PARABLES: COMMENDING DISHONESTY

Sermon Summary, “Parables of Jesus: Commending Dishonesty” Luke 16:1-13, July 3, 2016

We begin a new series on the parables of Jesus with my least favorite parable.  While most are difficult, Jesus always left a little doubt so that we wrestled with the application, this one may be the most misunderstood, misinterpreted, most ambiguous of all.  And it’s about money.  Maybe that’s why I don’t like it.

Actually, Jesus talked more about money than any other topic save the Kingdom.  Even the lost sheep (a family asset), the lost coin, and the lost son (he squandered his property) were about money.  One of every seven verses in Luke is about money.

But don’t you hate it when others get involved in your finances, when God gets involved in your finances?  I know a family that is deeply in debt but still buys the newest model muscle car each and every year.  It puts stress on them, their family and their marriage.  Maybe that’s why God is interested in our finances.  By the way, another reason is that we make more financial decisions each day than any other kind.  In some ways, our lives are defined by our financial decisions.

“There was a rich man”  (I’ll leave you to read the verses)  who summoned his manger to fire him.  Alarmed the manager became very clever in a time of crisis.  “I know what I’ll do, I’ll indebt my master’s debtors using his money so when I’m fired they will invite me into his home.  I’ll build a bridge to my future.”

Then guess what?  The manager called the sheriff?  No.  He commended the dishonest manager.  “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly...and I tell you, make friends with your accusers b means of dishonest wealth [earthy riches] so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into their eternal homes.”  In other words, build bridges to your eternal home.

The secret to this parable is how God views money.  He views it, all of it, as a tool to eternity.  What if for one week, or one day, or one hour, we viewed our assets as a tool to eternity?  What if we slept on our financial decisions?  Prayed about them?  Asked how our financial decisions contribute to our eternal wealth? A tool to eternity.

I’m reminded of a story of a Nun who had taken a vow of poverty who was wrestling with a decision to buy a computer printer. She finally did.  When asked if she’d won, she said if she ever stopped wrestling with those decisions, she would lose.  So be it with us.