Faithfulness

This is last Sunday's sermon. The Gospel text was the parable of the unfaithful steward/manager and you'll soon realize that it was not the easisest to figure out. I don't often use Martin Luther's quotes since to be honest I am not that well read when it comes to the founding father of my church. This time I happened to stumble upon his sermon on the same passage and felt obliged :). In fact I think it is kind of cool to quote him even though, yes, he made pretty huge mistakes, too. No matter what you think about his opinions, as a theologian, he is certainly one of the giants.
The service went well, I think, but I have to say that for the time being doing the service is a bit exhausting. I never realized just how much concentration and effort it requires. It's worth it, though!

The theme for this Sunday is faithfulness. However, the Gospel text seems to speak of nothing of the sort. In actual fact the unfaithful manager has been nothing but faithful to his master.
If you think about the Old Testament reading it is there that you see a story that seems to be more in line with what we regard as faithfulness. King Solomon aware of the magnificent task He is given asks for wisdom and knowledge in order to rule His people wisely. And then God gives the answer of fairy tales. The just and faithful man – or woman – is rewarded for not having asked for possessions, wealth or honour with getting wisdom and knowledge AND in addition riches, possessions, and honour – in this case – “such as none of the kings had who were before king Solomon, and none after him shall have the like.”
Now that’s the way it should go shouldn’t it? You are faithful to God and He rewards you. Now the interesting thing is that this is in fact what Jesus seems to be saying in this parable and elsewhere, too. In the parable the point albeit not very clearly is that, if you take care of others and of the poor you will be rewarded for doing so, even by God. All Lutherans, however, tend to be very suspicious of a claim like that.
The reason being that in Lutheran theology the essential emphasis is in God’s absolute grace which requires nothing else but acceptance of God’s love as a gift. Nothing a person can do, say or think changes this. We do not earn God’s love and forgiveness nor can we buy, bribe or repent like crazy to get it. It already is ours. None of the rules of interaction between people apply. We don’t have to earn God’s trust, acceptance or love.
Now of course our human form of love has the capacity to transcend us and resemble God’s love in that it truly is without any selfishness. It would be wrong to say that it does not. However, I think we would all agree that we see God’s work in that when it happens. For the most part our lives seem to be governed by the idea of earning and that is also why it is often very hard to get to terms with God’s grace. It just isn’t how things are, there ought to be something we have to do to earn His forgiveness and love.
Coming back to the parable this is what I see. As Jesus tells the story it is from the get go clear that the manager is not a very honourable guy. Moreover he is lazy and accustomed to his good position. If he is faithful to anyone it is to himself and his needs. It is hard to think that Jesus would commend anyone for that type of thinking and yet that is exactly what seems to happen.
So, we are left with a question mark on our faces. What was this now? When it comes to the teachings of Jesus we often forget that one of his skills was to tell a story that would get to people. As we do not live in his time nor in his society we just often neither realize nor know what the upsetting part might have been. But the case is that Jesus did not tell fairy tales or stories that followed the expected line.
In this case on the other hand it may be us more so who get upset than the original listeners. Namely, the master would most likely have been considered to be an absentee and oppressing landlord. Most listeners would think that justice is served when he takes a cut in his earnings due to his manager’s doings. You have to remember that most of the listeners were poor themselves and living in an occupied country under oppression. This is not to say that it would have been seen as the right thing for the manager to do, though, just as something understandable.
In our case, well, I think that most of us see the guy as a crook. And then Jesus goes on to say that this is how we should deal with things, too. Act like a crook, is that it? Obviously, of course, it is not but what then is the point?
Martin Luther – to stay true to my own church – says this:
“As the unjust man acts shrewdly, though wrongly and like a rogue, so we also should act shrewdly but righteously in godliness. The children of this world are wiser than the children of light. So that the children of light should learn wisdom from the children of darkness or the world. Just as they are wise in their transactions, so should also the children of light be wise in their transactions.”
When it comes to faithfulness the important point I see here is this: as Christians we are called to be faithful to God. This means various things such as that we do our very best with God’s help to fight evil that is fight sin in ourselves. We treat each other with kindness, respect and love and love God from the bottom of our hearts. I don’t know about you but all of that is in real life also a huge challenge.
Now the thing is that when it comes to this task that we have been given – and it needs to be reminded – that we have also accepted, we sometimes are inclined to see it as so vast that we lift our hands up in the air and leave it all to God. In one sense this is all well and Christian. Realizing our limitations and turning to God really is a part of Christian life and growth.
But, and this is the thing, not using our brains, not thinking, not asking questions, not looking to understand better none of that is what God expects from us. In fact I think it annoys Him to no end.
He is the one who created us with a mind and a brain. WE were the ones who wanted to know everything in the first place. We have no right to just hide behind God’s vast back and say “I dunno” without thinking. Nor do we have the right to act like children and not take responsibility. There are a lot of things we can do to make this world a better place. God calls us to use our brains, to take responsibility, to be shrewd and wise.
Another way of putting this is what Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew:
“Be wise like serpents and innocent like doves.”
Those who dislike snakes probably dislike the sentiment but there is an important point here. There is no way of justifying stupidity when it’s our own choosing. We are, of course, not called to become devious or sneaky but we are called to be wise and to understand that ignorance is not an excuse. We are children of God but at the same time it is He who wants us to grow up and take responsibility. In doing so we are not only faithful to Him but we honour Him.