Dealing

June 20, 2004

The Scripture (Luke 16:1-8)

 Chapter 16 of Luke’s Gospel reflects Jesus’ (and Luke’s) preeminent concern with riches, use of wealth and eternal consequences.  It contains two stories which Jesus begins by saying “There was a rich man.”  One is about the rich man and Lazarus who dies on his doorstep.  The other is about the rich man whose manager who was allegedly frittering away the rich man’s wealth. 

 It is this second story to which Buddy draws our attention this morning.  The New Revised Standard Version, our pew Bibles, calls this story ‘The Parable of the Dishonest Manager,” but this title may be misleading.

 Close you Bibles.  Just listen. 

  

Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager,   2So he summoned his manager and said, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management. You cannot be my manager any longer.’               So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’    ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.   And to another he asked, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’   ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.

Charges were brought that this man was squandering his property.         3The manager thought, ‘What will I do? My master is taking the position away from me.  I am not strong enough to dig.  I am ashamed to beg. 4I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’        ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’           ‘A hundred containers of wheat.   His master commended the manager because he had acted shrewdly.

 

 

 

 

The Message

 

Can’t help but think of Evan Dobelle this morning.  Dominating island news this week---

 University of Hawaii president vacationing on the mainland

learns that the Board of Regents have sacked him

----for cause.

 According to Saturday’s Advertiser, there were questions about his management of a special protocol fund.  Stories of lavish spending, highly paid assistants, his salary four times than the Governor’s whose opponent he supported in the last election.  According to the paper this morning, he flunked “Local 101.” 

 Unlike the manager in the Gospel this morning, Dr. Dobelle has access to a day in court to confront his accusers.  And though both men are deemed to be worldly wise in their own ways, Luke’s manager is looking at begging or ditch digging whereas Dr. Dobelle’s contractual fallback is a tenured teaching position.

 Whether you are a Dobelle friend or foe, you have to think his ears might perk up at this story.  He might wonder if there’s any good news for him.

 The rich man hears rumors.  Accusations surface.  His manager is wasting funds.  Perhaps he is careless, exercises poor judgment, or keeps poor records.  (Seems that the rich man himself has no records.)  The manager may be a thief.  We aren’t told. 

 The manager is called on the carpet---called to account.  Interestingly, the message is not “You’re fired.  Get your pencils and get out now, and by the way the locks will be changed.”  It’s “What’s up?  Put the account books on my desk as soon as possible.  This relationship can’t continue.”

 The manager apparently has some interval of time which he astutely regards as a window of opportunity.  He meets individually with his employer’s clients.  This is an interesting detail which has not escaped interpreters over the years.  He is able to treat them individually, discounting their debts differently.  Perhaps, some interpreters have wondered, this gives him an opportunity surreptitiously to assess which of his employer’s clients might have ratted on him.

 In the first century Palestinian equivalent of agribusiness, there wasn’t that much of a profit margin.  A lot of thought has been given to the question of how such large discounts could have been given. 

 Did they come from a relaxing of usurious profits which had been exacted by the patron?  Perhaps the discounts arose from the manager’s choosing to forgo his commission---which in these amounts would have been excessive. 

 It could have been some combination of these two sources, but the discounts by first century standards were enormous.  Quite different from the “all furniture half price going out of business fifty two weeks a year sale.” We understand what that’s all about.

 In any case, by discounting their debts, he puts his soon to be ex-boss in a good light with the clients, and he creates good will for himself.  His master has little choice but to commend him publicly. 

 This story may have been something like a first century urban legend.  Did you hear about how so and so pulled off that big merger in Jersey, or how so and so managed to bail out of widget.com with a platinum parachute and no charges from the FTC?

 Luke’s interest is money, wealth, relations between the rich and the poor, and the eternal consequences of the unfair distribution of goods.  Four out of five of Luke’s Jesus stories concern this field of interest. 

 At the conclusion of this story, Luke’s Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters.”  Most contemporary commentators see this as Luke’s spin and a tacit confession that he (Luke) doesn’t know to what use Jesus himself might have put or intended this story.

