, 2007
Jesus said to his disciples:
A rich man once had a manager to take care of his business. But he was told that his manager was wasting money. So the rich man called him in and said, “What is this I hear about you? Tell me what you have done! You are no longer going to work for me.”
The manager said to himself, “What shall I do now that my master is going to fire me? I can’t dig ditches, and I’m ashamed to beg. 4I know what I’ll do, so that people will welcome me into their homes after I’ve lost my job.”
Then one by one he called in the people who were in debt to his master. He asked the first one, “How much do you owe my master?”
“A hundred barrels of olive oil,” the man answered.
So the manager said, “Take your bill and sit down and quickly write `fifty’.”
The manager asked someone else who was in debt to his master, “How much do you owe?”
“A thousand bushels of wheat,” the man replied. The manager said, “Take your bill and write eight hundred.”
The master praised his dishonest manager for looking out for himself so well. That’s how it is! The people of this world look out for themselves better than the people who belong to the light.
My disciples, I tell you to use wicked wealth to make friends for yourselves. Then when it is gone, you will be welcomed into an eternal home. Anyone who can be trusted in little matters can also be trusted in important matters. But anyone who is dishonest in little matters will be dishonest in important matters. If you cannot be trusted with this wicked wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? And if you cannot be trusted with what belongs to someone else, who will give you something that will be your own? You cannot be the slave of two masters. You will like one more than the other or be more loyal to one than to the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Luke 16: 1 - 13
What? I can imagine the disciples of Jesus struggling with this story. Is Jesus suggesting we learn to be dishonest with other people’s money? And yet we know from Jesus sayings about honesty and reliability with small things that he’s not heading us in that direction. Why has he set us up with this dissonant tale of a crook?
David Buttrick, in his book, “Speaking Parables”, opens up his interpretation of this parable by exposing our tendency to divide the world into good and bad people. We generally think we’re part of the virtuous side, with terrorists, thieves and murderers on the bad side. And yet the reality is that we’re living with mixed motives in a society that continually places us in compromising situations.
William R. Herzog II, in his book Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed, places the manager, or steward, in the awkward position of making money for his boss through charging high interest rates. The debts of goods (olive oil and wheat) would have concealed mark-ups that paid for the life of luxury enjoyed by the property owner. Those renting their land to make a living for themselves were being forced to struggle to make ends meet, and would have resented the manager in his debt-collecting role. The pressure from landowner and lessees is perhaps what leads to this man contemplating the inevitability of a long slow death through hard labour (digging ditches) or poverty (begging).
So what is it that the manager does that connects with the Kingdom of God? I believe it’s something to do with restorative justice - the capacity to build relationships and systems that bring people together in ways that are better for all. The struggling farmers have had their debt reduced, though they would still be carrying a burden of interest. The landowner’s reputation for fairness was being restored in the eyes of his lessees. And the manager has his relationship with both restored, perhaps enough to keep his job.
Even though the whole system is dishonest, including the role of the manager, we’re seeing here the capacity to find a way to live in it that is just and wise. The manager may be dishonest but he’s also shrewd, astute, sharp, on the ball, perceptive, insightful, clever, cunning, sharp witted and canny. In short, the man is exercising the skills of entrepreneur.
In my work as Vision for Mission Advocate I’ve seen some good examples of relationship-building enterprise that fulfill what I think Jesus is on about here. Like Marty Richards, a guy in Brisbane who has developed EPM - Ethical Pest Management, building an income-generating business that is good news for Ali, an Afghan refugee who has come onto the staff. Marty’s currently developing a coffee roastery and cart business that will provide an income for other refugees who are struggling to make a new start in Brisbane. Coffee addicts from Brisbane are being asked to pay good money for a fair trade product that directly supports the reshaping of Brisbane’s economy around fairness for refugees. What he needs now is a group of investors who will take the risk with him, learning to use their money for the good of the community of forgotten people.
I also think of Sister Helen Prejean, the Catholic nun behind the story, Dead Man Walking. Helen, in her interview with Andrew Denton on Monday night, (Enough Rope, ABC), talked about the audacity of forgiving prisoners who had been condemned to death for the horrific crimes. Understandably, some of the families of the victims felt that the prisoners on death row did not deserve to have a confessor or spiritual support person. But Helen described justice as being about restoration rather than retribution. The capacity to address the pain and suffering experienced by victims and their families was essential for bringing humanity back into the dehumanizing prison system that makes people invisible. Offering forgiveness on God’s behalf, and on behalf of families who were not necessarily in a place to do so, was bringing a sense of restorative justice into the system of retribution symbolised by capital punishment.
Last week I watched Debbie Morris, the author of Forgiving the Dead Man Walking, speak on a video called Life Stories. Rob Harley from New Zealand interviewed Debbie, sharing with us her story of being one of the victims behind the story of the Dead Man Walking book and movie. Debbie’s capacity to forgive required not just a sense of good will but also clear thinking and a plan that would take her beyond her own needs for recovery. Her publication of the book, and the seminars that she runs, have become a way for her to build restorative justice that goes way beyond the original injustice.
