scriptural indigestion

Year C • 26th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 28
Malachi 4:1–2a • Psalm 98 • 2 Thessalonians 3:6–13 • Luke 21:5–19

Sermon available as a PDF by clicking here.

(Scroll Down for the Texts of the Scriptures)

The Sermon

Let the rivers clap their hands,
and let the hills ring out with joy before the Lord,

when he comes to judge the earth.

In righteousness shall he judge the world
and the peoples with equity.

(Psalm 98:9­–10)

The End is Near! Don't Prepare!

In today’s reading from the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus predicts the future destruction of the city of Jerusalem and its temple. “The days will come,” Jesus says, “when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down” (Luke 21:6). Then, addressing his disciples, Jesus gives them a warning:

But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict (21:12­–15).

That last sentence really struck me: “Make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict” (21:14–15)…. Now, I take the Bible very seriously, and I try to make the Scriptures relevant to my life. So as I meditated on this passage, this is what I heard. “Make up your mind not to prepare your sermon in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.” Well that might save some time. So I toyed with the idea of not preparing my sermon in advance, … but alas, I couldn’t do it. In the end, I just didn’t have enough faith not to prepare. Now, in my own defense, I would argue that Jesus’ words do not really apply to my situation. For example, I was not arrested or persecuted, I am neither in a synagogue nor in a prison, and as far as I am aware, none of you are kings or governors. And so, I think I am safe. But I am sorry… because I am sure that the sermon I didn’t prepare to preach… would have been much better than the one I did prepare.

Hear • Read • Mark • Learn • Inwardly Digest

Today, I would like to begin our reflections by looking at the Collect for the Day, which is printed on the first page of your bulletin.

X Rite I. Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be writ-ten for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that, by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Savior Jesus Christ….

 X Rite II. Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ….

According to this Collect, the Scriptures are designed to lead us into and to help us embrace eternal life. But let’s be very clear. When Jesus and the Bible talk about eternal life, they aren’t simply talking about a life that is far off and far away, a life that awaits us in some distant future and some disembodied place. No, when Jesus and the Bible talk about eternal life, they are talking about life, right here and right now. They are talking about the eternal kind of life that Jesus ushered into human history. It’s the life of the kingdom of God, a life lived under God’s administration, a life empowered by God’s love and grace. With all that being said, it is also true that while we live the eternal kind of life in the here and now, we do not experience the fullness of this life. The heavenly banquet, that banquet where we shall feast with God and God’s people in God’s kingdom, it still awaits us. Nevertheless, we are able to taste (or partake of) it now. We taste it when we gather around the Lord’s table. And we taste it, when we gather together to hear the Word of God, to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest God’s life-giving and life-sustaining Word.

Feasting on the Word

The Bible is filled with the imagery of feasting on the Word. For example, in Deuteronomy, when Moses is preparing the Israelites to enter the Promised Land, he reminds them to remember what the Lord did to sustain them during their forty-year sojourn in the wilderness. He says, “[The Lord] humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand… that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deut 8:3). Of course, this is the same Scripture that Jesus quotes to the devil, when he suggests that Jesus satisfy his hunger by turning stones into bread. “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4).

     Turning to Psalm 119, we hear the psalmist exclaim in rapturous tones, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103). What an apt image. Honey is not something that one swallows quickly. Instead, we savor it as long as possible; we mull it around in our mouths so that every taste bud comes into contact with its sweetness. This is what it means to hear and read and mark and learn and inwardly digest the Word of God in the Scriptures. We must savor the Scriptures; we must mull them around in our hearts, and our minds, and our guts until every particle of our being is touched by the Word of God. Why? Because the Word of God is life itself. In the beginning, God spoke, and life happened. The Word that God speaks, expresses who God is. The Word that God is, embodies God’s character, and God’s Spirit, and God’s purposes for the world. So when we hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Scriptures, we are in fact taking God into ourselves, so that we might be animated by the life of God, so that we might acquire God’s character, so that we might be transformed and empowered by God’s Spirit to carry out God’s purposes in the world. We are what we eat. We feed on the Word of God so that in turn we might become God’s Word to a spiritually starved and hungry world.

Scriptural Indigestion

Now I am sure that this all sounds very articulate and inspiring, but there’s a question that needs to be asked? A question that may have already occurred to some of you? What do we do with those difficult passages of the Bible?

