Shrewd Saints

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

September 23, 2007

Text: Luke 16:1-13

(I am indebted to Fred Craddock for the term “shrewd saints.” See his commentary on Luke in the Interpretation Series.)

Parables are stories which lead us along a predictable path---and then surprise us. We listen, for example, to the story of the prodigal son. He takes his father’s money, blows it all by living dangerously, then, tail between his legs, comes back home. We think to ourselves, “I’ve got to see this; man, is he going to get it from his Dad!” Then, surprise! The daddy sees the son coming up the road, gathers his robe up and runs to meet him, hugs him and throws a party to celebrate. This was very shocking behavior on the part of the father; people would be talking about this for months at the local Dairy Queen or Starbucks. (The fact that we know the ending keeps us from being as shocked as the first listeners were.) (See Luke 15: 11-32)

The parable for today is a shocker, too. One can imagine the disciples listening to Jesus tell the story, and then their puzzled silence. It is all the more shocking because the main character is a “dishonest manager.” And, this manager is “commended” by his boss for what appears to be unethical behavior? Say what?

A little explanation is in order!

It has been reported back to the rich man, the owner of the farm, that the manager of his farm has been squandering--“being wasteful and inefficient with”--- his property---“running up huge personal expenses.” (The Message and the Oxford Bible Commentary) So the boss calls him, sacks him and tells him he wants to see the books.

The manager is in a panic. What can he do? If he loses this job, he’ll have to go to work as a common laborer, or he’ll become a beggar. He’s too soft to work and he can’t stand the humiliation of begging. He thinks a moment and decides on a course of action which will prepare him for the future.

So, he calls in those who owe the rich man for produce they have bought on credit. They bring in their promissory notes, in their own handwriting, and he tells them to reduce the amounts owed. “One hundred jars of olive oil? Write down fifty instead.” To another he says, “A hundred containers of wheat? Write down eighty instead.”

Doesn’t this sound a bit dishonest? Well, scholars have thought so. But, through the centuries, they have tried to figure out why Jesus seems to commend the manager for such bad behavior. So, they have looked for ways to make the manager look better.

Several possibilities have been offered. Perhaps the amount owed by the debtors included a commission for the manager. In which case, the manager was simply reducing the debts by the amount of the commissions. Or, since charging interest on loans was strictly forbidden by Jewish law, most businessmen and lenders simply tacked an amount on to debts equal to what the interest would have been if they could have charged it----a practice which, I suspect, is probably practiced today when 0% interest is offered on loans. So, the manager may have been reducing the amounts on the promissory notes by the amounts that had been tacked on----thus complying with the letter of Jewish law.

The third possibility is that he was simply cooking the books to cover money he had squandered!

In any case, several things hold true: the debtors would be in the manager’s debt! Their debts had been reduced appreciably. He has made friends who would be willing to help him when he is out of work. And, the manager has already been found to be unreliable---someone the boss can’t trust.

This fellow is clearly a rascal. Why would Jesus put him in a good light?

We would “expect Jesus to say something like, Verily I tell you, cheats such as this will one day find themselves in a place of much weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
But instead he says “You see! There’s something to that approach. Folks like this are far shrewder at dealing with this world than you children of light are!” (From Center for Excellence in Preaching Website of Calvin Theological Seminary)

Jesus commends the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly (prudently, astutely, cleverly). He showed street-smarts. He knew how to look after himself in light of what was coming about in his situation. (The Message)

In the New Interpreter’s Bible, I learned that “stories of clever tricksters and wise rogues were popular in Jewish folklore.” One has only to remember the stories of Jacob in the Old Testament----Jacob who became Israel, the father of the 12 sons who started the 12 tribes. Jacob, “grabber” in Hebrew, came out of the womb hanging on to his brother Esau’s heel. He tricks Esau out of his birthright; he later tricks his father-in-law out of herds of sheep. Jacob is admired because he is shrewd, and is the subject of God’s protecting love in spite of his dishonesty.

