Act for tomorrow today!
Commentary
In the parables of last Sunday Jesus presented two central characters who would discombobulate the scribes and Pharisees. He then turns to the disciples and tells them a story whose central character is a sleazy manager whose shrewd action is commended. This discombobulates us as it has disciples and textural commentators through the years. But if Jesus did not hesitate to critique the failed shepherds and housekeepers of Israel, why should he hesitate to pique us, the stewards of the gospel? Certainly part of what judgment means is that God can and does hand out pink slips in history. Out of the stones he can raise up children to Abraham. In and through the crucified and risen Lord he has told us the way the switches are set in history, given us a glimpse of the shape of his tomorrow. Surely we are astute enough to know what we need to be up and doing. Or are we?
Speaking of pink slips, Jeremiah in his temple sermon stated clearly that those called to be stewards and trustees of the spiritual and moral tradition are not called to tenured positions. Today's reading from Jeremiah is an insert in that sermon, his poetic lament over the national catastrophe the children of God did not have the wits to foresee.
The epistle reading from 1 Timothy seems aimed at taming the congregation. The writer implies that he doesn't want Christians to go around rocking any boats, just lead a quiet and dignified life. Read all of chapter 2 and it is obvious that the cutting edge of the gospel, when it comes to gender issues, has not only been blunted, but reversed.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
There is a balm in Gilead
to make the wounded whole.
There is a balm in Gilead
to heal the sin-sick soul.
The question of Jeremiah immediately brings this old spiritual to mind. Why not have the congregation sing it today or ask the music director to consider an arrangement of it for the choir?
A balm is a healing and soothing ointment made from the oil in the leaves of certain herbs and trees. There is a balm of Gilead derived from a small tree found in Arabia and Ethiopia. We can understand how this poetic imagery of Jeremiah makes Christians think at once of Jesus, The Great Physician. Jeremiah's poetry has its own inherent power.
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Chapter 2 of 1 Timothy certainly suggests that the words were written in the post-apostolic times when the church was settled in for the long haul in history. This leader who writes in the name of Paul obviously wants to tone down the adversarial relationship between the church and the surrounding culture. Would the debate over liberation theology be a contemporary comparison to the author's concern?
The writer, for example, wants the congregation to include in their prayers kings and all persons in high places. He reminds them that Christ died for all, those in high places as well as those in low places. Many in the church might recall with bitterness that people in high places plotted the death of Jesus and Roman rulers persecuted the church. The writer is correct, of course; the gospel gives no ground for demonizing one group and placing a halo around another.
The writer's exhortation is a switch even for us. We are mostly prompted to pray for the underdogs, a group toward whom our sympathy is easily tapped. It is much more difficult to pray for the top dogs. Bombastic talk show commentators know how to tap into this propensity to upwardly and outwardly direct our anger.
The balance of chapter two, while not part of the reading, should get some critical commentary. Here is the out and out reversal of the liberation of womanhood implicit in the words and actions of Jesus and the practices of the earliest church. This is not Paul speaking here. In fact, reflection on this raises some questions about last week's reading, 1:12-17. Was he saying that if a former persecutor of the church could become an apostle to the Gentiles cannot others who were anti-church now find their way into membership? What is going on here, a sell out or a buying in? There are clergy and laity alike who prefer not to have the church ruffle anyone's feathers for the sake of smooth institutional sailing.
Luke 16:1-13
The first section of this reading contains the parable of the dishonest manager. The Greek word is oikonomos, which means steward or manager. Interpretations of the parable fall into two major groups. Debate goes on as to whether the parable ends at verse 8a or 8b. The central character serves as a manager for a wealthy landowner.
The unfolding action of the parable makes for good storytelling and I leave that to your own study and imagination. The emphasis falls on the astute action of the manager to insure his future security. One school of interpretation reminds us that in the rental of the land the manager received a commission as well as something under the table. In discounting the debts he is cutting his own commission to ingratiate himself with the lessees. Our own conventional wisdom advises us to make friends on the way up so we will have them on the way down. We will all agree that gouging makes no friends.
The second major school of thought adds touches consistent with village practice in the Mid-east. They suggest that the manager got to the renters before they had a chance to hear about his ouster. The wheeler-dealer may have even told the lessees, "I talked the old man into reducing these debts." The recipients of this largesse would publicly praise the landowner and he would close his eyes to the manager's transaction, bask in the public praise, and inwardly know that he had been had. There are times when, despite yourself, you have to grudgingly admire a fox.
Whether or not the parable ends at verse 8a or 8b is unimportant, for the concluding comment is apt: "For the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light." They are. Nathan Myer Rothschild was a spectator at the battle of Waterloo. It is said that he watched the battle from a shot-proof tent. At sunset when he saw the French beginning to give way, he sprung upon his horse, rode all night and reached the English Channel at daybreak. He paid a fisherman to take him across and reached London 36 hours before anyone heard of Wellington's victory. He used those hours to trade on the stock market to such advantage that he gained two million pounds.
As an example of the use of this parable in preaching, I remember reading a sermon by Pastor Martin Niemoller who was imprisoned by Hitler. This sermon he preached during the post-World War II years when people in the third world were beginning to become restive under the yoke of the western colonial powers. Niemoller noted that as the steward in the parable, the colonial powers faced an accounting. Unlike the steward they were not preparing for the coming change. In a world where the majority of people are poor and non-white, the foreign services and embassies of the western powers were staffed primarily by white men who came out of a background of privilege. This was an interesting use of the parable and creatively applied the eschatalogical thrust in it.