     If you have spent any time at all in the Bible, then you have no doubt come across passages that you have some serious questions about, for example, passages about God’s anger and judgment. Take today’s reading from Malachi 4. Now, we only heard read the first few verses, but I want to read a bit further. 

See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts (4:1­–3).

     That seems pretty severe. So what are we to do? Are we really expected to hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest a difficult text like this. Won’t that give us a sour stomach? If this is your question, then you are not alone. On at least two occasions, the Bible narrates a story in which a prophet is instructed to eat a scroll, the idea being that by consuming the words of God they will be able to speak for God. On both occasions, the scroll is said to taste as sweet as honey, after all it is the Word of God, but on one occasion, the consumer get’s indigestion. In Revelation, John describes his experience: “I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach was mad bitter” (Rev 10:10). Why bitter? Because the contents of the scroll, the message that John had to deliver, was one of judgment; it was a call for repentance.

     The fact is, some Christians and some Christian traditions relish texts of judgment and destruction in the Bible, while others avoid them altogether. Yet, neither extreme does justice to the Bible or to God; neither approach prepares us to follow Jesus and to participate in what God is doing in the world. We need to wrestle with difficult texts, we need to hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, even if it does lead to some abdominal discomfort. Why? Because such texts reveal something of who God is.

For example, difficult texts often reveal what God loves and highly values and therefore lifts up what we are called to love and value. So in Malachi, the Lord criticizes and condemns the priests because they have corrupted the sacrificial system.

A son honors his father, and servants their master. If then I am a father, where is the honor due me? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. … When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not wrong? Try presenting that to your governor; will he be pleased with you or show you favor? … Oh, that someone among you would shut the temple1 doors, so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hands.… You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand?

Again, these are very harsh words, but in their harshness, they express what God loves and values. The temple priests were seeking to secure God’s favor and blessing, and yet they showed contempt the things of God. And if they despised God in such a blatant way, how much more do you think they despised the people who came to present their sacrifices, the people who came to offer up their sins, their sorrows, and their thanksgivings to the Lord. The priests were called to be a means of grace; they were called to mediate God’s love and forgiveness; they were called to bless God’s people so that God’s people could be a blessing; but they despised their calling and so they fell under God’s judgment and became the objects of God’s wrath. God loves humanity with a ferocious love, and sometimes God expresses that love with a ferocity that can be truly terrifying. We see it in the Old Testament; we see it in the Gospels. Sometimes God appears to us like Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia. Aslan is a gentle and loving lion, yet he is not a tame lion. Likewise, God is gentle and loving, but he is not a tame.

     God is always good and loving and out to do us good, but God is not always nice. God’s judgment and wrath is always in service to God’s love, but it doesn’t always feel good. The Word of God in Holy Scripture is always life-giving, but it does not always taste like honey. To avoid the difficult texts of the Bible is an attempt to domesticate God, to make God into something that we are comfortable with, but we need to resist that temptation. As the community of God’s people, we need to hear, read, mark, and learn difficult passages of Scripture, we need the bitter herbs of Scripture because they are part of God’s story and they remind us what God loves and values in this world and therefore they bring life.

     There is so much more that could and should be said about this, and I feel that I may have done some of you a bit of disservice today, but let me leave you with two bits of advice. First of all, don’t go it alone. Partaking of Holy Scripture is first and foremost a communal activity, just as partaking of Holy Eucharist is a communal activity. That’s not to say that we cannot read the Bible on our own, but it is to say that our reading of the Bible occurs within the community of God’s people. Why? Because we need support, and because Holy Scripture seeks to develop our capacity to love and be loved, which requires community.

Secondly, take everything to God. That is, as you spend time with Scripture, as you listen to it, as you read it, as you repeat it to yourself, as you mull it over in your heart and in your mind, as you do whatever it takes to get the Word of God deep inside you, pay attention to the thoughts and feelings that arise within you, and then offer those up to God, even if, and especially if, those thoughts and feelings are not pleasant. If the Word of God gives you indigestion, then tell God, complain to God, give God what for. Why? Because God can take it, and because in the end, engaging Holy Scripture is all about relationship with God, it is all about encountering and being encountered by the God of the Bible, a God who loves you with such ferocity that he will go to the ends of the earth to draw you unto himself, and he will never let you go.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Scriptures

RCL, Year C, Proper 28, Thematic Track

Malachi 4:1–2a

See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.