 One interpretation out there that I especially liked, but which we cannot claim is the one true interpretation, goes like this: 

 The story was going around.  Jesus used it as a parable to explain/defend himself against the charges that he was an unjust steward of God’s grace.  No one was authorized, it was believed, to go around forgiving sins/debts against God.  Yet, this is what Jesus was criticized for proffering.  Forgiveness including, according to Luke, debt forgiveness as in “Jubilee year.” 

 By identifying himself as the Steward (of God’s grace), Jesus would then be the one praised by the Patron (God) for wisely and appropriately writing down/off the debts/sins of persons.  It was a vindication story, sort of.  This is not Luke’s use of the story, of course, but it’s possible and clever, possibly too clever---at least by a half.

 In the scholarly world of Biblical interpretation, there are now hundred of attempts to make sense of this story.  Most begin by saying, “This is one of the most difficult/complex/problematic stories in the New Testament.”  So, I feel somewhat liberated as I offer you my own pastoral take.

 I want to say that the good news of this passage (for Evan Dobelle, for each of us, for all of us together) is that there is an accounting.  I think it was Clare Booth Luce who is credited with saying, “No good deed goes unpunished.” 

 An accounting however is not punishment.  The good news that there is or will be an accounting is different from saying that there are consequences as in “what goes around comes around.”  That has to do with what Hindu philosophers call “karma.” 

 My version of this good news is simply an assertion that “there is an accounting coming, and that an awareness of this fact presents the hearer with a window of opportunity, an opportunity to set things right, to make course corrections.”

 A few weeks ago in an exercise relative to our strategic planning initiatives, I asked some church members to think about which Bible story or theme they thought that CCU might be living out at this time in our collective life story. 

 Someone said they felt that CCU was like one of the servants who had been entrusted with the master’s talents and that we were located somewhere in time between having received the talents, on the one hand, and deciding, on the other hand, how to invest/use the talents.

 That’s very insightful.  It highlights the fact that we are a gifted people.  Look around and notice the wealth of resources represented by the faces around you.  It also points up the fact that we need to choose how we will employ those resources.  It’s a very helpful image but, of course it’s not quite accurate, is it?  CCU has been using, in one fashion or another, all along its gifts---sometimes to great effect and faithfully and at other times in other ways.

 News of a scheduled accounting would be good news.  News of an accounting early and often (much as we used to think of voting in Texas---early and often) would be good news. 

 An early and frequent accounting would have been good news for the University and Evan Dobelle.  Perhaps it would have helped them focus and sustain a productive relationship with their president. 

 An early and regular accounting would have helped CCU and me through our first six years.  Fortunately, we were able to catch up with each other through the Negotiating Team process almost two years ago.  And we are working diligently to devise a meaningful (not just a pro forma) annual review. 

 Such accountings, early and often, would help officers, would it not, in the performance of their duties and members in thinking about the stewardship of their membership in the Body of Christ?

 We say, don’t we, that everything we have is entrusted to us---that we hold everything in stewardship from God?  And Luke reminds us that we hold everything, including our checking, savings, and 401ks in trust for the common good, for the well-being of human kind.  So, let’s get back to Luke for a moment.  He is interested in a fiscal accounting---what are we doing with our money. 

 Imagine that we have suddenly become aware of being called to account.  I don’t mean the violent calling “Fool, you’re about to die” that we heard about and rejected in an earlier chapter in Luke.  I’m thinking of a simpler, gentler calling to account. 

 It would be a shocker, wouldn’t it, if we suddenly got a call or an email, or a visitor---remember the old TV series “The Millionaire.”  The messenger knocked and brought life changing news.  It would be like that without the million dollar check---“Come see me in three days.  Bring your financials.”

 There is the three days.  Is it a window of opportunity?  What then? 

 I imagined I dreamed this.  (Understand.  I didn’t really dream it, but it came from somewhere and, I imagine, it will go somewhere.) 

