22 September 2013 “A New Way of Life” Luke 16:1-13

 I know you have heard this, but I love to tell these stories.  

 Three contractors were touring the White House the same day, one from New York, another from Missouri, and a third from Florida. At the end of the tour, the guide asked them if they would like to bid on a project at the White House. “Of course, they replied in unison.”

 “We need one of the rear fences redone,” said the guide. “Why don’t the three of you each look at it and give me a bid.”

 The contractor from Florida got out his tape measure and pencil, and after examining the project said he could do it for $900. “That’s $400 in materials, $400 for my crew, and $100 profit for me.”

 The contractor from Missouri took the tape measure, pulled out a pad and pencil and came up with a $700 bid. “That’s $300 in materials, $300 for my crew, and a $100 profit for me.”

  Without hesitation, the New York contractor said, “I’ll do the job for $2,700.” “$2,700” exclaimed the guide. “You hardly even looked at the fence. How did you come up with that figure?”

 “It’s easy,” said the New York contractor. “$1,000 for me, $1,000 for you, and we hire the guy from Missouri to do the work.”

 The contractor from New York was shrewd, to use Luke’s terminology. Like him, Luke’s manager has what some would call astute business sense. He does not hesitate to devise a shrewd plan to save his future.  Unemotionally, yet rationally, he knows he is guilty. He squandered the rich man’s property. So he devises a quick plan to regain his place in the world and it seems to work

 I once applied for a job I did not really want. I applied to protect the status quo from another applicant I knew all too well. I felt that person did not have the right sensitivity for the position. The person was known to have a heavy hand and I felt the position needed a different approach.  Can you tell we did not always get along?

 As you might expect, I did not get the job. The person hired, that other person, was the better person given the changing make-up of the work place. We did not always agree on strategies after that, but we did manage to be civil and actually developed a new level of appreciation for one another.

 My relationship with that person soon became more important than my perceived effects on the workplace.  A similar importance is at work in this morning’s parable.

  Faced with the possibility of losing his position, the manager knew he needed a plan to secure his future. He had an immediate instinct to mobilize his resources, to recruit his master’s debtors who might eventually become his only friends.

 He enlisted them by drastically reducing their debt, thereby rallying them to a broader common good. His, theirs, and eventually, the rich mans.

 If we misinterpret Luke’s parable we may think Jesus is telling us that we should become worldly schemers. That is not the case. Jesus wants his disciples to look ahead, to mobilize our greatest resource and restore the one relationship that will make a difference in our lives, our relationship with God. That relationship is what is most important in our lives.

 Admittedly, our relationship with God is at times tattered and at times aloof. We have been entrusted with a great deal of responsibility as a disciple of Jesus Christ. We are to be faithful and obedient. We are to work for peace and justice. We are to feed the hungry and not judge our enemies.

 But, we have also received a lot. We have unearned blessings. We have grace from God. We have hope beyond ourselves. We have many gifts from God. Yet, we often mismanage them.

 In our mismanagement, God judges us. In that judgment we discover our shortcomings and, most distressingly, we feel God’s disappointment. We have separated ourselves from God by our thought or deed. We have been blinded by our own prejudices for the ways we think others should be and we have not seen them as children of God. We have judged others by our own set of rules.

 Despite our weakest selves, Jesus offers us hope. Again and again, Jesus offers us hope in his generous charity. For in Jesus Christ it is never too late for healing, for restoration.

 Restoration, we read in Luke’s gospel, is not only possible for us, it is highly probable. Rallying our resources is the key.

Perhaps before we even know we are hanging out too far and living our life away from God, God is mobilizing God’s eternal hope for us. God’s greatest resource for this mobilization to hope is his son Jesus Christ.

 Our greatest act of faith is to rally with Jesus to create a life rich in relationship with God and with one another in our world here on this little corner we call Genesis Presbyterian Church.

 In God’s goodness and grace, God has never stopped providing for us. We know that. God sent his son. Jesus came freely to restore our broken relationship. God’s grace makes us right with God. And through the faith we have, given to us by God’s love, we are made right with God.

  Neither the rich man nor Jesus is praising the manager for being a crook or a shady dealer. No, they praise him for his shrewdness, for the fact that he looks ahead and restores relationships for a future life.

 There is a call here for us to be at the labor of mobilizing our resources for faithful living. It is a call for us to know, at our core, what we need to do with our future. The future for our lives, our families, and this church. It is a call to rally those gifts, those resources, those passions for service God has given us that in our decision making we might above all else glorify God.

 Our manager this morning was preparing for his future, his life after. At some point we too see the need to prepare for our future, our life after. How might we begin that preparation? How are we to get ready for the future? The one that begins tomorrow and the one that never ends.

 Perhaps the familiar story of a fellow named Bob will help.

 Bob heard of a man who lost his job suddenly and unfairly. He and his wife began to pray for the man.

 One night Bob woke unable to sleep. A thought kept going through his mind: Give this man 10% of your wages. When Bob told his wife about his thought, they prayed about it and in the end decided that was what God wanted them to do.

 So Bob went to the unemployed man’s house and told him: “You do not know me, but God knows us both. This will seem weird to you, but here is a check for 10% of my wages. I will send you a check each payday for this same 10% until you find work again.”

 Many feel we are like Bob. Here at Genesis Presbyterian Church we serve those who struggled to find a safe place to worship, or have school, or practice for musicals. Many feel our mission and ministry as God’s church has come to life in our service to these people we may not know.

 Can we continue to give such a benevolent gift to them and to God? Can we continue to find a percentage of ourselves, from the places we are most protective, and give it to God?

 Most likely it is that percentage we hold on to in any relationship that keeps us from exposing too much love. Too much love that, if not held back, will make us vulnerable to being hurt deeply.

  We know Jesus did not hold back his love for others or his desire for a servant relationship and we know how deeply he was hurt. But, he lived his father’s will, not his own, and he lived to rejoice in heaven for such a life.

 This morning, God is waiting to hear our plan. Our plan for the future of our life here as God’ church. Our plan to continue God’s mission and ministry of serving those whom God brings to our campus. Our plan as we ask ourselves if we are truly doing all we can to serve all we can. God is waiting to hear our plan; our plan and God’s plan in one enduring relationship.

   Time and faith and our trust in God will tell, of course. For whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever, Amen.  

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