Year C
Amos 8:4-7
Psalm 113
Philippians 2:5-11
Luke 16:1-13<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The passage\u2026 the story\u2026 in Luke’s Gospel\u2026 just before today’s\u2026 is the story of the Prodigal Son\u2026 the son who was wasteful and extravagant\u2026 who spent money and resources freely and recklessly\u2026 and who hits bottom… so he cares for and feeds pigs\u2026 a not-very-Jewish thing to do\u2026 and he\u2026 would gladly have eaten what the swine ate\u2026 but no one would give him anything<\/em>\u2026 John Shea writes\u2026 however he suddenly comes to himself\u2026 does an inner assessment\u2026 and develops an action plan\u2026 but as we know\u2026 his plan will not come to fruition\u2026 because it will be overshadowed by the wild welcome of his father\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In today’s story\u2026 property is also squandered\u2026 and the manager who did the squandering also hits bottom\u2026 at least in his imagination\u2026 unlike the prodigal\u2026 he is not immediately threatened with starvation\u2026 but he is threatened with the loss of his job which would lead to that\u2026 he fears that he’ll never be hired again as a manager\u2026 and thinks of only two options which would be open to him\u2026 physical labor and begging\u2026 and he is too weak for the one and too ashamed for the other\u2026 so he too takes stock of his situation and comes up with a plan\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n So the debtors are questioned\u2026 and at the Manager’s questioning and instruction\u2026 they acknowledge how much they owe\u2026 but it’s they who alter the numbers\u2026 and they who change the debt\u2026 it’s their handwriting that has doctored the bills\u2026 so in the end\u2026 the Manager could feign ignorance\u2026 and in line with all shady undertakings\u2026 they must all do this quickly\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today’s parable is where forgiveness moves from the bottom up\u2026 but let’s look for a moment at another familiar parable\u2026 the one of the Unforgiving Servant\u2026 a story where forgiveness moves from the top down… it’s the story where a servant owes the King 10,000 talents\u2026 now one talent equals 6,000 denarii\u2026 and one denarii was a day’s wages\u2026 so if we do the math\u2026 the servant owed the King about 160,000 years’ wages\u2026 we could say he owed the King his life\u2026 but the King forgives the debt\u2026 the King dies to his claim to it\u2026 the King’s hope is that the servant will take the hint\u2026 and similarly die to the hundred dollars that’s owed him by someone else\u2026 but as Jesus tells the story\u2026 the forgiven servant chooses the hard line of a bookkeeper’s life\u2026 instead of the care-free attitude of a spendthrift’s death\u2026 and short-circuits the work of forgiveness\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In today’s parable\u2026 the Rich Man starts out expecting to get every jar of oil\u2026 and every grain of wheat that’s owed to him\u2026 he refuses to die to any of his bookkeeping\u2026 to any past due accounts on which he has been unable to collect\u2026 but someone\u2026 we don’t know who\u2026 becomes a whistleblower against the Manager\u2026 brings charges against him\u2026 and the Rich Man fires him\u2026 and this firing means his death\u2026 but the Manager is freed by this death\u2026 freed to think things he could not have thought before\u2026 he’s the one\u2026 who from the bottom of the heap\u2026 becomes the agent of life for everyone in the parable\u2026 he becomes life from the dead for these debtors\u2026 and he becomes life from the dead\u2026 for the Rich Man\u2026 because\u2026 as Fr. Robert Capon writes\u2026 the sight of a loser pulling off a coup<\/em> like this\u2026 maybe being able to collect something when nothing was likely to come\u2026 and doing this in the very thick of his losses\u2026 finally loosens the Old Boy up\u2026 and he commends the dishonest Manager because he acted shrewdly\u2026 and the Manager is able to be the resurrection of the debtors\u2026 because they wouldn’t consent to deal with anyone but a crook like themselves\u2026 they would never have gone near him if they thought he was a respectable bookkeeper\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The church can hardly resist the temptation to gussy Jesus up into a respectable citizen\u2026 but today’s Unjust Manager is the Christ-figure\u2026 the Manager is a crook like Jesus is\u2026 and so the unique contribution of this parable\u2026 is its insistence that grace cannot come to the world through respectability\u2026 respectability regards only success\u2026 and winning\u2026 and wealth\u2026 it will have no traction with the grace that works by death and losing\u2026 and the point of both of these parables is this\u2026 ] grace works only on those it finds dead-enough to raise to new life\u2026 it’s the only kind of grace there