18 Sunday after Pentecost Yr C Proper 20 Sept 18 2016

18 Sunday after Pentecost Yr C Proper 20 Sept 18 2016 Audio

Most parables begin with either the words, the Kingdom of Heaven is like...
or those words are inferred. But then we have this from Luke. What does the preacher do? A parable has multiple interpretations, a parable has layers of meaning, a parable allows the listener to access it from many entry points. So this preacher finds these verses terribly vexing, even confusing. Probably much like a joke, we all should be laughing, like we did reading about the lost sheep, he's gotta be kidding.

But there is one thing I know about the gospel of Luke, and that is besides being the gospel of hospitality, one of the other prominent themes in Luke is the proper use of wealth. So we'll go with that as a theme today. Except that it’s not just the use of wealth; it’s more like Luke is concerned with our relationship to wealth and how that affects our relationships with others. With this in mind, I'm still not sure we have a clear way forward with this text, but Jesus has something to say, and Luke has something to say, so let's try to listen.

Wealth itself is not assigned a moral position, like good or bad, wealth itself is neutral, although there are better and worse ways to use money. Jesus tells us about this dishonest manager, or shrewd manager, it's hard to know which it really is. I think I can hear Jesus say, are you kidding me? You don't get it? It's about what you do with money and wealth, and maybe even more importantly, what money and wealth do with you. And Luke seems to be concerned with relationship and how wealth affects that. So, lets talk about wealth and money and stewardship and consumerism today, and see where it gets us. Most likely, talk about wealth and money put us right on that slippery slope ethicists and theologians and politicians talk so much about.

So today I want to talk about my theology of stewardship and generosity. Wealth is a word, in scripture, that is much broader than money. Wealth describes everything God has given, and we, God's creations are commanded to be stewards of all of that. We are commanded to build relationships that are enriching. And yet, like the characters in our story today, that is not clear or easy, and the slippery slope may get us anyway.

So here's a little picture of my life, and the household I lived in, and the household Rick and I lived in for some time. Before Rick and I moved away from Minneapolis, we lived, with our two sons, and my mom and dad, in the house in which I grew up. My dad died about 5 years into that arrangement, and so we continued to live in the house with my mom, which was mutually beneficial. We moved away some time after that, and my mom continued to live there with my sister with her husband and children who then purchased the house and committed to caring for our mother there as long as possible. My mother died two years ago now. But the story is a good one. My sister has an overly generous heart, and had taken in a little homeless family that they know, who lived in the basement, for a few years, all while mom was still alive. During some of that time, our son Willie lived there as well. The house was a bit crowded and uncomfortable. But her kind heart could not say no. And then there is her sister, that would be me, who took in a homeless family who lived in the basement at St. Andrew's for a time.

Sometimes a theology of generosity is the beginning of that slippery slope,
but to err on the side of generosity is the error I choose to make. The little family that lived in my sister's basement, my mom's basement, have been able to buy their own home, the homeless family who lived in the basement at St. Andrew's, has held together and made a good life for themselves as well. Here at Trinity, we share our home with those who are homeless as well. So part of my theology of stewardship is generosity in all things.

And part of it is about consuming less. We live in this society where we consume so much. In the last couple of years of tightened budgets I have noticed news programs doing little spot stories about how to spend less.
I tend to talk to the television when I watch, and I say to it, "so which rock have you been living under all these years, those are practices that have been a part of my life, forever, and now they're trendy." Once again, it is practicality that gives birth to great ideas, but consuming less whether it is a result of less income or whether it is a result of a commitment to stewardship, is a good thing.

Years ago, as a spiritual practice, I made a commitment to myself, as much as possible, to consume less, to buy clothes and household goods that had already been used. They call that up cycle now. The king of reuse is my husband Rick, I've never met anyone who can see an object and imagine that object's next use better than him, ahh, the slippery slope.

But I tell you these stories because I think sometimes we believe that stewardship and giving are up to someone else, and that other people are so very generous, and yet each of us is already doing this very important spiritual work. We also need to continue and renew our commitment to greet the world with a spirit of abundance and generosity. Each one of you has so much to give, each one of you is so very talented. I saw that clearly recently with our Trinity Country Fair. And the good news is that we are not all talented in the same way. Sometimes I lament my complete and utter lack of art skills, I can't draw to save my soul, but I can replace the zipper in a jacket so that the jacket can be worn again and again.

Wealth is both a blessing and a responsibility. We are blessed to be a blessing, no matter what we have or what we don't have. Perhaps the shrewdness of the manager comes through his recognition that he has put amassing wealth in front of developing relationships. Maybe, finding himself between a rock and a hard place, he cuts the amount others owe by the amount of his surcharge, avoiding further accusation that he is defrauding his master, but strengthening, maybe even establishing, relationships that will sustain him in a time of need.

Here in the church we see stewardship as more than simply contributing money to the church; it’s also about contributing time and talents, and volunteering for ministry and mission. It’s about reaching out to build relationships from a perspective of abundance instead of scarcity. It's about showing the world that Love wins. Maybe we are place on this earth to love and care for each other, not to separate ourselves from each other with wealth, status or privilege. It's been said, that St. Augustine asserted that God gave us people to love, and things to use, and original sin manifests itself in our tendency to confuse those two, loving things and using people. And God seems to show up in the places and people we least expect to that we are not tempted to place our faith in the wrong place.

So let's take seriously that God gives us people to love, that we are given all of our resources to care for others, and that none of us know how much time we may have to do that. One way to do that is to think about the person with whom you would like to improve or deepen a relationship, and then, do that, work on that relationship.

As we go forth today, let's see those around us as God's true gifts to us, the "honest wealth" and true riches of life in community. Let us go into the world with a spirit of abundance and generosity, and bless the world, as God has so abundantly blessed us.