Scoundrels

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
September 18, 2022

20 Proper C 

          Jimmie Nell Johnson was my 6^th grade teacher.  You may have heard about her in another sermon or two, such was the impact she had on my young adolescent life.  Mrs. Johnson was utterly no nonsense, but she had the ability to see and bring out the best in each of her students.  Each of us was her own special project as she worked to figure out what we were good at and make us great, or at least better.  At the end of each day, as we filed out of the classroom, she had something positive to say to each of us.  Some days, the most any of us could expect was a kind “tomorrow will be better.”  But that was not Mrs. Johnson’s way.  She would find something good to say about each of us every day about that day, and she was genuine.  Because she was utterly no nonsense in addition to being kind, we believed her and we all flourished in her classroom.

          Today we hear what must be one of Jesus’ strangest parables.  Last week we had two parables that made so much sense, about rejoicing when the lost was found, that we were called to dig for a deeper meaning.  This week we are doing to have to dig to find any meaning whatsoever.  We have a manager who is fired for squandering the rich man’s money.  That much makes sense.  The manager is desperate.  He has no income so he has no place to live, so he’s going to need some friends.  So the manager calls in those who owe the rich man money and slashes their bills so they will now owe the manager a favor.  Basically the manager is cooking the books, which is not surprising since he squandered the rich man’s money in the first place.  But to us, the manager looks like he is only digging himself in deeper and that the rich man will be even angrier with the manager.  The prophet Amos has stern things to say about such behavior this morning, mocking people who claim to be people of faith yet say “We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances.”  Any way we look at Jesus’ parable, this person is a scoundrel and likely to get what he deserves.  But instead of throwing him in jail, the rich man commends the shrewd manager and Jesus tells us to make friends for ourselves by means of dishonest wealth.   The parable goes against everything we think Jesus is about.

          So what gives? This is where Jimmie Nell Johnson comes in.  Suppose we read this parable through the lens of someone looking to find the very best in people?  What if the manager has so badly squandered the master's property that getting back 50 or 80 percent of what is owed to the master is actually a great bargain?  Instead of looking at a total loss, the rich man is getting back 50- 80% of what he is owed, thanks to the manager’s shrewdness.  Given that the manager has squandered the rich man's property, now we have a bizarre sort of win-win.  The rich man is happy to get something back.  The manager is happy because now he has friends to stay with.  The clients are happy because their debt load is lower.  Jesus follows the parable by saying "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful in very much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much."  In some really weird way, the manager has actually been faithful in a very little and will be welcomed into the eternal homes.

          I would not be impressed by this line of reasoning if not for the fact that Scripture is full of stories about scoundrels that God used to advance the story of salvation.  From Cain and Abel, to Jacob who stole his brother’s birthright, to Joseph’s brothers who sell him into slavery, to the call of tax collectors to follow Jesus, and many stories in between, God sees not just what a mess people had make of their lives, but their capacity for good.  So perhaps our parable this morning fits right in with those places in scripture, and perhaps those places in our own lives, where we have made an utter mess of things, and yet God chooses to use us and our messes for good.

          Following the parable, Jesus says “Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.”  Jesus tells a lot of parables about the little becoming great.  The parable of the mustard seed, where a tiny seed creates a great shrub, the parable of the small amount of yeast which leavens a huge lot of bread, and the story of a small bit of bread and fish that fed thousands of hungry people are just a few examples Jesus gives us of something small becoming something mighty. 

          I will be the first to say that this understanding of the parable leaves a lot of questions about honesty and dishonesty, what kind of behaviors Jesus commends and doesn’t commend, and what Jesus really wants from his followers.  But at the end of the day, perhaps what Jesus promises us is that no matter how much we have messed up, God will see the best in us and work with the good, no matter how small.  Perhaps the good news is that a bunch of messed up people with even a little bit of faith can make a gospel difference in the world.

                                                                             Amen.