There are judgments that get worked out in history. Ruling elites that are strangers to love and justice get pink slips. And what of us as individuals? The late G. Studdert Kennedy reminded us that one day we shall see God face to face and God will look at us and say, "Well?"
Speaking of pink slips, Jeremiah in his temple sermon stated clearly that those called to be stewards and trustees of the spiritual and moral tradition are not called to tenured positions. Today's reading from Jeremiah is an insert in that sermon, his poetic lament over the national catastrophe the children of God did not have the wits to foresee.
The epistle reading from 1 Timothy seems aimed at taming the congregation. The writer implies that he doesn't want Christians to go around rocking any boats, just lead a quiet and dignified life. Read all of chapter 2 and it is obvious that the cutting edge of the gospel, when it comes to gender issues, has not only been blunted, but reversed.
Sermon Seeds In The Lessons
Jeremiah 8:18--9:1
There is a balm in Gilead
to make the wounded whole.
There is a balm in Gilead
to heal the sin-sick soul.
The question of Jeremiah immediately brings this old spiritual to mind. Why not have the congregation sing it today or ask the music director to consider an arrangement of it for the choir?
A balm is a healing and soothing ointment made from the oil in the leaves of certain herbs and trees. There is a balm of Gilead derived from a small tree found in Arabia and Ethiopia. We can understand how this poetic imagery of Jeremiah makes Christians think at once of Jesus, The Great Physician. Jeremiah's poetry has its own inherent power.
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Chapter 2 of 1 Timothy certainly suggests that the words were written in the post-apostolic times when the church was settled in for the long haul in history. This leader who writes in the name of Paul obviously wants to tone down the adversarial relationship between the church and the surrounding culture. Would the debate over liberation theology be a contemporary comparison to the author's concern?
The writer, for example, wants the congregation to include in their prayers kings and all persons in high places. He reminds them that Christ died for all, those in high places as well as those in low places. Many in the church might recall with bitterness that people in high places plotted the death of Jesus and Roman rulers persecuted the church. The writer is correct, of course; the gospel gives no ground for demonizing one group and placing a halo around another.
The writer's exhortation is a switch even for us. We are mostly prompted to pray for the underdogs, a group toward whom our sympathy is easily tapped. It is much more difficult to pray for the top dogs. Bombastic talk show commentators know how to tap into this propensity to upwardly and outwardly direct our anger.
The balance of chapter two, while not part of the reading, should get some critical commentary. Here is the out and out reversal of the liberation of womanhood implicit in the words and actions of Jesus and the practices of the earliest church. This is not Paul speaking here. In fact, reflection on this raises some questions about last week's reading, 1:12-17. Was he saying that if a former persecutor of the church could become an apostle to the Gentiles cannot others who were anti-church now find their way into membership? What is going on here, a sell out or a buying in? There are clergy and laity alike who prefer not to have the church ruffle anyone's feathers for the sake of smooth institutional sailing.
Luke 16:1-13
The first section of this reading contains the parable of the dishonest manager. The Greek word is oikonomos, which means steward or manager. Interpretations of the parable fall into two major groups. Debate goes on as to whether the parable ends at verse 8a or 8b. The central character serves as a manager for a wealthy landowner.
The unfolding action of the parable makes for good storytelling and I leave that to your own study and imagination. The emphasis falls on the astute action of the manager to insure his future security. One school of interpretation reminds us that in the rental of the land the manager received a commission as well as something under the table. In discounting the debts he is cutting his own commission to ingratiate himself with the lessees. Our own conventional wisdom advises us to make friends on the way up so we will have them on the way down. We will all agree that gouging makes no friends.
The second major school of thought adds touches consistent with village practice in the Mid-east. They suggest that the manager got to the renters before they had a chance to hear about his ouster. The wheeler-dealer may have even told the lessees, "I talked the old man into reducing these debts." The recipients of this largesse would publicly praise the landowner and he would close his eyes to the manager's transaction, bask in the public praise, and inwardly know that he had been had. There are times when, despite yourself, you have to grudgingly admire a fox.
Whether or not the parable ends at verse 8a or 8b is unimportant, for the concluding comment is apt: "For the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light." They are. Nathan Myer Rothschild was a spectator at the battle of Waterloo. It is said that he watched the battle from a shot-proof tent. At sunset when he saw the French beginning to give way, he sprung upon his horse, rode all night and reached the English Channel at daybreak. He paid a fisherman to take him across and reached London 36 hours before anyone heard of Wellington's victory. He used those hours to trade on the stock market to such advantage that he gained two million pounds.
As an example of the use of this parable in preaching, I remember reading a sermon by Pastor Martin Niemoller who was imprisoned by Hitler. This sermon he preached during the post-World War II years when people in the third world were beginning to become restive under the yoke of the western colonial powers. Niemoller noted that as the steward in the parable, the colonial powers faced an accounting. Unlike the steward they were not preparing for the coming change. In a world where the majority of people are poor and non-white, the foreign services and embassies of the western powers were staffed primarily by white men who came out of a background of privilege. This was an interesting use of the parable and creatively applied the eschatalogical thrust in it.
There are judgments that get worked out in history. Ruling elites that are strangers to love and justice get pink slips. And what of us as individuals? The late G. Studdert Kennedy reminded us that one day we shall see God face to face and God will look at us and say, "Well?"
