Scripture: Luke 16:1-13
Title: Giving
Key Points:
- Giving opens doors and facilitates movement
- Giving creates security by strengthening relationships
Introduction:
Last summer we went to Kapiti Island for a day
– Kapiti has a lagoon on its northern edge
– Although it is right beside the sea the lagoon is completely closed in – no water flows in from the sea and no water flows out
– Apparently this happened naturally with time and weather
– Local Maori say the lagoon was a burial place for those who had fought and died on Kapiti in wars of centuries past
– No one drinks the water, nor fishes from it, nor even swims in it
– The water is dark and brackish (a mix of fresh water and salt water), not really inviting
– Movement supports life – the Kapiti lagoon is a place of death, not just because of its history but because it has no movement – nothing flows in and nothing flows out
Today we continue our series on well-being and care of the soul, using the acronym: HEALING.
– Each letter represents a word which, when properly applied, is life giving to the human soul…
– Hope Energy Appreciation Lament Inter-dependence Nurture & Giving
– Last week we looked at nurture – this morning our focus is giving
Giving is good for our soul in a number of ways
– Giving supports life by opening doors and facilitating movement
– If the lagoon on Kapiti had an opening the brackish water inside could be released and changed regularly and it would become a place of life again
Or to change metaphors, giving is like CRC – it loosens things that have seized
– Or giving is like engine oil – it allows the motor to run freely without overheating
– Or giving is like kiwi fruit – it moves your bowel and clears out the waste
– Or giving is like picking beans – the more you pick the bigger your crop
Giving can include sharing money and resources, being generous in our attitude toward others, giving time to listen and serve, giving people the benefit of the doubt and forgiving others.
Luke 16:1-13
To help us explore this idea of giving our message today focuses on Luke 16, verses 1-13. Taken as a whole Luke 16 is about the use of wealth
– As I’ve already mentioned there is more to giving than sharing money, nevertheless Luke 16 sets out some helpful principles relating to giving
– From verse 1 we read…
Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’
“The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’
“So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
“‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.
“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’
“Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’
“‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied.
“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture for us
Our reading today begins with Jesus telling his disciples the parable of the shrewd manager (or the unjust steward)
– Two things this parable shows us about giving…
– Giving opens doors and facilitates movement
– And giving creates security by strengthening relationships
The parable of the Shrewd Manager assumes a scenario in which a rich landowner leases his land to farmers who pay rent by giving him a portion of their harvest [1]
The rich man learns that his servant has been wasting his goods so he calls the manager in, fires him on the spot and orders him to hand over the books
– This may seem a bit harsh to us but it was actually quite gracious in the context
– In Jesus’ day a manager could have been imprisoned or sold as a slave with his family in order to recoup the rich man’s losses
– But the rich man lets the manager go free
Interestingly the manager does not argue with his master – he doesn’t try to justify himself
– The manager knows his master is right and there is no point in arguing, so his thoughts turn to his future – how will he provide for himself?
To his credit the manager harbours no illusions about himself – he knows he couldn’t make it as a labourer or a beggar so he devises a plan so cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel (as Black Adder might say to Baldric)
– The manager’s plan is to call his master’s debtors in one by one and forgive a large portion of each of their debts
– ‘…Then when my job is gone here, I shall have friends who will welcome me in their homes.’
