Sermon

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October 3, 2004
18th Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 16:1-13
Pastor Robert Raasch

Christian, Are You a Shrewd Manager?

1. Carefully Consider One Man's Action
2. Prayerfully Consider Our Own

Before we begin, I want you to know that this morning (evening), I'm going to be preaching on the subject of money. I want you to know that so that if you feel like you need to get up and leave now, you can do that. Hmmm. Only a few (none) of you left. But I'll bet you all thought about leaving. I'll bet that if you had known that I was going to talk about money today, you would have maybe stayed away today. In fact, I expect that there are some people who did think we were going to talk about money today and so, purposely stayed away.

Tell me, why is that? Why are people uncomfortable hearing a sermon on money? I mean, if I began this sermon by saying, "today we're going to talk about family life or communication, or love or heaven, would you have cringed at any of those topics? No, you'd probably think, "Yeah, let's hear about that!" But money, "Oh no, I don't want to hear about that!" Why is that? They're all undeserved blessings from God-our money, our families, our ability to communicate with others, even God's forgiveness and eternal life-all are blessings we're tempted to abuse. Why are we comfortable hearing about some of God's blessings and not others?

Could it be that the little voice inside of us that says "I don't want to hear about money" is not our New Man talking, but rather our Old Man? Could it be that it's our sinful nature that tempts us to stay away from church when the subject is money? I mean, think about it. How would our New Man react to God talking about a blessing he's placed into our hands? Wouldn't our New Man, the redeemed Christian in each one of us, say, "Please, Lord, tell me more"?

My friends, that's the assumption I'm going to work with today, namely that as a redeemed child of God, each one of you wants to know what your gracious Father in heaven has to say about being a faithful manager of the financial gifts he's entrusted to each one of us. And there is probably no better way to do that than to turn our attention to the gospel reading for today. For here it is Jesus who in effect asks each one of us today,

Christian, Are You a Shrewd Manager?

In order to answer that question, let's do two things:

1. Carefully Consider One Man's Action
2. Prayerfully Consider Our Own

The parable begins, "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. {2} So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer." In other words, "Buddy, you're going to be fired, because you've been cheating me!" Notice that the dishonest manager doesn't deny the charge; he knows he's guilty. Instead, he immediately begins worrying about what's going to happen to him once he loses his job. He says to himself, "Man, I don't want to have to dig ditches, or start begging. What am I going to do? Ahah! I know what I'll do. I'll call in all the people who owe my master money and I'll slash their bills by 20 or 50%. That way, when my master finally cans me, these people will (as the manager puts it) "welcome me into their homes." And that's exactly what this manager does.

Now, when the rich man finds out what the manager has done, what's his reaction? Does he condemn the manager? No, instead he commends him. That is, he praises him; he congratulates him. Why? Here's the key. He says, "Because he acted shrewdly." That's an important point. The master is not commending his manager for being dishonest--he's firing him for that. No, what the master is commending the manager for is the fact that this manager was able to look at what he had at his disposal and make a calculated decision to use it in such a way as to benefit him in the future. Jesus says that's being shrewd. The Greek word there comes from the word for "to think." You might say that this man "used his head." He used his master's resources in such a way so that when those resources were gone, there would be friends waiting for him. That's what the master is commending this man for.

The question is, would Jesus consider you or me to be that same kind of "shrewd manager"? To answer that question, let us, II. Prayerfully Consider Our Own Actions.

Tell me, are you at all like the manager in this parable? Could it be said that you and I have been put in charge of someone else's wealth? Absolutely! The Bible says, "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it." (Ps. 24:1). There is not a single thing in this world that belongs to anybody but God. God owns it all. But in his infinite goodness God has entrusted that earthly wealth to human beings like you and me. He's put us in charge of all these earthly treasures so that we can use them in a way the ultimately pleases and glorifies him.

The question is, how have we done? If God were to demand an accounting of you and me, like the master did of his servant, how do you think you would fare? If God were to say, "Okay, hand over your checkbook register for the last 40 years. I want to see where you've spent my money," what kind of grade would you get? Would God say, "You've made perfect use of the time, talent and treasures I've given you?" Never spent it frivolously on yourself. Never cheated God out of what was rightfully his."

My friends, if you're like me, this is why you don't like to hear a sermon on money. Because deep down you know that ultimately God is going to call you to account for how you managed his money. It's the sick feeling you get when your dad or your spouse or your boss says, "Okay, where did the money go?" You and I know that by our mismanagement of God's gifts, we deserve to be fired. And who wants to show up when you know you deserve to be fired! Not me. I want to run away.