Psalm 98 (BCP 727–728)

    1      Sing to the Lord a new song, *
                     for he has done marvelous things.

    2      With his right hand and his holy arm *
                     has he won for himself the victory.

    3      The Lord has made known his victory; *
                     his righteousness has he openly shown in the sight of the nations.

    4      He remembers his mercy and faithfulness to the house of Israel, *
                     and all the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.

    5      Shout with joy to the Lord, all you lands; *
                     lift up your voice, rejoice, and sing.

    6      Sing to the Lord with the harp, *
                     with the harp and the voice of song.

    7      With trumpets and the sound of the horn *
                     shout with joy before the King, the Lord.

    8      Let the sea make a noise and all that is in it, *
                     the lands and those who dwell therein.

    9      Let the rivers clap their hands, *
                     and let the hills ring out with joy before the Lord,

                     when he comes to judge the earth.

  10      In righteousness shall he judge the world *
                     and the peoples with equity.

2 Thessalonians 3:6–13

Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.

Luke 21:5–19

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, Jesus said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”

     They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, `I am he!’ and, `The time is near!’ Do not go after them.

     “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

     “But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.”

Delivered on Sunday, November 24th, a.d. 2013

at St. John's Episcopal Church (Wichita, Kansas)

the god of the jesus prayer

Year C • 23rd Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 25
Sirach 35:12­–17 • Psalm 84:1–6 • 2 Timothy 4:6–8, 16–18 • Luke 18:9–14

(Scroll Down for the Texts of the Scriptures)

Delivered on Sunday, October 27th, a.d. 2013

at St. John's Episcopal Church (Wichita, Kansas)

Sermon available as a PDF by clicking here.

The Sermon

Happy are they who dwell in your house, [O Lord]! 
they will always be praising you.

(Psalm 84:3)

God is Good and Loving and Out to Get Me!

I grew up in the church, and I loved it. Church was one of my favorite places to be. I was baptized as an infant, confirmed as a pre-teen, and had a very powerful and transformative spiritual experience when I was 14 or 15. I attended Sunday school, and I served as an acolyte, week in and week out. I loved participating in the liturgy, and I read and studied the Bible with great regularity and interest. I loved God, and I loved Jesus. By the time I was ready to graduate from high school, I was thoroughly convinced that God was good… and loving… and out to get me. Yes, I believed that God was good and loving and out to get me, and at the time, I saw no contradiction.

Now I don’t have time to explain how I came to view God in this way, but I will say that my distorted image of who God was seriously affected how I prayed. At times, I didn’t pray at all. At other times, I limited my prayers. For example, I stopped praying for things that I wanted or even needed. Why? Because I was convinced that if I asked God for something, God would make a concerted effort to ensure that I didn’t get what I asked for. Praying just drew God’s attention. So I learned that it was better not to pray. Better not to pray than to risk God sabotaging my dreams.

God was good and loving and out to get me, and I had plenty of evidence to support my hypothesis. For example, when I was about 11 or 12 or 13 years old, I got one of those nasty colds that settles in your eyes. The kind where your vision is slightly blurred, and you keep blinking to clear them up but to no avail. I was miserable, and I remember praying, “Dear God, can you please take this eye cold away. Just give me a regular cold instead, but please, O please, can’t you clear up my eyes.” Well, you can guess what happened. Within in a few days time, I was sneezing and coughing AND blinking my eyes. I now had a cold in my chest AND in my eyes. I remember then going to church to acolyte for midnight mass. I was vesting in the sacristy, and I told my priest about my prayer and what became of it. He just laughed and said, “Yeah, you’ve got to be careful about what you pray for.” That confirmed it for me. God was good and loving and out to get me.

God is Good and Loving and Out to Do Me Good!

