a homily for Proper 20C
Text: Luke 16:1-13

A strange little story

Jesus is a master storyteller. He’s pulled off a sequence of three parables: a kind of meditation on a common theme: that culminate with the most beloved parable of them all, what we call the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It is a heart-breaking and achingly captivating story of loss and reunion. But then it turns as the older brother is overcome with jealousy and anger. He storms out of his own house, in the middle of the “welcome home” party. The father comes out to him in the back and invites him to come inside. The End.

From a literary standpoint, Jesus nails the ending. It ends with the crowd no doubt begging for more.

What happens next?

we wonder. And of course it is for us to speculate. It seems that is the more central part for us, the speculation. Would we go back in? Would we give up our jealous indignation? Do we accept the love GOD gives us?

So Jesus turns, pulls His disciples aside and tells them this other parable. In it a master comes home and plans to can the manager. The manager, for his part, knows his fate is sealed, so he goes about finding plan B.

This is not the follow-up parable we would expect. It has caused great anger and confusion for centuries. I have read that this is the most hated parable in the canon. That may be true and I can see why. We don’t want to think that this master has anything in common with that crazy, generous father from the previous parable.

Remember the master storyteller, however, is fond of The Turn in which the unlikely becomes the real. In this story, the turn comes when the master sees what his manager has done and praises him for it.

The Turn

What are we to make of this Turn, then? In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, The Turn shows that even the evil can do GOD’s work. In the Parables of the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin, The Turn is found in a great big party thrown in the middle of the night.

These Turns are not just unlikely, but somewhat unlikable. We want to hate the outsiders and condemn them as evil. We want to be prudent with our resources and go to bed when its time. What Jesus offers is so often not easy to accept, let alone do.

One way we could read The Turn in this parable is that Jesus is again giving us an anti-hero, like the Good Samaritan. He’s shrewd. He can deal with people. He’s rewarded for his selfish and dishonest dealings.

Maybe. It never says that he keeps his job. And it doesn’t say that we’re supposed to like him.

Our own temptation is to dwell on how GOD feels about selfishness, self-preservation, dishonesty, and a general lack of integrity because we feel so compromised by the world. We look at our work, our relationships, our business dealings, and we look for advantage. We look for leverage.

What can I do? Where is my power?

And this parable seems to give us slack. It seems to go against all that came before it. As Christians, this scares us and relieves us. Because the selflessness and honesty Jesus was preaching in the previous 15 chapters was feeling hard to match.

Then Jesus unveils a second Turn.

Another Turn

While we are distracted by what Jesus has put into the parable, we have ignored the words that follow it. Words that seem to contradict what we thought was the moral of the story.

He says that a little faith is actually a lot. And a little dishonesty is actually a lot. A little white lie is really a big, fat lie. And a little measure of trust is plenty (remember the mustard seed?). Here’s the money line:

No slave can serve two masters.

This is the real Turn. Because the parable itself is only half of the story. The hearing it puts the disciples into it. The manager is trying to serve his master and his livelihood.

The master then cheers the manager for having chosen one over the other. So, when the guy says to himself

Since I’m about to get fired anyway, I can use this job to help myself

he is choosing his livelihood above his master’s.

This doesn’t make him a positive example. He has just proven that we can serve only one master and that our master tends to be money. His lone virtue is in choosing. The funny thing about that choice, that selfish livelihood-obsessed choice, is that it is also subversive and unintentionally demonstrates GOD’s love. He forgives debts: a central care of GOD’s Kingdom.

Jesus tells an economic parable that shows the disciples how much they still think within the system, like the people around them, caring for their well-being and choosing comfort over GOD. But GOD is still working and working through all of us, even the selfish. How much more could be done if they did this for the right reason!

A big, big faith

That small line about a little faith really being a big faith isn’t slipped in as an example, but the cornerstone of the structure. What Jesus is asking requires faith. Not a lot. Just a little. It is enough.

Enough to break out of our custom. We can’t serve two masters: GOD and our budget. We can’t love GOD and our neighbors if we put our trust in money. Or budgets. Or this building. Or programs. Or memorials. Or anything that shines and steals our focus, our love, our devotion from GOD.

GOD isn’t served by that. GOD isn’t served by trust in stuff or in our economic system. We can’t “buy” or “win” or “fight” our way to “victory” over our “opponents”. The Kingdom works differently. It trusts differently. It trusts us. It trusts us to love GOD and serve GOD. It trusts us to trust.

That little faith is enough because the whole structure is built on it. Built on all of us having just a little faith. Faith that GOD is doing something here with us. Because we can’t have any faith in GOD if our love and devotion is elsewhere.

That promise of a little faith is mighty. A faith shown us by GOD. A faith we can show to one another. A faith that can change all things, make all things, renew all things. A faith already here among us.

For more, check out my video response:

• Not This Parable! (drewdowns.net)