Scripture: Luke 16:1–8a
Margaret Marcuson, American Baptist pastor and author, has been our contemporary guide through our series so far, and this week is no exception. Near the beginning of her book on money and ministry is a chapter titled “Understand the Meaning of Money.” Early in the chapter, she quotes therapist and author Edwin Friedman who often said “the issue is never the issue.” His point being that there are larger systemic and relational things happening behind what looks like the presenting problem is.
Marcuson relates this to money, suggesting that issues about money are never about money. Instead, she writes, they are about a systemic, relational emotional process in which money is just a symptom. She suggests that we often bypass the part of our brain that is reflective, curious, and thoughtful about money…and instead react in a reflexive/knee-jerk, panicky, anxiety-driven way.
One of the examples of that emotional process is the extremes of overfunctioning and underfunctioning. Oftentimes with emotional systems surrounding money, be it a family or a congregation or whatever, there are some who will be overly-invested at an emotional level…and others who will be under-invested at an emotional level. Those who overfunction around money tend to live in that anxiety: staying up at night worried about it, or checking in on their stock portfolio all the time, or trying to direct others around money issues to make sure that they spend or save “correctly.” Her example in the church is the Church Treasurer who micromanages everyone’s spending and calls all the time, worried about this expenditure or that one. Meanwhile, those who underfunction around money tend to do the opposite: they run away from money issues, or ignore them because they don’t like to think about them, and just wish it will all turn out OK. Ironically, someone who overspends can be underfunctioning…instead of budgeting and planning, they whip out the credit card and hope for the best. As I describe overfunctioning and underfunctioning, is anyone thinking of names in your family, the church, or your rotary club, or the HOA? Or even when you look in the mirror? This stuff is pretty common, and again, it is not really about the money, but more about relational and systemic anxiety surrounding that money.
Now, with these ideas in mind, let’s turn to today’s text. So, did you pick out a good guy? A bad guy? Anyone have trouble figuring out who the hero and the villain were? If so, you are in good company. Scholars have struggled with this one for a while, trying to figure out what Jesus meant by this parable…
- For example, some interpret the parable like a Robin Hood story. They see the bad guy as the evil overlord master, and the manager as a kind of scoundrel good guy…stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Like Han Solo in the Star Wars movies…sure he is a smuggler, but when he is stealing from the big, bad Empire, it seems OK, if not noble.
- Others say that that in the parable there aren’t really any good guys, but that this is an example of a “wise as serpents” parable. Sometimes Jesus will use the metaphor of an annoying neighbor or unjust judge or some other kind of jerk to say “how much more…” is the kingdom of heaven and the ways of God! We shouldn’t be serpents, but we should be wise like serpents. Maybe Jesus was saying something about shrewdness, while not necessarily lauding his behavior.
- Finally, others say that the manager and the other clients are all actually victims of an oppressive economic structure that forces them to steal and manipulate and be dishonest, just to live. This interpretation seems a natural fit for Luke, who made a point to record the Magnificat of Mary, which predicts an overturning of those unjust systems, and the “mission statement of Jesus” which includes proclaiming the year of Jubilee where all debts are cancelled.
Any of those options sound good? All of them sound good? I would suggest that maybe the diversity of opinion on this speaks to the power of Scripture to be able speak into different contexts and times and places and all of them are right. There is validity in each of these. Now, I will admit that I didn’t give you the answer in the back of the book. Jesus actually gives an interpretation of this parable himself, right after he tells it. And it helps, a little. See what you think:
Luke 16.8–13
“And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly, for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of Mammon so that when it is gone they may welcome you into the eternal homes. Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If, then, you have not been faithful with Mammon who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon.”
And I can see a little of all those interpretations, can’t you? A little “Robin Hood.” A little “wise as serpents.” A little “economic oppression.” All of that is in there. I used the Greek translation for the word “Mammon,” which is sometimes translated “dishonest wealth” or simply “wealth.” It is a personification of the darkest aspects of money, the most corrupting and destructive ways that money can change us and even rot us from the inside. In other words, money itself isn’t the problem, but this little-g god named Mammon who changes us, changes our relationships with others, and sends us down the path to greed and anxiety and distrust. We cannot allow that little-g god to corrupt us, Jesus said, but must allow the big-G God to change us and our relationships with others. Pick a god…you cannot be shaped by both.