When I entered college as a religion major at Friends University, this distorted image of God was firmly in place. But something happened during my junior year. Through reading and studying, through important friendships, and through the messages of guest speakers that came to the University, my images of who God was and of who I was began to be healed and transformed. That year, one of the speakers at chapel gave a talk on the radical, unconditional love of God. His name was Brennan Manning, and he had written a book entitled, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out. It was a painful, yet transformative year. I became increasingly convinced that God was not only good and loving but that he was out to do me good. I say it was a painful year because while I was convinced of this truth in my head, I had such a hard time getting my heart to follow suit. I just couldn’t seem to get this truth to take up residence in my gut, which is really where faith resides. I could offer up all manner of biblical and theological arguments for why God was good and loving and out to do me good, and for why I was beautiful and precious in God’s sight, but my gut always betrayed me. In my head, I knew God loved me; but I was still afraid.

And so, do you know what I began to do? I began to pray again. Specifically, I began to pray for things that I needed, even things that I wanted, big things and small things. It didn’t matter because if God were truly out to do me good, then I should be able to trust God with anything, no matter how small or great, no matter how noble or selfish. Early on, when I began to pray this way, my stomach would get all tied up in knots and I would panic because my old, distorted image of God would stir up feelings of fear and anxiety. When this occurred, I would simply remind myself: “God is good and loving and out to do me good. God is good and loving and out to do me good. This is true. Even though my gut is not convinced, this is still true, and so I am going to act as if it is true. I am going to pray as if it is true. I am no longer going to hide anything from God. Instead, I am going to step out in faith. I am going to trust God enough to offer up to him all of my wishes, wants, and needs, all of my hopes and dreams.” And do you know what happened? Over time, my trust in God’s goodness began to take root and my fear and anxiety were slowly replaced by freedom and peace.

This experience taught me something important, something that Christians throughout the centuries have known, namely, that praying shapes believing. That is, how we pray to God informs and reinforces what we believe about God. At one point in my life, I believed that God was out to get me, so I stopped asking God for anything, and that practice of hiding from God served to reinforce my distorted image of who God was. It became a downward spiral because praying shapes believing. But then the truth of who God really is broke into my life and I began to understand that God was on my side, that God not only loved me but he liked me. And when I began to step out in faith, when I began to risk asking God for what I wanted and needed, my faith began to flourish because praying shapes believing.

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax-Collector

Last week Jesus told us a parable about our need to pray always and not to lose heart. In it, a curmudgeon of a judge rules in a widow’s favor, not because he is concerned about justice and fairness, he’s not, but because the widow wears him down with her repeated demands for justice. Speaking to those of us who think God must be similarly worn down before He will act on our behalf, Jesus says: “Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them” (Luke 18:7­–8a).

Jesus then follows this parable with another parable about prayer and justice, which we heard read today. It is a parable about two men, the one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector, both of whom have gone up to the Jerusalem temple to offer up prayers to God. I would like to take a few moments to look at their prayers, the posture of their prayers and the content of their prayers, to see how their prayers reflect and shape their views about who God is.

The Posture of Their Prayers

     First of all, imagine if you will, the temple complex in Jerusalem, at the center of which stands the temple proper, where only priests are allowed. Leading up to the temple are a series of courts—the court of the Gentiles, the court of women, and the court of Israel, where only Jewish males are allowed to pray and where our Pharisee and our tax-collector are to be found. Imagine also, large crowds, hundreds upon hundreds of Jewish pilgrims, offering up their prayers to God, eyes toward heaven and praying aloud. It’s very noisy; it’s very crowded.

      The Pharisee, however, is “standing by himself.” He has separated himself from the other pilgrims, those whom he despises, giving thanks to God that he is not like any of them—thieves, rogues, and adulterers. The tax-collector also stands apart, but for very different reasons. It’s all that he can do just to be there in that place, so close to God and, at the same time, so aware of his own sin, shame, and helplessness. And so, he stands far off, beating his breast, with his head downcast, not even daring to look up to heaven.

The Content of Their Prayers

     The content of their prayers is as different as their postures. The Pharisee offers God an inventory of his spiritual virtues and practices. “I fast, not once but, twice a week; and I give a tenth of everything I take in.” In other words, the Pharisee identifies those things that cause him to stand out from the crowd, in the hope that God will notice him, that God will commend him for his faithfulness, and on that basis will love and accept him. He is desperate for his heavenly Father’s love and acceptance, and he seeks to secure it through his performance. He is like prodigal son’s elder brother who says to his father, “I have worked like a slave for you all these years, and I have never once disobeyed you.” With his prayer, the Pharisee seeks to show that he is worthy of God’s love, and consequently, he cannot go home justified. He cannot go home at peace with God, not simply because he despises other men, but because he believes that God’s love is conditional. So long as he believes that his relationship with God is dependent upon his own performance and virtue, he will never be at peace with God. His prayer reinforces a distorted image of who God is.

