"What will I faithfully do for Christ" - Proper 20C: The Dishonest Steward

My first time to preach at my field education site...and what a Gospel passage to preach on. I was blessed to sign-up for week 20C (yes, I voluntarily picked this week). All in all, things went well and I received alot of very nice feedback. I suppose much of the credit goes to God and the fact that nearly every parishioner is extremely pastoral to their new seminary intern. Below is the text of my sermon:

One quiet morning nearly 500 years ago, the sun crawled above the eastern horizon and slowly filled Inigo’s room with light. The warmth and brilliance of the early morning sun woke Inigo to the newfound day and to the stark reality that he must endure yet another day of painful rehabilitation; just as he had the day before and the many days before that. As Inigo lay in his bed, he remembered his glorious days in the Court of Castile, as Page to Juan Velazquez (Treasurer of the kingdom); he remembered the enchanting evenings of dancing with ladies of the Court; he remembered the thrill of gambling and swordplay with his rambunctious friends; he remembered the prestige and honor of being a military leader. But those days seemed to be nothing more than distant memories now. Inigo’s life had drastically changed after the cannon ball shattered his leg during the battle of Pamplona. It wasn’t that Inigo lacked courage. No, he even endured painful surgery to reset his shattered leg in the hope that his life could return to the way it had been before the battle. However, Inigo’s life would never be the same as it once was, and he now had to faithfully respond to his present reality: “What will I do? What will I do?”[1]
As Inigo struggled through each day of his recovery, sometimes even near death, he sought solace by reading books. He had hoped to boost his spirits with some romance novels (perhaps recapturing some of the intrigue of the Court of Castile), but his host could only provide Inigo with books on the lives of Christ and the saints. Inigo spent many hours reading these books and surprisingly found the lives of the saints to be fascinating. He also spent many hours daydreaming: sometimes dreams of his former life of luxury, ladies, and love; and sometimes about the lives of Christ and the saints. As Inigo contemplated his daydreams, he discovered that he felt very different several hours after his dream, depending on if he dreamed about his former life or if he dreamed about Christ and the saints. Perhaps his dreams were prompting him for a faithful response to the question: “What will I do?” The manager in Luke’s Gospel account is faced with a life changing dilemma that demands a response to this very same question: “What will I do?”
The parable told by Jesus in our Gospel reading this morning is about a dishonest manager…or dishonest steward, which I prefer because I think we can all relate to being stewards of God’s gifts to us. In this parable account, Jesus wastes no time in telling us that the steward has been accused of squandering his master’s property and the steward will be dismissed as a result. We don’t know how much the steward has squandered or how long he has been deceiving his master, but we do know that his actions are serious enough to merit the steward’s dismissal. Luke’s use of the Greek word “diaskorpidzo” (dee-as-kor-pid'-zo), which means to squander, scatter or waste, might provide some insights. Luke uses this word only two other times in his Gospel account: the first time in Chapter 1, in Mary’s Song of Praise (The Magnificat) as she gives thanks to God for He “has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts”; and a second time in Chapter 15, in the parable of the Prodigal Son, “the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.” In both cases, God’s action of “scattering the proud” and the Prodigal Son’s “squandering of his inheritance”, there is a sense of great consequence to the action. Luke obviously means to convey that the dishonest steward wasn’t just reaching into the petty cash drawer to buy a blueberry muffin and a grande cappuccino at Starbucks. Luke’s use of this word shows intent to convey a meaning of significant transgression against the master’s house. The steward’s actions have been discovered, and his life will never be the same. We do not hear the steward plead his case to his master. We only hear the steward as he faces his present reality, “What will I do, now that my master is taking my position away from me? What will I do, I am not strong enough to dig? What will I do, I am too ashamed to beg?”
The steward does take action, and perhaps we are surprised by his plan. He calls in his master’s debtors and significantly reduces their debts, one by one. The steward reduces the first person’s debt by 50 jugs of oil and the second person’s debt by 20 containers of wheat; both amounts are considerably more than most 1st century family businesses would produce in a full year’s time![2] For a man already in deep trouble, brazen actions such as these likely catch us off-guard. However, even more surprising than the steward’s actions may be the praise from the master, commending the steward for his shrewd actions. A parable is supposed to catch its listeners off-guard and this one does not disappoint…even in our contemporary hearing. But where is the Good News in this unlikely ending? What are we to make of Jesus’ parable story?
Although there has been some scholarly debate regarding the meaning of the parable and Jesus’ additional words of instruction (vv9-13), most biblical scholars agree that Jesus means to show that the steward has acted shrewdly with worldly goods in order to secure a stable future for himself and his family.[3] This meaning is reiterated in verse 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.” Here, Jesus means to teach his disciples that their Christian ministry, like our ministry, will involve service in the world…and the world is not always a caring place where everything goes according to plan. This world, the earthly world, is full of riches and poverty, love and hate, life and death…even death on a cross. Although piety is most easily practiced from the safety of one’s home or church, Jesus is teaching his disciples, and us, that we will be faced with difficult circumstances from which we must not retreat. The Gospel, itself, presents each of us with powerful life changing lessons that can shatter our former lives like a cannon ball and present us with a new reality…a reality grounded in Christ. The dishonest steward, in his shrewd actions, is an example for us in his use of worldly goods to achieve successful results. However, Jesus also warns that use of worldly goods to serve a desire for wealth alone results in separation from God and God’s purpose for us. Service in the world requires us to use the resources of the world for the glory of God’s Kingdom.
Inigo of Loyola, known as Ignatius after his conversion, was already a man of the world. In his last days of rehabilitation, he found that his daydreams of Christ and the saints provided him with a peaceful sense of purpose. Confident that he had found the answer to the question, “What will I do?”; he gave his fine clothing to a poor man, dressed himself in simple clothing and sandals, and began his journey toward a life of ministry. Ignatius faced many challenges as he faithfully pursued his calling: he didn’t know Latin (an entrance requirement for the university), he was imprisoned by the leaders of the Inquisition and the Dominicans for teaching about Christ without proper credentials, and he was forced to leave the Holy Land during his pilgrimage. Each episode made him stronger, and he continued to realize that a balance of Gospel study and work in the world were important to his mission. When Ignatius finally developed his spiritual practices, he called them Exercises, for he knew that developing a deep spiritual relationship with God would be hard work in this world; and when he helped found a new religious order, The Society of Jesus, the Order was not to be a monastic group, for Ignatius understood that the Jesuits needed to be in the world doing the work of Christ. Each of us will face challenges during our Christian journey on earth. When Christ’s call presents newfound challenges, how will each of us faithfully respond to the question: What will I do?
AMEN
[1] Personal history of Ignatius of Loyola obtained from Loyola University Chicago website, 09/15/2007, http://www.luc.edu/jesuit/ignatius.bio.html
[2] John Nolland, Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 35B, (Dallas: Word Books, 1993), 799.
[3] John Nolland, WBC, Vol. 35B, pp. 803 and Fred B. Craddock, Luke, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, John Knox Press, 1990), pp.190-192.