– Giving opens doors and facilitates movement
– Giving also creates security by strengthening relationships
The manager called the master’s debtors to him (one at a time) and he reduced their debts significantly
– 900 gallons of olive oil becomes 450
– 1000 bushels of wheat becomes 800
– These represent significant sums of money
– 450 gallons of olive oil was worth about a year and half’s wages
Giving creates security by strengthening relationships
– Generally speaking, the greater the gift the stronger the relationship, or at least the stronger the obligation
Let me demonstrate what I mean [Hold up a single piece of paper]
– Imagine that this piece of paper represents the relationship between two people
– As you can see the relationship isn’t very strong or deep just yet – it could easily be ripped in half – and that’s because not much has been given or shared, perhaps just 1 gallon of olive oil
[Hold up a phone book]
– Here we have a more robust relationship – one in which 450 gallons of olive oil has been given or shared
– As you can see this relationship is much stronger
The point is: by forgiving such large amounts of debt the manager opened doors and created security for himself by strengthening relationships
On the one hand the debtors don’t realise the manager has already been given the sack and is no longer authorised to write off their debt
– So publicly the debtors would be able to say ‘I had no idea the manager had been fired – I thought he was authorised to make the reductions’
– But on the other hand they might also be thinking, ‘this is all a little bit too good to be true, I have a feeling the manager is going to want his cut’
– So privately the debtors might be expecting to split some of their savings with the manager afterwards
The manager very shrewdly gets the debtors to write the reduction in their own hand – in this way the debtors cannot contest the amounts owed or get out of their shady deal with the manager
– It also shows the master that the debtors are aware of the reductions making it a lot more difficult for the master to change the figures back without losing face
As Kenneth Bailey observes, by making these reductions public knowledge the manager has made his master look like a generous hero in the eyes of the whole community
– If the master were to increase the debts again he would then look bad in the eyes of the community
– The master chooses to show extravagant grace to the manager once again and does not contest the reductions
– This act of grace for the manager is also an act of grace for the whole community – everyone wins at the master’s expense
The parable concludes with the master praising his servant (the manager) – not for being dishonest but rather for being clever & brave
– The manager has essentially risked everything on a belief that his master will act graciously, not treating him as he deserves
– If the master had not been gracious the plan would have failed and the manager would have been thrown in prison or sold as a slave
– The master’s generosity points to God’s generosity in forgiving us
In verse 9 Jesus interprets his own parable saying…
- – I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
– In other words, giving opens doors and strengthens relationships, not just in this life but in eternity
– Jesus means for people to be smart and use the money or wealth they have in constructive ways – to help others, especially the poor
– In the same way that the manager had to prepare for his future because he was about to lose his job, so too we need to think about our eternal future
– This life won’t last forever and when it ends we can’t take our money with us – but what does carry over into eternity is our relationships, because relationships have to do with spirit
Money may have some value in this life but it will have no value in the next life
– Good relationships have value both in this life and the next
– If you know the value of your dollar will soon be worthless then the smart thing to do is invest your money in something that will hold its value before the dollar drops – Good relationships hold their value forever
– So it makes sense to use our money to help others and to strengthen good relationships now, while we still can
Luke 16 contains a second parable – of the rich man and Lazarus
– If the parable of the shrewd manager teaches us about giving and a good use for money, then the parable of the rich man and Lazarus teaches us about withholding and a foolish use of money
– The rich man used his wealth to indulge himself while neglecting to help Lazarus the poor man
– When they both died the tables were turned and Lazarus went to be with Abraham, while the door to paradise was shut to the rich man
– Giving opens doors and strengthens relationships in this life and the next
– Withholding things (whether that’s withholding money or the truth or love) locks doors and dissolves relationships
– The security of having right relationships is far better than the security offered by money
In some ways (although not in every way) the master in Jesus’ parable is a bit like God and we are a bit like the servant or the manager
– Hopefully we aren’t dishonest like the manager but, either way, we are not the owner of the wealth – God is the owner and we are the stewards
– Jesus says as much in verses 10-13…
– If you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own
– In other words: what we have in our possession in this life; our car, our house, our furniture, the money in our bank account, our job, our time – it’s not really ours – it belongs to God
– But we do have considerable freedom about how we use it – whether to serve God’s purpose by helping others or not
– If we use what God has entrusted us with faithfully, to serve His purpose, then we will be trusted with more in eternity
So if the money we have belongs to God and we need to use it to serve his purpose then what does good stewardship look like?
– Should we be living on the smell of an oily rag and blindly giving away as much as we can to charitable causes?