      The tax collector is also desperate for his heavenly Father’s love and acceptance. But, unlike the Pharisee, he does not have anything to offer to God. He does not have anything to commend himself other than his sin, guilt, and shame. And so, with nothing to offer, he simply throws himself upon God’s mercy. During the past few weeks, as I have reflected upon this parable, my thoughts were repeatedly drawn to the simplicity of the tax-collector’s prayer. What struck me was how different his prayer was from the Pharisee’s, though not exactly its opposite. The Pharisee lists his virtues, but the tax-collector doesn’t list his vices. He does not offer up a litany of sins, but simply asks for mercy. “God, have mercy on me, sinner that I am.” It’s a simple prayer, born no doubt out of desperation, but also born of faith. Why do I say faith? Because his paucity of words reflects an abundance of trust in God. The tax-collector’s prayer reminds me of a book I once read; it had a chapter entitled, “If God Is So Smart, Why Am I Doing All the Talking?”

Unlike the Pharisee, the tax-collector doesn’t do all the talking. He doesn’t use many words. He doesn’t have to because God is pretty smart. Moreover, God is pretty trustworthy. Jesus once said, “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt 6:7–8). God knew what the tax-collector needed, so it was enough for him to pray, “Lord have mercy.” The tax-collector came to the temple with nothing, and he went home with everything. He went home justified, reconciled to God and therefore at peace.

Prayer Cultivates Faith

What we pray and how we pray, shapes how and what we believe about God. And so, we need a practice of prayer that reminds us of God’s goodness and faithfulness. Stewardship is about taking care of the resources that God has placed within our care. Stewardship, however, is not simply about maintaining what we have been given, it is also about cultivating and multiplying those resources, be they time, talent, or treasure. In the past several weeks, we’ve heard that faith is not something we create, rather it is a gift from God. But for faith to flourish, it must be cultivated. Like a grain of wheat, faith has great potential for growing and producing more faith. Yet, like a grain of wheat, faith’s potential can lie dormant. Faith must be planted in our hearts and minds, in our bodies and in our guts at the core of our being. For faith to flourish, it must be cultivated, and prayer is one of the principal methods because praying shapes believing.

During this stewardship campaign, I would commend the tax-collector’s prayer to you, either in its longer form, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” or in its shorter form, “Lord, have mercy.” Take five minutes a day to sit down and slowly repeat these words over and over again, either silently or quietly aloud. “Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, have mercy.” And when your mind wanders—and it will wander—very gently without any self-recriminations, return to the words, “Lord, have mercy.”

When we pray this simple prayer, we are stepping out in faith. For instead of trying to control God with our many words, we are putting our trust in God. When we pray this simple prayer, over time, our faith will flourish because our God is faithful and our God is good and loving and out to do us good.

Lord, have mercy upon us. Amen.

The Scriptures

RCL, Year C, Proper 25, Thematic Track

Sirach 35:12–17

Give to the Most High as he has given to you,

         and as generously as you can afford.

For the Lord is the one who repays,

         and he will repay you sevenfold.

Do not offer him a bribe, for he will not accept it

         and do not rely on a dishonest sacrifice;

for the Lord is the judge,

         and with him there is no partiality.

He will not show partiality to the poor;

         but he will listen to the prayer of one who is wronged.

He will not ignore the supplication of the orphan,

         or the widow when she pours out her complaint.

Psalm 84:1–6 (BCP 707)

    1      How dear to me is your dwelling, O Lord of hosts! *
                     My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord;
                     my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.

    2      The sparrow has found her a house and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young; *
                     by the side of your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.

    3      Happy are they who dwell in your house! *
                     they will always be praising you.

    4      Happy are the people whose strength is in you! *
                     whose hearts are set on the pilgrims’ way.

    5      Those who go through the desolate valley will find it a place of springs, *
                     for the early rains have covered it with pools of water.