So what will we do with this parable?
Personally, I’m committed to taking seriously Jesus’ direct teaching on faithfulness and honesty with small things and big things. I note however that Jesus is challenging us to go beyond reliability and integrity. He’s challenging us to consider ways in which our stewardship of money and property (for a limited only) can be used to build relationships. Yes, we live in a society that is focused on a user-pays system. We’re used to paying interest on our mortgages, and getting interest on our investments. But Jesus challenges us to develop social enterprises that subvert those assumptions. As we keep our eyes open for the normally invisible people in our networks, let’s pool our learning to carry out our cunning plans.
Other blogs relating to this passage:
Shawn Anthony at Lo-Fi Tribe on the Difficult Parable
Jim Wetzstein’s cartoon (below) at Agnus Day
David Ewart at Holy Textures
Will Deuel at Metholectionary
Pondering Pastor
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Thursday, June 7th, 2007
Luke 9:10-17
The apostles came back and told Jesus everything they had done. He then took them with him to the village of Bethsaida, where they could be alone. But a lot of people found out about this and followed him. Jesus welcomed them. He spoke to them about God’s kingdom and healed everyone who was sick.
Late in the afternoon the twelve apostles came to Jesus and said, “Send the crowd to the villages and farms around here. They need to find a place to stay and something to eat. There is nothing in this place. It is like a desert!” Jesus answered, “You give them something to eat.”
But they replied, “We have only five small loaves of bread and two fish. If we are going to feed all these people, we will have to go and buy food.” There were about five thousand men in the crowd. Jesus said to his disciples, “Have the people sit in groups of fifty.” They did this, and all the people sat down. Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up toward heaven and blessed the food. Then he broke the bread and fish and handed them to his disciples to give to the people. Everyone ate all they wanted. What was left over filled twelve baskets.
I was organising a young adults conference a few years ago - not 5000 people but more like 200 people. We sat down in small groups around tables to share in a Pacific Island style communion service. When I asked one of my colleagues if he’d like to help celebrate communion with me, he replied, “I need to be a consumer tonight, Duncan.” He’d been pouring himself out as a leader and felt he needed to sit with a group rather than be ‘up front’. That got me thinking.
I’m grappling like many others, with the effects of consumerism on everyday life as well as the culture of the church. In the 1980s we learnt to focus on the cultural preferences of emerging generations, the Baby Boomers and their predecessors, providing options and programs and recognisable links with entertainment culture. At the time we were vaguely aware of the dangers of pandering to consumerism. It certainly became more acute when people expressed their disappointment when their favourite worship or sermon menu wasn’t served up.
When I communicate with workshops and conferences I make an effort to find visual hooks (metaphorically speaking) that help people stay connected. That’s where my interest in television and print advertising came from. But at the same time I’m trying to unlearn the art of dazzle by screen and up-front leadership (not needed in lounge rooms), aiming for a lifestyle that is not driven by branding, impressing or acquiring consumerism.
Here in this narrative I find a reminder about being a different kind of consumer - a consumer who shares resources in community. This is not about consumer preferences. It’s about making do with what we have and learning to make it go further. Resources that might normally be used only in a nuclear family setting now used to go beyond that. That might have some connection to the question I had when putting on dinner for tonight. I found the value pack of chicken was enough to feed 8 or 9 people, not just the five people expected home tonight.
This Sunday coming is celebrated as Corpus Christi in some parts of the church. There’s a connection with Jesus’ body experienced in the eucharist. But there’s also a connection with becoming Jesus’ body as we share with one another. And, back to the experience of my colleague, there’s the connection with the blessing of receiving from others the blessing of God. Often, since that time, I’ve gone and joined the queue for communion after blessing the elements and giving them to the servers.
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Wednesday, March 21st, 2007
There once was a Christian Businessman, wealthy, well liked, respected and full of integrity.
One day he heard that Bishop Tutu was coming to town. As he had influence he was able to organise a meeting with the Bishop.
‘Bishop’, he said, ‘I seek to be a good Christian and dedicate my life to the LORD, but I find that my Spirit is at unease, What do you think I need to do’.
The Bishop looked at him, liked him and said ‘there i sone more thing you need to do, sell your business and come with me to Africa and use your money in service of the poor’.
The businessman thought long and hard about this, but refused for he had worked hard to build his business.
And that day there was sorrow in heaven.
Elsewhere Bono was stopping off on the Gold Coast. There there was a man who owned a poker machine business and was ruputed to have links to the underworld. When he heard Bono was in town he wanted to see him for had heard about his work for the poor of the world. However when he was at the airport, the body guards kept him at a distance, so he jumped up and down , ran around in circles and tried to catch Bono’s attention by yelling ‘Love your work!’. When Bono saw him, he went over to him and said ‘mate, tonight I am coming to your place - so get all your friends and let’s have a party!’
