Sunday, September 21, 10:00 am

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“We had a garden, and we paved over it.” These are the words of Chrisjen Aviserala, the United Nations Deputy Undersecretary from the fictional sci-fi series, The Expanse, which takes place in the 2300s.

It echoes the haunting ecumenical statement by the Pope, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Ecumenical Patriarch in 2020, “We have inherited a garden, we must not leave a desert to our children.” [1]

We must care for the limited, finite resources of our planet if we are to maintain this garden. Today's Gospel exhorts us to be prudent and steward our resources well, and that how we manage our resources - how we behave towards Creation, is both a reflection of our relationship with God and also demonstrates who we serve: God, or mammon (wealth).

The Gospel passage is confusing, so this sermon will be exegetical in nature. We will take a deep dive directly into the text. On the surface, it appears that Jesus is commending us to act dishonestly, and to use dishonest wealth to manipulate our relationship with others. The translation we are provided is deeply confusing and troubling.

I’m going to be speaking confidently about the original Greek. Note that I did not take Greek in Seminary, I took Hebrew. I am drawing on the scholarship from the Yale Anchor Bible’s Gospel of Luke commentary [2] for a lot of the background and knowledge here - so thank God for good scholarship!

So let's go a baptist route and take out our Bibles! And by Bibles I mean, please feel free to turn to the Gospel in the insert - because I’ll be referring to specific verses as we go through this sermon.

First, let’s examine the Parable of the Dishonest Manager, verses 1-8. Here, we are primarily confronted with the theme of prudent management of our resources.

To begin, let’s understand the economic realities underlying this parable. The “Rich man” is, "likely an absentee landlord who entrusted the transaction of all usual business of his estate to a manager.” [3] The Greek for “manager” here is oikonomos, which was likely a slave born to the household - trained to run the estate while the landlord is away. He is to be competent and faithful to the master and a wise manager of all things - yet we are told he is “squandering [the rich man’s] property” in v. 1.

It was normative for the oikonomos to rent  portions of the estate. Renting of plots of land, giving out loans, keeping the accounts, etc. on behalf of the master. And, the oikonomos, the manager, would often add a commission for himself for these transactions.

But, in vv. 2-4, he’s doing a poor job of it, he is dishonest in his dealings, and is fired. In v. 4, he pauses and chooses to do something to put himself in right relationship with the debtors of the master.

In vv. 5-7, the oikonomos begins to cut the debt owed by the debtors. You owe a hundred jugs of oil? Now it’s 50. A hundred containers of wheat? Now it’s 80. The way that the text is worded suggests that the dishonest manager is falsifying the accounts of the rich man. 

However, what is more likely happening, based on the Greek, is that the manager is eliminating his own commission from the overall bill. And in v. 8, we see the rich man praise the dishonest manager for “acting shrewdly.” The Greek for shrewdly, fronimos, means considerate, thoughtful, prudent.

The master, then, is not praising the dishonest manager for falsifying his accounts. The manager is dishonest for squandering the property and wasting resources, and committing usury. 

The praise of shrewdness, of prudence, for the dishonest manager is not the dishonesty, but rather for using his resources in a way which restored relationship, did away with usurious interest rates, and ensured his own security. The dishonest manager becomes a model for Christians, then, not because of the initial mismanagement and squandering of resources - but because in times of crisis he acted prudently.

The next section is the application which follows from the parable. In v. 9, our Lord tells us, “Make for yourself friends by means of dishonest wealth.” This is quite disturbing. 

But the Greek literal translation of v. 9 is more like: “I tell you, use the mammon of dishonesty to make friends so that, when it gives out, you will be welcomed into tents that are everlasting.” 

Mammon is an untranslated aramaic word left in the Greek, and without boring you with the etymological details, it likely means something “which one puts trust” in and, in second-temple Jewish contexts, likely symbolized money and possessions. The phrase mammon of dishonesty is a semitic phrasing not found in any extant texts. Apparently, according to scholars much more studied than I, the phrase means something more like ‘mammon that leads to dishonesty’ which stresses the “tendency or iniquitous seduction of mammon to enslave those who pursue it, and to lead to forms of dishonesty.”[4]

Wealth and possessions tempt us toward dishonest ways of being; Jesus, in v. 9, encourages us to make friends through proper use of our resources - much like the manager from the parable - rather than to become enslaved to it as the dishonest manager was at the beginning of the parable. 

Jesus warns in v. 11, “if, then, you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth” - that is, if we have not been faithful with our wealth and resources which tempt us to dishonesty then who will entrust us with the true riches?It echoes Matthew 6:20, “but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” 

I’m running out of time, but the mic-drop moment comes at the end. The ultimate conclusion of all of this passage is in v. 13, where Jesus declares “You cannot serve God and mammon” (wealth).

I hope this foray into the Greek text helps to illuminate what is a very difficult passage with seemingly conflicting statements about honesty and dishonesty and wealth.

So we are left asking ourselves: How do we make prudent use of our resources? How do we not permit wealth to tempt us into complacency, inaction, and destruction? How do we make use of our resources in the midst of being caught up in systems and structures which are out of our control?

This is something which ought to be discerned individually and collectively through deep prayer, soul-searching pondering. Because, as today’s passage makes clear, there are eternal implications for how we manage our resources here and now. The eternal dimensions echoes in today’s passage from v. 9 - they may welcome you into the eternal homes; v. 11 and the true riches; and of course in v. 13 with the comparison between the finite resource of wealth, and the ultimate and eternal one who resources all things - God.

This is deeply liberative to me, because it does away - at least in part - with the nihilistic cynicism of our inability to fix everything. I can’t change the careening climate crisis. I can’t change so many of the crises which occur at the global scale. 

But God asks us to nonetheless steward what we can, what resources that God has given us, because it reflects where who we serve: God, or mammon.

May we act faithfully and prudently in all that we are given by our loving and life-giving God.

Amen.

[1]  https://www.dioceseofscranton.org/pope-faith-leaders-urge-nations-at-climate-summit-to-care-for-creation/

[2]  Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke X-XXIV, (New haven & London: The Anchor Yale Bible, 1985).

[3]  Fitzmyer, The Gospel According…, 1098.

[4]  Fitzmyer, The Gospel According…, 1110.