The Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost - The Rev. Colette Hammesfahr

 

            Luke 16:1-13, September 21, 2025

            In our world of on-line shopping, gift cards are acceptable and often times, a preferred gift to give people. When I ask my children what they want for Christmas or their birthday, they often say, “A gift card is fine.” That’s usually because what they really want is so expensive that they have to combine all their gift cards from others in order to get what they want. With gift cards, we no longer have to stress over whether someone will like or want what you’ve given them. There’s no question about the size shirt to give someone, a gift card to Macy’s does the trick. Today, every restaurant, drug store, and even locally owned stores have some sort of gift card.

            Have you ever received a gift card and put it in a place of safe keeping and forgotten about it? Imagine that you received a gift card for $100. There’s nothing you need at the time, so you put it in your wallet or purse to use another time, when you really need it. After much time has passed your cleaning out your wallet or purse, and you find the $100 gift card. You had forgotten you had put it there. The excitement overtakes you and you’re filled with joy over this found money. You turn the card over and see there is an expiration date. The card expires tomorrow.

            Things have changed now haven’t they? This card that was once something so casual to you that you could put it away for another day has now become more valuable than before. Your perspective has now changed and you begin to panic. You have only one day to spend it, or it’s gone. You rush to go shopping to make sure you use it all before it loses it’s value.  

            This perspective of value and worth comes out in the parable of the dishonest manager. It’s a story that’s a little hard to understand. I told the worshipers at the Wednesday service that I had to draw a flow chart to keep up with all that was happening in the story. It’s not just the fact that there is a lot to keep up with but it’s hard to understand what Jesus is trying to teach us. At first glance, it looks like he is teaching us that dishonesty is good.

            In this parable, there is a rich man. The rich man has a manager who works for him. The manager’s job was to keep up with all the transactions the rich man makes with the people of the village, in a ledger. We can make speculations about whether these transactions with the people were on the up-and-up but we don’t know for sure. What we do know is that the rich man suspects that the manager is cooking the books. The manager gets a hunch that the rich man is going to ask to see the ledger and he will then lose his job. He needs to start making friends. He needs to befriend people who will help take care of him when he is out of work, maybe someone who will give him a meal or maybe a bed for the night. So, he goes to the people who have been doing business with the rich man and he lessens the debt they owe. When the rich man gets word of this, instead of firing the manager, he admires the manager’s clever way of saving himself and preparing for his future. He admires him for his shrewdness. Why he admired him instead of scolding him…we do not know.

            I thought about this text for a while this week. It’s coming on the heels of the story of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the return of the prodigal son. At first, I thought the focus was more about forgiveness and I was going down that path for today. The rich man forgave the manager even though he had done him wrong. He was forgiven when he may not have deserved it.

            But then, I read a commentary by N.T. Wright. He wrote about the manager and his actions and what Jesus meant in this parable when the manager was praised for being shrewd. N.T. Wright wrote, “instead of hoarding money and land, Jesus’ advice was to use it, as far as one could, to make friends.”[1] “We need to reassess what matters and what doesn’t.”[2] The manager in the parable realized that his time was short. At that very moment he had resources, opportunities, and influence to help him invest in his future. All the things he had, the physical things, would not last forever. Investing what he had at that very moment would benefit him in the future.

            This goes for you and me as well. All of our resources, our time, our money, and our gifts, are very valuable, but they are also very temporary. None of it will last forever. At our baptism, God places God’s eternal name and promise on us: “You are mine.” In this promise God marks us as stewards — people entrusted with gifts to use for God’s kingdom. This is where we learn that while our resources are valuable, they are also temporary. Their greatest worth comes when we use them in light of the eternal gift God gave us in baptism: forgiveness, belonging, and life with God. Jesus wants us to use what we have now to invest in God’s kingdom, people and relationships. That $100 gift card had an expiration date. It was meant to be used when it was received. Instead it was put away and then there was a rush to use it before it expired.

            There’s a story I read about Mother Teresa. I can’t confirm whether it’s true or not but it makes the point Jesus is sharing with us today. Mother Teresa visited Australia. A new recruit to the monastery in Australia was assigned to be her guide and “gofer” during her stay. The young man was so thrilled and excited at the prospect of being so close to this woman. He dreamed of how much he would learn from her and what they would talk about. But during her visit, he became frustrated. Although he was constantly near her, he never had the opportunity to say one word to Mother Teresa. There were always other people for her to meet.

Finally, her tour was over, and she was due to fly to New Guinea. In desperation, the friar had his opportunity to speak to Mother Teresa. He said to her, “If I pay my own fare to New Guinea, can I sit next to you on the plane so I can talk to you and learn from you?” Mother Teresa looked at him. “You have enough money to pay airfare to New Guinea?” she asked. “Oh, yes,” he replied eagerly. “Then give that money to the poor,” she said. “You’ll learn more from that than anything I can tell you.”[3]

Jesus’ parable is not about praising dishonesty; it’s about urgency and intentionality. Like the manager in the parable, and like the lesson Mother Teresa gave, we are called to use today’s opportunities, relationships, and resources shrewdly, with God’s kingdom in mind. Amen.

 

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[1] N. T. Wright, Luke for Everyone (London: SPCK, 2001), 194. 

[2] Wright, Luke for Everyone, 195.

[3] David Simmons, “Mother Teresa Visited Australia. A New Recruit To …,” SermonCentral, February 22, 2002, https://sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/6105/mother-teresa-visited-australia-a-new-recruit-to-by-david-simmons