At the party the man stood up and said ‘Tonight I will give half of everything I own to the poor, and if I have cheated people I will pay them back 4 times’.
And there was rejoicing in heaven, for Jesus came to seek out and save the lost.
Based on Luke 18:18-25 (Rich Ruler) & Luke 19:1-10 (Zacchaeus)
The story of Zacchaeus is told to us in Sunday school as a nice story about a man who no-one liked but Jesus found.
How is it that we continue to strip the Gospel of Jesus of any of its substance and meaning, and domesticate it so that no-one can take offense at it?
This story of Zacchaeus which follows close on the heals of the Rich Ruler is no nice story, but one that would have rocked the worldview of any pious Jew, and I would say rocks the world of us western Christians. These two stories are meant to be read together, and together they give us a view of what Luke saw that following Jesus really meant - particularly for the wealthy.
We know that Luke was particularly interested in what the Gospel of Jesus had to say about wealth, for there are more stories and teaching on wealth, money, mammon than in any other Gospel. Luke gives us the much forgotten about blessings and woes - blessed are the poor, woe to you rich! How we prefer Matthew’s version!
These two stories leave us in no doubt that Luke considered that what we do with our money is linked to our salvation!
I can hear now all the howls of protest - salvation is about faith not works. True but people who say this often emasculate what faith is and reduce it down to some nice vague feeling of trust in Jesus. Faith is trust, is belief - but to be real trust & belief must come with obedience. How can we say we trust and believe Jesus and then refuse to obey him?
These stories of two very different rich men show what Luke saw Jesus was teaching about discipleship and wealth.
First, just to highlight how scandalous these stories really are, let us look a brief comparison between them.
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Ruler
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Zacchaeus
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Social elite
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oucast
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wealth is ok
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wealth is ill-gotten
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comes to Jesus
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is unable to come to Jesus
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comes seeking spiritual knowledge
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just wants to see Jesus
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comes respectably
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makes a fool of himself
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keeps commandments
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breaks commandments
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Questions Jesus
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Jesus invites himself to dinner
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Asked to give up money
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Voluntarily gives up money
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Refuses to follow Jesus
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Finds salvation
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Goes away sad
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Rejoices
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The Ruler would have been considered by Jewish society the model Jew - kept commandments, was a good person and his wealth showed that God had bestowed favour upon him.
While Zacchaeus is a comical character - short, a hated tax collector, someone not afraid to run and climb a tree (very undignified for Jewish man - only children run and climb trees). Zacchaeus was not only hated, but out of the bounds of good religious society. In those days, the way taxing worked is that Rome decided how much it wanted from a region (independent of how much the region actually made), and sold that tax contract to the chief tax collector. So the tax collector paid in advance the amount of tax due from a region. He would then sub-contract out amounts to other tax collectors. Obviously the aim of the tax collectors was to make a profit, so they would collect more than the amount required by Rome (this was legal and expected). What made tax collectors particularly hated, was not so much that they collected tax - but that they did it for the Romans, the hated invaders. This made them the worst sort of collaborators. Not only did thet collaborate with Rome, but they then made a profit out of taxes (of course many tax collectors abused the system and the expense of the Jews).
In both cases, Luke presents their response to Jesus - one refues Jesus call, the other doesn’t even need Jesus to tell him what to do! The strength of the difference between them is highlighted by Jesus pronouncement ‘TODAY, salvation has come to this house. Nowhere else in the Gospel (or any of the other Gospels) is this repeated where Jesus that salvation has come HERE and NOW to a person.
So what is the difference between them?
Ok first lets make sure we are clear what is NOT said. The Gospel story does NOT say
‘Zacchaeus trusted Jesus in his heart’
‘ The Rich man didn’t trust Jesus in his heart’
or ‘Zacchaeus believed in Jesus’ etc … etc …
Now of course it looks obvious that Zacchaeus DID respond our of some sense of belief and trust to Jesus, while the rruler doesn’t. But the point is that according to the story THE ONLY WAY TO TELL THE STATE OF THEIR FAITH WAS BY WHAT THEY DID WITH THEIR MONEY!
Bear fruit worthy of repentance (John the Baptist) Lk 3:8
The issue here is that Luke understands that there can be no repentance without the fruit of that repentance - that is a change in life
For wealthy people, Luke shows us that one of the singularly most important criteria is what we do with our wealth - NOT our attitude to it. Will our wealth be put in the service of God’s kingdom (Good News to the poor)? or will it remain OUR wealth and God just gets his bit - usually 10%.
There is no doubt that Luke understood, that to be a disciople of Jesus means putting EVERYTHING at Jesus dispoal. Including all our money. And that to follow the command of Jesus is to neccessarily put our wealth into service for the poor.
One last thing to finish.
If you are in a western country - then you are wealthy - no matter how much you have. You are richer than 90% of the world.
So the story of these two rich men is for us.
Which rich man will we be?
Who will put their wealth in service of the poor?
And how may will choose to ignore Jesus command to follow.
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