is\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Jesus baits us criminals with his own criminality\u2026 because wouldn’t we really rather deal with another criminal than with God the Father\u2026 who expects to be paid in full\u2026 because compared to what we really owe\u2026 10,000 talents would be like pocket change\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And like the Manager who intercedes between us and God\u2026 Jesus\u2026 who rejected equality with God as something to be exploited\u2026 reduces the debt of our sin\u2026 but it can’t be done for us\u2026 it has to be our handwriting\u2026 our willingness\u2026 our fearless moral inventory\u2026 our decision to participate in this collusion\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But why doesn’t Jesus just zero out our balance\u2026 why is anything at all\u2026 left on our bills\u2026 it may be because we need to owe something\u2026 even though Jesus has become life from the dead for us\u2026 we’re not and can’t be as free as the Manager’s boss the Rich Man\u2026 we’re not and can’t be as free as the Manager\u2026 we need the tether of relationship and accountability\u2026 the practice of gratefulness\u2026 and the memory of how heavy the bill used to feel\u2026 to remember forgiveness\u2026 so we can share it with others\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are children of light\u2026 children whose consciousness has been illuminated by the Good News\u2026 we share this consciousness with each other\u2026 it connects us and makes us brothers and sisters\u2026 but it’s threatened by powerful forces that we’re usually not aware of and against which we usually don’t struggle\u2026 we’re shrewd in the ways of the world\u2026 but not so shrewd in the ways of the spirit\u2026 so it’s much easier for us to save our physical and social lives\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pastor Martin Billmeier writes\u2026 We believe that Jesus is the confirmation of the view that God is One who’s concerned not in leading king’s armies\u2026 but in making sure they don’t abuse their power\u2026 God appears as one “weak” and “poor” among us\u2026 and dies the death on a cross of one who is powerless\u2026 that weakness gets our attention\u2026 that weakness is God’s strength to renew humanity\u2026 the weakness of that cross promises resurrection to those who are poor and dying and destitute\u2026 whether literally or spiritually\u2026 and a God who appears in weakness must have a heart for those struggling under the weight of this existence\u2026 the economically challenged\u2026 the mentally ill\u2026 the addicted… and so many others who are so often blamed by the strong for their condition\u2026 which money is sometimes unable to cure\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Money is promoted as providing social security\u2026 and to some degree it does\u2026 but it can easily come into competition with God who is ultimately our only wealth and security\u2026 ] from the world’s perspective God’s wealth of forgiveness and letting go is dishonest\u2026 ] and from God’s perspective amassing more of the world’s wealth and keeping score is dishonest because it promises what it can’t provide\u2026 ] so let’s\u2026 in our own handwriting\u2026 decide to be rich in God’s wild welcome\u2026 and in God’s immeasurable wealth!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year C Amos 8:4-7 Psalm 113 Philippians 2:5-11 Luke 16:1-13 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 The passage\u2026 the story\u2026 in Luke’s Gospel\u2026 just before today’s\u2026 is the story of the Prodigal Son\u2026 the son who was wasteful and extravagant\u2026 who spent money and resources freely and recklessly\u2026 and who hits bottom… so he cares for and feeds pigs\u2026 a not-very-Jewish thing to do\u2026 and he\u2026 would gladly have eaten what the swine ate\u2026 but no one would give him anything\u2026 John Shea writes\u2026 however he suddenly comes to himself\u2026 does an inner assessment\u2026 and develops an action plan\u2026 but as we know\u2026 his plan will not come to fruition\u2026 because it will be overshadowed by the wild welcome of his father\u2026 In today’s story\u2026 property is also squandered\u2026 and the manager who did the squandering also hits bottom\u2026 at least in his imagination\u2026 unlike the prodigal\u2026 he is not immediately threatened with starvation\u2026 but he is threatened with the loss of his job which would lead to that\u2026 he fears that he’ll never be hired again as a manager\u2026 and thinks of only two options which would be open to him\u2026 physical labor and begging\u2026 and he is too weak for the one and too ashamed for the other\u2026 so he too takes stock of his situation and comes up with a plan\u2026 So the debtors are questioned\u2026 and at the Manager’s questioning and instruction\u2026 they acknowledge how much they owe\u2026 but it’s they who alter the numbers\u2026 and they