 Jane returns from vacation. The church answering machine is spilling over with messages that go like this:  “Jane, this is….my $600 pledge---make it $900 and the check’s in the mail….Jane my 2004 pledge was $1200.  Make it $2400.  Here’s my VISA number.  I want to pay it all now…Jane, my $100 a week pledge ($5,200).  Make it $15,000.  Don’t ask.  Just change it.  I’ll be by Tuesday to write a check for the whole amount.” 

 You think?

 And the church, we will be called to account.  How would we use the window of opportunity before we have to give an account? 

 Do you suppose we will use the sudden increase in pledged income and financial resources as leverage for a multimillion dollar loan so that we can move to build a multi-service center for the homeless complete with job and addiction services? 

 You think?

 It’s good news to be made aware that there is an accounting.  Maybe we need to imagine it more concretely.  There is a window of opportunity.  Maybe it comes weekly, or daily. 

 We need to be thinking “What am I doing with my talent, what am I doing with my dollars? 

Fabian “Buddy” Summers, Pastor

Christ Church Uniting Disciples and Presbyterians, Kailua, HI

Jesus Would Go

 The Script

 Today, we move into the Gospel of Luke’s fifteenth chapter. 

 For our reading today Buddy has left off the familiar story of the father who had two sons which concludes the chapter. 

 He invites our attention to the first two parables: the one about the lost sheep and the other one about the lost coin. 

 In Luke’s arrangement of the material, Jesus tells these parables in response to complaints that he fraternizes with the unsavory element.

 Our reading includes a few behind the scenes whispers.  Close your Bible.  Just listen---

 

Tax collectors and (“other generally recognized”) sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus.            So Jesus told them this parable to the comfortable never get your hands dirty crowd:    [Psst!  It’s unlikely any of them would be able or willing to imagine themselves in such a degrading position as shepherd.  OK.  Continue.]   [in a stage whisper]  No.     [in a stage whisper]  Not likely.       [in a stage whisper, but shocked, a little louder]  Excuse me?  You leave the ninety-nine?     [in a stage whisper, overwhelmed]  Whatever.      Maybe, I’d just strangle it and cook it.       Cute Jesus. Cute.         At least he didn’t say, “Imagine you were a woman.”       I thought we were talking about Jesus’ consorting with sinners.

The (well read, scrupulous and generally admired) Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling.  They were saying, “This man ought to know better.  Look!  He actually welcomes sinners to his table.  He eats with them.     “Imagine you were a shepherd.          Can’t you see this?    You are responsible for a hundred sheep.      O.K.  One gets lost.  You leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go.       So, you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until you find it.  Don’t you?      And when you find it, wouldn’t you carry it home and rejoice?    And wouldn’t you call your friends together and say, ‘Great news!  The lost sheep…the found sheep.”       Or what woman having ten silver coins,  if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?      9When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’

 

The Message

When we first came to Kailua, I was intrigued by a bumper sticker I kept seeing on cars, vans and pickups.  “What is the ‘Eddie Wood Company’ anyway,” I wondered.  Woodworking supplier?  Outdoor clothing? 

After getting stronger corrective lenses, I realized the bumper sticker was even more mysterious.  It wasn’t the Eddie Wood Company at all.  The logo was “Eddie Would Go.”

It turns out therein lies a story that helps us interpret Jesus’ parable of the shepherd that left the ninety-nine sheep to find and bring back the one that had gotten separated.

The second voyage of the Hokule’a was launched from Magic Island on March 16, 1978.  Most of this information comes from reports in The Honolulu Advertiser.  The governor was there.  Television news crews were there.  The craft was loaded, overloaded by some accounts.  One other thing wasn’t quite right---the weather.

A few hours after getting underway, a large wave broadsided the Hokule’a.  It flipped over  “like a pancake.”  After clinging to the overturned hull overnight and being missed by nearby ships and planes, thirty-one year old Eddie Aikau offered to paddle on his surfboard an estimated twelve miles to Lanai for help.  He guessed it would take five hours.

