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October 31, 2004: Luther hadn't intended to start a war, a revolution or even a reformation. He just wanted to start an argument. Before internet chat rooms and "Crossfire," the best show in town for Martin Luther's purpose was to nail his points of contention to the door of the church and then prepare to debate. It wasn't that he was itching for a fight, but he had been doing that most dangerous of all things, he'd been reading his Bible as if it had something to say to him. That naturally raised some questions in his mind. Just as we read newspaper editorials and tune in to post-debate commentators, 16th century Europeans went to the public square in front of the church to find out what folks were thinking and saying. Luther was particularly peeved that church practice allowed people to buy Get Out of Hell Free cards. The church practiced financial deal-cutting in exchange for promises of salvation. The 95 theses Luther nailed to the church door were part of a tradition for addressing people's faith questions. The practice was part entertainment, part competition, part information, part public event. The practice got more intense once ordinary people began reading the Bible in their ordinary language, and that made them want to know what it all meant. Had I been part of the 16th century culture, today's gospel lesson would have brought me to the church door with a hammer! How do I even begin the questions the text raises for me? In the spirit of my high school debate team, we should form a resolution and debate that. [fasten to door, "Resolved: Christians should act like the crafty steward."] That would be a debate! Ought Christians to live like the unscrupulous steward? The steward takes his boss for a big ride (this is more than pilfering paper clips and surfing the net on company time), the boss finds out and fires him, but the story ends with the boss praising his shrewdness. Where is Jesus on this? He seems to come down on the positive side with his post-parable commentary, as if to say that Christians are supposed to wheel and deal, buying salvation. But there is a chance that Jesus is being ironic. I would be more comfortable with Jesus being sarcastic if I weren't reading a novel right now filled with sarcastic teenagers. It's hard for me to be comfortable with the notion that Jesus of all people used sarcasm. The Message does more exegesis than translating for this passage as it relays Jesus' interpretation of his own parable: "Now here's a surprise: the master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way-but for what is right-using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concen-trate your attention on the bare essentials, so you'll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior." Scholars agree that Jesus is being sarcastic, which makes this parable a "not" text. Now all we have to figure out is what Jesus is saying the "not" about. Is it a "not" about God or salvation or what is expected of Christians? I'm pretty comfortable thinking that, this is a "not" story, insofar as God is not like the rich man. Unscrupulous bosses may admire unscrupulous employees, but those employees haven't fallen far from the tree. Under normal circumstances, employees follow the lead of bosses, not the other way around. When we choose to serve only one boss, as Jesus demands, we follow the lead of our boss, God. How we treat those people who "owe" us shows which boss we're following. Are we like the unscrupulous boss who admires the unscrupulous people in debt to us? Jesus pretty much expects we will act like our boss-the one boss only we've chosen. I hope my actions and interactions reveal the ground of my faith-the thing I struggle with the most, the thing about my relationship with God that is more devastating than anything else-that there is nothing I can do to earn God's love. That is the best news imaginable to me, because it means that God already loves me. Maybe that is the debate resolution I ought to pound on the door, rather than the other one! [put on the door, "Resolved: There is nothing you can do to earn God's love."] Theoretically, our decision about which boss we follow is a conscious one. Which boss-God who already loves us or the rich one who admires those unscrupulous, crafty, tit-for-tat ways of getting by? Theoretically we make that decision consciously. What we do, how we live, reveals which boss we follow, as we unconsciously live out that decision over and over as we interact with people, as we love or not love our friends and families, as we go to work and school, as we shop and stand in line and obey traffic laws and recycle and reuse. We show it in a thousand ways. Hey! You budged in front of me, I'll show you budge! I can afford a new sweater, there's no reason not to get one, and if it's made in a sweat shop, that makes it more affordable for me. There's only half a can left, I'll throw it. The plastic container is easier, I can see what I'm getting, I'll just toss out the container when I'm done. Maybe we should act more like our boss and not make other people earn our love, not let anything go to waste, stop paying back. God made a decision to forgive us, maybe we could follow the lead of our boss-show that God really is our boss, and decide to forgive each other. Jesus says we have a choice as to who our boss is, but he also says we've got to make a choice. It's not so much that we've only got one chance to choose (because we end up choosing over and over every day). But we do have to choose one or the other. "Go ahead," he says. "Trust your wheeling and dealing, cutting deals with God, and that's pretty much what you'll get. Trust that you are already loved, that you didn't earn it, that it's all gift, and that's pretty much what you'll get." We can follow our boss's lead and trust that, since we are already loved, we can treat others like that too. Here's something that I read this week: "'Forgiveness is almost a selfish act, because of its immense benefits to the one who forgives.'. . . Forgiving someone who has hurt us is a gift that we give to ourselves. It is hard. It is not easy. Perhaps we can only do it with the help of Christ, who meets us with pardon every time we turn in repentance and faith to him. When you can't find a way to forgive the hurt, let the Christ who lives in you give you the power to place the hurt on Him. It's a decision. . . It really doesn't matter if the person who hurt you deserves to be forgiven or not. Forgiveness is a gift you give to yourself. You have things to do and you want to be liberated." Which boss will you follow? Even two thousand years ago, people knew that bosses don't do what employees tell them to do, it is the employees who follow the lead of the boss. Jesus invites us to remember that we can only have one boss, one leader. Which one is up to us. Do we want to follow the lead of the boss who values unscrupulous deal-cutting, who praises people who think they can buy forgiveness and fellowship? Or do we want to follow the lead of the boss who declares, "There is nothing you can do to earn my love. I already love you." If we choose the latter, then our choice is also to live that way toward others. And we get to live into that choice every day. |
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