The theme for this Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary time is “The Shrewd Steward” The texts are, from the Prophet Amos: “Listen to this, you who walk all over the weak, you who treat poor people as less than nothing . . .You exploit the poor, and then, when they are used up, you discard them.”  And, from the Gospel of Luke:  “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Now here is a surprise!  The master praised the shrewd manager for his actions!  And why? Because he knew how to look after himself!’”   Let us pray . . .

“What’s in a name?” is the classical question you and I need to deal with this morning before we delve into this familiar passage from Luke now before us--for this story has often been called the parable of the “dishonest” or “unjust” manager.  But this naming, I would argue, this labeling unduly causes us to see this first-century land administrator in a negative light.  Naming this steward “dishonest” is totally unjustified—for the parable contains not one bit of language related to “honesty” itself.  The label “unjust” is a bit closer to the storyline, but it is still misleading—for in the Greek rendering of this passage, this steward is literally called “the manager of injustice”— one who carries out the unjust and unseemly duties of another.   But most importantly, I think, Jesus names this newly un-employed manager of a rich landlord’s estate “streetwise” and “smart” and “shrewd”—even as this once-was manager reduces bills and strikes out debts.  ‘What’s in a name?”  A lot—when it comes to understanding what is at the very heart of this story told to Jesus’ disciples.

But first things first—for you see this parable presumes that you and I understand clearly the practice of absentee landownership—a practice that was prevalent throughout first-century Palestine.  Wealth, in Luke’s day, came from land—and rich folk very often owned numerous farms, orchards, and vineyards—property that was farmed and cared for by poor, struggling-to-survive tenants.  As Sharon Ringe writes in her study of Luke’s Gospel, “the rich man in this parable is such an absentee landowner—one who has put a manager in charge of overseeing the productivity of his holdings and collecting the various rents and other dues from those who farmed it.”  These rents were often calculated and collected ‘in kind’—in “produce” (olive oil, wheat, and grapes) when the harvest was successful, or in “people” (children, wives, and parents) when crops failed and the tenant was unable to pay the year-end bill.  Imagine, just for a moment,  what a frightening reality this must have been for these poor workers—the realization that the ownership of productive land was increasingly being concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer proprietors while their own opportunity to own property was being systematically taken away from them at every turn—reducing them to tenant farmers or slaves—or pressing them to go to cities to subsist as day- laborers—or worst yet, forcing them to enroll in the military.  It was the land-manger who oversaw these horrid practices—and it was the land manager who was in charge of increasing the land-owner’s holdings on a year-in, year-out basis—holdings of land, holdings of produce, and holdings of people trapped in the terrifying bonds of debt slavery!

How interesting then, that the parable before us opens with the statement that a rich, absentee landlord had gotten word through the grape vine that his land-manager was not doing his job—that he wasn’t adhering to his detailed job description!  Furthermore, this manger had apparently squandered the opportunity to increase the landowner’s holdings—turning profits into losses while not turning peasants into slaves!  Nothing is said by Jesus about anything dishonest going on  here or any illegal behavior occurring.  No!  The land manager is simply dismissed for failing as a manger—failing to “do the do” of unjust and inequitable practices. No severance pay is offered—and there is little prospect of future employment because of the manager’s now tarnished record.

But here this parable takes an interesting twist—so listen closely! Left without employment, too weak to subside as a day laborer and far too proud to beg for shelter and sustenance,, the manager has a revelation!  He decides, before word of his firing hits the streets of the community,  to act quickly—to dramatically reduce the billing amounts charged to the peasantry by the landowner.  One by one he calls them in—“How much do you owe the landowner?  A hundred jugs of olive oil!  Well sit down here and quickly write fifty!  How much wheat are you being charged?  One hundred bags.  Then take your bill today and write eighty!”  And don’t miss this!  For suddenly, suddenly—as these charges are reduced and the debts are forgiven--the manager’s role shifts from being a representative of the wealthy landowner to one who is realigned with the needs of the peasantry—the very folk he now will have to turn to for shelter and sustenance!  And you know what—that wasn’t stupid—that was shrewd!  For the manager was protecting himself from inevitable public ruin and personal despair!  Even the wealthy landowner praised his intelligence—admiring the manager for saving his own behind amidst folk who were ready to string him up and do him in!