Which helps set up a fourth interpretation of the parable. I want to suggest that like Friedman and Marcuson—“the issue is not the issue”—what if these money stories in Luke are not really about money? Two weeks ago, we examined what we called an exposé on greed, exploring the difference between a scarcity mindset and a “richness toward God” abundance mindset. Last week was an exposé on anxiety, and we talked about the difference between a mindset of distrust and a mindset of trust and generosity. What if today’s money story is actually an exposé on unhealthy imbalance? Marcuson said that families and churches and any kind of emotional system often tend toward an unhealthy homeostasis: we are used to our roles as overfunctioners and underfunctioners and if someone tries to change that system, people freak out a little bit (or a lot!) But working toward healthy balance in our own lives actually ripples out into the overall system. She suggests when it comes to money and our system’s financial elements, we “do our best, and let go of the rest.” It’s what Friedman called being the “strength in the system” and can create a healthier balance throughout the system.
Take another look at the parable through that lens. In the parable, there is clearly an unhealthy system. The master gets a report about the manager, but instead of going to him and asking him about it, he simply fires him. The manager in this case could have panicked and reacted in any number of unhealthy ways. But instead he calmly considered his options, looked at the resources available to him, and responded wisely with forethought, shrewdly building relationships with those who might help him down the road. In other words, he “did his best, and let go of the rest.” And Jesus celebrated his response.
Richard Foster writes about what he calls a “mammon spirit” that causes this unhealthy balance. He says it this way:
Because we lack a divine Center our need for security has led us into an insane attachment to things. We really must understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy. “We buy things we do not want to impress people we do not like.” …. It is time we awaken to the fact that conformity to a sick society is to be sick. Until we see how unbalanced our culture has become at this point, we will not be able to deal with the mammon spirit within ourselves nor will we desire Christian simplicity.
Marcuson and Foster, and of course Jesus, point us to a better way.
One more money story today, and it is actually yours. The last few years have created money challenges for a lot of folks, including the First Baptist Church of Lawrence, KS. We have faced several events and catalysts outside of our control:
- The economic instability of the pandemic
- Expected attrition of church members who have died or otherwise moved on, meaning we have lost their financial support
- A federal change in tax structure back several years ago, that punishes individuals for giving to churches instead of rewarding them
- And internally, while all of this other stuff was happening, we moved our capital campaign mortgage payments into the annual budget of the church, causing our annual expenses to go up
In her book, Marcuson tells stories of churches that would have melted down if they had one of these things happen, nonetheless four of them at once. But this is what you did instead:
- Led by folks like moderator Matthew Johnston and Finance Steward Dava Cooper, the SLT and Finance Team created a thoughtful assessment of what was happening. They saw the danger of underfunctioning, like folks who gave only to special funds and projects which caused deep deficits in our annual ministry plan that ironically threatened the projects they were giving to. They saw the danger of an unhealthy need for overfunctioning, such as people having to give big gifts at the end of the year to rescue the congregation from even bigger deficits.
- With this assessment, the Finance Team worked for several months to address the issue, looking at those special funds and discerning if there were ways to support those funds and the general budget that made those projects possible. They brought a well-considered idea to the congregation in October, but were met with a level of resistance, with some folks wondering if it was enough to make a difference.
- Now, what some church committees would have done after 12 months of work on this project would have been to throw a fit. “Fine, if they don’t like our idea, they can come up with something else.” But your leadership did quite the opposite, tabling that idea for the moment, and going back to reassess next steps. They discerned another option, basically turning to attack the mortgage debt that was the fundamental problem.
- Again, thoughtful and wise and shrewd leadership, partnered with the generosity of an $81,000 “head start” gift, meant that instead of imbalanced overfunctioning and underfunctioning, everyone could play their part in a balanced way, and we could move toward “ministry instead of mortgage.” And last Sunday, at our Annual Meeting, instead of it being a time of fear and anxiety, we saw Joanna Gillette brilliantly and calmly describe the situation and invite input…we saw folks like John Pauls offer his wisdom and expertise to help folks contribute…we heard Danny Trent wisely suggest that a unanimous vote would help show solidarity on this. And so you did. And we now have a goal of raising $170,000 in our 170th year of existence. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that was only the beginning.
I have said it before and I will say it again, unhealthy churches will implode over the color of the carpet in the parlor, but healthy churches can handle complex and difficult and adaptive challenges and rise to the occasion. You are rising to the occasion. Because this church knows that the money isn’t about the money. The budget isn’t about the budget. The mortgage isn’t about the mortgage. The money is a resource for us to go out into the world and do amazing things, and I believe that in the days ahead, your healthy functioning, partnered with your commitment to ministry and mission will change this world, in the name of Jesus.
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