An example of such folklore: A thief is caught and sentenced by the king to hang. He asks the king not to hang him just yet because he has something he must pass on to him: He can make a pomegranate seed sprout overnight. The king grants his wish. They go to where the seed can be planted. Then the thief tells him that the seed must be planted by a person who is blameless before God. So, he, a thief cannot plant it. The king tells his assistant to plant it; but he demurs because he can remember having cheated someone on a business deal. The king won’t plant it either, because he remembers that he stole a necklace from his father when he was young. The thief then says, well, if there are no pure people around, why should he be hanged? The king laughs and decides to pardon him, admiring his cleverness. (NIB on “Luke”)

Jesus, knowing this tradition, apparently used such a story to make his point. He is not saying that we should behave like the manager in his dishonesty. But he is saying that “he can appreciate a sensible move when he sees it. If only the sons [and daughters] of light had the same appreciation of the crisis confronting them in the drawing near of the kingdom, and the same energy in meeting it.” (Oxford Bible Commentary, “Luke” Italics mine)

The manager knows how to respond in the midst of a crisis. So, too, the seeds of the kingdom are being sown in the works and words of Jesus. God is bringing about a new day. We stand before God, every one of us, as sinners-- but sinners saved by the mercy of God. In view of this gift beyond measure, the shrewd, astute, street-wise response is to turn, to change directions, to begin to live in and move toward God’s new order, where the poor hear the good news, the captives find release, and the oppressed are set free. (Luke 4:18-19)

John Howard Yoder wrote that “People who bear crosses are working with the grain of the universe.” Jennifer Copeland, campus minister at Duke, drawing from Stanley Hauerwas’ work, wrote that “God is moving the universe in a particular direction and making that direction known through the work of the cross….
[The steward] used all the means at his disposal to adapt to his new reality. We should be no less shrewd in adapting to God’s reality.” (Christian Century, “Shrewd Investment,” by Jennifer Copeland, September 4, 2004)

The word “shrewd” may not be readily associated with Christian discipleship. But maybe it should be. Dr Arun Jones, who teaches Evangelism and World Missions at Austin Presbyterian Seminary, told me that William Carey (1761-1834), a British Baptist minister and the father of modern missionary outreach, began to see that the businesses of the world were clever and shrewd at reaching out to sell their products all over the world, establishing headquarters in many countries, while the church of Jesus Christ mostly stayed at home. Businesses would go to new places, learn the languages, the customs, the culture of the peoples, always expanding to include new markets. The church, the appointed ambassadors of Christ, commissioned by Jesus to make disciples of all nations, did not want to pay the price of this kind of venture. Carey challenged the churches to see the urgency of sharing the good news of the kingdom of God. A favorite text of his was Isaiah 54: 2-3, from which he devised this saying: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things from God.” (Wikipedia)

One of the corollaries to shrewdness is being awake, being “children of the light” instead of “children of the night.” Or, to put it simply, recognizing an opportunity when you see it, and acting to make something happen for the good of others.

Eugene M. Lang, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in l996, is an example of this trait. In the 1980s, Lang, a self-made millionaire, strode to the podium at a Harlem elementary school from which he graduated a half-century earlier. He was there to deliver a commencement address to assembled sixth graders and their families. He impulsively threw away his bootstrap bromides. Instead, he offered to pay the college tuition of every student who went on to finish high school. As it turned out, 50 of 51 of those students went on to graduate in a city where 75% of the underprivileged children were dropping out before graduation from high school. He is quoted as saying, “If we can get to the moon, we should certainly be able to educate our kids.”(Source lost)

I do not know anything else about Eugene Lang. But I can learn from him---just as the disciples learned from the crafty manager. What do they have in common? They were both swift to act in the face of a crisis, a challenge, a need.

In our time, in the time we have to live on this earth, our decisions make a difference. “Shall we move with the grain of the universe or drift in the current flowing around us.” (Copeland)

In our life as a church, what is the risen crucified one trying to get us to see and respond to?

In your life, each of you, what challenge is God setting before you?

Are you and I---are we---shrewd enough to seize the moment and act in ways which advance the work of the kingdom of God?