So now we have to ask a deeper question—we need to truly get at the question ‘”What’s in a name?”   For what exactly did the manager “do” that qualifies him as intelligent and shrewd?  Some biblical commentators have suggested that the manager had been charging excessively high commissions to his farm workers—and all he really did when he called them in was to reduce these commissions to a more reasonable rate. But that is mere speculation—for Luke’s text does not speak to such an action!  Other commentators suggest that the landowner had been charging usurious interest rates in clear violation of the Torah-- and so the actions the manager took with the peasantry was to become obedient to the Torah as he went out the door.  But again this is speculation—with no reference to this theory in Luke’s storyline.  No—we must stay in the text if we are to find an answer to our question about “shrewdness”  For the key that points to this managers intelligence, the  key that unlocks this parable’s meaning for you and I  today, is found in the name given to the manager in the original Greek—for he is a “manager of injustice”, a “manager of unjust wealth!”  The excessive accumulation of wealth in the hands of one—such as the rich landowner—was by definition, evidence of an injustice that had to be redressed by the redistribution of such equity.  And thus, by reducing the amounts owed by the poorer debtors to the rich landowner, the manager was literally DOING justice!  He was doing a job as a “manger of unjust wealth” that no longer aimed at perpetuating or adding to old inequities—but instead reflected the “new economy” that Jesus was proclaiming!  Do you now see and sense his shrewdness? For as a good manager he had used the very fruits of injustice in the forging of a new community of accountability where debts were forgiven and lives were cherished and all were welcomed in.

And don’t forget to whom this parable was directed!  This story from Jesus was meant to provide a sort of “management model” for the disciples’ themselves—for their own roles and relationships in the world.  Jesus, instead of hoisting upon them a lifestyle of scarcity, or burdening them with an abstract ideal of poverty, or advising them on how to keep themselves pure from the contaminations of unjust wealth, challenged them instead through this parable of the Shrewd Steward, TO MANAGE WEALTH IN THE DIRECTION OF INTEGRITY, and TO MANAGE WEALTH IN THE DIRECTION OF HONESTY and TO MANAGE WEALTH IN THE DIRECTION OF JUSTICE.  For in and through such a process, the disciples would be creating new communities and new relationships that would allow their mission to go forward and that would support the enjoyment, and the enrichment, of abundant life for all! 

As we begin our Stewardship season as a community of faith here in the midst of one of the wealthiest communities on the face of the globe, each of you here will be asked to manage your wealth in the direction of integrity— refusing to give little while taking much, declining to “live it up” while others around you are left “down and out”, and making the commitment to put your money where your hopes and dreams for this amazing church can finally take root and flourish!

As we begin our Stewardship season as a community of faith here in the midst of one of the most highly educated towns in the world, each of you will be asked to manage your wealth in the direction of honesty—honestly evaluating what it will truly take to underwrite an effective ministry in this place, honestly appraising what it will cost to faithfully educate the children in our care, and to fully support the homebound in our community, and to meet the flood of ever-present needs of those around us and among us who are in crisis.

As we begin our Stewardship season as a community of faith here in the midst of a country which has all but forgotten the ethics of public service, and environmental sustainability, and peace and promise for all, each of you will be asked to manage your wealth in the direction of justice—enabling folk to have a fundamental transformation in their way of thinking, and seeing, and feeling, and acting, and empowering folk to embrace a change of heart, a revolution of the spirit, and a conversion of the soul that issues forth in new personal and social behavior!

“I want you to be ‘streetwise’ and ‘smart’  and  ‘shrewd’”, Jesus says to us today as stewards in this particular place and time—“but ‘BE’ all these things for what is right—using every adversity so as to be  stimulated to creative survival.  For we cannot forget”, Jesus warns, that it is impossible for us  to serve two bosses! We will either hate the first and love the second, or we will adore the first and despise the second.  For we cannot serve both God and the bank—we cannot worship both the dollar and the Divine!”

But there is one last thing that I want to share with you this morning—and it is this.  The life of faithful stewardship is one of shrewd dedication to the big issues around us—to be sure—but it is also a faithful dedication to the frequent and familiar tasks of each and every day.  Very often the way we actualize and energize our stewardship for larger things—integrity, honesty, and justice—is by embracing a series of seemly small opportunities close at hand.   And let me tell you what I mean:  Most of us this week will not write a political speech, or end a war, or appoint a cabinet, or transform a tyrant, or heal a divided and wounded Presbytery.  More likely, the week to come will present no more than a chance to serve a meal on Wednesday night to the homeless, or write a note to someone who is grieving, or serve as a Shepherd in Sunday School, or visit someone who is homebound, or go to choir practice, or tell a child a story,  or offer a tender hug to someone who is frightened and alone.  But as Jesus shrewdly said to those who would follow him, “If you are honest in small things, you’ll be honest in big things to!”

I will fully trust your honesty, your integrity, and your sense of justice this stewardship season—in things that are small and in things that are big—knowing that you will be shrewd stewards of all that God has entrusted to you!

Thanks be to God!  AMEN