– Well, no – I don’t think so
– God is into justice and mercy – so our spending needs to be fair & kind
– Yes, we should give some money to charitable causes that are in line with God’s purpose but not at the expense of justice
– Justice is better than charity
For example, it is better to buy fair trade goods and pay a little more than it is to buy something cheap that has been made by slave labour, even if you plan to give the savings to World Vision or the SPCA
– We shouldn’t give to charities as a substitute for paying a fair price
– In global terms we (in NZ) are relatively wealthy – we need to use our wealth in solidarity with the poor, not in ways that oppress them
Take the example of pokey machines – while the profits might be distributed to community charities, these same profits often come at the expense of the poor
– If pokey machines are contributing to the problem then it would be better not to have them in the first place
– No amount of charity can compensate for injustice
– If you have a dead carcass rotting in a stream, making the water undrinkable, you don’t leave the carcass there and try to purify the water with chemicals – no, you remove the carcass
Another Godly use of money is taking care of your family
– God puts us in families for a reason – to take care of each other
– If you hold the purse strings then be fair to your family with how you spend your income – make sure they are warm, dry, well fed and educated before spending on yourself or sending money overseas
– And, if at all possible, try to have a job that allows you time with your kids – because your time is more valuable to them than your money
I could go on but hopefully you get the point: good stewardship doesn’t mean amassing large amounts of wealth
– Nor does it mean giving all our money away thoughtlessly or carelessly
– Good stewardship means using what God has given us to help others in ways that are just, merciful and life-giving
– John Stott was wise and strategic in his giving – the money he made from the books he wrote went to paying for quality theological training for men & women in poor countries. He believed that would do more long term good, for more people, than anything else
In his book Lost Connections Johann Hari tells the following true story of the effects of giving [2]
In the middle of the 1970’s a group of Canadian officials chose a small town, called Dauphin, for an economic experiment
– Most of the people living in Dauphin were farmers growing a crop called canola
– The 17000 people of the town worked as hard as they could but were still struggling
– When the canola crop was good everyone did well but when the canola crop was bad, everyone suffered – consequently there was insecurity because people were anxious about having enough to live on
The government officials wondered what would happen if they gave everyone in Dauphin a guaranteed universal basic income with no strings attached
– I guess it was a bit like our national superannuation except for everyone, not just those over 65
– This income wouldn’t be means tested like our working for families tax credit – every household simply got paid $19,000 US per year (in today’s terms) – which is over $28,000 NZ dollars
– By itself this wouldn’t be enough to live on but it would make life easier
– Sounds a little bit like communism but it wasn’t because people were still free to choose the work they did, still free to worship God and still free to earn more if they wanted to, without penalty
– This experiment lasted for a while until a new government was elected in Canada and stopped it
It wasn’t until years later that a woman, called Evelyn, dug up the data and interviewed those who had taken part to learn the outcome of the experiment
– Evelyn went through the medical records and found there were fewer people showing up at the doctors with depression & anxiety at that time
– Why? Because the guaranteed basic income removed the rotting carcass of financial stress in people’s everyday lives – it provided security
We might expect people to misuse the money or at least accumulate as much as they could, but quite the opposite happened in Dauphin
– Giving people basic security actually opened doors for them and made positive change possible
– People chose to work a bit less and spend more time with their kids
– And this time was quality time because the parents were less stressed and able to be present with their kids, which meant family life was better
– Students stayed at school longer and learned more – not only that but some adults went back to school to improve their lot in life
– Others who felt trapped in a job they hated, just to pay the bills, now had the means to leave that job and do something they enjoyed more
People didn’t waste the extra money on booze and cigarettes
– No – they proved to be good stewards and used the money in wise and creative ways to strengthen their relationships and secure a better future for themselves and their families
The same sort of experiment has been done in other places too with the same sort of results
– I’m not an economist so I don’t know how this would work on a larger scale (like, how would you pay for it and what would it do to inflation?) but I expect there would be significant improvements to people’s health & wellbeing as well as a reduction in crime, therefore saving money over the long term
– More importantly though people would enjoy the true wealth of better quality lives and relationships
This idea of stewardship – giving people resources and trusting them to make good decisions with it, is similar to God’s approach with us
– Of course with God we will have to give account one day
Conclusion:
Our reading from Luke this morning finishes with that well known verse…
- – “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Giving (in whatever form it takes) saves us from the tyranny of self
- – The tighter we hold onto money the tighter it holds onto us
- – Financial riches are a cruel master, as is poverty
- – God is a far kinder, more gracious master
- – When we release what God has given us, to serve his purpose, we affirm that God is in charge and we find release for ourselves – we open up the lagoon of our brackish heart for God to bring refreshment & life
Giving well is good for our soul
– Giving sets us free – it opens doors in this life and the next
– Giving facilitates movement and movement supports life
– Giving also creates security and a better future through stronger relationships
Questions for discussion or reflection
1.) What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?
2.) What are some of the ways in which we can give?
3.) Why does the master commend the shrewd manager?
– How are we to be like the shrewd manager?
– How are we to not be like the shrewd manager?
4.) What does the parable of the shrewd manager teach us about giving?
– What does it teach us about the value of money and relationships respectively, in the light of eternity?
5.) What might good stewardship look like?
– What do we mean when we say, ‘justice is better than charity’?
– Give some examples of a good use of money – a use that serves God’s purpose
6.) What would you do if you had a guaranteed basic income (no strings attached) like the people of Dauphin?
7.) What is your experience of wealth &/or poverty?
– What is your experience of God as master of your life?
– How does giving set us free from the tyranny of self?
[1] I have drawn mainly on Kenneth Bailey’s interpretation of this parable from his book ‘Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes’, pages 332-342. Other commentators take a different view.
[2] Johann Hari. ‘Lost Connections’, pages 245-249.
Tawa Baptist 