    6      They will climb from height to height, *
                     and the God of gods will reveal himself in Zion.

2 Timothy 4:6–8, 16–18

I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

     At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Luke 18:9-14

Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, `God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, `God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

making friends the dishonest way (or, jesus as the dishonest steward)

Year C • 18th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 20

Amos 8:4–­7 • Psalm 113 • 1 Timothy 2:1­­–7 • Luke 16:1–13 

Sermon available on YouTube by clicking here.

Sermon available as a PDF by clicking here.

(Scroll Down for the Texts of the Scriptures)

The Sermon

Happy are they who dwell in your house, [O Lord]! they will always be praising you.

(Psalm 84:3)

My Cousin, Peggy

On my first Sunday here at St. John’s, I came alone because Rebekah and the kids were visiting relatives in Texas. One day, while they were there, the family was gathered around the table. And, while they were eating, one of our cousins, Peggy, told this story.

      Earlier that year, a woman had come to her front door asking for money. Her daughter and grand-daughter had been in an auto accident, and the granddaughter was in the hospital. She needed some money for gas so that she could visit her. Peggy gave her fifty dollars for gas and food.

      A few weeks later, Peggy heard through the grape vine that this woman had gone throughout their neighborhood with this same story, and she had gotten money from a number of people. It seemed pretty clear, then, that this woman had not been telling Peggy the truth, and a member of the family chastised Peggy for being so gullible.

      Now I am sure that each one of us has either heard a story like this or experienced it firsthand. But that’s not the end of this story.

      It so happened that a month or so later this same woman reappeared at Peggy’s doorstep. Her granddaughter had passed away, and she needed money to make it to the funeral. Despite knowing that the woman’s story was most assuredly false, Peggy gave this woman another fifty dollars.

      Upon hearing this last bit, the atmosphere around the dinner table became quite animated. Peggy was asked, “Why did you give her more money?” Some said that she had been taken for a ride, that she had allowed this woman to take advantage of her. Still others expressed what they would have done differently had they been faced with the same situation.

      I wonder, had Jesus been at that table listening to Peggy’s story, what response would he have made? Would he have approved, or would he have questioned Peggy’s sanity? I wonder if today’s gospel can shed any light on this?

The Problem

Today, Jesus tells a very unusual parable, a parable about a most unscrupulous steward. The steward in question is in the process of losing his job because word has reached his master that he has been mismanaging his master’s affairs. The master gives his steward notice, but before the steward is released from his duties, he summons his masters debtors. One by one he has them sit down and rewrite their promissory notes. In some cases, their debts are twenty percent less, and in others, the debt has been cut in half. In this way, this shady steward endears himself to his master’s debtors, thus securing his future. But here is the subversive twist, instead of being furious with the steward, as one might have expected, the master actually praises the steward for his shrewdness. How very strange. But it gets stranger still. Jesus himself commends the actions of the dishonest steward to his disciples. “I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth, so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes” (Luke 16:9). What in the world are we to make of all this? What’s Jesus playing at? Are we really suppose to emulate the actions of this dishonest steward?

Jesus as the Dishonest Steward

The key to understanding this parable lies in the fact that Jesus is the steward. Yes, Jesus is the dishonest steward. How do we get there? You may recall an incident that occurred earlier in the gospel. Jesus is teaching a large crowd at his home in Capernaum, when four men lower a paralyzed man through the roof in hopes that Jesus will heal him. When Jesus sees the determination of these four faithful friends, he says to the paralytic, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you” (Luke 5:20). Upon hearing this, the scribes and Pharisees begin grumbling, “Who is this who is speaking [such] blasphemies? Who can forgiven sins, but God alone?” (Luke 5:21).

      So, what’s their problem? Don’t they believe in a loving, forgiving God? Actually, they do. They just don’t believe in Jesus. After all, sins are debts owed to God. So, who is Jesus to step in and cancel a debt that only God has the right to cancel? Who does this guy think he is? Jesus responds to their grumblings by claiming that he has been given authority by God to forgive sins on earth. He then heals the paralytic to substantiate his claim. In other words, through his words and actions, Jesus is claiming that he has been given authority over all of God’s affairs. Jesus is God’s steward.

But the scribes and the Pharisees aren’t having any of it. Jesus may have healed the paralytic, but that just proves he is in league with the devil. If Jesus is a prophet, they reason, he must be a false prophet. If he is a steward, then he is a dishonest one.

     This leads us back to the parable in today’s reading.