who change the debt\u2026 it’s their handwriting that has doctored the bills\u2026 so in the end\u2026 the Manager could feign ignorance\u2026 and in line with all shady undertakings\u2026 they must all do this quickly\u2026 Today’s parable is where forgiveness moves from the bottom up\u2026 but let’s look for a moment at another familiar parable\u2026 the one of the Unforgiving Servant\u2026 a story where forgiveness moves from the top down… it’s the story where a servant owes the King 10,000 talents\u2026 now one talent equals 6,000 denarii\u2026 and one denarii was a day’s wages\u2026 so if we do the math\u2026 the servant owed the King about 160,000 years’ wages\u2026 we could say he owed the King his life\u2026 but the King forgives the debt\u2026 the King dies to his claim to it\u2026 the King’s hope is that the servant will take the hint\u2026 and similarly die to the hundred dollars that’s owed him by someone else\u2026 but as Jesus tells the story\u2026 the forgiven servant chooses the hard line of a bookkeeper’s life\u2026 instead of the care-free attitude of a spendthrift’s death\u2026 and short-circuits the work of forgiveness\u2026 In today’s parable\u2026 the Rich Man starts out expecting to get every jar of oil\u2026 and every grain of wheat that’s owed to him\u2026 he refuses to die to any of his bookkeeping\u2026 to any past due accounts on which he has been unable to collect\u2026 but someone\u2026 we don’t know who\u2026 becomes a whistleblower against the Manager\u2026 brings charges against him\u2026 and the Rich Man fires him\u2026 and this firing means his death\u2026 but the Manager is freed by this death\u2026 freed to think things he could not have thought before\u2026 he’s the one\u2026 who from the bottom of the heap\u2026 becomes the agent of life for everyone in the parable\u2026 he becomes life from the dead for these debtors\u2026 and he becomes life from the dead\u2026 for the Rich Man\u2026 because\u2026 as Fr. Robert Capon writes\u2026 the sight of a loser pulling off a coup like this\u2026 maybe being able to collect something when nothing was likely to come\u2026 and doing this in the very thick of his losses\u2026 finally loosens the Old Boy up\u2026 and he commends the dishonest Manager because he acted shrewdly\u2026 and the Manager is able to be the resurrection of the debtors\u2026 because they wouldn’t consent to deal with anyone but a crook like themselves\u2026 they would never have gone near him if they thought he was a respectable bookkeeper\u2026 The church can hardly resist the temptation to gussy Jesus up into a respectable citizen\u2026 but today’s Unjust Manager is the Christ-figure\u2026 the Manager is a crook like Jesus is\u2026 and so the unique contribution of this parable\u2026 is its insistence that grace cannot come to the world through respectability\u2026 respectability regards only success\u2026 and winning\u2026 and wealth\u2026 it will have no traction with the grace that works by death and losing\u2026 and the point of both of these parables is this\u2026 ] grace works only on those it finds dead-enough to raise to new life\u2026 it’s the only kind of grace there is\u2026 And Jesus baits us criminals with his own criminality\u2026 because wouldn’t we really rather deal with another criminal than with God the Father\u2026 who expects to be paid in full\u2026 because compared to what we really owe\u2026 10,000 talents would be like pocket change\u2026 And like the Manager who intercedes between us and God\u2026 Jesus\u2026 who rejected equality with God as something to be exploited\u2026 reduces the debt of our sin\u2026 but it can’t be done for us\u2026 it has to be our handwriting\u2026 our willingness\u2026 our fearless moral inventory\u2026 our decision to participate in this collusion\u2026 But why doesn’t Jesus just zero out our balance\u2026 why is anything at all\u2026 left on our bills\u2026 it may be because we need to owe something\u2026 even though Jesus has become life from the dead for us\u2026 we’re not and can’t be as free as the Manager’s boss the Rich Man\u2026 we’re not and can’t be as free as the Manager\u2026 we need the tether of relationship and accountability\u2026 the practice of gratefulness\u2026 and the memory of how heavy the bill used to feel\u2026 to remember forgiveness\u2026 so we can share it with others\u2026 We are children of light\u2026 children whose consciousness has been illuminated by the Good News\u2026 we share this consciousness with each other\u2026 it connects us and makes us brothers and sisters\u2026 but it’s threatened by powerful forces that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[120],"class_list":["post-1781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-gods-grace"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1781"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1782,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1781\/revisions\/1782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}