It wasn’t an unreasonable idea.  He was a strong paddler.  Hokule’a’s officers decided it was worth a try.  Eddie was adamant anyway.  He leashed the board to his ankle, took a portable strobe light and some oranges and paddled away as crew members held hands and prayed.  It was the last time anyone ever saw him.

They say that the phrase “Eddie would go” arose from a period earlier than this star crossed voyage.  Because of his considerable water skills, he was the first person without a high school diploma ever hired as a north shore life guard. 

He pulled people out of waves that were so large no one else was able or willing to attempt a rescue.  Only Eddie would go.  In 1971, his peers voted him Lifeguard of the Year.  His brother died in an accident a month after returning from Vietnam.  After that Eddie began to explore his Hawaiian roots and spirituality.  He took an active interest in the Hokule’a project and Hawaiian cultural renewal.

A few hours after Eddie disappeared, the Hokule’a crew was spotted and rescued.  The experience had a profound impact upon all were close to it.  Clyde Aikau said, “His legacy is not to live solely for yourself, to help each other, to be of service.” 

Last night after Taize, Ann Bell told me that the story didn’t stop there.  Nainoa Thompson and Bruce Blankenfeld, current navigator and sailing master of the Hokule’a were members of that crew in 1978.  For a year, everyone considered whether or not to shut down the whole program.  It might just be too dangerous.  Nainoa and Bruce emerged with an even deeper dedication to the work of sailing Hokule’a, learning and teaching the lore of navigation. 

As everyone knows, the Hokule’a crew has just returned from their most recent project.  It was a 1,200 mile journey called “Navigating Change.”  They wanted to share with children and youth the environmental and ecological lessons and challenges represented by the Hawaiian northwest islands.  Ann was a key crew member.  She set up classroom conference calls with hundreds of children each day.  In due course, Ann will share with us the lessons she took from this pilgrimage.

Quoted in the paper this morning, Nainoa Thompson said, “I have a lot of questions right now.  This voyage has changed me.” It has raised the issue of our values and our vision back home.”  Bruce Blankenfeld said, “What we’re doing with ‘Navigating Change’ is [trying] to get people to do a little.  If everybody did a little thing, it would make a big difference.  Like using biodegradable soap, because everything ultimately goes to the ocean, and all you have to do is change brands.”

Tava Taupu, another Hokule’a veteran crew member reflected that “the environment can be protected if people think of it as crew members think of each other and of the canoe.  We need to check on each other, take care of each other.  The canoe is home for you.  If you take care, it takes you 1,000 miles, you go far, far.  If not, you break apart.”

Thinking of the Hundred Sheep Again

It was never about sheep, was it?  It was always about people---who and what is important.  Luke puts these parables in the context of complaining about Jesus’ spending so much time with people on the margins.  He thought of it as Jesus coming to seek out the lost.  To my mind, it’s not so much about finding the lost as it is about reuniting those which have become separated.

I used to wonder about the wisdom of leaving the ninety-nine sheep.  It doesn’t say that they were left in a corral or shelter.  They were just abandoned.  I can just hear them (I have heard them), “Hey what about us?  Who’s going to take care of us?  Don’t leave us.”

Through the interpretive lens of the “Eddie Would Go” bumper-sticker, I think I can see that Jesus may have left the ninety-nine for their own good.  They are left so that they can learn to work together, just like the crew of the Hokule’a had to and did. 

So, what about our situation today?

According to Luke, Jesus’ charter was expressed in words from the prophet Isaiah.  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.  He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, sight to the blind, release to the captives and to proclaim the Jubilee.”

People all around us are poor, starving for food and good news.  Jesus would go.

People all around us are blind, groping about for safety, for direction.  Jesus would go.

People in our neighborhood are captive, enslaved, imprisoned, abused, and forgotten.  Jesus would go.

No wait!  Actually, Jesus went.  Eddie went.  Nainoa, Bruce, and Ann went.

What about us?  Would we?  Will we?

 

Fabian “Buddy” Summers 6/13/2004

Christ Church Uniting Disciples and Presbyterians

Kailua, HI

 

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