The Parables of Jesus

At times, Jesus’ parables are treated much like Aesop’s fables, as though they were designed to teach morals, which they rarely do. Of course, that is why we have so much trouble with today’s parable, because the moral of the story seems to be: Secure your future by whatever means possible. And that doesn’t sound particularly Christian; it certainly doesn’t sound very much like Jesus.

     At other times, we treat Jesus’ parables as though they were mere illustrations, as though they were stories designed to make difficult concepts easy to understand. In actual fact, the opposite is much closer to the truth. Jesus’ parables often cloak truths about God’s kingdom, truths that are easy to understand, but difficult to accept. This explains why Jesus so often responds to his critics with a parable. By concealing the message of the kingdom inside a presumably innocuous story, Jesus is able to smuggle the truth of the gospel past his opponents’ defenses, giving the gospel a better chance to take root in the hearts and minds of his critics, and thereby increasing the likelihood of repentance and faith. As biblical scholar N. T. Wright once observed, “If you want to change someone’s mind, (look up) don’t argue with them, tell them a story.”

The Parable of The Dishonest Steward

And that is exactly what Jesus is doing today. The scribes and Pharisees are grumbling again. Tax collectors and sinners are flocking to Jesus. In the words of singer and songwriter Rich Mullins, “the whores all love him, and the drunks propose a toast.” And Jesus just accepts it. He welcomes these people as though he makes no distinction between the sacred and the profane, between what is proper and what is not. Once again, Jesus is mismanaging God’s affairs; he claims to be a prophet, but he is merely squandering God’s love and forgiveness by lavishing it upon all manner of sinners. In the minds of the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus is a prodigal, shamefully wasting the things of God on those who are not even trying to follow God.

      And so, to open their hearts and minds to what God is doing through him, Jesus offers this parable; and what a masterful parable it is. Why? Because Jesus incorporates his opponents’ criticisms into the parable itself. His critics believe him to be squandering God’s blessings, and so he makes the central character a steward who is accused of squandering his master’s property. The actions of this dishonest steward match those of Jesus. When the steward reduces the bills of his master’s creditors, we are to recall Jesus’ practice of canceling debts of sin. When the master praises this crafty steward, we are to hear the voice of God at the Transfiguration, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen, Listen to him!” (Luke 9:35).

      In effect, Jesus is saying to his opponents, “You may think that I am a prodigal, wasting God’s blessings, and so I am, but know this, when I am done here, my Father will welcome me back home. You may think that I am a dishonest steward, squandering God’s love and forgiveness, and so I am, but when all is said and done, my heavenly Master will vindicate me. You scribes and Pharisees are so consumed with self-righteous anger, that you are missing what God is doing to rescue and transform this world—to draw all people to himself and to reconcile all human beings to one another. You seem to think that love and forgiveness are limited goods, but not in God’s economy. There is more than enough of God’s love, and forgiveness, and acceptance to go around.”

Making Friends the Dishonest Way

But Jesus does not stop there; he goes one step further. He doesn’t just defend himself against his opponents, he gives his disciples a directive. When the parable is finished, he turns to his followers—to us, and he says to us, “I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth, so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes” (Luke 16:9). If Jesus is a dishonest steward, then it stands to reason that his disciples, who are called to follow in his footsteps, are also dishonest stewards. So what might it mean for us to “mismanage” the things of God in the way that Jesus did?

Peggy’s Story

I think the story of my cousin Peggy is one such example. Peggy knew the woman’s story wasn’t true, yet she gave her money anyway. And in that small act, Peggy manifested the love of God in a concrete, practical way. Peggy did what she felt called to do as a Christian; after all, didn’t Jesus once say, “Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again” (Luke 6:30). You see, the love of God is not something that attempts to ascertain worthiness before it acts, because the love of God is not a payment for good behavior, but a gift. The love of God only seeks to determine whether someone has a need, and most assuredly, the woman at Peggy’s door was in need. She may not have actually needed gas money, but she was in need, else she would not have been scouring the neighborhood telling stories to score some cash.

     And who knows what effect Peggy’s concrete expression of God’s love has had or will have on this woman’s life. Perhaps, when Peggy gets to heaven, she will go door to door greeting people. And perhaps one day, when she knocks, the door will open, and she will come face to face with this woman. Perhaps, this woman will invite her in, and over a cup of coffee, tell a new story, the story of how she was found by the love of Christ and how Peggy’s gifts played a role in her salvation and transformation.

