Proper 20C 2007

Amos 8:4-7

1 Tim 2:1-7

Luke 16:1-13

Parables were teaching tools in the days of Jesus. When we the reader or the listener hear the opening line, Here then this parable, we are alerted to a story with a twist. It is like saying, have you heard the joke and proceeding with it. Everyone expects something funny. In listening to a parable, we expect a twist – a reversal of roles or fates, a surprise ending.

As Jesus described the dishonest steward, we are aware that the rich man already had a lot – more than most – and that by being in the loan shark business he was making more money off of the interest poor people were paying for their loans. Since the poor had debts they were vulnerable. The steward’s job was to collect the debt, which was no doubt an unpopular job – like the evil sheriff in Robin Hood. To regain their favor, the steward shaved some of the debt – made it easier for the debtor – for which he would hope to incur their future favor. The listener would expect the rich man to get his just deserts for abusing and misusing the poor and so having the wicked steward reduce the profit margin is a good thing! But the story takes a strange twist here. The rich man praises the steward for his shrewdness. The steward has acted with forethought, has been clever, and even if we see in his actions as wrongdoing we can still appreciate his survival skills. What the owner praises is the man’s ability to act decisively in order to survive. The irony in the parable is that Jesus sees that the man as more quick to take care of his physical, social, economic, material survival than he is to take care for his eternal soul. Are we that man?

In being children of God we are also sisters and brothers with all the rest of God’s children and that means everyone, everywhere, not only our fine brothers and sisters here at St. Paul’s. Recognizing that God gives grace abundantly, calls us to recognize the radical equality with which God sees all human beings. That some are starving while others waste gross amounts of food and money today is no different from the situation in the parable. Money is a means of physical security in this world, not a sign of eternal favor or divine blessing. Money can be used to do great good and great harm. We might work very hard to make enough money to live decent lives and still be dissatisfied and want more and more and so work harder and longer but not live better lives and certainly we risk storing up things that rot and decay rather than doing the spiritual things that endure to eternal life. If we try to use money to secure our lives, we are deceiving ourselves. Money cannot protect us against death.

Money can be used faithfully to bind us together with common compassion, with generosity, and solidarity. We can share what we have and be faithful with a little and thus be trusted with much. We must choose what is important and put things in perspective. We must be as alert to the use of our spiritual gifts as we are careful about the use of money for our physical needs. The parable does not ask the rich man to forsake his wealth, nor does it condemn the shrewd steward for making a good deal, but it tells us to put God and eternal things above material and physical things. The message is that God is God and if we are good stewards we will pay close and careful attention to the care of our souls. The first commandment is this: you shall love the lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind. The second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

The shrewd steward was very wise in managing to survive in this physical money based world. We need to be as wise about keeping our spirits alive. We need to make a commitment to live spiritually. Make friends with people who are not only spiritually surviving but thriving. Take notice of what you enjoy and do well. Our spirits are an inner resource but that inner engine drives the whole organism. The spirit is the source of our passion, energy, and dedication to a cause. Let your spirit speak. Listen to it and spend as much energy on developing that inner voice as you do planning your fiscal future.

I wonder what the parable would sound like today, here in the US…perhaps like this:

In the Saturday Frederick Post an article with the title, “Promising AIDS vaccine fails in trials” reported that Merck’s vaccine for HIV conducted in Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru, Puerto Rico and the United States with 3,000 volunteers was terminated early because there were more HIV infections in the vaccine arm than in the controls. The data safety monitoring board halted the study on the grounds of futility – that is the vaccine was no better at protecting at risk persons from infection than the placebo. The article continued to report that Wall Street showed little reaction to the news with Merck shares rising 44 cents to $51.82. “Analyst Steve Brozak of WBB Securities said the vaccine was considered the most promising candidate both by Wall Street and the science community. He said a vaccine is the only financially feasible way to fight the AIDS epidemic in poor countries and that the company that comes up with the first successful shot would have a license to print money. You’re talking about a Carl Sagan kind of number…billions and billions of dollars.”

If this were the parable, we might want to question Jesus further to get a clearer picture of his teaching. Jesus, are you saying that the risk for volunteers in the trial. The scientific managers work on the basis of what they know about the virus and its transmission cycle. The creativity they use is good. The testing of a vaccine when there is no known proof of protection is the only way to learn if the vaccine works. If people at risk of infection are not part of the study we can’t learn if the vaccine works or not. You may think that the participants were deceived because it was called an AIDS vaccine, but they also know that this is a very serious disease and want to help find a solution.

What do you want us to learn from this parable? That developing a vaccine is a good thing. What is not is the unlimited profit big companies want to make off of the poor. Justice as it has been understood throughout history is equal treatment of people without making judgment or selecting some to bear the risks and burdens while others enjoy the profit and benefits. In an international pandemic as is the case with HIV/AIDS, it would be the just and right and good thing if such a vaccine were found to protect the vulnerable to make it available to everyone, everywhere, regardless of their ability to pay. The rich would make less, the poor would receive more, and the distributors would win good will and promote peace.

Amos and all the prophets taught correctly that God favors justice over injustice, wants human beings to be co-creators for justice, to remove the causes of injustice and has a preferential option for the poor. Amos gave the same example when he revealed the way the scales were stacked so that the poor were neglected and cheated while the privileged got more than their fair share.

The poor deserve help and not neglect. Great wealth can be used to do great good and it can be an instrument of harm. Great poverty can make a person and people vulnerable to exploitation. God writes no one off as unworthy. God’s grace cancels prejudice and judgment of any kind that renders others less than human and without rights or poor because they deserve it.

As with all of Jesus’ parables, we too must hear the truth about justice and compassion. God is gracious and gives grace liberally to all. We must ask ourselves, have we given all we can to promote justice and peace? Have we really embraced the MDG’s, as individuals and as a parish? Yes we have joined the ONE campaign and contributed our fair share to the common good of all humanity. Have you invested also in your eternal future? Have you not known that this life, this fragile limited time in which we live and move and have our being is but a transient passage of time in a longer and greater journey to eternity?

Whatever we have, wealth or poverty, make no mistake about it – we cannot work our way into heaven. God will have God’s future whether we choose to participate or not. The question for us is much more basic: shall we manage things in this world in ways that secure our limited future or our eternal future?

I am haunted by the image of the children in the pediatric ward of the clinic in Uganda. The hospital had only the barest of necessary beds and facilities. One nurse for a ward; mothers standing by the bedside, trying to feed, clean, bath, or care for a very sick child. One infant was so small, so thin, so placid, I thought she was a newborn but she was a year old with AIDS and malaria. We can make a difference – maybe not for every child and every man and woman living with disease and poverty – but for some. We can contribute to the One Campaign through ERD, or to Heifer international. We have enough – are we willing to share it with other children of God?

It is not wrong to plan or to make alliances with others for the needs and concerns of this world. It is not wrong to work hard and make money. What is at stake is whether our efforts, our resources, our friends, family, and wealth is our security blanket or whether we are willing to share what we have, trusting God to be our ultimate security. It is not easy to live by faith – nor does God call all of us to renounce the comforts of this world in order to live faithful lives. Most of us have more than enough – that we fail to share our excess is as deceptive as the shaving of the loans by the wicked steward. We may buy time now but eventually we will have to give an honest account of what we have done with our talents, so the time is ripe to do what is right. Recognizing that our neighbors are persons of dignity who deserve respect means sharing what we have in order that everyone has enough.