But you and I haven't run away today. Instead, through the confession of sins that we made earlier in our service, through the pang of a guilty conscience we experienced moments ago, you and I have a chance to bring our books to God for divine audit. We've can lay our financial records and our hearts before him. We can confess the deficit we've rung up. We can acknowledge that we've cheated him. We can admit that there's no way we can balance the books, no way we can repay the debt we owe him. But what does God do? He takes the auditor's stamp, dips it in the blood of his son and stamps on your personal ledger sheet the words, "FORGIVEN."

My friends, do you hear that? Do you see those words on your personal ledger? That's why you're here today. That's what God wants you to know more than anything else in the world. God wants you to know and believe that your mismanagement of his gifts is not being charged against you. You stand as a forgiven child of God.

And just to prove to you that, in Christ, God no longer holds your past mismanagement against you, do you know what he does? He says, "Instead of firing you, I'm reinstating you. Instead of taking away the wealth that you mismanaged, I'm going to let you keep it. I'm going to ask you to keep managing it-with one very important rule: you will not be allowed to take any of those material gifts with you. In other words, "I'm allowing you to manage everything you have-until the day you die."

Do you know what that means? It means that the clock is ticking. Decisions need to be made. What will you do, knowing that neither your time nor your money will last forever? Jesus tells you, "Christian, now is the time to be shrewd." What does it mean to be shrewd in this case? Jesus makes the application for our lives. He says, "I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." Hmmm. What does that mean? "Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourself." Is Jesus saying that we should start throwing our money around, trying to make friends by buying them gifts, inviting them over for parties? Or to put it in the context of grade-schoolers, is Jesus talking about giving away the cookie in your lunch just so that someone will be your friend-someone will invite you over to their house?

No, notice that Jesus is not talking bout people welcoming us into their homes here on earth. He uses the term "eternal dwellings." He's talking about people welcoming us into heaven. In fact, that's what the original language says here. Literally, this passage reads, "Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, they will welcome you into eternal dwellings."

Now exactly how does that work? How are we supposed to use our money to make friends here on earth so that when we get to heaven those people will be there to welcome us? Well, the Bible makes it clear that the only people who are going to be in heaven are those who trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior from sin. And as Romans 10:14 puts it, "How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?"

In other words, seeing to it that there are people in heaven means making sure that they hear the gospel here on earth. And oftentimes that takes a certain amount of money. That's what Jesus means when he says, "Christian, be shrewd. Use your earthly money in such a way so that it pays dividends in terms of souls for eternity. Now, there are a number of ways for us to do that. Maybe it means investing it in the training of our called workers. Mailing a check to Martin Luther College or Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (and because both of those are schools, maybe having our gift matched by a local fraternal organization). Maybe investing in gospel ministry means writing your check to the Lutheran Hmong Ministry here in Appleton to help young Paul and Thomas Thao prepare to some of our first Hmong evangelists and pastors. Or maybe you see a need to reach out to the growing Hispanic population in our community. And so you say, "the work that our Hispanic Ministry Coordinator is doing across our district is so vital. And so, like that shrewd manager, you sit down quickly and write you check to Pastor Flunker in Green Bay, or put in a little extra for our Mission Partner in Brazil.

Or maybe as you strive to be a shrewd manager of your master's possessions you determine that the best place to conduct gospel ministry is right here at Mount Olive. Here is a body of believers that is determined to expand its ministry so that more people can come to know God's unconditional love in Christ. Here is where little babies have their sins washed away in the water of Holy Baptism, where 4 year olds learn that they are the precious lambs in the arms of the Good Shepherd, where teens are guided and equipped for life as disciples of Christ, where adults are challenged and fed by a study of God's unchanging Word, a place where God's people reach out to the world and support one another on the road to eternal life.

My friends, in the next few weeks, each one of us will be making some very important decisions. We will be deciding how we are going to manage the material treasures that God has placed into our hands. We will need to decide what investments-yes, what sacrifices-we will make now to assure that we have accomplished what God wants us to do with the gifts he's entrusted to us.

Now is the time to be shrewd. To act decisively. To act in faith. God has given you a head to make a wise decision. But more importantly, he's given you a heart-a heart that knows that sins are forgiven, a heart that trusts God's promise that he will provide for all your needs when you put his kingdom first, a heart that truly wants to do what is pleasing to God. God has given you and me everything we need to be a shrewd manager of his gifts. The question is, "Will you be that shrewd manager? May your answer and mine forever be, "Yes, and I ask God to help me," for Jesus' sake. Amen.