And so I tell you, “make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth, so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes” (Luke 16:9).

Stories of Forgiveness

But giving money to those who don’t deserve it is not the only way in which we, as followers of Christ, can act as dishonest stewards. Being extravagant with money is not the only way we are able to squander God’s blessings, being extravagant with forgiveness also counts. This week I read a online story about a mother, Mary Johnson, who forgave the man who shot and killed her one-and-only twenty-year-old son at a party in 1993. On the day when her son’s killer, Ohsea Israel, was sentenced, Mary told him that she forgave him. She says, “At the time, I really didn’t know what forgiveness was.” It took her years of turmoil and prayer for those words to really feel true. Eventually, she visited Ohsea in prison, and during a two-hour conversation, she embraced her son’s killer. Afterward, she became hysterical. Doubled-over in shock, Mary kept repeating the phrase, “I just hugged the man that murdered my son. I just hugged the man that murdered my son.” But in those moments, she felt something leave her. All the hatred, bitterness, and animosity that she had felt for years was suddenly gone. 

     You know, when I hear people on the news, after some tragedy, publically declaring that they have forgiven the perpetrator of some heinous crime, one of the thoughts that often goes through my head is, “That’s a person who cannot cope with reality. There is some real dysfunction going on there.” This is especially true when the perpetrator has not exhibited any remorse. But of course, I am reminded that forgiveness is not a wage, but a gift; forgiveness is a gift that sets people free, not something earned through repentance. In fact, I would suggest that most of the time, genuine remorse and repentance is only possible as a response to forgiveness. Extravagant, wasteful, and indiscriminant forgiveness transforms all parties involved; victim and perpetrator alike.

     In March of 2010, Mary Johnson threw a homecoming party for Oshea following his release from prison. Mary calls Oshea her spiritual son, and he refers to her as his second mom. And they have lived next door to one another for over two years now. And I expect that he invites her over on occasion. As Jesus said, “make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth, so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes” (Luke 16:9).

You Have Permission to Be Generous in the Name of God

In all of this talk about squandering the things of God, what I hope you have heard is that you have permission to be generous. If you love lavishly, if you forgive indiscriminately, if you give generously to those that the world and even some Christians regard as undeserving, you will find that people will question you and even berate you. But know this, our God is a prodigal Father, and our Lord is a dishonest steward. So when you go forth from this place into that world rejoicing in the power of the Spirit, you have God’s permission—you have God’s authority, power, and grace—to love without limits and to serve without boundaries. 

The Scriptures

Year C • Proper 20

Amos 8:4–7

Hear this, you that trample on the needy,

         and bring to ruin the poor of the land,

saying, “When will the new moon be over

         so that we may sell grain;

and the sabbath,

         so that we may offer wheat for sale?

We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,

         and practice deceit with false balances,

buying the poor for silver

         and the needy for a pair of sandals,

         and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”

The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:

Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

Psalm 113  (BCP 756)

    1      Hallelujah!

            Give praise, you servants of the LORD; *

                     praise the Name of the LORD.

    2      Let the Name of the LORD be blessed, *

                     from this time forth for evermore.

    3      From the rising of the sun to its going down *

                     let the Name of the LORD be praised.

    4      The LORD is high above all nations, *

                     and his glory above the heavens.

    5      Who is like the LORD our God, who sits enthroned on high *

                     but stoops to behold the heavens and the earth?

    6      He takes up the weak out of the dust *

                     and lifts up the poor from the ashes.

    7      He sets them with the princes, *

                     with the princes of his people.

    8      He makes the woman of a childless house *

                     to be a joyful mother of children.

1 Timothy 2:1–7

First of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For

there is one God;

            there is also one mediator between God and humankind,

Christ Jesus, himself human,

            who gave himself a ransom for all

—this was attested at the right time. For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

Luke 16:1–13

Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, `What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager said to himself, `What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, `How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, `A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, `Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, `And how much do you owe?’ He replied, `A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, `Take your bill and make it eighty.’ 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 dishonest wealth 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 the dishonest wealth, 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 wealth.”

First Sermon at St. John's Episcopal Church (Wichita, Kansas)

Delivered on Sunday, September 22nd, a.d. 2013